DYLYN is the moniker for Canadian artist Gwendolyn Lewis’ multi-genre music, and she released the EP Bring on the Blues via Nettwerk this Spring, and while the collection shows a wide range of influences and traditions, the prevailing currents are Rock-influenced, confessional, and reflective. Her new single “Skin & Bone” arrives on July 8th. DYLYN and her bandmates were able to undertake an extensive US tour in January 2022 with the band Mother Mother and at a time when so few tours were successfully making it to the finish line, it was a particularly heartening journey to follow. The blend of Rock elements with more introspective themes definitely received a warm reception night after night.
Following a cross-Canada journey early in the pandemic period to work on Bring on the Blues, DYLYN continued to explore her connection to Classic Rock and heavy music traditions to develop her sound in the studio with Ryan Guldemond of Mother Mother and Parker Bossley, bassist for The Mounties and Hot Hot Heat. I spoke with her about her winter tour, directions that she discovered while thinking about and making the EP, the ways in which her own lyrics continue to hit home, and why she holds onto the thought that there are no rules in music.
Hannah Means-Shannon: I feel like the story of your tour with Mother Mother was a heartwarming thing this winter. With so many difficulties facing touring, I was rooting for you guys, and it seemed like a very special, emotional experience for everyone.
DYLYN: It was so incredible to be able to do that, to connect with people. It felt like it was never going to happen. To do that was such a beautiful thing, and I’m really grateful for the the experience. You could tell with every show that everyone was just so “there” and mindful, whether it was the crowd, the band, or the crew. We were super aware of how special touring is.
HMS: In the pictures and posts from the shows, you can see the emotion. Most fans hadn’t seen live shows in well over a year at that point, so I imagine the reaction was big from the crowd.
DYLYN: There was a big reaction, but I found it to be such a warm and loving reception. The crowd was super-open and it was just a beautiful group of people every night with the same sort of energy, happy to be there and connect.
HMS: I went to a multi-band event for heavy music around Easter and I couldn’t believe the sense of joy that everyone brought, whether it was the audience or the bands. A lot of people had new albums out that they had never been able to tour, so it was so special.
DYLYN: It’s amazing what humans need in terms of expression and the whole connection to art. Going to a show and just being able to escape into that world is so important. I think a big reason why I even got into this in the first place was because I would put my headphones on and be able to go somewhere else that I needed to go at a young age. There’s something about that. There are also certain songs in your life that you listen to and they just take you right back to that moment. It’s a flash of a person, or a story, or a concert from your life. That’s the magic there.
HMS: I think a lot of people are rediscovering those experiences through vinyl again, as well, or revisiting things in a different way, especially during the pandemic period.
DYLYN: People are exploring going back in time and discovering old music, too, but also picking up guitar. I feel like there’s been this wave or resurgence of guitar-driven music. People are connecting to that, which is great to see. I may be a glass half-full type of girl, but I’m hoping that people are more mindful post-lockdowns. Maybe they feel a little bit more aware. I get the feeling that people are cherishing their lives more through all this. A lot of my friends either started meditating, or became much more spiritual, or connected with a therapist, or changed their career drastically. A whole bunch of transformation happened to the people who I know.
HMS: How long has it been since you found your band members and started working together?
DYLYN: Well, I’m originally from Toronto, but I drove out to Vancouver during the pandemic with just my car and whatever I could fit in it. I moved into an artists’ house. I had one of those moments where I said, “I have an album to make. I just don’t think it’s going to happen in Toronto.” So my best friend and I drove in the winter time across Canada. I moved in with four other artists, and I met one of my band members through that, then was connected through friends with a couple of Producers.
So I lived with my guitarist, met him, and through friends I met my Producer who’s actually now my bassist. And my guitarist brother is also a drummer. All of us had been friends in music, and it worked out so well when we went out on the road. We are kind of like a little family. I’ve been very lucky. At the end of the tour, we joked around that we had fought so much, because it was so strange how well we’d gotten along.
HMS: Did Parker [Bossley] have an impact on the writing of this EP?
DYLYN: If I could describe him, I’d say that he has a Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Prince energy. He’s got unbelievable outfits. [Laughs] He floats into the room. We started writing together and he loves the 60s and 70s, as do I. He brought a lot of vintage, mellotron warmth to the EP. The 60s and 70s, especially on vinyl, have such a warmth to recordings.
The other Producer I worked with was Ryan Guldemond from Mother Mother, and I’ve worked with him for three years. He’s so, so intelligent when it comes to building a song from a Production standpoint, and he really understands my vocals. He brings that heavier feel to the music through guitars, drums, and thick bass. It was an amazing pairing to have these couple of people coming in to help me discover my vision for the record.
HMS: When you came to Vancouver knowing that you wanted to make an album, were you bringing these songs with you, or did you evolve them later in the studio?
DYLYN: I definitely had a bunch of voice memos and ideas, and I knew in my heart that I wanted to go harder, much more Rock-leaning with much more of a band feel. At its core, that’s really me. I grew up on 1960 to 1979 heavy bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin. But, did I have it all sculpted out? Absolutely not. I was just driving into the wind. I didn’t know what would happen, but it revealed itself over time.
The way I write it just me, with an electric guitar, in my living room. It’s really quiet, really slow. I noticed at the time that I was listening to a lot of 50s and 60s music, so I think that’s a really big reason why I pulled from that era a little bit. A lot of Santo & Johnny from the 50s on vinyl. I think that bled into the art.
HMS: Were you interested in some of the rougher edges that you can sometimes find in 60s music? I’m always surprised when I listen to really early Rolling Stones, or even really early Beatles, just how wild and crazy they were and how much a live sound is captured.
DYLYN: That’s a good point, and it’s kind of where I’m leaning now. I definitely pulled from the energy of that with this EP, but I think I’m leaning even more towards that in the Production sphere now. It’s more unpolished. This record that I’m working on now has strings and mellotron, and I’m trying to create a real world. Those records make you feel like you’re sitting in the corner of the room, and they are just smashing it. It makes you feel like you’re at a party in a room. [Laughs] You can feel that energy.
HMS: I think on Bring on the Blues, the song structures and energy on a lot of the harder songs are a little untamed in a similar way. They defy expectation occasionally.
DYLYN: We did make instinctual choices not to plan things out with “Verse one, chorus, verse two with the same melody, then the same chorus.” I love the Beatles method of a perfectly sculpted song, but it’s nice to change a second verse, maybe change the second half of that melody. There are no cemented rules in music. That would be no fun.
With the song, “Hurt”, the verse two is very different rhythmically and melodically. It shifts a little bit. There should be a little bit of a rawness and unfiltered freedom in there. If you strip a song down on an acoustic guitar, I think that’s when you know that you have a good song to work with, to pursue. That reveals great songwriting.
HMS: Do you ever play your songs acoustically online or at shows?
DYLYN: I am thinking of releasing some acoustic videos, taking a couple of songs that we did on the EP. We could strip them down, record them, and play them out. I would love to do that, and I’m thinking I might do it during a show, it might be nice to pause. I love thrashing around on stage, and building up energy, but sometimes it’s nice to just sit down with an audience. If I play guitar, and sit, they can see me, and I can sing from the heart. I think I’m going to try it the next time I go on the road, just for one song, then we’ll get back to the party. We do a couple of slower songs, and when we do, it feels like the audience and I are slow dancing together.
HMS: I wanted to mention about the song “Hurt” that I really appreciated the ways in which the themes and the lyrics of the songs move. I didn’t expect the turn in the song where the speaker is then going to battle for the other person. I wasn’t sure at first at first, when the speaker was commenting on the other person’s problems, whether they were stepping away. It’s powerful when they decide to help the other person.
DYLYN: I think every single person in their lives, whether in their childhood or their teens, or in their family lives, has had hurt in their lives. It’s unavoidable. It could be a number of different things. So this song is more a metaphor saying, “Let’s tackle this together. It’s okay to be hurt. That’s what makes us who we are.” I know it can sound like a cheesy thing to say, but I have found that some of the hardest things in my life have really helped shape who I am. They have made me grateful for life or have made me grow up a little bit. These are incredible things.
Though it’s something I’ve never talked about, just to be a little bit more real, I’ll say that I grew up with a father who was an alcoholic. It was really difficult to navigate our relationship, because it kind of felt like it switched, up until recently, where I was taking care of him. First of all, it’s not a child’s responsibility to do that, but it really made me conscious of substance abuse. It made me conscious of how people mask their emotion with these things, and being in the music industry, I am hyper aware of it and am conscientious about it. My takeaway from that is that is beautiful, in a way.
HMS: I can definitely relate to that story in my wider family, too. One of the hardest things is to know how to treat the parent-child relationship, as you were saying. Who has to be the responsible party? It’s complicated and hard to navigate.
DYLYN: It is a fine line, and you begin to learn it, the more so if a person doesn’t hold onto resentment or anger. I do view alcoholism as a disease and I was very, very lucky to have such a solid mother, who always made sure we were alright. Having a female figure as a rock in my life certainly helped me, big time. Something that really sticks with me is that you can love a person and support them, but you can’t change them.
HMS: A number of these songs on the EP are very rocking, but you’re known as someone who explores different genres. A song like “Liar” is very different and more Pop, but I can also see the ways in which it’s subversive. The subject matter could be heavy and dark, but the sound is full of choirs of angels, softer, and more reflective.
DYLYN: I think if you’re going to go for something more ethereal on a record, the lyrics have got to be dark. [Laughs] That’s the way I see it. It’s about heartbreak. It’s actually about a music relationship I had. It’s not even about a lover who I went through this with. But that clash, which led to us both getting hurt, made me want to write about it from a place of relationships. I remember going into the studio, working with Ryan, and talking about it like a therapy session. He suggested that we approach it as a relationship, as if it was a lover. I thought that was a great way to get my frustrations out in a healthy way. I think about it as saying goodbye to someone in my life.
HMS: What’s really realistic to me is how hard the speaker in the song finds it to bring the hammer down and end the relationship, even knowing what they are going through all the time.
DYLYN: Totally. It’s knowing something isn’t good for you and wondering, “Why am I still here?”
