Dal Santo on the Return to Live Shows and Making Younger You Proud - Tunes Tuesday Transcript

Maud: Hi, my name is Maud Mostly, my pronouns are they/them, and welcome back to Tunes Tuesday, a weekly series where I sit down with queer 2SLGBTQ+ musicians and bands to talk to them about their music, their experiences, and so much more. This week I am here with Australian ska indie punk band Dal Santo. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Sunny: Hey, my name's Sunny, my pronouns are she/her, I play drums in Dal Santo.

M: Amazing!

S: And we're from Melbourne, Australia. I should probably add that in there!

M:I am so happy to have you here, and I'm so glad you added that because the first thing that I really do want to talk to you about is Melbourne. So being based in Melbourne you are currently under different restrictions that are so unlike most of the people that I've been in contact with so far for Tunes Tuesday, and that means you're actually currently able to perform live, something many of us are, you know, probably very jealous of right now. So what has the atmosphere at these shows been like though?

S: It's been incredible, because we had the strictest lock down in the world, like we had a curfew for about nine months, couldn't leave our house, couldn't- there was one point where we couldn't leave more than five kilometers from our house and it was a really really tough time, but it's it's worked for us and now we have the opportunity to go out and play gigs in a safe environment, and oh man, it's just been the best feeling, because we all missed it so much especially Melbourne being such a capital of music you know, and people are just enjoying live music now more than ever, which is pretty cool, it's like a new appreciation for live music. So it's really cool, it's like people who never even went to shows are going to shows because they appreciate it yeah so it's really cool.

M: Yeah I mean I'm so excited to hear that albeit you know, I'm definitely one of those jealous people, but I do look forward to seeing what you mentioned there where it's suddenly everyone goes like “wow did I ever miss that thing do I ever want to be part of that again” and really getting themselves back out there, I think that's, I think that's going to be amazing thank you I'm so glad you're getting to have that experience.

S: Oh thank you, thank you. I'm really hoping that it happens for for you soon but it's really cool because like that's also like the vibe with anywhere at the moment is people just like “well we could go back into lockdown so let's just experience this” so it's it's really fun vibes going out at the moment yeah.

M: That's so wonderful. And then I also want to talk a bit more about your music, so recently you were part of a compilation album called The Queers are Here which showcased queer alternative Australian artists and a great part of this project was that all proceeds would be going to Black Rainbow which is an organization that works to prevent suicide among indigenous LGBTQI people, so what was your inspiration and motivation for this project?

S: Yeah so I started this project through my business, which is an alternative queer night called Bonez and because we had you know, like all of last year with no events and no gigs and there was kind of not really anything we could do, I thought it'd be a really cool opportunity to do something with that time that we had and put together a really important project and raise some money and just just do something good for the community. So there's amazing queer bands in Australia and and also like you know solo artists it's a good mix of like electronic alternative like metal, punk, like it's a good mix of amazing artists who I also thought deserve the recognition and you know, raising we've raised over 200 so far for Black Rainbow which is an important organization that more people should know about so yeah, it was really fun and it's it's gone really well and it was really cool to just do something with that time.

M: Yeah that's so exciting are you still looking for proceeds for this project are people still buying it and donating?

S: Yeah, yeah people are still donating and it's really cool because it's- we try to make it like accessible as possible and have it at a lower price but people will have the option to donate more if they like and a lot of people have have put in a lot of money to it, so we really appreciate it, but yeah it's still, it's still up on Bandcamp and we're going to try and do it you know once or twice a year and just make it a an ongoing thing because I think it's just so important why not?

M: Definitely and that's fantastic to hear I will make sure to link it down below for those who are interested in checking out the music but also donating to you know an incredible cause that people on the album clearly care deeply about.

S: Thank you so much!

M: Yeah, and then I do want to kind of focus on you at the end here too because you personally shared a bit of a throwback on your social media recently, that discussed a band you previously looked up to and felt inspired by because the guitarist from that band acknowledged you, and you've actually come to build a bit of a friendship with them. And you talk about how rad this particular instance would be to your younger self but in general what do you think younger you would think about who you are in the music that you're making now?

S: Oh wow, like it's just the coolest thing to go back and think yeah what what would like 15 year old me think like, this is everything I ever wanted you know I'm that you know, the confident awesome queer person who gets to just play cool music and be friends with cool people, and I think like you know, sometimes in music especially in art we push ourselves a bit much you know, we just want to be successful and you know, want to do the best we can but I think recently I've been looking back and thinking what would younger me say, and I think she'd just be happy where I am now, so just just enjoy it and realize everything you're doing is it's cool so yeah, I recommend more people look back and think what you know the younger self would would say and they probably say you're you're doing amazing so enjoy it.

M: Absolutely, and that is such a sweet sentiment and I think that's so important for so many queer people because you know we look back

S: Yeah.

M: Often how much our younger selves were struggling, so just thinking about you know them being able to see how you turned out can evoke so many emotions there.

S: Yeah it's just like the smallest thing like being an awesome confident queer adult is something we always dreamed of like, you know especially in the teenage years a lot of queer people weren't very like myself weren't very confident at all so just like looking at being like “I'm, I'm awesome” like “I'm everything I wanted to be” so you know, be proud.

M: Absolutely, that is so beautiful, and do you think those sentiments really make it into your music and how you you know act on stage?

S: Absolutely! Like I'm the kind of drummer who can't sit still like I have to play with passion, I always want to make sure everyone in that gig feels comfortable, I want to make sure everyone who likes our music feels comfortable and like you know, I want them to know that we want to be their friend and you know yeah it's just- I just appreciate everything I do as a musician because it's fun you know, I don't put so much pressure on myself anymore to like make it as a band or go on tour or whatever so yeah, I think more artists should totally look at that you know and think like that more so yeah.

M: Absolutely. I think it's- I think it's beautiful to function off the idea of you know making younger you proud making younger you happy you know those moments to pause and reflect and really act on that.

S: Yeah it's probably the- for me it's helped me enjoy my doing music as yeah the best way and enjoy everything I guess like yeah, it's just a good way to go into every situation!

M: Absolutely! well thank you so much for talking to me today if you want to listen to any of their incredible music, or follow them on social media you can find any of that at the links below this video, and I highly recommend you do so and just thank you so much for joining me this week and make sure to stay tuned for next week's Tunes Tuesday as well, and I will be having Dal Santo play us out.

*Coast by Dal Santo begins playing*