Vehemently rousing Hard Rock band, Dali Van Gogh hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and strives to produce music full of raw vitality. Consisting of members Isaac Kent on guitar, Johnny Moore on drums, John Scotto on vocals, Lance Hicks on bass, and Rachelle Moreau on keys, the collective sound feels very cohesive. Together, the band has a specific strategic rhythm in place, and Dali Van Gogh often produces tracks that feel like a real expression of their passion for the music.
Dali Van Gogh's intensity throughout their latest hard rock single, "Boneyard," doesn't waiver during their ferociously structured track. The vibrant melodies stimulate head-rocking, blood-boiling type of mechanisms, and the high-energy performance on Dali Van Gogh's end proves that as a collective band, they aren't planning to compensate on their stamina anytime soon. The guitar riffs often take the pedestal, as the chunky and satisfying aspects of it can so easily allow their tracks to feel potently gritty.
"Boneyard" has a fierce ambiance, so prepare yourself to feel intensely aware of your surroundings. Strong and potent guitar strumming is what ultimately fills the ears of listeners, and in general, "Boneyard" proves that there isn't any mediocracy within the sound of Dali Van Gogh.
With five members all contributing to the essence of "Boneyard", how did the collective influence and expression occur during the writing and recording stage of the track?
John Scotto (Lead Vocals): I felt everything came together pretty organically, we already had the riffs and the structure of the song. Lyrically speaking we felt very influenced by the world we're living in and our nature, the way we treat each other. Everyone brought their ideas to the forefront, and it came together really well. We had a really good time working on it. I found the feedback we got from Rob really helped. His experience and insight influenced us a lot in how we wrote it and how we approached it.
Lance Hicks (Bassist): “Boneyard “was very collective when it came to the writing process. Isaac came to practice one night with the main riff, From there we all molded the song. Everyone made suggestions on parts for it to the point where the finished product has all our fingerprints on it.
Isaac Kent (Lead Guitarist): Yes with boneyard it was pretty fluid, to be honest. I had the main riffs and arrangement right off the bat. From there we all just sunk our teeth into it. And as John said We had some comments come back to us from our producer, Rob Laidlaw, that were weighing on our minds as well.
Johnny (Drums): I just love how we can all sit down and just jam as a collective group, shape, and write songs, it is such an amazing feeling! Boneyard is no exception. We all did our part and all put our 2 cents in. This was a fun song to write and is a fun song to play.
Rachelle Moreau (Keys): It all occurred very naturally. Isaac has the main riff and the guts of the song written and then Scotto added fantastic lyrics. The rest of us added bits and pieces here and there leading up to and during the recording stage.
Did you find that the projected ambiance for "Boneyard" matched the initial vision the band had for this track?.
Isaac: I’d say so, yeah. We knew it was heavy and hard-hitting just from the initial music treatment, which didn’t have the kind of “pop” sounding first pre-chorus. John delivered lyrics that matched and with some fine tweaking, the song was ready to go. It all happened rather quickly, to be honest.
Johnny Moore: Exactly we knew we wanted that heavy hard-hitting sound, but that being said I don’t think personally I imaged the song turning out as it did. What I really love and didn’t expect is the dynamic that happens throughout the song. It really just grabs your attention.
Scotto: It feels like we all were pretty happy with the direction the song ended up taking. Everything came together very fast but in a very good way.
Rachelle: We wanted a hard-hitting gritty track and that’s exactly what the end result became. I couldn’t be happier with the track.
Lance: From the start, I don’t think any of us really thought “Boneyard” would turn into what it’s becoming. We knew it was going to be heavy but the longer we worked on this song the more pieces were built for the story that we’ve written for this song. Like the preacher speech that opens the song was something Isaac wrote after our producer, Rob said that he wanted the song to open with lyrics to catch the listener's attention. After playing around with a few different intro vocal lines Isaac came to practice with this speech that John instantly took and recited and as soon as he finished, we knew that that was going to be the opening to the song.
Already having released 5 official records, how does the band collectively feel on "Boneyard" when in comparison to your previously released tracks?
Isaac: We’re incredibly proud of it. Says Kent, the song, and the next few releases we are planning really, are the culmination of years of work and all those other records lead us here. It sounds like us, having the polish of much higher scale production. Adam Newcomb is largely to thank for that. He and Rob really allowed what makes Dali Van Gogh sounds like Dali Van Gogh shines through. It's a great amalgamation of everything we do well, from grooves to giant riffs, to big harmonies and hooky choruses.
Lance: Having a bit of an outside perspective where this is my first recording with the band, I’m obviously going to be a little bit biased in saying that “Boneyard” is my favorite Dali song. With that, however, I can say that “Boneyard” really feels like a Dali Van Gogh song.
Rachelle: I feel the same way as lance I wasn’t part of the band during the creative stage of the previous tracks so I definitely feel more attached to this song than any other.
Scotto: I think it's the best track we have written yet. Previously we only had produced our albums internally, and while I am proud of most of our work I think that working and consulting with industry veterans and other musicians over the years has made us a better band, not only in the sense of performing but also with songwriting and creating music
Johnny: I have only been in the band since we did Under Her Spell so like Rachelle and lance I'm kind of in the same boat. As much as I love the Under Her Spell album, I feel like this single is the best piece of music Dali has put out!
Where does the sound of Dali Van Gogh extend from here, now that "Boneyard" is successfully released?
Lance: I think sound-wise Dali is in a good place. With “Boneyard” we were able to find a sound that everyone in the band is happy with but it’s also a sound that came very naturally.
Issac: We have several more songs in the works that we are planning to release as part of a collection called “The Testimony”. In times past they probably would have been released as an Album or EP. But the pandemic ended up being the final nail in the coffin for that business model. Hard to sell records when there are very few shows. So, we are releasing the songs one at a time and tying them together with this sort of altered reality, multi-media experience. There’s an eBook being published on our website (https://www.dalivangoghmusic.com). 22 pages so far, both text and images Little clues in the upcoming music video, bits, and pieces in ads. Etc. It’s all rolling out over the next year or two. You could consider it a “Concept Record” for the modern world so to speak. It’s more than just the songs, and it’s exciting and different for us but is also really peaking a lot of people’s interests. Sound-wise we’ve always been a very diverse band. We’ve got everything from Country-Esque ballads, to tunes that push the boundaries of heavy metal, to 8-minute-long epic prog pieces. But it all sounds recognizably like us, or at least that’s what we heard. So, I’d expect more of that. Diverse hard rock.
Johnny: The sound of Dali Van Gogh is only going to go up from here Boneyard is an amazing song but we have a bunch of other great tunes that we are working on and we are going to spice up. We can’t wait to show everyone.
Rachelle: We’ve got a few more rocking tunes that we’re going to be recording shortly. I’m excited to see what results from that.
Scotto: That's a good question. We've got several different songs in the works, and likely will be true to the times we live in and where we could be going from here. "The Testimony" is something new and it's a bit of an experimental project for us in away. It's a very nice chance to try some different creative approaches. Musically speaking, I feel like we're working on a lot of different song ideas. Everyone has been bringing a lot of great ideas and songs to the table. We aren't afraid to experiment a little, and I think people are going to like what we've been working on.
What has been keeping you inspired in 2020?
Whole Band: Yeah, it’s been a tough year. We had a lot lined up that has had to be delayed or outright canceled. But we are making the most of the extra time we have with that multi-media thing we mentioned before. It’s a unique situation that requires a unique approach to survive. So, for now, we are diving into that, and finding ways to perform safely for whomever we can, be it in person or live streamed.