by Lanie Brice
While many young stars got their start in singing competitions as kindergarteners or lighting up the screen on a kid’s TV show, Dylan, the burgeoning British pop-rock star, took a different road into her music career. “I’ve only been in the industry since I was 18,” she shares with the 1824 press conference attendees. Though she started her career as an adult, that doesn’t mean she avoided feeling lost or unsure of her artistic identity. “I was trying to be everyone that was successful,” she admits, adding that her low self esteem lead her to follow trends and mold herself to be like other artists instead of following her gut. Eventually, she lost touch with her passion for writing entirely.
It took the world turning upside down–literally–for Dylan to build the trust in herself to start liking her music again. “I don’t think I’d be having this conversation with you if lockdown never happened,” she says when I ask her about how that period impacted her creatively. “When we went into lockdown, I was like there’s got to be a way for me to catch up,” she remembers of the time. “Nothing about my artist project was going well.” To turn around her artistic troubles, she threw herself into work more passionately than ever, booking two Zoom sessions a day and studying the TikTok algorithm to understand why her videos weren’t finding the audience they were meant to. That time in isolation paid off as she slowly learned how to harness both her own artistry and the TikTok algorithm in tandem, earning her music notice for the first time with early singles like the one I first discovered Dylan through, “Nineteen.”
“Coming out of lockdown and finding myself again and not being overly complicated about it or trying to change too much and letting it be a 15 minute process, I’ve really gotten my love back for it,” she says about her new approach the writing that rests on trusting her instincts and not stressing about all the little details. She’s learned the best songs always come together in about 15 minutes. Having honed in on a style that’s true to herself, she’s able to replicate the process and easily judge whether a song fits her vision. Dylan aptly describes her style as, “… very honest and straight to the point. It’s like when you get too drunk and you can’t stop talking.” Having faith in her lyrics has opened up a new sense of sonic freedom and emboldened her to take more of a lead on that side of her music as well, no longer hesitant to pick up a guitar in the studio.
This self discovery process lead to her latest release, The Greatest Thing I’ll Never Learn. The 8 song mixtape has solidified her aims, moving away from the synth pop sound she introduced herself to the world with and leaning into a rock edge. “Going forward, I really know what I want to make now, it’s just a question of how.”
Coming out of lockdown, Dylan has a record deal with UMG and has caught the attention of major stars like Ed Sheeran. It’s opened doors that she’s only ever dreamed of including working with established producers and writers, some of which she’s looked up to for years. It’s an easily intimidating experience, and Dylan finds that the session often hinges on the producer’s energy in the room. “If they’re welcoming to the energy then I’m good, but if not, I can feel really awkward and like I want to go home,” she admits.
While the new opportunities on the creative side can be anxiety provoking, Dylan has found a comfort on stage, opening in stadiums across Europe for Ed Sheeran on his latest tour. Living up to her childhood dream of playing Wembley came with relatively few nerves since she’d been mentally preparing for it since childhood. Soon, over the summer, she’ll continue on the road with Sheeran taking the tour to North America. “America is a big place. A very big place,” she says when asked about this new leg of tour and a potential new audience for her music. “The music that I’m writing has very big songs, and that has very much been welcomed with open arms where you guys are… I feel like it’s going to be a really good thing and that I can win some people over,” she remarks about growing her fanbase in a new country.
Even before they hit the road together, Sheeran offered Dylan advice that stuck with her early in her career.She remembers her first time meeting Sheeran under somewhat unfortunate circumstances. “Cause I’d just had my 19th birthday party, and nobody turned up. I got a table at a club, and I was really excited about it,” she starts the story. She’d just recently moved to London and started to get to know people in the scene. She’d had high hopes for this birthday party with her new “friends,” and word of the disappointing ending got around to Sheeran. “You need to work out who your close friends are and keep them really, really close to you… It’s okay to be able to count your friends on one hand,” he’d told her when they briefly connected afterwards.
The advice stuck with her, and she got to see it in action during the tour. “His touring family is incredible. It’s about the people that you love being on tour with you,” she says about what she learned from the experience. Especially in a business as difficult as music, it’s important to be able to trust the people you surround yourself with. “They all sort of work on the same brain wave,” Dylan marvels.
Having accomplished so much in the past year and having even more ahead of her, Dylan muses, “I feel like I’m only just scratching the surface on the whole Dylan world.” It’s a universe that will surely prove to be fascinating, complex, and devotedly honest as it continues to unfold.
connect with Dylan on instagram – links – spotify
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