From a troubled and impoverished youth in South Africa, via a world full of fame and rock ‘n’ roll in the United States to a small farm in Dalen. Singer Dilana Smith has been through it all.
All those years there was a musical rock in the surf. A benchmark despite turbulent times: guitarist, producer and songwriter Jeff Zwart from Weerdinge. They never stopped making songs together.
Dilana has been living in the Netherlands again for a few years and it didn’t take long for the two to find each other again. The duo is now happily touring again.
When Dilana Smith was about seven years old she started singing, in South Africa, where she grew up. She didn’t have an easy life and ran away from home when she was fifteen. That was also the start of her musical career.
“My dream was to become an actress,” she smiles. But the music crossed her path and stayed that way. After all kinds of bands and musical movements, she left for Drenthe in her early twenties. “I played there with Douwe Sterkburg,” she says. Together with him she played in the then successful band Cazmelion. After almost five hundred shows within two years, it was time for something different and Dilana left for the United States for a solo career.
Just before that she met Jeff Zwart. “Then we also started writing songs in Jeff’s kitchen, in Barger-Es,” says Dilana, looking at Zwart. Just before her departure to America, she released another solo album.
In the United States, Dilana experienced peaks and troughs. She first started with a successful one-woman show, in which she combined all kinds of acts into a spectacular musical whole. “That was a very successful show for me. I earned very well for two years, played a lot,” she explains.
At one point she joined the talent program Rock Star: Supernova. “That was a very successful period for me,” she says enthusiastically. In the program, a supergroup consisting of Mötley Crüe founder Tommy Lee, Metallica bassist Jason Newsted and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke was looking for a frontman. Dilana eventually came second in the elimination race.
“I am actually the winner, but the band decided that they would rather have a man,” says Dilana. She never regrets it for a moment and saw no point in becoming the front woman of the supergroup anyway. “I actually wanted to make my own music and I didn’t think their material really suited me.”
From a poverty-stricken existence in South Africa to wild parties in Hollywood (Hellywood, as she puts it) and sharing a hot tub with Tommy Lee in Las Vegas: Dilana was no stranger to it. “I opened for Aerosmith, Beth Hart, so many bands. I was the lead singer for LA Guns for a while. So many stories,” laughs Dilana. “I really do have a rock ‘n’ roll past. Way too many to list.” But one thing remained: the musical friendship with Jeff Zwart.
“When she left for America, I went there a few times,” says Zwart. The two have never stopped seeing each other and Zwart has even performed in Houston and South Louisiana with Dilana. When she was back in the Netherlands, she visited him in Drenthe to make music. Now that she lives in Drenthe again, it was also a logical step to go on tour with Zwart. “Now it is nice that we are physically in the same occupation again,” says Dilana.
“I don’t even have to look at Jeff; he understands me musically. He hears me and he knows right away what to do. Even if I do something wrong or go the other way. I don’t even have to look at him. He just understand me.”
“If we hadn’t played together for two years,” adds Zwart, “I would come over to America and then we wouldn’t even have to rehearse. The first note was immediately familiar again.” Their characters also fit together perfectly. “I’m a real bouncing ball, rock ‘n’ roll chick, always busy, havin’ funn and Jeff is a little more laid back.” Except when there are a few beers in it, the singer laughs.
At the moment, the two are also on the road almost every weekend. Currently on the eighth edition of Motel West Coast, a potpourri of musicians who make west coast music, including Syb van der Ploeg. In addition, they are also busy preparing for Dilana’s solo tour: Legendary Women of Rock which will also start soon. “The premiere is in the Atlas,” says Zwart. “Oh yes, it is,” says Dilana.
“That is a theater show of thirty times throughout the Netherlands and that starts with two try-outs in September,” says Zwart. Unlike the more modest west coast tour, this show is full of energy according to the Dalense. “Real rock songs from Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner to Alanis Morissette.”