WetYourSelf! Go In Depth With Dinky

The capacity of Dinky’s talent as an artist expands way beyond the traditional realms of electronic musicians’ love affair with machines for Dinky is an instrumentalist at her core; focussing on training her voice in tandem with her command of the guitar as the initial mindset from which she composes music. In the booth, as we are expecting to experience in at WetYourSelf! Bank Holiday special this weekend, the worlds of composition and dancefloor function collide with thestunning sonic range of her vocal chords overlay the minimalist track selections of her record bag. To find more about this unique dynamic and elements at play in Dinky’s musicality the WYS! crew found out all about her move to the acoustic in this in depth ahead of this weekend’s entertainment. Hey Alejandra, we are very excited to welcome you to WetYourSelf! This Sunday in fabric! We all loved your recent album, can you tell us about your inspiration behind the it like what artists were you inspired by? There were lots of inspirations, daily struggles, funny stories, dreams, travels, people and nature. I never really write music based on others people music so I feel the need to clarify that despite listening to bands I love, it's never my intention to sound like them, as that wouldn't make my work very original and in my view equates to artistic suicide pretty much. Being yourself is essential. But, saying that, I do learn a lot by listening to certain things that I like about other musicians and I hope that my brain retains a little of information , for example I love Chris Isaac’s guitar work , it was very influential on me as a guitarist .I also love Liz Fraser (from Cocteau twins) approach on singing, improvising and having her own language without lyrics whilst reaching this celestial mood. When I discovered that I had a high [vocal] range and what could be done with it I paid attention to her singing just to understand that part of the voice and what mood can transmit. Whilst writing Dimension D I did listen to a lot of really old vocal jazz and that was quite influential in the way i approached my singing too but mainly in the lower range of my voice, the speaking singing part. I’m constantly changing my playlist and buying albums so now for example in listening to The Smiths and The Cure albums which I grew up with. Their guitar work and lyricism is amazing. Most of the time I just listen to music and don’t focus on technique but I strongly believe that listening to records is an essential part of learning about music, especially if u are playing an instrument or singing. You are a synth/ gear lover, what is your most loved piece of gear? What is your most recent purchase? I’ve actually been taking it easy with electronics for the last few years now , I feel like my studio is almost compete so the last things I bought were mainly to play live with ,techy things like midi foot controllers and midi mergers , vocal pedals and outboard gear . I invested in an electron Octatrack to play live as well, but loved it so much that i am planning to write part of my next album with it, it’s a very creative machine. A I said before I slowed down with electronics GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) and the last big things I’ve bought are acoustics , I finally got a real piano for my house and a Gretch electric guitar which are both beautiful. My fav piece is a Martin fingerpicking guitar steel string that my husband gave me for my birthday , thing is with a guitar you just pick it up and can instantly make a song , you can make music on the spot , with other instruments you need to start using electricity, speakers mixers ect so I like that about the guitar a lot. Also that Martin makes absolutely fantastic instruments but mostly the fact that you can take it anywhere and make music right away, sing a song with it , so it’s very natural. What is your favourite album to come out this year so far? I loved Nadine Shah ‘Love Your Dum and Mad' on Apolo. It might not be so electronic but that's the album that has impressed me the most in terms of directly touching me, her low voice is fantastic, dark and emotional, I loved it. Are you still teaching Yoga? What passions do you have away from the music world? I'm only taking yoga lessons right now, I abandoned my desire to be a yoga instructor after a serious injury 6 years ago so that's when I started learning classical guitar and later on I took up singing. I feel like I really need to fully concentrate on music and performing at the moment as it requires so much dedication, especially if you want to become a good instrumentalist or singer, you need to do that every day, hours a day and it will take you at least a decade to feel you reach that point where you might be happy with your work. I love to make videos for my own music, but that wasn't so much something I chose, I did it out of necessity and turned out to be something I really enjoyed as I had such clear ideas of it visually. I did the last two music videos for my album on my own. Inventing ideas filming and directing was great but the editing and colour correcting was very time consuming and being in front of a computer for so many hours is not my idea of fun , but still ,that's one of the things i have beside music I do. Maybe I can call it a hobby? You are originally from Chile, but have lived both in New York and for many years now in Berlin, would you ever consider moving back, or somewhere else? Is there anything in particularly you miss from Chile? I sometimes miss New York and sometimes Chile, I miss my family and the ocean, the food, but the last time I went there I was really put off of by the capitalism and the lack of environmental conscience, it’s unfortunately a very toxic mentality still, the amount of plastic, cars and GMO food only makes me never want to live there anymore (I guess I've been living in Germany for too long)..From NY I miss the liveliness of the streets and the musicality of the city but I was tired of the NY attitude, not everyone is the same there but felt like too often people wanted to show their business cards and brag about their salaries before even saying hi, and that can be contagious because that's how a lot of people survive there. I need a more laid back vibe around me so I might not be able to live there again. To be honest I love Berlin so much and with such good friends, colleagues and great musicians to learn from I don’t think I can live anywhere else at the moment! Even the winter is bearable because the other things are so great.