5 minutes with Dylan Dickerson of Dear Blanca

This week we talk to Dylan Dickerson, vocalist and guitarist of the band Dear Blanca. Dickerson discusses the origin of the group and their latest album, “Perched.”

This interview has been edited.

Q. I understand you have your hands in a few projects. What have you been working on?

A. I’m a musician and songwriter and my primary focus has been the project Dear Blanca, which I started around 2011. In the past year I’ve spent a lot of time working on a record label and podcast project called Comfort Monk with my friend and collaborator, Eddie Newman. Comfort Monk will be releasing a record from Dear Blanca and Stagbriar in the coming months.

Q. What’s the story behind Dear Blanca’s name?

A. The name Dear Blanca came from my Cuban grandmother, whose name was Blanca. She was a big motivator and source of encouragement in my earliest years of attempting to make music as a kid. I wanted the project to just be called Blanca at first, but there’s a well-known singer in Brazil who uses that name, so I added “Dear” to make the project feel like we were addressing Blanca.

Q. Tell us about the new record.

A. “Perched” was released on July 31. You can find it at dearblanca.com and it’s available on all streaming platforms — in addition to Violet LP and cassette.

Q. Has the pandemic impacted the ways you promote your new material?

A. We’ve had to get creative with ways to promote a new record during the pandemic. Some video performances are in the works. One that I’m particularly excited about is the sort of jazzy arrangement of our new single, “Overpass,” that we just filmed. That video features guest appearances by incredible musicians such as Reggie Sullivan, Brendan Bull, Evan Simmons and Ben Eidson. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves in regards to creative ways to push the record that we will be announcing soon. Might need to leave that cat in the bag for now.

Preach Jacobs, special to GoColumbia

This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 2:26 PM with the headline "5 minutes with Dylan Dickerson of Dear Blanca."