Next month, Canadian quintet Dizzy will be releasing their debut album, Baby Teeth, following a successful string of shows throughout their home country, America and Europe. We’ve already heard many of the songs from the record and chose singles ‘Swim’ and ‘Joshua’ as our List Picks, introducing you all to their emotive dream-pop sound.

As we discuss below, Dizzy’s style comes from a melting pot of different influences. Brothers Charlie, Alex and Mackenzie Spencer have a background in jazz and a lifetime of music thanks to their parents who encouraged creative expression throughout. All the brothers were missing was a songwriter, someone to pull their instrumentation together and that’s where Katie Mushaw comes into it. Finding the missing piece to your band in maths class at school seems pretty unlikely, but with luck on their side, that’s exactly what happened here and thus Dizzy began to form. The first record explores the experience of moving from your late teens to early twenties - the heartbreak, the disillusionment, the new-found appreciation of family, falling in and out love with your hometown, and moments of coming-of-age wisdom that many of us will recognise from our own growing pains around that time in our lives.

Baby Teeth is out on August 17th via Communion/Royal Mountain. Here we talk to Katie Munshaw about Dizzy, the album, live shows, and what’s to come next.

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TMR: Hey Katie, for anyone who hasn’t heard your music before, how would you describe Dizzy’s sound?

Someone recently described our sound as "woozy" pop. I like that...

TMR: Which artists would you say were most influential to Dizzy’s style? And do those influences differentiate for each band member?

We all draw from a melting pot of influences. The guys grew up with a lot of jazz influence, but we all bond over our mutual love for well-written pop music.

TMR: Your recent single ‘Swim’ is a rippling dream-pop track that leaves the impression of positive escapism. Could you tell us more about the context of ‘Swim’?

We wrote ‘Swim’ almost a year after the rest of the songs on the record were tracked. It's about feeling lonely and leaning on the people around you and allowing yourself to not feel guilty or like a burden.

TMR: Your coming together as a band seems very organic - with Alex, Mackenzie and Charlie playing music together from an early age and then finding a kindred spirit in yourself - but could you ever have expected that it would result in an album and live shows around the world?

Not at all. We often have late night conversations about how lucky we are that we even get a chance to give this music thing a real go.

TMR: What’s been your favourite live show so far?

There's been so many but Chicago is always a dinger of a show. The crowds are attentive when you're playing but go nuts once you finish a song.

TMR: On ‘Swim’, there’s a line “carry me home”, so is there still a strong connection to your hometown?

At heart, I'm absolutely a homebody.



TMR: Would you say there’s an added pressure or joy to playing a show in your hometown?

A little bit because I find it the most difficult to play shows to people I know. When you play to strangers you can go a bit crazy, be whoever you want to be. Your friends know who you are, so it's strange to bare that side of yourself to them.

TMR: Circling back to the album, Baby Teeth, what does it mean for you as a band to deliver this narrative of your life as teenagers and since to a global audience?

I'm just happy to finally get these songs out so we can start sharing more. Some of these songs were written two or three years ago now, so they start to feel distant. I mostly just hope that those old words that helped me so much when I was writing them can resonate with some listeners.

TMR: More than a compilation of typical youth experiences, there are also the moments of pain and wisdom that come with age throughout the album, particularly on ‘Joshua’. Can you tell us more about that single?

If there's any wisdom in these songs it comes from the fact that I tend to write my lyrics way after the fact. Not always, but most times. Once I've had time to heal and assess. The beginning of sadness is so white hot that it's hard to think clearly. The period of pain that's a bit mellower is where I can start to sort it all out.

TMR: On both ‘Joshua’ and ‘Swim’, you reference “mother”, why do you think that relationship keeps seeping into your music?

I love the idea of an adult returning to their mom for comfort. I don't think there's anything more tender or natural.

TMR: With the imminent release of Baby Teeth, have you already started looking to the next stages of live shows, songwriting and getting back into the studio?

Charlie and I have been writing quite a bit, for sure. We can't wait to start working on a new project.

TMR: Since the album is very much about coming of age, what do you consider as the song or album that best sums up that experience?

Snail Mail's new album Lush.



Baby Teeth is out on August 17th via Communion/Royal Mountain.

-Hannah Thacker