Brody Dalle


Brody Dalle is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist. Dalle began playing music in her adolescence, and moved to Los Angeles, California at age eighteen, where she founded the punk rock band The Distillers. The group released three albums before disbanding in 2006. Dalle began another project, Spinnerette, releasing an eponymous album in 2009. In 2014, she released Diploid Love, her first album under her solo name.

Early life

Dalle was born Bree Joanna Alice Robinson in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on New Year's Day, 1979. She was raised in the suburbs of Melbourne, in Fitzroy and Northcote. Dalle's father left their family when she was young, and her mother remarried. Through her father's second marriage, Dalle has a half-sister, writer and comedian Morgana Robinson. Dalle was sexually abused as a child, and was ensnared in court cases surrounding the abuse at age fifteen.
Dalle began training as a teenager to be an Olympic swimmer. She attended and was expelled from two Catholic high schools in Melbourne before dropping out. As a teenager, Dalle admitted to experimenting with drugs: "I was never a junkie, I was never shoeless and selling my mom's car to a Gypsy. I just experimented, like everyone else."

Career

1993-2006: Early projects, The Distillers

Dalle was intrigued by Cyndi Lauper and the Beatles as a child. At age 12, she discovered Nirvana, and cited Courtney Love and her band Hole, as well as other female-led punk groups such as Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill, as early influences on her. Dalle's musical career began at 13 years old, starting with guitar. She participated in Rock 'n' Roll High School, a Melbourne feminist collective started by Stephanie Bourke. She became interested in Black Flag, Discharge, and Flipper. In 1995 at 16, her first band, Sourpuss, played a set at Australia's Summersault Festival where she met Tim Armstrong, frontman of punk rock band Rancid. The two pursued a relationship and were engaged in 1997, shortly after Dalle turned 18. She moved with Armstrong from Melbourne to Los Angeles and there founded The Distillers.
The Distillers released their eponymous debut album in 2000, receiving acclaim and comparisons to Hole, with Dalle often compared to Courtney Love and later to PJ Harvey. By the recording of their second album Sing Sing Death House the band had a new line-up and by the time of their third album Coral Fang, Dalle was then the only remaining original member. The album was well-received, and the band experienced success with several singles from the album and performed at Lollapalooza. In 2001 Dalle also made a cameo in New Found Glory's music video "My Friends Over You" with then-husband Tim Armstrong, as well as Travis Barker and Rob Aston.

2007–2011: Spinnerette and later work

Burned out and tired of one another following a grueling two-year tour, the Distillers broke up in 2005. Dalle began work on a new project called Spinnerette with Alain Johannes of Eleven. On 11 December 2008, the band released their first EP entitled Ghetto Love, with an accompanying video directed by Liam Lynch. A full-length album was released 17 June 2009.
Dalle has also played on tracks for the band Eagles of Death Metal under various monikers and appeared on the song "Weigh on My Mind" on the Transplants' debut album in 2002. She has also made vocal appearances on Queens of the Stone Age's "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man" on their 2005 album Lullabies to Paralyze and also an appearance on Leftöver Crack's song "Muppet N.A.M.B.L.A" from their 2004 album Rock The 40 Oz: Reloaded. In 2009, she made an appearance in the same song as her husband, Josh Homme, on "Bargain Healers" from the French artist Nosfell on his self-titled album. In 2011, Brody Dalle was featured on a Boots Electric song called "Boots Electric Theme."

2012–2015: Solo work

At the beginning of 2012, Brody Dalle abandoned her long-term black hair in favour of blonde hair, which is her natural hair color. In November 2012, Dalle announced on Twitter that she was working on a solo album, featuring Alain Johannes and Michael Shuman of Queens of the Stone Age and Shirley Manson of Garbage.
In November 2013, Dalle announced that she had signed to Caroline Records, a division of Universal Music Group, with the intention of releasing her debut solo album in early 2014. The album was produced by Alain Johannes, and features guest appearances from Shirley Manson of Garbage, Nick Valensi of the Strokes, and Warpaint's Emily Kokal. Dalle supported Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age on their Australia/New Zealand tour in March 2014 to promote the album.
In February 2014, Dalle released the first single from her debut solo album, Diploid Love, called "Meet The Foetus / Oh The Joy" featuring backing vocals by Shirley Manson of Garbage and Emily Kokal of Warpaint. The second single from the album, "Don't Mess With Me," was used in the soundtrack of the Square Enix game. Diploid Love was released on 28 April 2014.
Upon becoming pregnant with her third child in 2015, Dalle entered a musical hiatus.

2018-present: The Distillers reunion

In January 2018, Dalle shared links from her Twitter account to a newly made Twitter account for The Distillers, as well as a previously established/archival Instagram account for the band. A teaser video was put up across all platforms, confirming the return of the band. According to the Distillers' Twitter account, the four accounts it follows make up the 2018 line-up: Dalle, guitarist Tony Bevilacqua, drummer Andy Granelli and Ryan Sinnott on bass.

Personal life

In 1995, at the age of 16, Dalle met the frontman of Rancid, Tim Armstrong, who was 30, when they both played Summersault festival. Dalle was with the band Sourpuss at the time. She moved to LA in 1997 to be with Armstrong, and the two married that year.
Dalle and Armstrong went through a bitter divorce in 2003. Rancid's 2003 album Indestructible featured songs that dealt with the divorce and Armstrong's feelings towards it. Dalle has said that Armstrong was very controlling of her and it took her three years to leave him. When she finally did, Armstrong and his friends criticized Dalle in the press, and she claims reportedly threatened the male members of the Distillers and blacklisted anyone associated with the band;
During her separation from Armstrong, Dalle reconnected with Queens of the Stone Age front-man Josh Homme, and the two began dating. Homme said of the beginning of their relationship, "we had to be very secretive, because she was just starting a divorce process. I went back to do those Desert Sessions, and you can tell what I was going through because I was writing stuff like 'Dead In Love' and 'I Wanna Make It Wit Chu'. I was so in love, I was totally revelling in it so much, I was a little paralysed." Dalle leaving Armstrong and beginning a relationship with Homme led to a backlash from Armstrong and his fans. Homme claims he received multiple death threats from Armstrong to stay away from Dalle: "I got all kinds of threats. They were saying, 'We're gonna kill you.' And I was saying, 'I'm six-foot-five and I have red hair and I'm not hiding. Go ahead.' I didn't steal anybody's anything. But not saying anything became the only thing that had any truth to it. There was Tim saying anything he could say and pretty much now it's established that fake-English-accent-singing fucking copycat motherfucker is full of shit. Don't be mad, just be gone."
After her divorce, Dalle reverted to using the surname of her favourite actress, Béatrice Dalle, best known for Betty Blue. In 2004, Dalle was reunited with her half-sister Morgana Robinson when the two met backstage after a Distillers show. They share a father, who was living "in Leeds or some shit".
Dalle married Homme in 2005, but in November 2019, filed for legal separation from her husband and a month later she filed for divorce, leading to restraining orders against each other and accusations of battery from both sides
They lived in the Hollywood Hills and have three children: a daughter, Camille Harley Joan Homme, and two sons, Orrin Ryder Homme and Wolf Dillon Reece Homme.

Discography

Sourpuss