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Unsigned Spotlight: Dali Van Gogh

Dali Van Gogh is a guitar driven Hard Rock band out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The band has released 4 records, and has received world wide radio play with charting singles Arms Race (2019), Down At The Hitching Line (2019), East Coast Witches (2019), Outside Looking In (2018), God Help Me I Like It (2016) and Wild Blue City (2012).

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Isaac Kent - Guitar, Vocal, Band Founder John Scotto - Lead Vocal Rachelle Moreau - Keyboard, Vocal Lance Hicks - Bass, Backing Vocal Johnny Moore - Drums

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Dali Van Gogh? How long has the band been around?

I have been working on this band to various extents for over a decade. My first original band was with our now keyboarder Rachelle Moreau. We had a kind of indie pop project that she was the lead vocalist in called Eight Days To Saturday. Started fresh out of high school. But I've always been drawn to harder, heavier music, and even then I was writing material that would become early Dali Van Gogh songs. Heavy Living and Sober both had their genecis during that time period for sure, and Dali's first big radio single, Weight Of The World, was written about that break up of than Band. Straight out of that band, after we broke up, I started Dali Van Gogh. It's been my only original project of any note since then.

I do play in a 90s grunge tribute band called Love, Hate, Love when I have time. It's a pet project of my brother and I (he sings lead). We have a huge following here in Halifax, sold out every show, but only play maybe 3 or 4 a year, so it's not on the scale of Dali but it's still fun. We know the entire Nirvana and Alice In Chains catalogue, most of STP, a bunch of Soundgarden, Silver Chair, bush, etc. I also contribute some musical work to our roadie Ethan Anderson's project, The Unchained, which is an industrial metal project. But it's again when I have time, and I don't write the songs, just take what he has and kind of put my spin on the music and help him flesh it out. A little different than being "in" a band so to speak, not to mention that there is no one else in the lineup. But I suppose you could call it a side project of sorts.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

This one has two competing stories. I remember it one way and Rachelle remembers it another. I'll let her tell her side. What I remember is, shortly after Eight Days Broke up, considering the name Dali Van Gogh with my then bassist in my kitchen. I had two giant posters of the best work of Salvidore Dali and Vincent Van Gogh on the wall and it just clicked for us. That said, it wasn't the name we actually started out with. We performed as Verbal Warning for about a year before we discovered that there was a Reggae band in town under a different name, so we wanted to change.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

It's been a mixed bag. Early on I wrote the majority of the material, almost all of the music, maybe half the lyrics. John contributes to much of the lyrics now though including on the two recent albums, but i get a song in here and there. Musically now, especially this specific current lineup, we are really sharing the load. This new single (Boneyard) is really contributed to by everyone. I wrote the main riff and an early arrangement that John wrote lyrics to. Then over time everyone chipped in and refined the song dramatically. Small lyric changes, big changes in the dynamics and the structure to fit those lyrics better. When the chemistry is there it just works. Topically it changes album to album.

From Ashes was heavily inspired, both musically and lyrically, by a fire that destroyed my home. I lost my recording studio, guitars, pictures, everything I owned. John rolled with many of those themes along with my own lyrics here and there, Ethan Anderson contributed as well. The second album, Under Her Spell, we wrote with specific styles and attitude in mind. After such a dark record we wanted to do something more fun and lighthearted, so Under Her Spell is a kind of party rock album. Song about drinking and dancing, and running away from your problems. It's an escapism record in many ways.

This new song, and certainly some of the other new material we hope to release following it, is VERY reflective of the world we live in right now. Everybody is affected by the pandemic. There's civil rights protests and riots all over the world. Unrest. It really feels like we're on the edge of something. Some big changes. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen. But people are not happy with the current state of the world. That vibe and attitude is unavoidable.

It's permeating everything we write whether we like it or not. So we're trying to embrace that. Even where the specifics of a song may have some personal meaning to the one or two of us who wrote it, they are broadly relatable. At least that's what people, press like yourself, are telling us.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Personally, and largely because of that attitude I talked about before, it's been Alice In Chains. That latest record, Ranier Fog, I haven't been able to turn it off. I've always been a big fan, especially of their first two albums (Facelift and Dirt). This one felt like those old records, even without Layne (Staley). It's really cemented them as THE big influence for me right now. The songs we have don't all sound like the band or anything, though some definitely have that vibe, but it's a lot of little things in my playing. Chromatic melodies, big bends that I wasn't doing on the last album. The stuff is just resonating with me right now.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Absolutely. Guns N Roses, 2006, Halifax Metro Centre. That one concert completely changed my life. I wasn't even a fan of the band, I took a girl I was into at the time because she liked them. I was going to be a mathematician. Didn't pay attention to her for even a second once GNR were on stage. And it wasn't even the real band! It was that Axl 'n Friends lineup.

Not even the lineup that eventually released Chinese Democracy. But it hit me the right way at the right time. Literally the next day I begged by dad to buy me a guitar. By next Christmas I had one and that was that. I formed my first band (8 Days) as fast as I could. It wasn't that I just wanted to play guitar, I wanted to be in a BAND! So I went after it long before I had the guitar chops to back up my ambition.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

I've got a 30 minute warm up routine I go through before each show on the guitar. I don't do a lot of hand stretching or anything like that. I come from a sports background, by brother is a physiotherapist, so he's turned me on to a lot of the falsehoods out there in preparing for anything physically demanding. So my hand it's really warm them up, then drain the lactic acid that build up, a little shaking out the joints and I'm good to go. That said, my body is a different story all together. I was in a bad car accident a couple years ago. Long story, I was the passenger.

Oncoming car on the highway hit an ice patch going 100. Absolutely obliterated the car. Really messed up my back, ribs, some organ damage. So I have to do lots of stretching out my back and legs otherwise I'd literally seize up or wouldn't be able to get out of bed. That not just on stage, but I spend some extra time doing so ahead of performing, otherwise I'd be stiff as a board up there. My future likely looks something like where Mick Mars is now. I hope to have the cool factor and killer guitar chops, but I'm not going to be jumping around into my 60s and 70s like the rest of the guys should be able to. So I want to enjoy it while I can.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

God that's a good question. There's different highlights for different reasons. Playing with the Glorious Sons in front of thousands of people is definitely a big one. Watching our music video (Arms Race) break 100,000 streams in two weeks was very cool. Discovering we had this massive following in Brazil. First time on stage at a music festival with any new band members is always a treat. Seeing the look on their face with their first really big crowd with the band.

There's been a lot. More than anything I look forward to the future though. We're really doing a lot of our best work right now. Not just musically either. We have some really interesting marketing campaigns going on. I'm writing a web based Novel that ties into Boneyard and some more releases we have planned. Releasing it in little bits over time is already turning out to be super fun. It's like we are constantly teasing people. And the response has been fantastic.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Everybody always asks this hahahah. Well if the pandemic ever lets up we're already going to be playing with one of my top choices. Buckcherry is like the sound of hard rock in my teen years. Getting to jump on the same stage as them is going to be killer, I have no doubt. Monster Truck would be really cool. Three Days Grace. Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I'm the wrong person to ask my friend. I can talk forever hahaha. I guess I'll just leave it with a shout out to our team. Zach Lacey at the Front of House, our producer Rob Laidlaw, Andrew Hartlen who we've worked with many time on music videos, our roadies Ethan Anderson and Jordan Johnstone. We get the spotlight but what we do wouldn't be possible without them.

Website - https://www.dalivangoghmusic.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dalivangogh

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/1bLrSxmfNHkeisNpFYGXBz

Twitter - https://twitter.com/dalivangogh

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dalivangoghofficial/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/dalivangogh