Denise IN SEASON: Local singer-songwriter composes with photographic methodology

By Elizabeth R. Ross, Herald Times Newspaper, Bloomington , IN. October 2005.

Audibles finishes a month of women by exploring the “earthy folk music with a queer twist” of local singer-songwriter Denise Dill. As we began checking coats and rediscovering plush sweaters, Dill takes in the lush songwriting fodder of fall. Amid the damp, gray chill of last week, Dill reflected upon her evolution as a musician, warmed by Soma’s coffee and looking forward to the diverse audience expected at tonight’s performance.

Q: When did you start writing?

A: I started writing seriously around 15. I had a crush on a boy before I came out. I always played piano. . . but never really wrote. This boy played guitar, so in order to talk to him, I told him I did too. Then I went home and wrote a song. To this day, he says that I owe everything to him. So, that led to performing that song at talent shows.

Q: Where could you play when you were 15?

A: In southern Indiana , the Starbucks was the most hip place that we had in town. I don’t remember there being many other places for (young people) to gather. I had a monthly slot at Barnes and Noble, and I would play a few of my songs and a whole bunch of covers. I did every Ani (Difranco) song I could possibly fake through, because they were way too hard for me to play.

Q: At that time, did you focus on playing guitar?

A: I was really serious about piano and serious about guitar in another way. I didn’t want to know any of the rules. I couldn’t really write on piano because I knew too many rules (of music theory). With guitar, I just learned tablature. So whatever shape my hand was in, maybe I’d movie it up two frets, and hopefully that was a chord.

Q: Has guitar become your primary instrument?

A: Mostly –because of what I was talking about and because it’s portable. But, lately I’ve been learning banjo. I’ve always love the sound of it. It’s really haunting. And, I love the sing-song, traditional, mountain songs. (When playing banjo) you always have to pick down. It’s weird (playing with) less strumming and also fewer strings.

Q: How do you write your songs?

A: I pick up the guitar (or) banjo (and) I just start with a rhythm I like, and I just kind of vamp and then start singing along with it. The lyrics are born out of it. I keep a journal, and I walk around the streets and have ideas—metaphors that I’ll jot down. They’re in my head, so when I’m playing those guitar parts I’ll have ideas of what I want to express.

Q: What are the central subjects in your music?

A: Patterns in nature, in Bloomington , things that I see every day or while I’m driving . . . power lines – you see those everywhere – (though) most of them fall under natural patterns. When I notice those patterns, they become metaphors that Relate to my writing. I was really inspired by (nature sculptor) Andy Goldsworthy. . . concentric shapes and the rivers and even the patterns of the seasons, the 17-year cycle of the cicadas, and the leaves falling.