{"id":17978,"date":"2017-03-13T15:30:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T19:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=17978"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:07:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:07:36","slug":"morning-coffee-omelettes-dahl-haus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/morning-coffee-omelettes-dahl-haus\/","title":{"rendered":"MORNING AFTER: Coffee And Omelettes With Dahl Haus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cHey, you\u2019re Blaise, right? Can I talk to you outside for a second?\u201d It’s Goth Prom at Footlight and\u00a0I’m\u00a0ambushing Dahl Haus’s leading lady Blaise Dahl with zero chill and a nervous peppiness out of place for the event. We look (unintentionally) identical; blonde hair, sheer top (can\u2019t lose?) but she\u2019s far more composed than I am. And<\/em>\u00a0she\u2019s boasting bubblegum pink heart-studded platforms, which she manages not to trip over after I grab her hand and lead her to the bar section.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story of how I got Blaise to have breakfast to me, or at least the fun, sexy, not-text-message-based version.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, I know guitarist\u00a0Daniel Kasshu\u2014in a very intense, Best-Friends-on-Snapchat way\u2014but I’ve never<\/em> exchanged words (or pictures) with Blaise. Instead I’ve made assumptions from the sidelines: she’s 1999’s\u00a0Jawbreaker<\/em>\u00a0personified (minus the homicide), she was deemed “precocious” ever since she emerged from the womb rocking blue eye shadow and a thundering bassline (probably half right), she has a sharp sense of humor and a strong sense of justice\u00a0(true, see her entire Twitter presence<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What’s confirmed, though, is that\u00a0Blaise’s voice is special: sultry, strong, used to croon lyrics that feel matured past her 22 years. It’s the glaze over the sometimes wavering\/sometimes crunchy guitar, the bass with a heartbeat, and the drum machine that was not available for comment in this interview. Sure,\u00a0you can hear certain influences: Garbage, PJ Harvey, Hole\u2014and that’s her jamming with Court’s bassist Jennie Vee in this “Lips Like Sugar” cover<\/a>\u2014but most of all you hear Blaise Dahl.<\/p>\n

So now we’re getting coffee at a booth in Williamsburg’s most infamous diner, her in a plum thermal\u00a0and matching lipstick, me in a spangly gold minidress and fur-collared cardigan.<\/p>\n

The Scene:<\/strong>\u00a0For most, Kellogg\u2019s is a hotspot for drunkenly sobbing at 3 A.M., but Blaise has more innocent associations. At age 16 she won a scholarship from ASCAP to attend the first New York-based Grammy Foundation industry camp for teens. They housed her in a nearby apartment, had the campers work out of Rubber Tracks, and Kellogg\u2019s was always on the menu… like, in a bi-daily way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne time I might have ventured into french toast\/pancake territory,\u201d she says, but really, she\u2019s an omelette girl through and through. As such, we order Mexican and avocado omelettes with coffee and wheat toast galore.<\/p>\n

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11:49 <\/strong>Blaise actually never went to prom. She ditched public school after ninth grade, choosing to finish her education via virtual private school. She was in the middle of an extracurricular life: dancing, figure skating, and low-key becoming a rock star. Eventually she picked up guitar at School of Rock and before long was touring arenas with their All Stars program.<\/p>\n

I ask if she\u2019s like me and feels that Pretty in Pink <\/em>emptiness\u00a0about it, before receiving the obvious answer: \u201cNo,\u201d she says, laughing, \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

12:06 <\/strong>It\u2019s always been my conviction that you know you\u2019ve made it when there\u2019s a Barbie doll of you, so\u00a0I can\u2019t believe Blaise hasn\u2019t made a doll of herself yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to,\u201d she says emphatically. The closest she got was sandwiching her old Bratz dolls in her pedalboard for her 21st\u00a0birthday show and posting it on Instagram. \u201cAnd then a friend of mine commented, \u2018Oh my god, you look really good here.\u2019 So I probably should take the one that most resembles me and put it in a totally Blaise outfit like, \u2018Here I am.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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She\u2019s psyched Barbie’s getting more inclusive and expansive, from the Ladies of the ’80s Debbie Harry doll to the differing body types introduced last year. But she acknowledges that as a child she never looked at Barbie\u2019s proportions as something aspirational (same, mostly ’cause\u00a0I already had the neck of a baby giraffe). Instead, playtime was an excuse to craft elaborate stories, likely inspired by her grandmother\u2019s soap operas.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was watching The Young and the Restless<\/em>, The Bold and the Beautiful,<\/em>\u201d She recalls. \u201cSo I remember doing some really fucked up shit with them, like they were drugging each other, there was a murder plot. One was living out of their car.\u201d<\/p>\n

12:36 <\/strong> Delving deeper into our childhoods (we possibly had the same Playskool doll house<\/a>), Blaise tells me about some early struggles of being a woman in music. That is, the time she got in trouble for wanting to excel at a school lip-syncing show.<\/p>\n

At this point Blaise had already developed a work ethic from her dance lessons, and after becoming the leader for a \u201cGet the Party Started\u201d routine she was ruffling some elementary school feathers. Her teacher confronted her mother after school, stating: “Blaise is being very bossy to these children; she\u2019s making them practice at recess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think I was necessarily rude about it,\u201d Blaise says. That work ethic was already ingrained in her, and besides, she was way<\/em> over playing tag at recess. Eventually the group performed the song, even managing to sneak in a curse word (it\u2019s \u201cass,\u201d guys) when the teacher couldn\u2019t get to the boombox in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was a very proud moment for me, that was my first kind of rebel cred,\u201d she concludes.<\/p>\n

“Very rock n’ roll. Also with the whole bossy thing, do you think they would’ve mentioned that if you were a guy?” I ask.<\/p>\n

“Probably not.”<\/p>\n

We joke about it until a dark silence settles over the table, replaced with patter\u00a0about how we both love coffee. The waiter asks if we want more. “We\u2019re good, but thank you,” Blaise says.<\/p>\n

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1:10 <\/strong>So it seems the\u00a0Welcome to the Dahl Haus<\/em> EP is potentially expanding to an LP in the near future. The material’s there, but she\u2019s worried that the fleshed-out but lo-fi Garage Band-mixed songs won\u2019t sound cohesive with her newer, Logic-mixed tracks, which loses some of that Sparklehorse-influenced sound. She has a million ideas she’s toying with, but the bottom line is that she doesn’t want to release music haphazardly, and that perfectionist streak has not<\/em> worn off throughout the years. All of a sudden our table is getting cleared, save for 13,000 slices of bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to kick us out,\u201d She says, and we start laughing nervously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’re fine, we\u2019re patrons, we have our toast,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably finish it.\u201d (She doesn\u2019t, and I’m sad).<\/p>\n

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1:16\u00a0<\/strong>The Hole Pandora station, at least the last time I checked, keeps redirecting me to Nirvana, and I don’t know how I feel about this. Weird that a woman’s artistry is perma-linked to her husband? Uncomfortable for expecting ’90s girl acts to be lumped together? Maybe she can help me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would assume they would give you Babes in Toyland, L7, or even Elastica,\u201d she muses, remarking that the \u201890s had such a \u201cgirl power element\u201d and those acts are finding this moment to be prime for reuniting. \u201cI think we should celebrate women in music,\u201d she adds, but admits she feels conflicted about how “female singers” has become some sort of category, because “‘Male’ would never be a genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

She’s especially concerned about how getting a female bassist is now trendy, \u201clike having a trophy wife or something. And there are some people who write material where they want higher up vocal harmonies. But there are also a lot of people who think,\u201d She puts on a slower, alt-bro cadence, “‘D\u2019arcy Wrestzky looked really <\/em>good in the original Smashing Pumpkins line-up, we want a female bassist.’\u201d<\/p>\n

And the coffee flows.<\/p>\n

1:21 <\/strong>Blaise has bad skin to go with her doll heart, which I <\/em>don\u2019t see (my own bad skin is on full display) but she insists that under the magic of make-up it\u2019s there. Tea tree oil usually helps with zit-zapping, but this time she had to go with one of those very Pinterest-y baking soda + water pastes.<\/p>\n

Yes, it inflamed her very sensitive skin, but \u201cthe funny thing is that it actually kind of worked, and so I may go home and do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

1:40<\/strong> I’m recounting the night at Footlight and my caginess upon meeting Blaise, and she reveals that she secretly shares similar anxieties, despite that seemingly composed demeanor.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I\u2019ll always push my conversation to the side and try to be understanding of what other people have to do for that reason,\u201d she admits. \u201cBut I also see how other people interact to get what they want and that\u2019s not necessarily seen as rude.\u201d Clearly this is an ethos on which Blaise has based her life. She’s always forced herself to get things done on her on terms and\u2014<\/p>\n

Aah, goddammit, they\u2019re kicking us out.<\/p>\n

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2:50<\/strong>\u00a0We spend an hour killing time at Norman\u2019s Sound and Vision, flipping through beloved movie soundtracks and adolescent favs (KMFDM reminds her of her \u201cemo phase\u201d) and dishing about our secret love for Marilyn Manson. She\u2019s been remixing random songs for the thrill of it, and apparently “This Is The New Shit” aligns perfectly with “The Ketchup Song.” It\u2019s a grand old time, with chatter at a rapid-fire Gilmore pace. Thanks, coffee.<\/p>\n

But her dad finally comes to retrieve her, and as she\u2019s leaving, she shouts that my outfit is fabulous, really \u201con point.\u201d Huh.<\/p>\n

Standing in front of Kellogg’s, I’m in awe of the ways Blaise has used her voice, has fought<\/em> to use her voice, from the very beginning. I’m impressed she’s retained this strong sense of self from day one, keeping her from being just another “female singer” or the sum of her influences. And\u00a0I’m also amused, because she never realized I (intentionally) ripped off her stage look from Don Pedro\u2019s a few months back.<\/p>\n

Blaise rides into the distance. A doll modeled in her image walks back up Meeker Street.<\/p>\n

You can stream Dahl Haus demos below,\u00a0plus check out some Garbage covers (and more!) via soundcloud<\/a>, or\u00a0peruse\u00a0tour dates via the band’s\u00a0official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n