PREMIERE: Dilly Dally's New Music Video "Doom"
interview by Anna White
Dilly Dally are back from the dead. After the touring cycle preceding their 2015 release, Sore, the Toronto based four piece nearly dissolved. Heaven is the band’s first new material in three years, a powerful return to form—lead singer Katie Monk’s signature raspy vocals are ever-present, but the sonic backdrop is more refined, mixing in ambient influences and elements of doom metal.
Today we’re premiering the video for “Doom,” a track off of this new album. Monks alternates between angelic and possessed, the video a medley of performative live footage, what appears to be Monks mid-exorcism, and the band wandering through the woods by torchlight like Brother’s Grimm protagonists. I caught up with Monks last Wednesday and chatted about moving past depression, making music for your friends, and her new Flying V guitar.
We’re premiering the video for “Doom” off your new album, Heaven. What was the inspiration behind the video?
Basically the inspiration for that video came from when the album stopped being a dream and started becoming real, and I started becoming very romantic about the live show and what that experience was going to turn into.
So is the video your ideal live show?
No, it’s kind of a dreamy fantasy version of that.
It feels very ritualistic.
Yeah. I just had a vison about it, I want it to be just kind of a trance.
I love that. What is the song itself about?
When I wrote it was at a time in my life when a lot of people around me were struggling with depression and so was I, and it’s one of those moments where you don’t really have a friend to cheer you back up, because everyone was feeling down. The song is about digging really deep inside yourself, and finding something to hold onto, some piece of hope and happiness.
When did you begin writing your new album, Heaven?
Essentially at the beginning of 2017, which was when we were all exhausted with the whole thing. There were a lot of question marks going on as to how we were going to move forward, and what that would look like, what configuration of the band it was going to be—it was a hairy time. I think it was hard as well for my bandmates to see what the next step was going to be, because they hadn’t heard any new material. So they were kind of like, we’ll see what happens.
Were you having a hard time writing new material?
I think at first. At first I was certainly blocked, everyone was just tired.
How did you move past that?
I started treating it like it was a 9 to 5 job. I just woke up every day and I would write in my journal and meditate, and I bought some new pieces of gear to kind of mark a new chapter. The Flying V guitar was a huge part of that. It was like a middle finger to anyone who told me what was a cool guitar and what was not. I was like, it’s art and I can do what feels good and be myself, despite what’s trendy or cool right now, and I just thought it was pretty and it felt good to play.
And I got a looping station – I was playing around with making new sounds. I made an ambient album with my brother, I was kind of exploring, it was back to the beginning, like when you’re a teenager—to explore again and have it feel like a new thing.
I can definitely see how the ambient inspiration works its way in.
Yeah, in little ways. There’s a freedom to it, and I think that’s what we felt when we were making this album, we felt like this freedom about it because we all felt like this might not have happened. So, fuck it. I don’t think anyone cares about how people were going to perceive it, it wasn’t like “this will be a good next step for the band”. It was like, let’s make some art, and it was just really free. There were no rules.
By Anna White
That’s great! It’s so important to be evolving.
Yeah, if it comes naturally. I’m a very complicated person I think, there are a lot of different sides to me. I like being a bit of a chameleon, I’m very dramatic.
Do you think Heaven shows a lot of your different sides?
Yeah, there’s a lot of new sides to the band, that we didn’t even know we had. And there were definitely moments of fear! Like, oh shit, this is pretty different, I hope the punks are gonna like this one! When I say the punks, I just mean all my friends. That’s the only audience we care about, our friends.