“Basically I grew up in Maffra,” he begins, “played around here for years, since I was a kid. Spent maybe five or six years playing pubs in and around Maffra, and writing my own tunes, playing in bands and all that sorta jazz. For the last six winters I’ve been playing in Falls Creek, I was a resident muso up there. I do a minimum nine and maximum 15 gigs a week, so I’m flat out up there. I did a snow season in Japan, doing the same sort of thing. I fell into that through contacts I made in Falls Creek, and I did that in ’08 and ’09. And the last couple of years I’ve toured up the East Coast a couple of times, from the Great Ocean Road through Melbourne, Gippsland, up to Brissie, Byron Bay, Sydney, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Coffs, Noosa, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast…and I’ve got my first festival coming up in the next few months.
“I had a lot of metal influence, when I was young,” he continues, “I was in a black metal band…for three or four years. So I’m kind of right into my metal, that’s where my roots are, and blues. But I kinda love everything really. There’s, not many styles that I would say I wouldn’t listen to, I’m kind of into everything and I try to incorporate that (into my own music).”
Such a disparate range of influences can be heard on Dylan’s brand new album, entitled Treading Air. But the underlying vibe of the record, as strange as this may seem, is that of an ‘acoustified’ heavy rock to metal album. That is, heavy music being played on acoustic guitar. Dylan speaks of the album’s evolution and recording.
“A lot of the songs I played in a band for years,” he recalls, “I was the main writer and all of those songs are basically from the band days. So a lot of those songs are pretty old. The most recent song on that album would have to be about two years old, when I recorded it. There’s songs on there that are eight years old. I recorded it in 2010, and it was sort of the versions of those songs at that time, I guess…in the last few years I’ve been travelling a lot, so that’s kinda caused me to go out on my own (as opposed to playing in a band), but still searching for that big sound…I’ve kind of got a metal flavor that I like to put into the acoustic stuff, I’m rooted in metal so it definitely comes out in the acoustic stuff. It’s a different spin on acoustic music.
“It’s a love album basically,” he explains, “it’s all about love, and falling in and out of it. And all the trials and tribulations that come along with it. It’s just kind of a reflection on relationships really, and it’s quite a personal album I suppose. It speaks for itself really, all the lyrics are pretty straight forward. You don’t really have to read a lot into the songs, they explain themselves I think. And that’s kinda how I like it.”
Now that the album has been released, Dylan is off on tour again, including a show at the East Brunswick Club this weekend, where Melbourne punters will get to experience the very unique and different ‘one man show’ that he puts on.
“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it,” he enthuses regarding the tour, “after spending four months up the snow, playing the same places over and over again, it’ll be really nice to get up the coast and get some sunshine. Get in a van and just play to some new crew, new venues and stuff like that.”
