We briefly dipped into the mind, heart and soul of bubblegum brat-punk icon Delilah Bon. We’re talking all things aggro, glitter and inflatable penises. Roll out the pink carpet!
RAMzine: So tell me, how did Delilah Bon come to be? Was she a gradual development of your character or a sudden moment of waking up and thinking – this is it?
It was gradual but it came out of nowhere. I was on tour with my band and playing gigs and around that time I was always pulling girls to the front of the crowd as there was just so many men. My songs are about women and this was my priority. I’d get talking to the girls at shows and they’d tell me stories of harassment etc, and it was ALL the time. I found that at my gigs I was just constantly met with these men that would try to kiss me and generally just make me uncomfortable… so I wrote about it… on Facebook at the time!
RAMzine: I remember that! It was a bit of a movement wasn’t it?
Yeah, but it wasn’t the reaction I thought I’d get. Most people had my back, but I was hit with a lot of “What do you expect? How you expect respect when you dress like that or act a certain way?” and it hit me really bad and made me feel so insecure, at a time when I wanted to be angry I just felt so sad. That’s where Delilah Bon came to be because after that I started getting all these lyrics in my head, so many things I wanted to say that I had to get out… I just felt different, sassier, and I wanted to do something empowering with it, for myself too. I wanted something different from my typical aggressive sound with Hands Off Gretel. I created her for me, but I showed my mum and she was just like “You can’t keep this in!” but I never showed anyone until I was ready. The album was pretty much written. I’m so glad I did it!
RAMzine: Wow, well I’m sure everyone will be glad you did too! Hats off to you, because it is hard out there, in a man’s world – your music speaks so loudly for every woman that’s ever felt the way you did. Someone had to say it and you did it!
I did, and I’ll keep saying it. I keep getting told to “stop saying it, stop talking about it, it makes me uncomfortable” mostly from men online, and its just annoying. I’ve felt uncomfortable for YEARS and now I’m speaking out in MY music, this is for me. This is for all the women out there. My music is not for everyone, and that’s fine. My music has a bigger purpose than being songs to dance to.
RAMzine: Do you get a lot of “not all men” pushback from your male audience, does online backlash bother you?
I get a lot of aggressive messages from men, yeah. I get a lot of graphic messages from men online trying to scare me too, I have done since I was about fourteen years old. I just think it’s so creepy that these are real people that actually send them, but apart from that, I haven’t had a lot of backlash. When I uploaded my TikTok videos I saw the views going up and I just thought any minute it’s gonna go to the wrong audience and I’m gonna get bombarded by the “not all men” crowd, but they haven’t found me yet!
RAMzine: Good, I hope they never find you! Haha. Speaking of TikTok, it must have felt amazing to blow up overnight like you did! Those Cardi B parodies were so funny, and it’s obviously got you a lot of attention to your music too and helped your fan base. Over 80,000 people are interested in you now. Does it feel good?
I knew I had to make a TikTok at some point, everyone was using it and at first I hated it and didn’t think I could commit to making the content etc, but it’s paid off and I’m so glad I did it now. It seems to grow the biggest and best over any platform for me. Surprisingly I don’t get many hate comments on TikTok, I used to! I used to get girls tagging their mates saying “look how cringe this girl is!” and at first I would delete my videos because I thought I couldn’t handle teenagers that don’t like me, but I don’t seem to get it anymore!
RAMzine: Social media can be a dark place at the best of times! You have to not let it get to you don’t you, and nobody will be laughing when you’re famous. So what is it that motivates you to get up everyday and work so tirelessly round the clock to create your content and write your music?
I’ve always been very scared of dying. As a teen I became very fixated on that life is so short, so when I’m in the studio I just want to get everything out and when I die its like I have nothing left to say! I’m so deep hahaha I just feel so connected to life. That motivates me, it kicks me up the arse when I feel depressed, like come on now we haven’t got long! It gives me really bad anxiety though, it consumes me sometimes and I overwork, my mum has to remind me to take breaks or I’ll just keep going.
RAMzine: Its clear that you love what you do and it shows! Have you noticed that the early 2000s fashion and trends are heavily coming back in at the moment? Do you feel like this trend of all things 90s/Y2K era will benefit you as that’s so you, a coincidence of time that will skyrocket your fan base?
I don’t know how it happened but its landed so well! All the nu metal bands from those times, I loved them and I grew up on that and 00s pop, I’m just blending my love of pop and metal with pink and glitter! Seeing now that everyone likes this and is into it, that’s just good timing! I love the whole y2k fashion thing too!
RAMzine: Speaking of Nu-Metal, have you heard much of Otep? Your music has some similarities to her! She’s amazing.
Aww, that’s well good! Yes! I love her! Whenever I talk to people about metal I always mention her, it annoys me and shocks me so much when people are like ‘who’s that?” so many people just missed it, but she’s my favourite I love her.
RAMzine: If you could go on tour with any band, who would it be and why?
Maybe Ashnikko! I really like her! She said something about having inflatable penises floating around at a gig and I was like yep, I wanna be on that tour!
RAMzine: So, you have completely self produced this album right? The quality of your work is impeccable. The production of the album, the artwork, the videos. You even played every instrument! HOW on earth did you learn all of this on your own, and why did you want to DIY?
Not school that’s for sure! I used to watch producers and think, I wish I could do that. I would often make suggestions of things I would change or add, and I’d be told basically “you’re the singer, I’m the producer, you do your bit and I’ll do mine” I used to hate it because I had so many ideas for affects and styles, so I learned everything I needed to. I dunno how I did it, I just have an ear for it. I always have. I always wanted to learn to do it all on my own with no one annoying me! I learned the whole lot from Youtube too. I just knew what I wanted and I did it.
RAMzine: Amazing. So, ultimately – what’s the dream? At what point will you feel like you’ve made it?
I think that’s the hardest thing, because I have so much I wanna do! I want to support people but ultimately I want to sell out my own tour. I want to sell out my own shows with my own music, I want to decorate the venues. I don’t think too much about charting etc, I mean it would be nice, but I don’t dream of winning awards. I just want a load of fans that are all mine! I would love to be in a movie one day too, I’d like to do acting. Oh, and make my own comic books! There is just SO much I wanna do!
RAMzine: So basically, you just want Delilah’s world? OK, amazing. Next stop, reality show?
Haha! Yes! That would be the next thing!
RAMzine: Delilah, it truly is a case of a star is born with you. You are just bursting with talent and such raw passion and creativity. You absolutely will succeed, go for it girl.
You’re gonna make me emotional, I could cry! Thank you so much.
