Hatesongs is the debut full length release from Northern Art-Pop multi instrumentalist Dilettante, and will be available for online and physical purchase on July 27th. Tired of love songs, she’s decided to explore all the facets of this world that she just can’t stand and write a mini album all about it.
Formed in late 2018, Dilettante was born out of a fear of committing to a single line up, and is Francesca Pidgeon’s rebound project after a long-term relationship with indie-jazz four piece Kumiko. Whilst Pidgeon is primarily a guitarist and singer she is handy with a loop pedal and has taught herself clarinet, saxophone, piano, bass and trumpet in an attempt to avoid human contact. In her spare time she tours with Bella Union’s BC Camplight and plays a full contact sport on roller skates.
Despite only forming last October, Dilettante has already garnered plays from BBC Leeds, BBC Tees, BBC Manchester and BBC 6Music, and has toured the North, playing at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Jazz Festival and sold out shows at Belgrave Music Hall.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Dilettante about the latest project, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Northern England and I’m basically just trying to write good, honest, interesting pop music. I misheard someone describe my stuff as ‘fake-jazz’ once and always thought that was pretty apt.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I honestly have no idea, I’ve been writing songs for about 10 years on and off, it’s pretty much been my go to alternative to therapy for my entire adult life. I guess I keep going because I still need therapy..
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
This is my first release under the current name. I’ve been playing in and fronting bands for many years now but this one feels more like something I can be proud of. I’ve basically just put more work into this than I have anything before and really let my perfectionist tendencies loose. I’ve also accepted that I am in fact a massive megalomaniac and allowed myself to take responsibility for absolutely everything I could do, possibly at a massive detriment to my mental health. As we speak I’m hand making 200 CD copies of the release.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
I actually really don’t think technology has helped me – I’m not well suited to the digital age and I think it shows. I don’t really understand social media and honestly I don’t care to, and in my opinion technology is detrimental to almost all musicians in some way. I mean I suppose it depends what kind of technology we’re talking though, I’m not about to give up my fridge or my TV or my electric guitar but I do wish people would put down their phones more. I dislike the massive amount of control that abstract concepts like ‘Social Media’ have over our lives and our art – I don’t want to and shouldn’t have to pay facebook to show people my music but we’re all a captive audience on those platforms really. I say we make like the cavemen and just go back to tribal living. Humans were not meant to live in such close proximity to so many other humans and look at their faces all the time. They certainly weren’t meant to look at screens this much.
What was the last song you listened to?
Oh God, I don’t know, probably one of my own? (Only to critique it of course). I think I actively try and avoid listening to music, it’s my livelihood and sometimes it all gets too much. I often find myself sitting on the bus with headphones on but nothing playing in them just to try and drown out some of the everyday sounds. Pretty sure this isn’t a healthy approach… The last song I intentionally listened to was probably ‘Life During Wartime’ by Talking Heads; I like to put it on in the morning and dance around á la ‘Stop Making Sense’ era David Byrne.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Personally I’m a massive hoarder and I love old music so probably vinyl. I’ve got a fairly cumbersome collection, mainly charity shop finds, but I find myself acquiring more modern stuff that I consider to be really seminal albums for me. I’ve got every Radiohead album (bar Pablo Honey) and every St Vincent (bar Masseduction). I’m not sure honestly how much I really listen to them but it comforts me knowing the classics are there for me. I’m always having paranoid fantasies about the end of the world too so I guess I worry that if the internet went down I’d lose all my digital music so it’s nice to have it all on my shelf. Maybe someone will find it as they’re picking through the rubble of the world as we know it and stick a tUnE-yArDs album on that’ll blow their mind. Apart from all that I always want to see the artwork really big.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I hear ‘myspace’ is where it’s at these days.. I honestly have no idea – I guess spotify is good for playlists but we’ve got fuck all listens on there and Bandcamp lets us sell stuff so I think those guys?
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
We’re on facebook and instagram mainly. We have a twitter account but I think I’ve only just mastered using the retweet button. I hear we’re on all those fancy streaming services too (spotify and such). We have a mailing list you can sign up to which will provide you with charming little updates about our progress, you can find that on our website:
Anything else before we sign off?
Please listen to the record. It’s online now and it made me crazy. Don’t let it be for nothing.
