[Friday Feature] Dillastrate: Interview + New Release 'Narrative EP'

13 Aug

KATIE BROWN - 13 AUG 2021

Ōtautahi act Dillastrate are a duo who seem destined to make music together. Made up of Henare “H” Kaa (drums, lead vocals) and Tim Driver (keyboards, loops, vocals), the charismatic pair met at Jazz School in Ōtautahi and began to jam together, which evolved into a stint playing for each other’s various acts (ahoribuzz, Soulsystem). Recognising their musical connection and compatability, their collaborations naturally grew into the formation of the powerhouse that is Dillastrate. With an infectious live energy that flows like electricity through their audiences, they’ve toured extensively, supporting such acts as Katchafire and Sons of Zion on their national tours, and have played a number of Aotearoa’s staple festivals, including Northern Bass, Rhythm & Vines and Electric Avenue.

Brand new release Narrative EP, out today, is a powerful testament to this background. A notable blend of different musical styles, it carries their signature ‘neo-soul pop’ touch, ranging from the shimmering and upbeat electro-pop take of ‘For You’, to the intimate and lounge-jazz feel of ‘Wax’ and the contemplative piano-driven heartache wrapped in the layers of ‘Shake The Ground’. It’s an EP with a special sense of Ōtautahi earthiness that is a relatable journey through life’s ups and downs, and, most importantly, it has a strong presence of the heart and soul of the pair woven through the centre of it.

Each song has a deeper substance beneath its initial ear-candy appeal, and this is what elevates Narrative EP to the level that makes the act the standout one that it is. There is always a reason an audience is moved to respond they way they do during a set like one of Dillastrate’s, and it’s a sense of connection that drives this. True connection can only really significantly take place when musicians dwell right in the heart of their music with a desire to communicate with honesty (such as in ‘Party In My Head’ when Kaa addresses his experience with ADHD) and this is exactly what Kaa and Driver do. Both incredibly accomplished musicians gifted with warm charisma, whether live or through their recordings they combine their musicianship and life experiences to create their unique fusion of expansive, immersive and intimate songs from a place of captivating and energising sincerity. Narrative EP is a powerfully relatable and uplifting example of this.

Dillastrate will be touring Narrative EP and are currently pulling together a tour schedule, so watch this space!

Give the EP a listen and read our interview with Tim Driver of Dillastrate below!

Find Dillastrate on Instagram | Facebook | Website | Spotify | Apple Music

KATIE: FIRSTLY, CONGRATULATIONS ON A KILLER NEW EP! HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN IN THE WORKS FOR?

Dillastrate: Damn, thanks a lot! It’s been a process that’s developed fairly organically over the past year or so. The initial writing and recording sessions for the EP took place as soon as we could get together again after lockdown (around June 2020), where we recorded about twelve songs, then whittled them down to the six tracks that appear on the EP. Then it was a process of refining these (time permitting!) over the course of the year – and here we are now!

YOU RELEASED ‘DILLASTRATE’, YOUR SELF-TITLED FIRST LP, AT THE END OF 2019. A BIT OF A JOURNEY SINCE THEN, RIGHT? HOW HAS THAT JOURNEY PLAYED OUT ON ‘NARRATIVE EP’?

“A bit of a journey” is absolutely right! I think all of our releases capture a moment in time for us (as they probably do for every recording artist ever!). Our self-titled album was definitely that then, and Narrative EP is that for us now. I think one of our biggest moments on this journey was realizing that we wanted to get back to a bit more of an organic sound on our next release, i.e. writing and recording songs that had a more natural, live aesthetic. So for a lot of the songs on Narrative EP we have deliberately avoided being too “produced”. For example, our track Scorch is a hip-hop track, which you would expect to hear some fairly synthetic production on, but we’ve swapped this out for an acoustic drum kit, live electric bass, grand piano, etc.

WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF MAKING IT?

A large part of the recording sessions for the EP took place at our audio guru Thom O’Connor’s studio. He’s basically converted a house into a recording studio, and man, that was the most comfortable place in the world we could have tracked the EP. There’s something inherently comfortable about recording in what used to literally be a lounge!

For me, I think the highlights have been working with the various session musicians that we’ve enlisted on the EP – in particular the strings. Writing and recording strings parts was an absolute blast, and something that we were both entirely new to at the start of this process. The strings players themselves are ridiculously skilled musicians, which is even more impressive when you consider that they are still in high school and cleaning up chamber music competitions around Aotearoa! We loved working with them in the studio so much that they joined us on-stage for our recent performance at Go Live Festival in Ōtautahi – such a great time.

IS THERE ONE TRACK ON IT THAT HOLDS AN EXTRA-SPECIAL PLACE FOR YOU (THIS IS A CRUEL QUESTION, I KNOW!)?

Ha! It is a bit of a cruel question, yeah… So hard to narrow it down… But I think the most honest and personal track on the EP is probably Party In My Head. H was the primary songwriter on this track, and it was written about his own and others’ experience of ADHD – the proverbial “party in my head”. (H is a massive ambassador for ADHD and is doing lots of work in this area.) It’s a special track for us in that I think it has a bit of universal appeal – we all have a party in our own head, and it’s different for everyone, but there’s always something going on in there. As this was the first single to be released from the EP, the overwhelming piece of feedback that we’ve had is that people feel like the song is written about them – so hopefully that means we’ve achieved what we hoped with this song!

The other track that’s extra-special for us would be Shake The Ground (but we can talk about that later).

BOTH OF YOU HAVE A STRONG AND VARIED HISTORY WITHIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, PLAYING ALONGSIDE SOME PRETTY STANDOUT ACTS AS WELL AS BEING INCREDIBLE MUSICIANS YOURSELVES. HOW DID YOU END UP MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER?

We first met each other at Jazz School in Ōtautahi circa 2006, and basically started jamming together then. From here, we started joining each other’s bands, and before you know it we were the core writers for the band Soulsystem. I think it was when we joined Aaron Tokona’s ahoribuzz around 2012 that we really got to know each other’s playing pretty deeply, and when we first saw the potential for doing more writing and performing together. We basically started Dillastrate as a holiday from our other projects not really expecting anything to happen, and on seeing the potential, realized that we could do a lot more with it – and here we are now!

EACH TRACK ON NARRATIVE EP IS REALLY GREAT IN ITS OWN RIGHT, BUT I LOVE HOW THERE ARE DEEPER MESSAGES IN EACH WHEN YOU LISTEN A LITTLE CLOSER. IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOUR MUSIC DOES CARRY SIGNIFICANT MEANING? DO YOU APPROACH THIS INTENTIONALLY?

Firstly, thank you so much for saying that! I think we’re both on an individual and collective mission to be a bit more honest with our songwriting. I think it’s important to both of us that our music has significant meaning, mostly because we want to be able to play these songs repeatedly and retain that same sense of connection that we had with them when they were being developed. Everybody will hear the songs differently and have their own take on them, but the meaning that we hoped the songs would carry will stay for us when we perform them, so it’s important to get that right in the process.

‘WAX’ (ONE OF MY FAVOURITES) IS A STELLAR TRACK WITH A FANTASTIC JAZZ-INFUSED, NEO-SOUL FEEL. I LOVE ITS DOWN-TEMPO, INTIMATE AND NOSTALGIC VIBE – WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THIS ONE?

Thanks a lot! It’s one of our favourites too… You’ve absolutely nailed the vibe that we were trying to achieve with this one, so that’s awesome! The song is basically about my love of vinyl, particularly the feeling that comes from putting on records with the one you love. In addition to being a fairly straightforward love song in that sense, it’s also a love song to vinyl records. I think there’s a meta-meaning to this song too, which is about making sure to spend time with your loved ones, and to not let those precious small moments slip away in what can be a pretty chaotic life sometimes.

I LOVE THE LINE “(THE) BLINK OF AN EYE, EVERYTHING IS GONE, SO LEAVE THE PASTIMES ALONE, AND MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME” IN ‘SHAKE THE GROUND’. TO ME IT HAS A SENSE OF BEING CALLED TO BE AT PEACE WITH WHO AND WHERE YOU ARE IN LIFE. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE TRACK?

The song was written primarily by H in memory of some people who were very special to the band who passed away in the prime of their lives. This song is definitely the most personal of the EP tracks, and one that holds an extra-special place for both of us as a result. It’s also a song that has been in development for a long time, across multiple past projects, so it feels good to be able to round off the story and give it a conclusion on this EP.

WHAT DOES HOME MEAN TO YOU?

To me, home is a feeling. You can associate this feeling with your physical home, with the people you love, with the things you care deeply about, or within yourself. I know for me home is spread across a few different attachments – definitely my physical house, but also the people who are important to me (my wife, my family, my pets, my friends), as well as mental/emotional places that “feel right” (being on-stage with Dillastrate being one of them!).

ŌTAUTAHI IS SUCH A SPECIAL PLACE AND HAS ALWAYS HAD A REALLY STRONG JAZZ SCENE, ALONG WITH BEING THE HOMETOWN OF SO MANY OTHER FANTASTIC AOTEAROA ACTS (SOMETHING IN THAT WATER HUH!) – HOW DO YOU THINK THE CITY HAS IMPACTED YOUR MUSIC?

You hit the nail on the head there - Ōtautahi is popping off as a music centre right now! (Although it always has been, to be honest.) I think the city has influenced our music in so many ways, but for me it’s mostly from the cross-pollination with the other epic musicians that live and jam here. There was also a period following the earthquakes where there were no venues operating, or the ones that were operating were very booked up, so this led to a massive period of writing and recording as a musical outlet. I think that has influenced us both as our writing and studio chops improved a bit more as a result. Also just daily life stuff – being here with our awesome friends and family, seeing and experiencing as much live music as we can, etc.

YOU RECENTLY PERFORMED AT THE CHRISTCHURCH TOWN HALL AS PART OF ŌTAUTAHI’S NEW GO LIVE WINTER FESTIVAL. I HAVE SO MANY MEMORIES OF THE TOWN HALL FROM SCHOOL CHOIR DAYS – WHAT WAS IT LIKE BEING BACK INSIDE THAT VENUE AFTER ITS REFURBISHMENT?

Oh wow, it was amazing… We have exactly the same associations with the Christchurch Town Hall, having seen so many shows and been to so many different events there pre-quake. In addition to being an amazingly put-together festival, it was so awesome to play our music in a place with so many associations and memories. What I particularly loved about the refurbishment is that the place still retains its old feel, so you get exactly the same feeling being back within those walls as you did in the pre-quake years.

The show itself was awesome too – it was a thrill to have our team including our off-stage third member Jamie (our sound engineer) and our on-stage third member (LUIS) with us at such a pinnacle moment of our journey as Dillastrate. Especially for H it was such a special moment having his pride and joy (his students) joining us on-stage rocking primary colours!

YOU PUT A LOT OF ENERGY INTO YOUR LIVE SHOWS. DO YOU FIND THESE BRING YOUR MUSIC TO LIFE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS?

Totally! Since we’ve been playing together for absolutely forever, we’ve become really attuned to each other’s approach to music. I think it’s probably fair to say that our live sets are our main focus, having played live music together for a very long time now… This has led to some prettycrazy moments on-stage – basically moments where we both try something outside of thestandard and end up doing exactly the same thing at the same time! There’s a real connectedness between our playing while we’re performing, and I think that is what helps to generate our on-stage energy, as well as produce some interesting and unexpected moments, both for us and our audiences.

WILL YOU BE TOURING THE EP?

Absolutely! We’re just in the process of putting together a tour for the EP at the moment, so stay tuned to all of our channels for more information there! We will be bringing LUIS along for the ride too (he’s the rapper that features on Scorch on the EP), as well as some other special guests where we can, so watch out for a few surprises along the way.

WHAT DOES THE REST OF THE YEAR HOLD FOR YOU?

There’s no rest for the wicked, so we will be launching straight back into it (maybe after a quick cup of tea and a sit-down to celebrate the EP release!). In addition to our planned EP tour, we will be heading back into the studio to do it all over again with a whole bunch of new songs… So stay tuned!

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