Dylan

Dylan is slowly turning her dream of becoming a popstar into reality with her brand of catchy and empowering indie-pop songs. 

If you haven’t heard of Dylan yet, this is your warning that she is about to blow up. Household name, can’t get her song out of your head because you’ve heard it on the radio over 100x, kind of blow up and she knows it.

On a cloudy Thursday morning, I receive a notification that Dylan has already signed into the Zoom meeting a minute earlier than our scheduled time and I rush to start the meeting. Before I turn the camera on, I am greeted by a fresh faced Dylan – her blonde hair scraped back into a ponytail, plain black sweatshirt with her signature look of layered necklaces. Despite her headache, she was on day seven of self-isolation with Covid, her chirpy voice filled the room with the words, “Hi! How are you?”

Dylan has always been a dreamer, her ultimate goal in life is to play at Wembley Stadium. But what 22-year-old do you know that is out there turning their childhood dreams of becoming a pop star into reality? 

With the realisation setting in, and a wide-eyed look on her face, Dylan stated, “It’s very weird. I’m having a full circle moment where I am terrified of what’s about to happen because, without it sounding horrifically cliche, this is what I’ve always believed I was meant to be doing. It’s what I’ve seen myself doing for as long as I can remember.”

“Now that we’ve built all of these foundations so solidly, there shouldn’t really be a reason for it not to happen. But at the same time, I’m slightly terrified. It’s going so well and far better than I could have possibly hoped, that I’m stuck in this weird ‘I BELIEVE THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN’ but ‘OH MY GOD, IT’S HAPPENING!’ kind of crossroad.”

At the mention of hard work, Dylan laughed out loud and admitted, “This is the thing – when I first started, I literally couldn’t sing. I was awful at singing. I sounded like a foghorn, I had no range, I could literally sing in one key but I thought ‘I can write… it’s fine!’” 

It is not the fact that Dylan is on the cusp of super stardom that amazes me. It’s that she has gotten to where she is today as an independent artist. 

Her first EP, ‘Purple’ was released through a label and even though that didn’t work out, Dylan was able to take what she needed and put herself into a better position for next time and if you’re a record label reading this, Dylan is ready. 

She said, “If it comes to a point to sign properly to someone, I feel like I’ve got all of the things I need now to walk into that room and be like ‘this is who I am, this is what my music sounds like, this is what my next three years look like. Do you want to help?’ Instead of being put on a shelf and being developed. It gives me a little bit of power being comfortable with who I am.”

Another clue that Dylan is going to make it big, she is signed to Grumpy Old Management, the same agency as Ed Sheeran. She recalled their first meeting on how she was so starstruck, she could barely speak. Dylan laughed and said, “He’d heard that none of my friends turned up to my 19th birthday/debut EP launch, he gave me some great advice on how to navigate friends whilst being in this industry that will stick with me forever.” 

Dylan already has a set of very dedicated fans that visit every show holding signs that say “YOU ARE ENOUGH FOR US” in response to her song ‘Good Enough’. 

She gushed, “I talk to them all the whole time. A whole group of them followed me around on tour. The tour sold out quite quickly last year and I sort of got this whole new group of fans who couldn’t get tickets so I gave them all of my guest list spots. They managed to find tickets for my other two shows and then just followed me around. It was so sweet and it was just so nice. They were turning up at like 06:30 in the morning to queue for these things.”

She continued, “They’re all gorgeous, so kind and so lovely and were so excited to meet me and I was so excited to meet them.” 

Suddenly she giggled and exclaimed, “I signed five pairs of tits also at the London show. That was a career move! That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Dylan’s upcoming tour in November has already sold out with venues being upgraded. She laughed and admitted, “I don’t think anyone thought that I would be selling the tickets that quickly which is why we put it on sale so early and then there were talks of more upgrades and me and my manager were just like ‘No. No, no, no. Not yet.’”

She continued, “I’m really, really happy. It’s a bit scary. I go straight on tour with Tate McRae and Ed Sheeran has asked me to join him on tour this summer.”

When I asked how she felt, Dylan squealed, “I nearly threw up when my manager said Wembley. Understandably, biggest stage by a long fucking way!”

Amused, I asked her how she handled her nerves. She took a deep breath and said, “My ritual has changed slightly in the last six months. Me and the band always listen to Thunderstruck by AC/DC before we go on – that’s just a given that we get pumped up to but then they fuck off on stage. I sit and in my head, I have a chat with my mum, which sounds weird but it helps me.” 

She paused and revealed, “She died in September. It’s a weird one because I had a gig three days after that. My single came out the day after she died so it was like life couldn’t stop.”

Without getting emotional, Dylan confessed, “I fell in love so deeply a couple of years ago with a beautiful human boy and he left me with no reason two months before mum died.” 

As my mouth dropped to the floor, she continued, “The thing is because I got through last year, I can do anything now. There is literally nothing that can stop me, which is a really beautiful thing. Obviously, it was the most heartbreaking thing – losing mum. She was my best friend, I was so, so close to her. There were no boundaries there. I used to ask her what blow jobs were.

As my mouth dropped to the floor, she continued, “The thing is because I got through last year, I can do anything now. There is literally nothing that can stop me, which is a really beautiful thing. Obviously, it was the most heartbreaking thing – losing mum. She was my best friend, I was so, so close to her. There were no boundaries there. I used to ask her what blow jobs were.

“I’m not mad that she’s gone because we had this whole chat before where she said, ‘It just means you’re going to have someone on the other side, fighting your corner.’ And I was like ‘Good point!’ And I definitely feel like she’s pulling strings up there because this all shouldn’t be happening.”

As the interview came to an end, I found myself in awe of this young girl who had been through so much, yet handled everything with so much grace. Unapologetically confident, talented, hardworking and very grounded, you can’t help but root for her success and I know that without a doubt, she will succeed. Dylan, I will see you at Wembley. 

@dyl.an

Photographer

Mark Cant 

Stylist 

Jennifer Michalski-Bray

Make-up Artist 

Heidi North at The Wall Group 

Hair Stylist 

Ben Talbott at The Wall Group 

Stylist Assistant 

Kayleigh Dennis