How indie-rock rising star Dionne went from playing guitar for Laura Mvula and Florence + The Machine to launching a solo career
Dionne was born with music in her blood. Growing up as the youngest of three classically-trained siblings – one a cellist, the other Mercury-nominated singer Laura Mvula – she first learned to play the violin at just seven-years-old.
“I was always taught there’s a right and wrong way to hold the bow,” the Birmingham-born London-based artist recalls of her “technical and so precise” introduction.
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Because of this traditional grounding, it wasn’t until the age of 16 that Dionne first picked up a guitar, and it wasn’t exactly a great one when she did – namely, her dad’s Stagg acoustic. While she has great affection for the guitar that started off her journey, she eventually found herself drawn to the sound and look of a different type – the electric.
Three years later at university, she picked up another humble guitar in the shape of the Yamaha ERG121 S-type, but it was vital in her evolution as a guitarist and “opening up a different way to perceive an instrument”.
Rather than being told what to do, as she had been in her classical education, it was a case of feeling her way round it. “I asked my friends on the guitar course to show me how I should place my fingers,” she remembers. One particular reply surprised her: ‘Just do what feels comfy and natural to you’. Although she recognises that this was just their approach and “there is a very technical side to playing guitar”, such a lack of restrictions felt alien.
More than that, the freedom she experienced when playing guitar was initially difficult for her to understand. Nonetheless, Dionne jumped in at the deep end during her last year of uni. Upon her sister Laura’s orchestral-leaning debut album, Sing to the Moon getting signed to Sony, she and her brother soon joined her live band, playing violin and cello respectively.
Image: Press
Opportunity Knocks
However, as Mvula’s sound evolved to incorporate synths and, crucially, electric guitar, Dionne’s own creative spark was ignited. “I started properly messing around on guitar and decided that I knew I wanted to share music at some point in the future.” Realising that guitar interested her most, she told Laura about her ambitions. “I knew that I wanted a guitar to be in my hand so I could learn more,” she recalls, counting Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Funkadelic’s Eddie Hazel, Eric Clapton and Nile Rodgers among her live guitar heroes.
“I said, ‘this is what I want to do. Guitar is my instrument. I don’t want to play violin anymore’.” In a bold move, she gave her sister an ultimatum: Dionne would only stay in Laura’s band if she could play guitar. While she reflects on this as “completely ridiculous, because I literally couldn’t play anything at that point”, Mvula was characteristically supportive. “Even though there’s a million other guitarists that would do the job 1,000 times better, she must have thought ‘they’re not my sister’, so you can come with me’.”
Dionne’s wish was granted and, soon after, their live debut on UK TV had been booked. However, due to having very little time to prepare, her guitar solo intro on Overcome didn’t go as well as she hoped. “I definitely bit off way more than I could chew,” she recalls honestly.
Thankfully, those she toured with placed equal importance on her artistic development as the band’s overall performance. “They gave me the confidence to think that it was okay to explore an instrument as I was working and touring.”
When the album cycle came to an end, she joined the London Contemporary Voices (LVC) choir and found herself in an audition – unbeknownst to her, it was to join Florence + the Machine’s live band on tour. Playing acoustic and then electric guitar – “I think they saw that’s where my true passion lies” – was a privilege, Dionne says.
Image: Press
Stepping Out
Leaving Laura’s band and joining Welch’s helped her to grow, she reflects. “It was really important for me to have some space from my sister’s world and artistry”, she says of the time spent finding herself as an artist. After touring with Florence – “where I was just Dionne” – she realised something: “there’s a space for me that doesn’t have to go hand in hand with being Laura’s sister. That definitely helped me see myself differently.”
Those latter shows also boosted her confidence – especially her relationship with the guitar – so much that she started penning her own lyrics. Quickly, her guitar became key to her songwriting, especially for making chord loops. “It’s easy when you’re playing your own stuff,” she suggests, “because I’m trying to express myself. It’s not somebody else’s vision”.
Making her own music and pursuing a career as a solo artist has always been “the secret inside” of her, Dionne says now, reflecting that she was “probably coasting” during the years touring with her siblings. “There was no reason for me to delve any deeper,” she recalls, sharing that she would instead write poems in her downtime; after one resonated particularly strongly on her Instagram page, she had an epiphany: ‘maybe I should let out what I feel more, and form it into more of a song’.
However, the path to going it alone posed several personal hurdles. Alongside worrying about comparisons to her sister, she was concerned that any success would lead to “being judged and observed… people’s opinions coming at you all the time. Being in music is like psychological warfare,” Dionne continues, “you’re basically a start-up business, and it’s so tough”.
Despite the harsh realities of her chosen industry – she currently coaches tennis and tutors beginner piano and violin to help pay the bills – Dionne has become one of the most exciting new names on the scene. Having found a sound that is uniquely her own – an epic fusion of indie and rock; the seductively cinematic I’d Be Yours wouldn’t feel out of place soundtracking a Bond movie – Dionne is finally stepping out of the shadows and into her own spotlight.
Comfort In Sound
Watching her perform in Manchester recently, where she stormed the Co-op Live arena in support of Florence + The Machine’s ‘Everybody Scream’ UK tour, it’s abundantly clear how at home Dionne feels when she is on a stage. Undaunted by the scale of the room, she certainly made a lasting impression – though she’s very open about wanting to push herself further. “There’s so much more I want to do with guitar and learn,” she says, specifically citing that jazz “would open up another dimension for me”.
This interest in constant discovery stems from her sister’s ethos when it comes to music: “it’s always been about exploring, expression and being authentic”. Dionne has also carried Mvula’s outlook on live performance through to her own band, which comprises drummer Duayne Sanford and lead guitarist Al Shaham.
Image: Press
“I don’t believe in mistakes,” she says. “If you hit a wrong note, it doesn’t matter. For me, I think it only adds to the experience for someone that’s listening and participating. We are human, we’re not machines.” Dionne goes on to suggest that “you have to go beyond what’s comfortable to find out where the magic is”.
She also believes that promoting an open dialogue is of high importance. “If you’’e playing sharp or flat, or you’re not in the pocket, that needs to be communicated in a way that is neutral so that you can learn and adapt,” she says, going on to offer advice for anyone who may be on a similar artistic journey. “For musicians, you can’t necessarily control what situations you walk into, but I think you can control how you want to respond.
“So the main thing I would say is to be teachable. But, equally, put the time into whatever craft is yours, and have confidence in your own ability. To have that self-assuredness of taking the time to explore and figure out what it is that you do well, I think that’s what’s really fun about making your own music.”
Amid all the lessons that she’s learned along the way, Dionne’s goals remain the same: to make a living from her artistry, and to inspire others. “As a female, and as a brown female, I love that I play instruments,” she says, arguing that more needs to be done to improve representation. “We have a long way to go so that people feel as though things are accessible to them and that they are allowed to explore certain instruments.”
Dionne’s debut EP, ‘Cooked’, is out now
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