Dala a harmony based folk pop
duo who draw their name from the last two letters of Canadian singer-
songwriters’ Amanda Walther’s and Sheila Carabine’s first names, performed in
over 300 concerts during 2010, and at one stage last fall, they were in concert
sixty times within sixty days.
“Wow! It was insane (Amanda
Walther laughs). I hardly know what my house is like anymore. We were all over
the place and we were mostly in the
Dala recently signed an
agreement with Nashville based Compass Records, that still results in giggles and
“Woo Hoo’s” from Ms. Walther and at the end of January their album
Everyone Is Someone will be
released across the United States, an album that was first released in Canada, a
year ago.
“Another highlight for sure was
the New Orleans Jazz Fest and that just about blew our minds. I have never seen
so many people at a festival. It was unbelievable.
With references in their music
to Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, two of whom had passed from
this life, long before either Amanda Walther or Sheila Carabine were born, and
with an acoustic vibe and harmony that reminds one of Simon and Garfunkel, only
in female bodies, the duo has been able to capture the attention of a
diversified audience.
“We grew up with our parents’
music and we wanted our music to be able to cross borders and to be able to
touch people of all ages and generations. I think that is one of the things that
I am most amazed by is you can look into a Dala audience and you have people
that are our parents’ ages, people older, people our grandparents’ ages, people
our age and then children as well. I do not think that is as common as it used
to be. I would hope that there are more musicians and bands that connect people
from all ages, from all generations. I think that is the thing that we have been
the most amazed by in terms of touching our audiences,” says Ms. Walther.
Walther and Carabine met in band
class, during their high school days, when Sheila Carabine played the trumpet
and Amanda Walther played the bass clarinet, which she refers to as, “the
coolest instrument ever.”
“We were friends for four years in high school, before we even sat down to write a song together. As soon as we did, it was magic and we knew there was something special. We just loved it so much. I had actually graduated by the time that we wrote our first song, as Sheila was two years behind me.
As for the naming of their duo, “We decided to pull letters
from our names and using the last two letters from our names seemed a lot better
than using the first two, because if we had taken the first two it would have
been Sham. It would just be sad and not fun,” she says
Carabine and Walther come from families that in a lot of
ways mirror each other, both are the youngest of three children and both of them
have two older brothers. Both of them also come from musical families, whose
heritage is in the
Amanda Walther’s first recollection of performing is when her father suggested that they she try singing “Dream A Little Dream of Me,” first performed and recorded by Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra and perhaps best known for the cover version recorded by the Mamas & the Papas another vocal harmony group that Walther and Carabine seem to channel.
“I remember when my dad taught
me that song, I was in grade eight and he said, ‘Hey I have a song that I think
would sound really pretty if you sang it,’ so we worked it out together for the
next
“Sheila’s dad plays guitar, he
sings and he performs in his folk choir at church. Her brothers are very musical
and so are mine. My oldest brother Adrian is a professional musician and he has
been on tour since he was fifteen (she giggles). He plays bass guitar and he
also song writes with a number of artists all over
For two artists who are still
quite young and whom this writer would guess are in their early twenties, Dala
demonstrate a tremendous amount of poise while on stage and they are quite
relaxed, while easily engaging their audience. With the giggle we have now come
to expect, Ms. Walther says, “A little too comfortable. When we first started
out neither of us was as comfortable as we are now. I have to say that having
your best friend on stage with you is a huge icebreaker. I don’t know if I would
be able to be that comfortable without having Sheila beside me. I really love
having someone to talk with on stage and that really breaks the ice for me
immediately. I think so much of our show is based on us being authentic and just
being ourselves. That it is important for people who want to hear our music and
who want to know who we are as well. We really do (use humor) and that has
developed from our humor off stage. If you talk to anybody who is friends with
Sheila they will tell you that she is one of the funniest people that they know.
She just cracks me up and I am authentically laughing on stage, because I don’t
know what she is going to say next. We feed off of each other and we bounce off
of each other as far as humor goes, for sure,” says Amanda Walther.
Ah yes, the humor that resulted
in a song, a ditty, being written about a harlequin romance novel.
Obviously relishing telling the story behind the song, Ms. Walther’s voice rises as she recounts the events for me, “We picked up this horrible and amazing book when we were up in the Thunder Bay area (Canada) and it is called One Night Stand (she laughs) It is a pretty hilarious story about a couple who meet in Halifax and the main character in the book, a man is a karate instructor and the woman Jodie is a dance instructor. It is pretty hilarious. He obviously doesn’t want commitment and Jodie comes with tomorrows (she lowers her voice mysteriously). It is the funniest book we have ever read out loud. It did (strike a chord with our audience) and we were just letting people in on behind the scenes stuff. They seemed to really enjoy it, so we just kept going with it (in concerts).”
Amanda Walther talks about the
importance of writing from personal experience, “I think that is what binds us.
Sheila and I have a lot in common in terms of our lives and what we have
experienced. I think that is why we can write together, because our songs are
personal.”
Writing personal songs is only
one half of the equation, as every performing artist knows, for then you have to
get up in front of your audience and let them see that side of you. Ms. Walther
says that being vulnerable and transparent, “has definitely gotten easier and I
think we were searching for that when we first started performing. Through the
process of working with our mentor (and manager) Mike Roth, we really found
ourselves on stage, if that makes any sense. We are able to tap into our
vulnerability while we are on stage and yet still feel like we keep enough of
our personal lives for our friends and families as well. It is a fine balance to
strike, if you want to give everything to the audience.
I think we have found that now and I feel really comfortable being honest
and vulnerable with our audience,” she says ending with a thoughtful and
reflective tone to her voice.
The song “Horses,” is deeply
personal, although, it is inspired by the life of another. It is a song that
when you realize it is based on personal experience, will cause even the most
stoic of individuals to wipe a tear from their eye.
“Horses is a very special song
for us and it is inspired by a young man who lives just north of
A fun, upbeat song that strikes
a chord with their teenage girl fans, is “Levi Blues,” a tune that explores the
lighter, more fanciful side of love and of touring.
“Levi Blues,” was a really fun
song to write and we actually wrote it after touring like crazy and when we had
a moment of peace to write at the cottage at
A glance at Dala’s schedule for
2011 reveals that they are booked solid for the first half of the year with
several concerts on university and college campuses in the
Interview with Joe Montague, January 2011