This year has definitely been the year we overthought. With all this time stuck at home…or even just in the country, it’s been hard avoiding thoughts of all things we were beginning to do so well at trying to forget! Fear of never actually adulting? Check. Anxiety as to whether Mariah will ever actually achieve her elusive 19th #1 and finally equal The Beatles? Affirmative. Looking through rose-tinted glasses at all our past relationships and making questionable decisions about getting back in touch with each of those pigs? Absolutelyyyyyyyy…
And so it is with great joy that Gregory Dillon and his new single, ‘Screenshots’ has come into our lives to offer us a vision of some kind of Midsummer Pride Night’s Gay Christmas Carol as a precursor. Hearing Gregory sing, ‘Babe call me back, Been looking through the pictures we snapped. I’m reading every message you left, Just feeling reckless, replaying all the screenshots from the past’ just hits us like a slap in the face to say, ‘You’re delusional! Next!’
We’re truly loving Gregory’s latest anthem with strong and sexy deep vocals delivered over synths and a Robyn-esque beat. So we thought we’d catch up with Gregory to find out more….
Congratulations on the new single, ‘Screenshots’. Break it down for us, what’s it about?
Why thank you Loverboy. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a screenshot is worth a thousand gigs on your iPhone 6 and it’s tempting you to recklessly text/call your ex. If anything, ‘Screenshots’ is a rose-colored warning of what not to do when stuck at home. But that’s way easier said than done. It’s like trying to lead a horse to water… or maybe catching the bird in the bush? Whatever proverb I’m going for here, we are clearly wearing a sexy tracksuit and thirsty for some action.
Quarantine has been the worst time if you are an overthinker, especially when it comes to relationships. Has Quarantine made you make any rash decisions and then immediately regret them?
I think this pandemic has only blurred the line of ‘What is a rash action?’ and magnified the feeling of rebellion. Stepping on the subway feels like an awkward grindr hookup and scamming my aunt for her Hulu account feels like a Federal Crime. I can’t tell if I’m following in the footsteps of James Dean or Ron Weasley.
We once sent a guy a document of Mariah Carey lyrics that he could use in a business situation to try and woo him. Strangely it didn’t work. What has been the most cringey thing you have done to try and woo someone that didn’t work?
First off, that business just lost a share of my stock. Lol. I’ve got seven journals worth of cringey romantic attempts but I may as well tell you my worst, no? As a teenager, I once tried to have a romantic candlelit bath with a special someone using my parents bathroom (because it had these jacuzzi jets). So I put on the tunes and had essential oils and waited till we were both settled in the water to flick on the jets. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the jets hadn’t been used in years so when I turned them on, brown sediment by the gallons started spewing all over us…clearly we didn’t last long.
When did you first start making music and what’s the most important thing you have learned about writing since then?
In eighth grade, I remember spending hours at the apple store messing on a Mac with Garageband in the corner of the store. Fast forward to college where I got my ears pierced, my uncle’s vintage Roland Synth and started producing 80’s instrumental tracks for old workout tapes. The rest is history.
You’ve been steadily releasing music, is this towards an album?
All through my twenties, I’ve dreamed of releasing an album and that day is fast approaching. To me it will be like landing on the moon- I’m laser focused on that target, Houston. It’s a euphoric gel of pop music – all related around childhood suburbia and escapism. (Minus the ice spiker.) Truthfully if Donnie Darko and The Truman Show had an EP, it might as well be this.
You’ve got a great aesthetic in all your videos. Do you work with the same team, how does that work?
Both me and my sister, Genevieve Scherer, were raised by the most angelic crafty-artist-mom and we’ve been making films since forever; she directed my first music video, Alone With You (2018), and has been on the editing team for every other video since. What’s special for Screenshots is we got to co-direct the video right as she moved out to Los Angeles to pursue film after school.
And you have your poses down in all your videos! Have you always been comfortable moving in front of the camera?
If ‘posing’ isn’t in Heaven then I’m not going. I love being physically expressive and though I know I’m not the best (unless you give me a few cosmos) I’ve always been encouraged by my inner circle to just f*cking go for it. Self-liberation can be a tough pill to swallow but I’ve experienced moments in my artistic journey that have melted through my weight of insecurities. I just did a YouTube meditation about spiritual ecstasy being the cure to shame so that’s where I’m currently at. Haha…
With such clear visuals – what is your favourite underrated music video?
Mothica’s ‘oh god’. she deals with everyday struggles while recovering from addiction. I was at my first party in LA, that Mothica invited me to, and she was running around the street filming scenes for this music video.
Lastly we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001. So we always ask, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
My favourite Mariah song and music video is ‘Vision of Love’. She really got my third eye going with that song and the whistle tones at the end are some of my favourite of hers.
