The members of Dizzy, an ambient pop band from Oshawa, began making music to combat the anxieties of boredom.
Band members say growing up in the suburbs encourages them to explore music and art, and today that’s starting to pay off for them.
The band is made up of brothers Charlie, 22, Mackenzie, 23, and Alex Spencer, 26, along with their friend and lead singer Katie Munshaw, 22.
Katie and Charlie met in Grade 9. They went to Maxwell Heights Secondary School in Oshawa where they did talent shows together before taking a year off after graduation.
Together, they also performed as a duo before adding the other two brothers.
While the guys grew up with jazz as a musical influence, Katie grew up listening to pop music and singers such as Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch.
Katie was on the verge of applying for drama programs and then enrolled into Journalism at Durham College.
A few months in she and the guys were signed to Royal Mountain Records. In this moment they knew this was something they could really begin to take seriously.
Royal Mountain Records is an independent record label based in Toronto that also represents Hollerado, Alvvays, and others.
There’s often a story behind band names. But not in this case. Katie says the guys just agreed with Dizzy. “There’s not really much of a story to it, we were originally called Good Ghost, but the change to Dizzy came out of thin air. We just really like the phonetics of it,” said Katie.
Every artist has different methods in the process of writing songs. Katie says it’s a lot to do about being inspired by the beats.
“It’s different every time,” she says. “Charlie will put a cord and a beat together and if I’m inspired by it I’ll put lyrics to it. Sometimes I have lyrics in the back of my mind and save them for the right beats.”
Artwork is also something many artists take seriously.
“The idea behind the artwork for the two singles was to capture the life people in these different houses,” says Katie. “The first one for ‘Stars and Moons’ was in Oshawa and the one for ‘Swim’ was in Toronto.”
Dizzy currently has two songs released on music platforms. ‘Stars and Moons’ was released on Oct. 13 via Royal Mountain Records and Canvasback. Their second single ‘Swim’ was released on Nov. 20.
Dizzy started off by playing shows at the Moustache Club in Oshawa. Today, they’ve performed three times at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.
They also played as part of The Horseshoe Tavern’s 70th anniversary celebration in October.
The band has traveled to play shows in the U.S., including New York City and Chicago.
With two songs out and a full album on its way in the New Year, Dizzy is a local band worth keeping an eye out for in the near future.
