Delilah Bon: Misogyny Is To Blame

Few artists embody rebellion and empowerment quite like Delilah Bon.

Born from frustration with misogyny in the music industry and fuelled by punk, grunge, and feminist rap, she’s carved out a sound that’s both fierce and fun. Fresh from her first US headline tour and with her new EP ‘Princeless Princess’ coming soon in September, Delilah sat down with Music Is To Blame to talk origins, influences, and why her music matters now more than ever.


As you know, we’re called Music Is To Blame. We would like to know what's to blame for the creation of Delilah Bon and where did the name come from?

Delilah Bon wouldn't have happened without a negative experience of the music industry. I feel like she was born out of the misogyny and sexism that I faced in a band at the time called Hands Off Gretel. Delilah Bon kind of came along to empower me when I needed it the most. I was between a few different names, I didn't want to go with my birth name. I wanted a complete new image. And weirdly, this was a character that I had on The Sims, so I would play Sims 4 and I had a character called Delilah Bon and she was famous. I made her, like, a famous singer and stuff. And then when I came to name myself, it felt stupid at first because I was like, I can't unsee it as my Sim haha. But it just felt right. I just, I thought maybe subconsciously I created this Sim character and I was living through her imagining it was me anyway.


Manifesting through Sims! On that note as well, what or who would you say is to blame for your music career, what got you into this path?

I feel like I always wanted to be a singer. I didn't realise I wanted to be a songwriter for quite a long time, but when I was young, I started singing at school, and at school I didn't do very well. I was always in trouble, always in detention, always being mischievous and the only thing that gave me focus is music. And whenever I would sing, that’s the only time people would recognise me as anything other than the naughty kid. I would do a few school performances and I noticed that people would actually see me for the first time whereas usually, it's like I would disappear into the isolation. With music, it's like people started to realise that I was good at something and I wasn't just a bad kid. I think that's what kind of made me addicted to the feeling because I was still a bad kid and that continued but I also had this superpower where I would sing and people would be shocked that I could sing and it kind of stemmed from that. It was the one thing I was good at and I kind of put all my eggs in one basket with that one.


You have such an interesting blend of sounds, who are the biggest musical influences that you would say are to blame for the sound you've curated?

I think nowadays the only male musician I listen to is Kurt Cobain. I feel like I listen to so, so many genres of music where the main theme behind it is women's experiences and I feel like that started when I was young and I used to listen to P!nk. P!nk’s lyrics about being like an outcast and an outsider, and feeling alone, they resonated with me. And then I got into grunge. I resonated a lot with Courtney Love and with The Distillers. I loved Brody Dalle from the Distillers. And over the past few years, I've gone more into rap and I love artists like Megan Thee Stallion. I love the different styles of aggression 'cause I've got the punk that I like, Bikini Kill and bands like this, but then I feel like feminine rage is also in a lot of rap music as well. 


You just came back from your first US headline tour. How was it? Are there any specific moments that stand out?

The whole thing was incredible. I was quite nervous to go to the US. People from the US messaged me and said, do not come to this country right now. Like with everything happening with Trump, to avoid. And so even like a month up to going me and my mum were back and forth messaging each other saying, should we really go? Should we do it? Should we pull the tour? But I just  needed to go just to see my fans so much and I feel like it was the best decision I made, and we had no issues whatsoever at the border. We had no issues at the shows. My highlights are always the conversations I have with people after the show. There was a girl that I pulled up on stage - I didn't do it every night, but some of the nights I asked for a volunteer and I was like, I'm gonna play this song and I need a volunteer to be like my picnic date for a song called ‘Cannibal Summer’. And I pulled up this girl and when she got on the stage, she acted it all out and it went incredible! And then afterwards she messaged me and she said she didn't wanna be here anymore this year and said that with everything happening with Trump and being trans and all these issues that she was facing, she said that she'd struggled to find meaning in life and a point in everything.  And then she said that that night when I pointed her out and brought her on stage, it's like everything she'd ever dreamed. And I think it's like moments like that, like a lot of the people come to the shows for. A lot of them have given up hope and they feel quite lost and feel quite terrified of the future, especially with Trump. It just felt quite surreal and I always get this thing where I struggle with how I'm perceived because people look up to me and my whole life, no one's really looked up to me. I’ve always kind of been me in my own little bubble and now, there’s like queues of people waiting hours before my show down the street, I've just never ever had that before!


People that resonate with you that have been so affected by everything that's been happening in the US they definitely needed you there. So it’s great that you went ahead with the tour! I would love to know what was the first lyric or the first song that you wrote as Delilah Bon and you went, “This is me! This is my message!”

My first songs were ‘Bad Attitude’ and ‘Chiquitita’. I only had three or four songs and they were like my secret songs, because at the time I was in my band Hands Off Gretel, so I knew those songs, they’re not Hands off Gretel songs.  When I showed my mum these songs she just said, the way you dance around and sing to these songs, it's like I'm seeing you when you were younger. And, that's what I feel like, I feel like I'm more my childlike self when I'm singing these songs because I'm not trying to be cool or trying to look a certain way or trying to be rock or trying to be punk. It's like I just have so much fun with the music I do. I'd say probably ‘Bad Attitude’ was my first, that’s when I knew that I had to do that genre. 


Your visuals and aesthetic are such a big part of what draws people in right away — from your music videos to imagery and your overall vibe. How has stepping into Delilah Bon influenced the way you express yourself through fashion, hair, or makeup?

I've always been into dressing up my whole life. I feel like dressing up came alongside wanting to be a performer. It meant that I could dress up all the time and change my image. And so I guess I've always kind of been this way, but being Delilah Bon and having themes. I just love a theme! Like for my tour, I wanted the theme for all my dresses to be princessy, but with a punk twist. And I like making my own clothes for Delilah Bon, I'll design my own outfits and I feel being able to express myself through hair and makeup iis how I've always imagined my dreams to look, where I can be like a character and I can change.


Would you say it's more freeing in a way? 

Yeah, I think sometimes it is like, I said this on my story yesterday on Instagram, but I feel like Delilah Bon is the extrovert me, and that's why sometimes I find it hard to be her on the days where I'm having a bad mental health day. When that happens, I feel like I'm not Delilah Bon, I feel like I'm Lauren, I’m not this character - I could definitely have a bad mental health day and still be Delilah Bon, but I think in my mind, she's the kind of confident me, the extrovert who is very bright colours, very punk-looking outfits, but then me and my day-to-day normal life, if I'm feeling a little bit more introverted, I like to dress more like a hippie style. 


What’s the impression that you would love to make to any first time listener or someone that sees you for the first time live? At the summer festivals recently for example.

I feel like when I play a festival, I really want to grab all the girls that walk past. As soon as I see the girls or the gays, I always see them and I think, this music is for you! And I feel my goal is for someone to walk past the tent and hear my music and feel empowered and feel like, “holy shit, this is something that I resonate with!” I feel like my focus is entirely on that, because sometimes when I focus on too many things, like if men don't like my music, it's quite funny. I feel like sometimes I see men's reactions at festivals when they walk past the tent and it is just funny to me. Sometimes they love it and sometimes they hate it.


Your music combines head-bopping fun with heavy topics, why do you think it’s so important to shine a light on topics like misogyny, LGBTQ+ rights, self love?

Sometimes people tell me that everything I've said has been done before. I get comments saying like, this was done with Riot Grrrl 25 years ago, 30 years ago. And I feel like that's the thing with society. You think the world will learn and you think people will educate themselves, everything will get better for women, but then you just see a repeat with every generation. There's a repeat, and I feel like currently, with the rise of incel culture and violence towards women everywhere in the world, now more than ever you need every single musician to put a spotlight on it because as much as people might think it's been said before, it has to be said again and again. If I can make music that's quite fun, but also serious, but then also get my point across, like, that's gonna help young girls especially find feminism. It's like a way for me to educate without just sharing articles.


What’s next for you? What should we be looking forward to? 

So I have a new EP coming out on the 26th of September, called ‘Princeless Princess’, and it's very much about everything a woman is. Everything a woman is not supposed to be, conventionally. In tradition a woman was always seen to be small and pretty and delicate, and it's taking the idea that a woman needs this prince to come and save her and all that fairytale and kind of flipping it around. It’s kind of about centering yourself and centering the woman's experience, and there's lots of fantasy parts in there. There's a song that I wrote about sleep paralysis, which is a song about dragons! There's a song which will be the lead single called ‘Bush’, which is about women’s empowerment, about body hair - it's about being outspoken and being loud and not covering up and not feeling like you have to fit this little mold that's been made for us. But overall, it's just very fun. I feel like the EP is so fun and it's got topics in there like a song called ‘Cinderella’ that mentions sexual assault and things like that. But then somehow it's mixed in a way where it's also escapism. 


Catch Delilah Bon on tour this autumn :

Mariana Patsi

@m.patsivideo

Image: Olivia Tate 

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