Dillard Evokes Maternal Love on Garden Mother Release

Dillon Ray, who performs and creates under the name Dillard, distinctly remembers the event that started his musical journey: a trip with his aunt and uncle to see the band America. The group's funky folk song "A Horse With No Name" was his first glance at live music's dizzying, intoxicating energy.

After witnessing America's performance, Ray delved into the musical world with a passionate curiosity, sampling genre after genre as he honed his musical taste. He listened to everything from hardcore and metal to techno, eventually discovering — and loving — the hypnotic thrum of dubstep. "I was obsessed with sub bass, and the raw power of it," Ray says, reflecting on the dubstep warehouse parties he would attend. "So that was honestly my introduction to getting into production."

Ray discovered Ableton in 2008, and the rest, as he says, is history. The very definition of a DIY artist, he learned to use the music-creation software through experimentation, fiddling with the setups of friends who were into production and learning the ins and outs of the program through trial and error. "Being able to express myself through a program that I didn't even know was possible, it was just life-changing for me," Ray says, explaining that he has always been "obsessed" with creation but never found a medium that really resonated with him until learning Ableton.

Despite his success, Ray remains humble, and a part of him is still adjusting to his new reality as an internationally known music producer. He has performed at multiple international festivals, including Portrugal's massive psy-trance fest Boom in 2018. He has also toured Austria, Italy, Ibiza, Spain and Lisbon, an experience Ray says was "absolutely trippy. Very humbling, honestly, because they reached out to me for those bookings, and I was just like, 'Whoa, how do these people even know about me over here?'"

Ray considers his work to be multi-genre, and makes it clear that he doesn't like being pigeonholed. His melodic, bass-driven music varies from jazzy dubstep to organic bass music, and he lays the foundation for his tracks in the bass line, building the song from the ground up. He also does sound design, trudging through the tedious work of separating and storing audio clips for the satisfaction of throwing sounds he enjoys into production tracks at a later time. "I use my mouth for drums or just random things I can find, like egg shakers, or just anything really that's around, you can turn it into a sound and morph it into basically whatever you're thinking," Ray explains.

As for his newest album, Garden Mother, which will be released via Gravitas Recordings on Friday, April 14, Ray wants the music to emulate the feelings of comfort he's received from the maternal figures in his life, especially his mother, whose support means the world to him. "It's really hard to explain, honestly," Ray says. "I almost feel like a channel of some sort. The music kind of writes itself sometimes, and it's a really cool feeling, just being able to listen through a whole project and be like, 'I don't even remember writing this.'"

A lot of the tracks on Garden Mother were also inspired by mushrooms and LSD and, in a "roundabout way, designed to help alleviate these, like, anxieties and stressful mentalities that are associated with tripping," Ray says. He notes that he no longer partakes in any psychedelics, but often reminisces about his past experiences while creating music.

The tracks on Garden Mother weren't created all at once. In fact, the album is a bit like a puzzle, formed when Ray created songs he felt fit together. "It's kind of esoteric, but I would like the listener to create their own story," he says. The music doesn't have a specific point, but he hopes that Garden Mother will touch each person in a unique, intimate way.

Reflecting back on his early music career and his sixteen-year-old self, who was just beginning to dip his toes into the world of music production, Ray emphasizes the importance of genuine love in his music.

"I do genuinely believe that everything happens for a reason," he says. "We do have free will, but at the same time, love is a real thing, and you can't fake love. So if you pour your heart and soul into what you're doing and love what you're doing, then it will show to other people."

Garden Mother will drop on all streaming platforms on Friday, April 14. Dillard plays Mishawaka Amphitheater, 13714 Poudre Canyon Road, Bellvue, at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 27. Tickets are $30.