Artist: Dillon
Albums: This Silence Kills, The Unknown
Genre: Indie, Pop/Rock, Club Dillon.
A Google search would probably give you information on Dillon, a city in South Carolina; Dillon, a Municipality in Colorado; Dillon Francis…and quietly tucked away somewhere in the corner-Dillon, the Brazilian singer and pianist and perhaps you might see the mention of her album “This Silence Kills” somewhere below that!
Dominique Dillon de Byington, has come quite a long way from a teenage YouTube phenomenon, to her soul rending debut album This Silence Kills in 2011. Right from it’s opening track of the same name, I couldn’t help but notice how powerfully ummm, garish her voice is, but non- tampered with at the same time. It’s like she wants to say- This is how my voice is and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The second song, Tip Tapping has a strange sense of physicality to it. You sit there alone, listening to the sound of her voice, and you involuntarily picture her tip toeing her way into the silent darkness. Thirteen Thirtyfive, is one song you might’ve heard. It has become pretty popular, so much so, that if I ask people if they have heard of Dillon, this is the song that they quote.
I myself discovered Dillon through this zappy song. I’ve spent days thinking about this song, and playing with a myriad interpretations on what she means by –
“You’d be thirteen I’d be thirty-five
Gone to find a place for us to hide
Be together but alone
As the need for it has grown”
Is it a wistful song set against the backdrop of an unfortunate miscarriage or a forbidden love story of a paedophile relationship? Or is it something else entirely? I would leave you to make your own interpretations. Undoubtedly, the most impressive part about her songs is her ambivalent lyrics. They impart a strange sense of isolation and loss coupled with the poignancy in her voice and the silent brilliance of her piano. They reveal and conceal, are angelic and demonic at the same time.
“I want to be your lover,
Wipe your lipstick across my mirror”
“The most tender thing you’ve said to me
Is that i suffer from paranoia
Sometimes when i wish to kill
I count from one to six hundred kilometers”
Some deep food for thought, eh? :P
Verdict: Give it a try if some soul-stirring, melancholic contemplation or escapist meditation is what you need right now. “I always think of my music as a monologue; basically, I’m talking so I can hear myself” – Oh, I hear you Dillon. I really do.
