Fremantle singer Noah Dillon on new music, Soft tour and being a music therapist

Fremantle singer-songwriter Noah Dillon is making waves among the Aussie indie music scene and his new EP explores the idea of having the courage to be in touch with soft emotions and redefining what it means to be masculine.

The 26-year-old released the six-track EP Soft accompanied by the announcement of a national tour hitting up Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney.

He will wrap up the tour in his hometown at Mojos on November 22.

Sitting down for a chat at his studio in the heart of Freo, Dillon opened up about realising a consistent softness to his new songs which challenged ideas of what it means to be emotionally “strong” as a man.

“I listened back to the songs and the main thread I found was growth and a consistent softness within myself and challenging a lot of the ideas I had my whole life about what being strong means,” he said.

“I think strong and soft were taught to me to counteract each other but over the last years of figuring out myself, I found strength and softness are the same thing.

“It’s so easy to be rigid, hate(ful), jealous and mean and challenging be vulnerable, soft and love people and especially in the context of masculinity, men, in general, are taught this idea of being strong but it’s a strange sense of strength.

“I now see strength as the ability to be soft.”

Dillon said the songs were “letters to myself” which he wrote over six months inspired by relationships and experiencing grief.

Dillon’s band is made up of members violinist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Clancy Davidson, drummer Jack Hill, bassist Griffith Owen, and guitarist/keyboardist Sam Rocchi.

Tickets for his upcoming national tour are steady but slow and Dillon said it can be quite stress-inducing.

“Selling more tickets but selling them way later like the week of and that in the art world makes it really hard to plan,” he said.

“You have to front up $10k to pay for (the tour) and it’s scary having to spend that and you don’t see too many ticket sales until the week, it can be quite an anxiety-provoking experience financially.”

Away from his own music career, Dillon conducts music therapy sessions for people with autism.

“I’m working towards what I want my job to be outside of music which is teaching music as a way of emotional expression and understanding in the disability world,” he said.

“Autism is a disability where people often have traits of finding it hard to identify emotions and express emotions.”

Garnering more than six million global streams, Dillon’s career has continued to soar since emerging on the music scene in 2017.

He has shared the stage with artists such as George Ezra, Vance Joy, Stella Donnelly, San Cisco, Holy Holy and Teenage Dads and appeared at Music Matters in Singapore, Splendour in the Grass and BIGSOUND.

The band have just wrapped up their most extensive headline international tour Let It Out, covering sold-out shows in Australia, Europe and UK.

“It was an eye-opening and learning experience to play to audiences not in Australia,” Dillon said of his European tour.

“Australia seems to be in a weird spot with the live music industry; it feels like you almost have to go to people’s houses and drag them to a gig. I think people have less disposable income at the moment and festivals are going down like flies.”

With psychology and music a “big passion” for Dillon, the rising star said no matter what the future holds, he will continue pursuing his creativity.

“No matter what I do I’m going to do music,” he said.

“I stopped putting pressure on the music thing to be the career because I think you can end up squashing your creativity really quickly.

“If I work, teach, see the world, study psychology then I feel way more creative and feel like I have something to say.”

He hoped to put out another album after Soft.