Just days after premiering their new lineup at Adelaide’s Follow The Sun festival, PEARL chatted to the front woman and namesake of three-piece riff rockers Dallas Frasca. Having just released the explosive new single You are Beautiful from their highly-anticipated forthcoming album Love Army, the band are preparing to embark on their 18-date national tour with a renewed sense of excitement.
Frasca’s energy is palpable as she exclaims, “Our new drummer Josh Eales just played his first show in Adelaide with us and it was ah-mazing! He’s so young and it was the first time he’d ever played a festival. Having that excitement was great because as a band we’ve actually played well over 150 festivals and it’s just so nice to appreciate that resonation of enthusiasm throughout the group again.”
Indeed, the seasoned band lost long-time drummer Zane Rosanoski to due to family commitments earlier this year. While Danny Leo from King of the North stepped in to record Love Army, young-gun player Josh Eales is filling Rosanoski’s place for the live shows. So far it’s been a great fit.
“That first show together was the perfect way to kick-off the new line-up. Before that gig and the national tour, we would have spent every day of the last three weeks just in the studio perfecting our live show. I know when I go to see a show I want to be transcended from the space I’m in, and at the end take something away. We want to do that for audiences too.”
It’s no surprise to hear how much dedication goes into perfecting the live show, with the band boasting quite the reputation for packing a punch on stage. Unlike some rock n’ roll bands, there is no façade when it comes to Dallas Frasca, just an unapologetic attitude and a lot of passion.
“Oh man, you cannot lie to an audience. They know when you’re faking it. The reality is that recordings come after playing live. Our first love and passion is creating that energy and uniting with people in the space of a live performance. Over the years we’ve gotten better at capturing that with our recordings and how it translates into the record. You never stop learning and building the live show.”
The audience’s belief in Dallas Frasca was made pretty clear earlier this year through the successful crowdfunding of $22,000 for the bands new album.
“We’re still really blown away by that. There were some real nail-biting moments. A week out, we were still $8000 under our target, and with these crowd-funding campaigns it’s all-or-nothing. So I think everyone was just making us appreciate it a bit more toward the end there. It’s a really cool way for us to have one-on-one connections with people who are really supportive of our music, and we definitely understand that you build your business with one person a time. If we didn’t have people coming to our shows or buying our albums then we’d have to re-assess what we’re doing, because people are 100% part of it. We put the target up so high because we wanted to make an album for the people that have supported us, we had to really step it up a notch.”
The band took the task of creating such an album very seriously, re-recording ten of the tracks upon returning from their last European tour in July. From what we’ve heard from the album so far, Love Army is packing some serious energy and sentiment. While Lizard Boy is a politically charged beast, You Are Beautiful empowers the broad spectrum of body-types, encouraging listeners to be aware of the unrealistic ideals pushed by the media. The latter track saw Frasca put the call out over social media for individuals to participate – unclothed – in a clip that would celebrate the diversity of bodies.
“It was important for us to visually express that story. It really tapped into a universal consciousness and we were so blown away by the amount of responses we had from people wanting to be involved.”
If that response was anything to go by, Dallas Frasca fans are sure to be out in full-force when the national tour rolls into town. You can catch the band live at Baha Rye on Friday November 21.
MATILDA HEGGIE
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