From humble beginnings jamming in their home town of Oshawa, Ont. to releasing a JUNO award-winning album, the band Dizzy has undergone a creative shift with their latest indie-pop album, The Sun And Her Scorch.
The album adds new songs to the band’s repertoire as they hit the road for their Spill My Guts tour this month. The Sun And Her Scorch was released on July 31, 2020 and since then, the band’s pop song Sunflower has reached over 2.3 million streams on Spotify.
Katie Munshaw, the band’s lead singer, met drummer Charlie Spencer in high school and together they decided to take a year off of school after graduating to perform music. It wasn’t until Munshaw learned that Spencer’s brothers, guitarist Alex and bassist Max, also played music that Dizzy was formed.
“We were all hanging out together all the time,” Munshaw said. “So it just made sense to make a band.”
Dizzy met success shortly after their debut album, Baby Teeth, won the JUNO award for Alternative Album of the Year in 2019. After being catapulted into the spotlight, the band began working on their latest album.
“We got this nice cottage and we just set up our gear for a week and wrote together. We all brought our own ideas to the table and just kind of went from there,” Munshaw said.
The Sun And Her Scorch deviates lyrically from Baby Teeth, which featured songs the band had written just after highschool. Their new album focuses on Munshaw’s struggles with the anxieties of growing up.
“I suppose if anybody shares the same anxieties that I do on aging, death and getting older, I hope that they maybe feel seen and that it’s okay to freak out about those things,” Munshaw said.
Munshaw said her increased maturity as a songwriter and the decision not to include drums in this album added to this creative shift. After having their previous album produced by Arcade Fire producer Damien Taylor, Munshaw said the band felt they learned enough to produce the next one themselves.
“We produced the whole The Sun And Her Scorch album by ourselves, and it was a lot of work,” Munshaw said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever do it again.”
Munshaw said that after the hectic process of producing the album, the band members needed to take a break before beginning work on their next release.
Since releasing The Sun And Her Scorch, COVID-19 has created challenges for musicians across Canada. Dizzy brought several musicians who shared these pandemic-related struggles together to record an EP in the band’s home studio.
The EP, Seperate Places, features five covers of songs from The Sun and Her Scorch performed with guest artists.
“It was neat to figure out all the different ways those songs could be played,” Munshaw said.
Although it was exciting for the band to record with other artists, Munshaw said they faced difficulties using their home studio because they shared the space with other tenants.
“[It was difficult] knowing when it was okay to turn the furnace off or having to wait for somebody to be done showering, or to be in the middle of a good vocal take and somebody flushes the toilet,” Munshaw said.
After two years of a pandemic, an album and a cover EP later, Dizzy is back on the road with a gig on Nov. 15 in Brooklyn, N.Y. and several shows throughout Ontario in November. Munshaw said she enjoys touring because it tires her out in a good way.
“I know what to do with myself again,” Munshaw said. “I have a lot of anxious energy. If I’m left too long to my own devices, it’s not a good thing.”
Dizzy will perform live in Ottawa at Club SAW on Nov. 17.
Featured image provided.
