Interview Brody Dalle: “You Have So Much Freedom”

I was actually starting to make a record and then I found out that I was pregnant with my second child,” Brody Dalle laughs. But she isn’t one to let real life get in the way of her music - at least, not for long.

“That put everything on hold,” the ex-Distillers frontwoman explains. “When my son was about six months old, I started writing again, and then when he was a year old, I recorded the record.

“The first song I wrote was ‘Meet The Foetus’, and ironically I found out I was pregnant a week later,” she adds. “Psychically, I think I knew I was pregnant again.”

The gift of time wasn’t something bestowed upon her for her solo debut; she had to work when she could. “I have music in my head all the time! I always have music in my head, so I heard and wrote a lot of it, then played it and recorded it and just kept adding.

“It was definitely made incrementally; whatever chance I could, I would go to the studio. It was just difficult because my husband [Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme] is always on tour or recording his own stuff, so timing is a challenge, but you know, now that my son is older, it’s much easier.”

Dalle even managed to find inspiration in the more mundane maternal tasks, she jokingly admits. “Even when I was breast-feeding, I was pumping milk for my son and with the beat of the pump, I wrote music to it! I can find music everywhere. We’ve gotta do it when we can!”

Having cut her teeth with the Distillers as a teenage punk hero, before fronting Spinnerette until 2009, she’s now going it alone - but inviting along a few friends, too.

“I have this incredible freedom that I didn’t really have when I was in a band. I had this song and I was thinking of someone who could add something great to it, and [The Strokes’] Nick Valensi is such a classic, cool guitar player.

“He’s so tasteful and he just happens to be my best girlfriend’s husband, so that helps too. So, Nick came over and played on a couple of songs. He’s so cool but he’s very self-deprecating, and he doesn’t realise how talented he is.

“I asked Shirley Manson and Emily [Kokal] from Warpaint to sing on a song because I wanted a really strong female element on the record, and backing vocals that weren’t just mine.

“Michael Shuman from Queens [of the Stone Age] added bass to two songs; he’s just a bad ass and his bass playing is so unique.

“I’m in the middle of this incredible musician melding pot where I can pick and choose; and it’s good that I’m not in a band because then I have the freedom to do so.

“Sometimes it can be lonely. I loved that feeling of being in a gang and having each other to rely on, making something together, but I’m not in the position in my life where I can really devote that kind of attention to it. It’s much easier for me to be on my own and do it when I can and want to do it.”

“I’ve decided I really like being a solo artist because you have so much more freedom,” she adds, “and you can age gracefully with your music! You can go anywhere: it’s unchartered territory. With most bands, they kinda burn out or they fade or they don’t have it anymore, whereas solo artists can keep trucking. You’re your own boss. I’m kinda really into it.”

Brody Dalle’s ‘Diploid Love’ will be released 28th April 2014 via Caroline.