Katie Dahl’s newest release, Seven Stones, is honest and open, emotive and at times so real the music feels tangible. You can hear it live on June 11 at the Aster Café with special guest Ellis Delaney. Fun to learn more about through her 5 answers below.
Since I was 8is a brutally honest song that many of us could sing. First – thank you. Second – what spurred you to sing it out loud?
Thank you for listening! Hearing folks reflect back their own understandings of that song has helped me so much in my own journey of accepting my body. As for what spurred me to write and sing it: I have always struggled (since I was 8!) with my feelings about my body, but during the pandemic I (like many people) gained weight. Finding myself in a bigger body and with no life events to distract me, my mean self-talk and self-loathing reached a fever pitch. I needed some way to alchemize those feelings for myself. I also knew that most of the women (and some of the men) in my life had the same kind of feelings, so I hoped that I might be able to write something about my own struggle that would be both deeply personal and really relatable. That has turned out to be the case–this song has elicited more “I feel that way too” comments than any song I’ve ever written.
I am listening to Temperance River in my no-air conditioning home on a 90-degree day. I think I feel cooler! Beyond the mention of places (also love the mention of Minneapolis in Two Old Birds) how does Minnesota/Wisconsin influence your songwriting?
Ha! My new tagline: Buy my record–it’s cheaper than AC! A sense of place has always been central to my songwriting–I find that grounding my songs in a sense of place makes them both easier to write and better. Minnesota is where I grew up, and Wisconsin is where I live now. I’ve always been struck by how different the two states are, even though they’re neighbors, and this record (made 16 years after I last lived in Minnesota!) ended up feeling like my first record that was more Minnesota- than Wisconsin-based. That was the case all along (Lake Superior references in particular kept popping up in my lyrics for this album), and then when my dad died just before we went into the studio, I wrote “Temperance River,” a song that’s really deeply rooted in Minnesota’s North Shore.
The connection of death and love in Both Doors Open and Silhouette is interesting, as if the experiences in Both Doors Open lead to the conclusion in Silhouette. Was that intentional? How do they connect for you?
That’s such a cool connection! It was not intentional, and in fact I hadn’t thought about it before–but it’s not surprising that you found it, because for me love is *always* about death. I don’t know how to love anyone (my friends, my mom, my partner, my kid) without feeling aware of their mortality. The more I love them, the more I think about how I’ll lose them someday. So the love-death link is definitely a central vein running through both those songs.
I have an ancient French minor and a daughter learning French in Montreal right now. So thank you (again) for Mon Beau Galet – just the speed for us. What inspired you to add a song in French?
Je vous en prie! I studied French in high school and college, studied abroad in Mali (a Francophone country), and lived for a year in France after college graduation. I had long wanted to write an entire song in French, and this one just sort of came out. It’s funny to me that this song is all about self-revelation (the translation of the chorus is “I’m done hiding myself”), yet it’s the only song on the album that won’t be readily understandable to most listeners.
Please tell us about the Minnesota celebration of the new album.
On June 11, I’ll play my Minnesota album release concert at Aster Café. It’s going to be a double-bill with Ellis Delaney, a songwriter I’ve admired for a long time (going back to my days as a Minnesota resident) and have never played a show with before! It’ll be my first show in the Twin Cities since Covid hit, and I’m really looking forward to it. Ellis and I are each planning to play short blocks of songs during the first set, and then in the second set we’ll both be onstage for a song swap–my favorite way to share songs!
Mostly Minnesota 