Amanda Walther and Sheila Carabine can’t wait to get back to Banff.
The Toronto-based folk pop duo, Dala – which take their name from the last two letters of each of their first names – come to The Banff Centre, Thursday (Jan. 12) for a performance at the Margaret Greenham Theatre.
“It’s been a couple years, but Banff probably is one of my favourite places in Canada,” said Carabine. “I’ve been looking forward to this show for a while.
“The scenery doesn’t get any better. The drive from Calgary towards Banff is one of the most beautiful drives in the country.”
Dala has played The Banff Centre twice before, with Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe in 2008 and opening for Tom Cochrane in 2007.
“We toured three times in 2008 with the Vinyl Cafe,” said Carabine. “We really feel like they took us under their wing and showed us the country, it’s wonderful to get the Vinyl Cafe stamp of approval, it really opens audience’s ears up to your music.”
Opening for Cochrane was extra special, she stressed.
“Banff has a special place in our hearts because it was the very first show of the Tom Cochrane tour, and it was our first cross-Canada tour and our first time taking guitars on an airplane, so I have a particular fondness for Banff,” said Carabine.
The duo has also played at Communitea in Canmore at least four times.
“Communitea is also an amazing place to play,” she said. “We always get a full room there, which is nice. For us, Alberta feels like a second home.”
This year marks 10 years since the duo wrote their first song and it’s been quite an adventure, said Carabine.
“I’m touring with my best friend, which is a great way to see the world. We’re doing our favourite thing in the world – playing music – and it’s nice to play in your home country, it feels like home and the audiences are wonderful,” she said. “Amanda and I consider ourselves singer-songwriters and we write all our songs together. We’ll sit down and one of us will bring an idea to the table, and we write on piano and acoustic guitar mainly.”
The song are very harmony-driven, she explained.
“I have the lower voice and Amanda adds the ethereal soprano harmony,” she said. “We write about what we know, our personal experiences, apart and together. We’ve done a lot of growing and changing in the last 10 years, so hopefully our songs are doing the same.
“It comes down to our dynamic together – our vocal dynamic and the personality dynamic – we really love to joke together on stage, tell stories with the audience and we want it to be as intimate as possible, which is why we like the duo thing.”
That dynamic translates into a great show, she said, with an emphasis on storytelling.
“You gather a lot of funny stories from the road after 10 years, and stories of our home life and families. I’m always observing and remembering things to tell later on, on stage, which can make your family and friends a little wary.”
Last month, Dala played a Christmas show at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, which was recorded by CBC and aired on Dec. 25.
“It was wonderful, Ottawa’s a beautiful place to visit around Christmas time, and to have CBC record it and broadcast it across the country on Christmas Day, we were very thrilled,” said Carabine. “We were very grateful to CBC, they’ve been so supportive from the beginning of our career.”
Dala just finished recording a new album, Best Day, to be released in June.
“We’re very excited about it, it’s all original songs,” said Carabine. “We feel we’ve documented what we’ve done and where we’ve been in the last three years and it’s all on the album and I’m very proud of these songs and I can’t wait to share them.
“They’re very intimate stories and they range from simple arrangements to a couple of more bombastic songs with big sing-along choruses.”
Though Dala has stiff competition that night, with Matt Barber and Doug Paisley playing at Communitea in Canmore, Carabine said there’d be something special for those who come to her show.
“If you come to our show, we might show some ankle,” she laughed.
To find out more about Dala, visit their website at www.dalagirls.com
