Celeste Muller, Glass Editor-in-Chief, sat down with Briana Dinsdale of the Briana Dinsdale Band, who will be performing in Round One of Battle of the Bands on July 23rd. The band is made up of Briana Dinsdale (lead vocals), Ashlyn Dinsdale (bass), Jackson Thompson (lead guitar), Ryan Buck (fiddle and mandolin) and Baxter Dalgliesh (drums). They chatted about country music, Nashville, and, most importantly, Battle of the Bands.
Celeste: So, first up, can you tell me a bit about how you started as musician and how you formed your band?
Briana: Yeah, so I’ve been playing music since I was probably eight, and performing on stage since I was probably 12. It’s been a journey, finding the genre that was really right for me. But I always grew up with country music particularly, so kind of naturally fell into my country music roots. And then I needed to form a band when I was around 16 or 17 to play some gigs. So, my band consists of my sister who plays bass – which is handy, she’s always around – my best mate Jackson – who was not my best mate at the time, I hired him at first – he plays guitar, and then my sister’s boyfriend plays fiddle, and our mate Baxter plays drums. And it’s very sporadic, it kind of changes depending on the gig, who we’re playing with. But for Battle of the Bands particularly we’ve got these four.
C: I know that the band name is your name. Is that kind of something you guys had decided on altogether?
B: It was definitely up and down for a long time, what we wanted to do, particularly when it comes to the original side of the music. We had a different portfolio name for a while. But it all kind of falls under just my original act name. And I’m particularly passionate about really writing and diving deep and original music. So, we just stayed on that lane of being one with my original act name.
C: Now, how has been part of the QUT community impacted your growth as an artist?
B: In so many different ways. I think stepping outside of my comfort zone, when it comes to genres particularly, was really big for me. In my cohort, a lot of them play indie music, rock music, folk music. I’m kind of the odd one out, playing my country tunes. So, it’s fun, being able to collaborate with others and really step out of my genre and try something new. I’ve done a heap of electronic stuff here too, which is something I’ve never done nor thought I would ever do. And it was so much fun. I’m just really super proud of QUT, in the sense of they really encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone and test the waters, not just in the music subjects, but in all subjects and faculties as well.
C: So, do you have any memorable collaborations you’ve done here with either staff or faculty?
B: Yeah, I think one of my memorable ones is from Open Day last year, with two of my lecturers, Gavin Carfoot and Yanto Browning, when we sat in their music studio; all we did all day was just work and write on music and keep producing it as the day went on. We spent six hours working on a song, one individual song, and that was really, really cool to be able to just to expand on that with two people who are pros in the industry of two very different genres as well. And being able to come together and really experiment was super cool.
C: So, what kind of resources would you say have been particularly helpful for you here at uni?
B: Oh, the facilities, the music studios are top tier. Seriously, I know so many artists within country music who are obsessed with the studios here and will come here just to use them for fun on their break and hire them out because they’re seriously top-of-the-line studios. And I will never get over them. I want to use them forever, but I can’t. I’ll try to use them forever. Yes, definitely the facilities.
C: Who would you say are your biggest influences in music?
B: Okay, for the longest time, I’ve grown up listening to Taylor Swift, of course, she is OG. I love Keith Urban as well. They’re definitely my top two. But also, more in depth, I really love their songwriting, Ashland Craft. I love Miranda Lambert. I love Carter Faith, Lauren Watkins. These names, some people will probably be like, in one ear out the other, but I recommend. They’re seriously amazing.
C: How have those artists impacted and influenced your sound?
B: I think it’s very “Nashville” sounding. So not as much Australian country music sounding, more international, broader spectrum sounding country music, which is what I’m really drawn to. I also love my Australian country music, but being able to expand and step outside of my comfort zone in that sense and not just play what I’ve grown up listening to here in Australia is really cool. They’re very innovative in their structure within country music as well, and chord progressions are really, really cool, especially from Lauren Watkins. She’s very, very innovative with her chord progressions. And we have a song called ‘Stonewall’, which we’re going to play at Battle of the Bands, and I took a lot of inspiration from that, in the sense of the chord progressions being very abstract. And sometimes I forget the chord progression because it’s just all over the shop.
C: I’m really looking forward to hearing that! Now, some final questions for you. If you could perform at any venue or festival in the world, what would it be?
B: Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s like the church of country music and it’s an invite-only place. So, it’s a lot of pressure on myself. I really, really want to play there. It’s been my dream since I was a little girl. I went there when I was nine years old. And it was kind of the click in my brain that made me want to do country music. So, hopefully, one day we can make it full circle and play there. But you know, whatever the world holds for us. We’ll take it.
C: Now, do you have any words for your competitor? Or any last words you’d like to say about Battle of the Bands?
B: I think they’re really cool bands. We’re here to have fun and we’re really excited. So hopefully we can all have some fun and have a beer.
The Glass Magazine X QUT Guild Battle of the Bands has returned for Semester 2! Last year was such an absolute blast that we are pitting the bands of QUT against each other once again. You don’t want to miss this amazing event, so make sure you register on QPay to get all the details. We’ll see your there!
