Dylan - AUSVERKAUFT

Presented by Tidal Wave, MusicBlog, Event Magazine

Moved from 11/11/2023

Listed in the BBC Radio 1 Sound Poll, MTV Push and Amazon Music Artist to Watch, Dylan, considered one of the hottest prospects in British pop music in 2023, may only be at the beginning of her journey as one of the UK's most exciting new pop talents, but she's had big things on her mind since childhood.

Her outspokenness and determination are part of what has already earned her praise from the likes of BBC News, The Times, NME, Rolling Stone UK, i-D, Notion, Vogue Italia, The Line Of Best Fit, Dork and BBC Introducing; rallied an incredibly loyal and passionate fan base around her with her own sold-out headline performances around the world - whether multiple nights at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London or a gig at the iconic Baby's All Right in Brooklyn - a mammoth stadium tour of the U.K. and U.S. alongside Ed Sheeran, and support slots with Yungblud, Bastille and Tate McRae.

"My dad had me and my brother sitting on the kitchen table with plywood guitars at a very early age, screaming along to different songs," the London-based artist recalls. "I'd stand there and shout, 'Hello Wembley!"-that's also how I started a gig with my band when I was 11."

The 23-year-old, whose real name is Tash Woods, might be destined for pop stardom, but the influence of alternative sounds informs her tongue-in-cheek characterization as a "wannabe rock star in a pop star's body." "In my head, I'm so rock 'n' roll, but I don't look it," she laughs. "I'm super pop! Everyone expects something more mainstream, but I'm obsessed with guitars - with the only four chords I can play."

As hinted at in kitchen table jam sessions, Dylan grew up on a diet of classic rock and big riffs. "My career is all my dad's fault - he's a very straight-laced insurance man, but he raised me on a diet of rock 'n' roll like AC/DC, Guns N' Roses and Rainbow," she explains.

Although she performed at Wembley at a young age, Dylan didn't always thrust herself into the spotlight. She began writing songs as a child instead of learning other artists' work, and soon found that it was the perfect outlet to express everything she was feeling. "I was a pretty sad kid, and songwriting was a way to escape," she says, "It got me away from school, from friends and bullying, and into my own space. After her confidence in her abilities as a teenage singer suffered a major setback, she focused on her dream of becoming a songwriter.

In high school, she met a teacher who introduced her to producer Will Hicks, who invited her to her first writing session. Together, they wrote "Drinking About You" from her upcoming 2019 EP, Purple, and he told her, "I think you could do this, but you have to do the whole thing or nothing." That push may have been just what she needed to set her on the path to becoming one of the most personable and sharp songwriters currently on the rise, and to get her songs in front of the world.

Since 2019, she has been on a quest to find her own voice, moving between more electronic synth-pop songs ('Good Enough') and melancholy piano ballads ('IKWYDLN'). After two EPs ('Purple' and 'Red' from 2020) that were worth finding their feet for, 2021 brought three singles, 'Nineteen,' 'You're Not Harry Styles' and 'No Romeo,' that began to shape the real Dylan sound - big pop hooks driven by crunchy guitars that dissected their lives and loves in concise, memorable lyrics.

"I spent so much time trying to be someone else, but it's just so exhausting," she explains. "When I write now, I know exactly what I want - I can go into a session and say, 'This is my sound, this is what I want to do.' I don't want anyone to ever say about my music, 'Oh, that's a nice song.' I want them to say, 'This song punched me in the face!'"

Dylan's first mixtape - and also her debut on Island Records - packs a punch: an eight-track album that leaves you no choice but to sit up, pay attention and sing along to every word in your head for days afterward. The Greatest Thing I'll Never Learn details the rising star's experience with "learning to love and be loved." "How can you love and be loved! That's ridiculous," she laughs. "But the songs are so un-cringey that it's very easy to internalize them without getting angry. But I feel like I'm writing the soundtrack to my life. It's my movie soundtrack."

"I can be what you want, I can be what you need / Anytime that you like, be whatever you please," reads the peppy 'Girl Of Your Dreams,' a response to the fact that the people the young musician likes don't want to date her. "It's like the people who listen to my music, I don't give them a choice if they're going to like it or not," she notes. Treat You Bad describes a dalliance in which Dylan broke up with him, only to run into him again in the middle of the night months later. "Can't make up my mind / Only want you late at night," she sings over the sizzling riff. "Tell me why you let me treat you so bad."

This soundtrack is unfailingly candid and thrillingly unimpressed with society's expectations of female artists. In every song, whether she's serving up a dose of realism to a partner ("Nothing Lasts Forever") or searching for answers about herself, as in the ballad "Home Is Where The Heart Is," Dylan is incredibly direct.

At her performances, the ever-growing audience not only politely sings along here and there, but reciprocates her every word. "If you're a fan of my music, you know everything," she smiles. "I feel like I'm creating a little fucked-up family who are all a little crazy and need to scream about people fucking with us."

Dylan's impeccable pop anthems are destined to continue drawing people into her world. Yet she keeps her ambitions appropriately bold. "I want to be respected as a songwriter - it's really all about the music for me," she explains, "and I want to headline at Wembley - that's all I've set out to do.