Dilly Dally interview: Touring is like going down on somebody

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In the six years of non-stop shows it took to get the living, breathing entity that is Dilly Dally’s debut, Sore, to the point where Katie Monks and her fellow Toronto band mates felt ready to release it, coupled with the whirlwind of worldwide attention it’s garnered, Dilly Dally are no stranger to a tour. 

With every song birthed in the gritty clubs of Toronto’s west-end and meant for one purpose only, to be played live, there’s nowhere Dilly Dally feel more at home than on a stage. With fellow Toronto locals and close friends Weaves in-tow on their current tour, at home takes on a whole new meaning as their local scene hits the road.

We caught up with Katie in a rare moment of rest to talk all things touring, cats and 90's boybands ahead of their UK leg of the tour that never sleeps - at Hare and Hounds in Birmingham on Sunday 18th September.

Hi Kate! How are you?

We’re doing great, just in Hanover today and also, with a hangover.

How do you like Hannover?

I’ve only been in the van so far and at some radio station, but it seems pretty chill, there’s some graffiti and stuff, I dunno!

Did you manage to go out last night to get the hangover?

No no we just showed up here today, we were in Groningen last night. We were at this legendary venue called Vera, super badass, the guy has been booking there for like 35 years and all these legendary bands play and there’s all these beautiful screen prints.

How do you like playing in the UK?

I love it! We’ve got loads of fans in the UK, it’s dope, I love it.

How does it compare to the rest of the world?

Umm, it doesn’t pay as a good but has very well attended shows, it’s awesome! Maybe more drinking, it all blurs together but it’s a good vibe. Also, what’s cool about it is that like 16-year-olds can go to the shows so we have more proper teenagers coming out who are like, "YEAHHHH I smoked weed and listened to your record and it changed our lives!”, it’s awesome.

Are you excited to be on tour with Weaves?

It’s amazing to be on tour with our friends you know. They’re a band that we’re fans of and they’re fans of us and we’re all friends so it’s awesome.

You think you played the shittiest show ever and then someone who you really respect says “no, you killed it that was amazing!” and I’m like, “what the fuck! You were amazing I can’t believe you’re saying that!” and then Jazz [Weaves] is like “oh no that was like my worst show ever” and I’m like “what are you kidding that was… blah blah blah”. So we’re all really supportive of each other and it’s a really happy, healthy tour.

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Do you think that makes you play better shows? 

Yeah, I guess, knowing that some artists that you really love are watching you and watching Weaves play and then going on stage after, it’s a little healthy competition, it’s good!

Do you draw anything from the free flowing, almost improvised way Weaves play?

It’s so weird, I don’t know who ever compared these two bands, maybe no one did, I dunno! But they’re so different from us, they’re technically so skilled and so flowery, all of the parts are so colourful and very fun and silly and all that, it’s great!

They’re very articulate with what they’re doing and then for us we’re just kind of sloppy and heartfelt you know. It’s different vibes.

So you’re less technical?

Yeah, the guys in Weaves went to school for music and shit.

And you didn’t?

Nope!

There’s been a load of bands from Toronto getting a lot of love in the UK lately, Weaves, you guys, Metz, New Fries…

New Fries have! That’s awesome, I didn’t know anyone knew who they were outside of Toronto, that’s badass!

So how come so many great bands from Toronto are getting recognition at the moment?

I don’t know, there’s just lots of great music coming out of Toronto at the moment. It’s its own bubble separate from the States and it’s where you go in Canada if you wanna do music for a living. Everybody’s friends and it’s well curated, there are good bookers and venues and it’s just a healthy time, a healthy creative…machine!

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More so now than it has been in the past?

I think there’s a new generation of bands, but I can’t speak for like eight years ago, I had nothing to do with it. What I do know is that my group of friends have been supportive of each other and suddenly now nobody is around anymore because everyone is touring and doing good!

But it’s competitive too, you can’t show up to Toronto and be like “whatever, I got this”, no, you can’t suck! You have to be unique. A huge thing I think as well is that I’m often surprised that our bands are doing well elsewhere because, a lot of the bands really focus on their live show over their recording, the live show is really key. People aren’t like “yeah, check out my Soundcloud, man”. I think that’s why a lot of people are playing guitars and drums, it’s a lot more fun to watch. 

We’re all just in it playing tonnes of shows and that’s what we do! We don’t go out to the club at night or anything. That isn’t all of Toronto, I mean Drake came from Toronto, there’s all that shit going on downtown but all the artists that I know, we all just live in this gross west-end and slug it out playing shows.

Was your music always written with live shows in mind, even before you started touring?

Yeah, we’ve always been a band first you know, that’s what this project is. We just wanna write songs, collaborate with our friends, travel, giggle and meet all these cats. We meet so many cats on tour, living it up! There was a really cute cat at the venue we played the other day, looked like a tiny Siberian tiger. I don’t fuck around with cats, I’m serious about cats.

So not a dog person?

I am just a person, who loves cats! It’s important to our story.

You could get a cat for the tour van?

Oh my god I’ve fantasised about that so much! Getting a tour bus and having the cats on the tour bus, it’s such a bummer. That’s the one thing, we’re touring all the time and I’m like “FUCK, where are my cats!”.

My cats are just at home in that shitty apartment I used to live in, with my ex-roomate who’s there cleaning up their litter, I wish I could be the one cleaning up their litter because they’re so cute! All I’m trying to say is, I miss my girls but we get to meet a lot of cats on the road which helps.

If anything you get to broaden your cat-horizons.

Exactly, it’s like a different form of cat-love.

Is that the only thing you miss when you’re touring?

I miss my cats all the time and I kinda miss my best friend. There’s so many moments when you’re at a show or doing something cool in some weird city and something fun happens, you just wish your best bud from Toronto was there experiencing it with you. So we’re gonna do what Biggie Smalls said and bring all our friends with us to the top. 

That’s another thing that’s really strengthening Toronto’s music scene, we all rep each other really hard. In some radio interview today some guy was like “oh Pixies blah blah blah, these are your influences?” and I’m like, no they’re not.

Someone else made us put this shit in our bios so people would have something to latch onto but our influences are our friends in Toronto and these shows. It’s beautiful and great that people are paying attention to us but I’m not too surprised because I’m paying attention to it and I have a pretty short attention span, I get bored easy but this shit is fun! 

You’re playing a lot of shows with a relatively small back-catalogue, do you ever get bored?

All those songs were written over a really long time, like six years. So it’s not like we just wrote a record and were like “Ah fuck these songs! I don’t know if I like this one”, no we really calculated. Those are the songs we never got sick of after playing for six years so are we tied of them now? No, not really. If it was a song that I’d get tired of I wouldn’t want to put my name on that.

You know what it’s like, it’s like going down on somebody! You just keep going over and over again, it’s like repetition and rhythm and you get into a trance, that’s what touring is like! No sorry, I’m just trying to make my friend over here laugh.

But it’s always fun, right?

I used to hate BJs! But then I realised it’s like meditation. There ya go!

There ya go! So you’re going to start writing after this tour?

We have two or three months to write an entire record so we’re gonna be busy! Wish us luck!

And it took six years to write the last one?

Yeah, it took six years to write the last one and now we have six months, we got this!

Easy. You said you wrote the last one with live shows in mind, do you think it’ll be easier to write this one now that you’ve played so many live shows?

Well let me tell you this, we’ve had a long fucking crazy year, we’re both now two old women with a lot of experiences. It’s gonna be really nice fusing it all together into something pretty to show everybody that isn’t completely embarrassing or upsetting.

It’s not gonna be embarrassing or upsetting I’m sure.

Well…. A lot of weird stuff has happened! 

But people love weird stuff.

Yeah, I’ll write an emo song about being pantsed.

You got pantsed?

You know what that means?

Getting your trousers pulled down, right?

Yeah, like when Ben pantsed me on stage that time, I’ll write an eight minute balled. No he didn’t really, I’d punch him if he did.

I don’t think anyone has ever written a ballad about being pantsed though.

Exactly, right! *singing* “My tearrrawaayyys were torn awayyy, from my heartttttttt!”, I’ll get the backstreet boys featured on it.

They’re not up to much I don’t think.

They’ve got a new record out! They should take us on tour and then I can pants them.

Aren’t in that boyband zombie western? (For reference, we’re talking about this...!) 

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REALLY!? Oh my god, you just made my day.

I think it’s one of them, one of N-Sync, one of O-Town, all in a western.

A western with boybands? And the Backstreet Boys!? Where are you from? London? What boybands do you have there? What are One Direction up to?

Not much, just living the life!

Are they gonna be in the western? I guess not.

Only throwback boybands allowed.

I’m really excited about this, this is badass. I’m stoked. This will make great drunken conversation for my night! Touring and boybands, that’s basically my whole life. The boys in Weaves are in a boyband too so I’ll try and get them in that movie! 

It’s been a pleasure, bye!

Dilly Dally, Weaves & Abattoir Blues play at Hare and Hounds on Sunday 18th September - tickets via the box below

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