The Dandelion
Natalie de Silver
Well, there are certainly loads of bands that made their breakthrough in the 10's based on a 60's revival sound and approach, but The Dandelion are undoubtedly one of our favourites. It was in late 2015 when we came across the band's second stunning release "Seeds Flowers and Magical Powers of The Dandelion" (No2 on our Top-20 albums of 2015 list), and since then the Australian "gang" of Natalie de Silver became one of the most beloved and precious companions in our music adventures... But it was not always with Natalie - the whole thing started some years ago, when Dolly Rocker Movement frontman, Daniel Poulter, decided to quit his band and focus on an older project of his, that is The Dandelion. Debut album "The Strange Case Of Dandelion" was released in 2013, but after a year or so Daniel walked out and super talented charismatic Natalie became in charge of the band's singing and songwriting...
Last summer, our team released the second Basement compilation (check here), and Natalie granted us the wondrous opening track of the "Seeds Flowers and Magical Powers of The Dandelion" album, "I Stole The Medicine Man". We feel the need to thank her once again and we are really proud and happy to have her here in The Basement for a really cool and interesting interview... So, that's enough from us, here's the one and only Natalie de Silver. :)
The Basement: Hi Natalie and welcome to The Basement! At first, we would like you to tell us about the band’s history: How and when did the whole thing start and the initial and the current line up…
Hello lovely to be here.
So it all started with a guy called Daniel Poulter who recorded the first album after leaving a band called The Dolly Rocker Movement, then he put some people together to play live. That line up lasted close to 2 years before I came onto the scene. The first Organ player Alison left Sydney for Melbourne so we got a new organ player named Bec and that line up played around town for another couple of years then both Bec and Stella (bass) moved to Melbourne and formed a really cool band called Parsnip. I honestly didn’t think I’d play under The Dandelion name again but I decided to play some more shows as I was missing it a bit so that’s when Anna (organ) and James (bass) joined Josh (drums) and myself to play some shows.
The Basement: Remaining in the past, we would like to focus on the band’s second full LP, the first one where we can hear your voice, that is “ Seeds Flowers and Magical Powers of The Dandelion”. What an album! Under which circumstances and general atmosphere was it made? What was the writing process and how did the songwriting and the band’s leadership pass from Daniel Poulter onto you?
That album was recorded in 2 parts. The first draft featured mainly the original line up and was close to being a very different album but Daniel wasn’t happy with a lot of it and a lot of that had to do with his internal issues and drug problems which were starting to resurface. That’s when I started hanging around and my role was to finish what was started and to carry on some of Daniel’s work that he could not continue with. I brought in some of the witchcraft themes and remixed some of the songs but I feel that record is still essentially Danny boy’s record. Mine is in the making.
The Basement: Did you know that Wikipedia believes that you, Natalie de Silver, are a moniker of Daniel Pulter?!?! :) (check here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dolly_Rocker_Movement)
haha! - Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I’ve been trying to contact the person who submitted that to correct it. There are a few people out there who can’t let go of Daniel and accept that I took his place, I’ve even had hate mail from former fans who actually despise me but they’re people who don’t even know me and didn’t even know Daniel to begin with so whatever and good luck to them.
The Basement: We were happy and honoured to have the opening track of the album “I Stole The Medicine Man” for our Music From The Basement Vol.II compilation. Thank you so much once again! Could you give us a back story for the song?
Oh my pleasure, I really like that compilation as I don’t really listen to new bands but I enjoyed so many of the other groups on that CD so thank you! Yeah, that song was the last song to be recorded and mixed on the album. I actually thought the album was finished when I was going through some of my old tapes and found the drum track which was just me jamming by myself in a rehearsal studio and it sounded pretty good so I thought I’ll try and add some instruments to it. I think I did the rhythm guitar track in one take just making it up as I played along and the song just wrote itself. I did all the overdubs in my tiny little apartment I was living in at the time, I annoyed the neighbours when I was recording and mixing it, as I played it at least 40 times in a row.
The Basement: The album was available in 100 vinyl copies, which were sold out within days. However, the Greek label Blackspin Records gave a glorious re-issue. How did that collaboration happen? Will it go on with your next release as well?
Blackspin just contacted me and asked if I was happy for them to reprint the record and they’ve so far been very easy to work with. I’m very happy for them to release the next record.
The Basement: And as we referred to your next release, it’s time to talk about "Old Habits & New Ways of The Dandelion". The two tracks already shared -"Incognito" and "El Poncho Rojo"- are amazing! When is your sophomore album coming out and what should we expect this time? What are the old habits that will still be around and what are the new ways that will appear for the first time?
Oh, thank you, my apologies to the people waiting as it’s taking me so long to finish it! I just need to mix it and for some reason it’s taking a long time, maybe I’m thinking too much about it. I’m very happy with the songs though. The old habits can be heard mainly sonically as I’m using the same instruments and recording equipment but the new ways can be heard in the songwriting and lyrical themes which I think are very psychedelic and strange... There are lots of gods, goddesses and archetypal figures running this show, if you like the seeds flowers album I don’t think you will be disappointed with this record.
The Basement: When was it written and recorded? Which was the main inspiration of the album?
I recorded it all in my new apartment which has a lot more space than my last one. It started out as a more acoustic folk record but i couldn’t resist getting on the drums which make the songs much more lively. It’s hard to say what inspired the record some of it comes from things I’ve read but mostly the songs write themselves as I wrote most of them by just jamming on either the drum kit, organ or guitar. But lyrically there are more answers in there, I will print the lyrics to this album but I’ll leave it up to the listener to interpret as I think it will spoil it if I say what they’re about.
The Basement: You have already started performing some shows, will there be more? Should we expect you in Europe at some point?
Definitely planning on coming over to Europe, Stay tuned!
The Basement: Natalie, we follow you on facebook and we see that you very often play some DJ sets. Give us a Top-10 of your selections when you are on the decks…
Oh, that’s always a tough question as it changes so often but I’ll name 10 records that pretty much never leave my box.
Melba Moore - The Magic Touch
The Brass Buttons - Hell Will Take Care of Her
Ritmo Pile - Pile Bossa
Shocking Blue - Send Me a Postcard
The Seeds - Pushin Too Hard
Wanda Jackson - Funnel Of Love
The Sound Barrier - Hey Hey
Phil Jones & The Unknown Blues - If I Had a Ticket
Tommy James & The Shondells - I’m Alive
The Castaways - Liar Liar
The Basement: What else do you enjoy doing apart from making music and DJing?
I’m quite a reclusive person so I spend most of my time at home relaxing with my cats, I enjoy riding my bicycle which I find it really good therapy and I watch a lot of films, mainly popular trash. I’ve also been doing some gardening lately too. I work part-time as a social worker which I really enjoy too.
The Basement: How did you start playing and writing music in the first place? What about singing?
I picked up guitar at a very young age but I didn’t have much interest in learning other people’s songs so I just worked on writing my own, I did take a few singing lessons to give me some confidence in singing for other people and it was helpful to learn how to sing somewhat in tune, but I’ve always been more interested in constructing a song and all the different parts how they work together, that’s why I taught myself how to play other instruments cause I feel I have more control of how the songs will sound. I’ve played in only a few bands as I’m much happier working alone on my music during the writing and recording part and then playing with other people when it’s time to perform.
The Basement: Which bands or artists would you consider as the most important and influential for you?
It’s hard to name one or even a few as there’s so many but I’m influenced by clever songwriting it doesn’t really matter what genre or era, I really respect someone who can craft a catchy song and have good sounds to back it up. Although in saying that my record collection is almost all from the 1960’s which in my opinion in the best decade in music ever.
The Basement: There are so many great new bands from your country that make a considerable fuss over the last 5 years or more. Do you think we could speak about an Australian ‘music move/scene’?
I haven’t been a part of a scene for a long time and I don’t listen to new bands often so I’m not the best person to talk about what’s currently going on down here. I spend pretty much all of my music listening time searching for 60’s singles to DJ with. I hardly go out to music events these days unless I’m working at them as crowds really stress me out and I find socialising quite difficult. I feel much more comfortable on stage or behind a pair of turntables.
The Basement: How easy is it for an Australian band to gain global attention?
I guess now with the internet it’s a lot easier to be heard by people in other countries. I sell way more records overseas than I do in Australia and that has been mainly through the internet I think.
The Basement: What are your dreams regarding the band’s future? What are the Dandelion’s ambitions?
Main thing for me is to finish this record and get it out of my life! Then I’ll be free to work on my next project where I’ll simply record and perform as Natalie de Silver. But I’m very happy how things have turned out, I don’t try and push things anymore and I’m very fortunate to have people that are interested in what I do musically. The Dandelion should only have 3 albums as that represents both the changing flower from the sun to the moon to the stars and my own physical transformation which has been 3 significant stages. But I change my mind all the time so who knows I could be doing next.
The Basement: Thank you so much Natalie! We wish you the best!!!
My pleasure! Thank you for being so patient as it did take a while to get it together to do this interview. God and Goddess bless and lots of love x
