Noah Dillon, the Fremantle/Walyalup singer-songwriter responsible for 2020’s surprise hit, ‘Knievel Daredevil’, has released his debut album, Kill the Dove. The 12-song release includes the recent singles ‘Drifting Apart’, ‘Nothing Matters’ and the illuminati hotties collaboration, ‘Broken But It’s Working’.
Dillon has described Kill the Dove as a “coming of age record” informed by the inertia imposed by Covid lockdowns and border closures. Dillon will take the album on the road through August and September. Here, the artist breaks down the album, track by track.
Noah Dillon – Kill the Dove
1. Drip Dry
This song was probably my favourite to record and write. It encapsulates the sonic and lyrical style that I’ve aimed for with this album, contrasting the light of love and the darkness of loss. Lyrically it’s about learning to lean on loved ones through hard times and finding solace in friends and family when relationships end.
I wrote the chorus melody on the toilet one day and couldn’t stop whistling it so I stayed up all night and the song just came through that melody.
2. Nothing Matters
‘Nothing Matters’ is an upbeat, melodic indie rock song about being in love and feeling like the world could fall apart around you, but if you have that person by your side, everything will be okay. It also touches on my inability to get my car serviced before it runs out of oil and the challenges in turning into an adult.
3. Drifting Apart
‘Drifting Apart’ was written about a relationship collapsing due to both people growing in different directions and the feeling of holding onto what a relationship was while you feel each other grow up and grow apart. It was originally written as a ballad on my piano at home. We then pushed ourselves to explore a sonic range we hadn’t delved into before.
I tried to take inspiration from the instrumentation in The Flaming Lips, the bite and grit of a Kanye West song and the emotional honesty of a Phoebe Bridgers song.
4. Broken But It’s Working (ft. illuminati hotties)
Illuminati hotties have been one of my favourite bands for the last few years, so being able to collaborate with Sarah [Tudzin] on this song and write it together was literally a dream come true. It takes strength and resilience to make lifestyle changes and this song is a bit of a note to myself to remember that problems are worth fixing in the present and honesty is always the way forward.
Sarah and I seem to share similar instincts when it comes to our writing styles and once the ball was rolling on this idea, it was the most seamless collaboration I’ve ever done. We were literally going line for line and bouncing off each other to create something that felt bigger than what I could’ve ever done alone. I have endless appreciation and respect for Sarah as a writer and can’t wait to have this song out in the world.
5. Comfort Is Not the Reason (Kill The Dove)
I had gone home from a long day of recording and on the way home, the sun was setting and I was thinking long and hard about relationships and how we often stay in things because it’s easier than breaking it off. I got home and sat down with my guitar and this song just came out of me.
We went in to finish some things on the previously recorded tracks the next day and while Andy [Lawson, producer] was setting up, I sat in the control room and played through this song. Andy stopped what he was doing and was just like, “We are recording that today.”
We sat down and let the song take us where it felt right and by the end of the day had this product. It feels like the most intimate and personal song on the record. We didn’t let our brains get in the way of anything in this song and let the song and story dictate the sonic arrangement.
6. Who You Used To Be
This was a solo song in my set for a long time. It talks about missing an old version of yourself and others. The arrangement of this song was inspired by Big Thief. We wanted it to feel real and organic so we put Jack [Hill, drums] and Griff [Owen, bass] in the room together and hit record before they had even run the song. We wanted to capture the immediate creativity of playing and the emotion of feeling the music.
7. I C.A.N.T
This song is an ode to self-love and self-acceptance, inspired by bands like Wet Leg, Idles and Fountains D.C. I wanted this track to be a spoken consciousness flow where I had room to say exactly what I want.
Music really ends up depicting who I am as a person and my personality. I always write about the extremities of emotion and often that can take quite a sober setting. I wanted to let out the fun and weird part of my brain that wants to ramble and yell and be opinionated. This has been so much fun to play live, so we tried to capture this energy in the studio.
8. Love Me As I Am
I’m a strong believer that you should never change who you are to fit into someone else’s life. This is about that battle and wanting someone to accept me for who I am and not for who they want me to be in a relationship. We were listening to lots of Phoenix and The Strokes when we wrote and recorded this, looking to capture the uplifting feeling of early-2000s indie rock with a relatively sombre message.
9. Hold Me In Your Arms
Written on my grandma’s piano at home, this song was created to be a ballad. Throughout the album, we have pushed ourselves to sonically look further than what a song presents as straight away. I wanted it to feel organic but also blended with a modern feel, inspired by songwriters like Holly Humberstone. So we replaced the piano sound with a broken piano sample and glitchy synths. This song is about the longing to hold onto something that is slipping away.
10. Are You Gonna Blame Me If I Just Give Up
This song was written about the absurdity of life and the crippling state of technology addiction making me feel pretty overwhelmed. There’s a lot of pressure on us to keep up in a world that is changing quicker than we could ever hope to stay on top of. This song is about that pressure and fighting the feeling of giving up and pushing myself to stay present in the moment.
11. All My Love Has Gone Away
This was one of the songs we workshopped in the studio, written about relationships ending and reflecting on what could’ve been done better. I wanted this song to be a straightforward pop song with a euphoric indie arrangement.
12. Don’t Go Away
The final song on the album is a solo song recoded at the piano. It’s a song about loss and grieving, an intimate moment to acknowledge the weight of a breakup. This is a really personal song for me and Andy, our producer, wanted it to sound like the original voice memo I had sent him, which I think I may have been crying in. We set up two mics and recorded it live and overdubbed small parts to give the song life.
Noah Dillon – ‘Knievel Daredevil’
Further Reading
Siobhan Cotchin on Six Songs That Inspired Her Single ‘Growing Pains’
Noah Dillon Tackles A HAIM Classic For Triple J Like A Version
PREMIERE: Danika Embraces Moving On With ‘Coolshit Bullshit’
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