Dave’s Photo Blog

On a chilly night in early December, Mia Dyson is standing on the stage at Toad with Billy Beard behind the drums. She looks relaxed and happy, as well she should be. The journey to this concert started almost two years ago, in early 2009 when she came to Cambridge from her native Australia to try to break into the U. S. music market. She returned to Australia after playing in all the local hotpots, including Toad, The Lizard Lounge, Johnny D’s and Club Passim as well as doing some touring around the country. She returned to the United States — to Los Angeles in early 2010 where she quickly got the breaks she was looking for, opening first for Stevie Nicks and then joining Chris Issak on his U. S. tour as a solo opener. But part of her heart remains in Cambridge, where she made a lot of friends and fans and left an indelible mark on the music scene here.

“We’re going to start with some slower numbers,” she says, addressing the crowd, “but don’t worry, we’ll get there.” Then she starts playing With The Blue Sky. And they got there in a hurry. For the next few hours, two sets and 19 songs, she and Billy Beard delivered a tight, soulful performance that was a delight to watch. It is rare to see someone as accomplished and talented as Mia Dyson in such an intimate setting and the crowd that came to watch got a truly exceptional performance.

Now you might think that Mia playing guitar and just a drummer (no bass, keyboards or other instruments) might fall a little flat, but you would be wrong. Although Mia made a comment about missing James Haselwood (the bassist that came to the U. S. to play with Mia in 2009, the overall sound and mix was excellent. Mia is one of those rare performers that can sing and accompany herself on electric guitar and sound truly compelling. The addition of Billy Beard on drums made for a powerful combination and sounded very full and rich indeed.

I was very lucky to catch up with Mia after the show to interview her. We retired to the band room downstairs where it was quiet and I asked her some questions about her experiences in the US and Australia as well as about her upcoming plans.

Dave: What was it like for you going back to Australia? what were you thinking when you were finally back on home ground? What was going through your head about what had happened over the last year?

Mia: Obviously I was very excited to just see my family, see my friends, but I was very hungry still. I felt like my time in the states was not done at all. And even though I wanted to enjoy being there I was very keen to get back. My time in Boston – it was a really hard year but it was an exciting year because of the notion of living in another country. I had to find out, “could I do that? Could I survive?” And I tapped into this incredible music community that sustained me for that time. If I had gone to LA first I reckon I would have had a much harder time staying in the states. Basically I met Billy on email before I even arrived and by the time I got here, he’d told everyone about me. I had instant friends, instant community and that was like the best thing about it – incredible. And I treasure that time and the fact that I can still come back here and have those friendships and those relationships. It’s incredible. Really.

Dave: And you played some shows while you were there, right?

Mia: I did, yeah.

Dave: I wonder how it felt to play in front of your hometown audience?

Mia: Well what was exciting for me was that it was in Boston and based in Boston that I learned how to play solo.

Dave: Oh Really? I didn’t know that.

Mia: I had to do it because I couldn’t afford to tour with a band. I could play shows in Boston with a band but I couldn’t afford to tour. I came over here thinking I would be able to play with a band and it would all just roll on like it had in Australia. And then I got hit with the reality that no one knows me here and I couldn’t afford to keep touring with a band. I tried it at first and then I was just burning through money, and so I had to learn how to play solo. When I returned to Australia, I’d done months of touring solo around the states so it was really exciting to go back and announce a solo tour in Australia. And of course that was of some interest because people had seen me a million times with a band, but they’d never seen me solo. And it was a really heartening thing to be able to do that. It really built my confidence. You know, I love playing with a band, but to know I can do it solo if necessary. For instance, the opportunity to play with Chris Isaak. I couldn’t bring a band on the road to open for him, not only because I couldn’t afford it but because they wouldn’t want a band. So I can open solo and it’s fantastic.

Dave: One of the things I wrote about you before and it’s still true today. I’m not sure how many people realize how really, really difficult it is to be able to get up onstage with just an electric guitar and perform. You do an amazing job of it. You have every aspect of talent – technical talent, song writing skills, vocal skill, skill on guitar, presence – it’s the whole package and it’s really impressive.

Mia: Thank you! I appreciate that. I mean, the electric guitar is all I’ve ever known. To me it’s just normal to play solo electric even though normally you’d see someone on acoustic solo. To me there’s so much more to work with even though it’s a little harder to control. But there’s a bigger palette, you know?

Dave: So what’s the difference in the vibe in the music scene between LA versus Cambridge?

Mia: Well, there’s a real tight-knit, lovely community here that just doesn’t exist in LA. I mean, I haven’t found it, anyway. You know, there’s a lot of people playing in different bands together and interacting and sharing the load and I love that about Boston. I love that about Melbourne, too. But LA is — it just takes a lot more time to find where people are hiding out. Funnily enough, a lot of the friends that I’ve made are Detroit musicians who moved out to LA. They’ve had to form their own little community. Not that they’re exclusively Detroit musicians, but it just so happens that a bunch of them moved out and then they met some other Detroit musicians. So I tapped into a Detroit musician’s circle in LA, but it’s taken a long time. Much longer than being in Boston and having that really great scene that centers around Lizard and Toad and Atwoods and Precinct and all those great little clubs.

And see there they have the showcase venues. So you’ve got a slot from 7 to 7:45 or 7 to 7:30 and then you’re on and then you’re off. You’ve got to bring a crowd in and then the crowd leaves. You don’t share bills with other bands that you want to play with — it’s like a 7:00 band, an 8:00 band and 9:00 band and 11:00 band and there’s no sort of community sense of sharing the bill. Whereas here you do the Lizard Lounge and have three bands that all want to play together, or you get to play two sets at the Toad.

Dave: …and it’s the same set of people – there’s tendrils of people here that overlap

Mia: Yeah, exactly. And you know, I could get Duke Levine to come down and play guitar.

Dave: Are we ever going to hear any cuts of music from the show at Toad with Duke Levine?

Mia: Did we record it?

Dave: Absolutely. I talked to…

Mia: …to Lloyd. (Lloyd Barratt, a sound engineer that came over to the states with Mia her first year in Cambridge). Wow, I better follow that up. Yeah, I’ve got them – they’re on my hard drive.

Dave: So did you release a new EP?

Mia: I haven’t released it yet, even though I can give it to people. But I haven’t officially released it. That’s why I’m coming back in April – that’s supposed to be a tour launch of the EP. Then it will officially go on iTunes and all that.

Dave: Did you put the new You and Me on that?

Mia: Yeah

Dave: I wanted to ask you about that because you’ve re-arranged it a little – the introduction is drawn out and the rhythm is different and of course the piano – the keyboards.

Mia: Yeah, and in fact I can’t play it like that live at the moment because I didn’t have a piano and also a bass player and everything.

Dave: Did you do the re-arranging of the song?

Mia: I did it with Dave Stewart. Of all the things I did with him that was one of the things I really liked. I feel like the way we play it live really works, but as a recording I really like how now it’s got a build into the big part where the proper drums – you know – the original drums, come in. That for me has so much more impact now that everything is pulled out of the start. It’s the same length, in fact, it’s a bit shorter, but the instruments are all pulled out at the start except for the voice and piano and then there’s just that bass drum and a little kind of “chicka chicka chicka” – you know, the high-hatty thing.

Dave: And you’re singing the introduction part in a very different tempo – it takes awhile to catch on especially if you’ve heard the old version.

Mia: Right. Yes, because it’s in 5/4 in the old way you get to hear the beat first and you establish where that’s at and then I start singing, whereas this way I start singing straight-away and you have to kind of get used to what the hell I’m doing.

Dave: Well it sounds great – is there a reason that you picked that song to work on?

Mia: It actually felt like the most accessible song that I’ve written and I don’t know what that means but I felt that if any of my songs were going to have a chance at getting on the radio or being widely received, that song seemed like the most likely candidate. Does that not strike you?

Dave: Well, I just love Roll Me Out

Mia: Right, well I guess coupled with the fact that it’s a new song. Maybe I didn’t pick an old one because energetically those songs are in my past.

Dave: Well that (Roll Me Out) was ’05

Mia: Exactly.

Dave: I want to ask you about James Haselwood. One thing I noticed watching you play when you were here in Cambridge was that he seemed to provide a bit of glue between you and Billy. Is that deliberate or is that just something he moved into? I could see that he almost knew exactly what you were doing and what you wanted to do and he would cue Billy or others if he thought it needed it.

Mia: He absolutely had my back and he’s just such an incredible player. You know, we’d been playing together for three years before we came to the states and so he was like my musical voice. When I wouldn’t know how to describe to another drummer what I was trying to do, he knew how to do it. He knew instinctively. And so he was absolutely the glue.

Dave: It must have been hard to leave him behind.

Mia: Absolutely and you know I’d like to think that I’ll be playing with him again. It’s just financial, which is so boring, but he needed to go back and regroup which I can understand. He wants to come back again and I wish my career could have taken off and he could have stayed and all that. We’re still great friends and I can’t wait until I can go, “James, get over here, I’ve got a 25, 50 date tour around the states.”

Dave: So you are not following Chris Isaak to Australia then?

Mia: No. They actually have put it forward if I wanted to do it, but I really need to get back here and work on my career. So it was lovely that they’re interested in having me on and maybe I’ll tour with them again in the states which would be great.

Dave: Well, obviously something is going right in LA because before then you had opened for Stevie Nicks

Mia: Exactly, yeah Stevie Nicks. What a thrill. Ridiculous, I mean, my dreams have come true in funny little unexpected ways.

Dave: Did you have an agent?

Mia: That one came about through my manager, who got to spend some time with her manager. Stevie was doing a benefit concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl and they didn’t have an opener because it wasn’t – it was just a last minute consideration. It’s the last thing that those big acts think about. So my manager just said, “well, have a listen to my artist that I work with,” and they said, “sure, let’s put her on.” Then her and her crew really liked me and they put me on another show. Then her management said, “well would you want to do Chris Isaak’s show?” because they’re managed by the same people. So it was just serendipity – it all just dominoed.

Dave: And that’s why you had to move to LA

Mia: Exactly. And now I’m friends with Chris Isaak and his management and it’s — that’s a life long thing now. They’re great people and I’ve got that connection which is wonderful.

Dave: I know that you have a great fondness for Little Feat and Lucinda Williams because you’ve talked about them played their songs. But when you listen to music for yourself, who are you listening to? What really rocks you?

Mia: Sure, well very recently there’s a band called Dawes, (not The Doors), who just blew my mind. I was walking down the street in Silver Lake a few months ago and there happened to be a street festival. They were playing and I just — I didn’t know who they were — and I just listened and was blown away. I bought their CD and I’ve been listening to it ever since. But, I guess, artists that I know really well, like Neko Case, absolutely rocks my boat. Gillian Welch — I am dying for her to make a new record. Tom Waits. Nick Cave. Bob Dylan – an obvious one. The Band. The Band. I mean, they should be at the top of the list. They continue to be — no one’s made music like them since, I don’t think…

Dave: The Last Waltz is just an amazing movie

Mia: It’s crazy, I mean I’d give up being the lead in a band to be in a band like The Band. In a second. I’d sing backup in a band like that, you know, like play tambourine. (laughs) You know what I mean?

Dave: (laughs) Right. Yeah, I do. And it’s very durable music.

Mia: It still kicks ass, I mean, it still — you play songs like that and if someone had written that today you’d be like, “Oh my God!”

Dave: That actually brings us to song writing. Are you writing new music now?

Mia: Yeah, I’ve got a full album of material ready to record.

Dave: Oh excellent. So after the EP?

Mia: Yes. I’ll be making the record before and after that tour. I’ve been to all these producers — that’s the great thing about being in LA — there’s just access to such producers and players. Jim Kelpner — one of my favorite drummers, you probably known from Ry Cooder‘s records and Emmylou Harris — I mean he’s played with everyone. And he’s my favorite drummer. Who knows if I’ll be able to afford him but he’s in LA. You know those people are just — they’re all there. Not all of them — there’s great players all over the country, but there’s a high concentration of players and producers and access to studios and all that sort of stuff.

Dave: How to you approach songwriting? Do you start with a concept; do you start with music; do you start with a melody?

Mia: It’s different from song to song but generally I need to sit down with the guitar and come up with something on the guitar before anything else happens. Absolutely. You know it’s very rare, but it does happen, that I sing something — like a melody without a guitar — like in the car. Struck Down is one example where I was in the car and I wrote that song melodically. Then I got home and was like, “well what are the chords that go with that melody?” Then I found them and it all came together. But generally speaking I’ll come up with a riff or some chords and then I’ll add melody and then the chorus and then the lyrics.

Billy Beard: Hi honey

Mia: Hey, we’re just having a little interview. Billy Beard. Billy Beard just walked into the room.

Dave: Local legend

Mia: Rocal Regend. I’m on recording saying that.

Billy Beard: I’ll do my Tim Gunn impression. Carry on!

Mia: (laughs)

Dave: The is the last question and kind of a common one. For people who are watching you and inspired by you – what do you advise them if they are looking to get into music professionally?

Mia: Right, right. That’s not a common question – I haven’t been asked that in a long time. I would say over and over the biggest lesson that I keep having to learn is to follow my instincts and ignore anyone else, including the people who seem to have it all figured out and made and maybe are famous or have a lot of clout. I just keep finding that if I trust my instincts, things work. If I ignore them and listen to other people — who might have the best intentions but they don’t necessarily know what’s best for me — then I’m in trouble. And I would say that about anyone — that’s advice for life. And do it for the love of it. I mean, if you want to be famous, I don’t know, I can’t help advise you on that, but if you love playing music everything else will fall into place.

Mia Dyson is expected to launch a tour in support of her new EP this spring. Watch for it and definitely get out and see Mia when she tours.