THE D with ALLIE HUGHES at the Wrongbar (1279 Queen W), Saturday (September 11). $15. PDR, RT, SS, TW.
When she’s feeling leisurely, the D lead singer Olivia Merilahti can be spotted wandering the woods of Paris, where her band is based.
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She hasn’t had as much time to commune with nature this year, though. She and bandmate Dan Levy have been in hardcore studio mode, cobbling together a follow-up to their 2008 album, A Mouthful (Wagram), released in North America in May.
“We also haven’t been performing for a while,” Merilahti says from her place. “We’ve been rehearsing for the past two weeks. It’s exciting.”
The Helsinki native is also jazzed to live up to the cliche that the French are fashionable, name-checking a few designers whose clothes she’ll wear on tour: Vivienne Westwood, Tsumori Chisato and Manoush.
“But I’ll probably only decide what I’ll put on a half-hour – no, 10 minutes – before each gig.”
The D’s music is every bit as stylish. Substantial, too. A Mouthful’s wistful lyrics are coloured by a spectrum of instruments, styles and eras: the strings of 60s pop, thumping drums that sound transplanted from 90s indie rock, Cuban jazz claves. Then there are Merilahti’s idiosyncratic vocals, which belong to the pleasantly awkward vocal tradition of Bjork, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush.
The album’s expert production and adventurous musicality make sense, given how the classically trained composers first came to know each other in 2004.
“We had to work on a soundtrack together, and we just didn’t stop after that,” she says. “In the beginning, we were just experimenting, trying out different genres in the studio. I had quite limited experience but was always willing to sing and write songs.”
That willingness continues with the band’s second album, which Merilahti says is too early in the creative process to discuss at length.
“It’s a different mood,” she hints. “It’s a bit more about danger.”
Interview Clips
Merilahti tells The D’s origin story
The musician reveals her and Levy’s secret shame: 24 on DVD
Aside from the Parisian woods, Merilahti likes to visit Le Marais, The Seine, and Pigalle
The video for The D’s hit single, On My Shoulders
The D online
music@nowtoronto.com
