Dillon Jo
Formed in Wellington by Massey University students Georgie Levien and Betty Smith, Dillon Jo began as an acoustic songwriting partnership before evolving into a full four-piece band. The pair, both 20, first started writing music together in late 2024, gradually building their presence through busking, open mic nights and small bar shows before expanding their sound with the addition of bassist Kahu Sanson-Burnett and drummer Ruadh Munro. Blending elements of shoegaze, dream pop and rock, the band describe their sound as “dreamy droppy rock pop” — a hazy, guitar-driven style shaped as much by their shared influences as by the creative energy of the Wellington music scene around them.
Do you come from musical families or did you kind of discover music on your own?
Georgie: That's a great question.
Betty: I think, um. I discovered it on my own. I think. I mean, my dad's always been into music, but he's never played anything, so,
Georgie: Yeah. It's a hard question 'cause my, I think my mom did piano and like choirs in school and then dad played trumpet and drums. I guess that makes me come from a musical family now I think about it!
What's the earliest live performance you can remember doing?
Georgie: Ooh, that's a hard one.
Betty: Um, I think mine would probably be year five. There's this thing called Orange Day Parade in Wellington, and I got picked to play at the Michael Fowler Center in front of all the Orange Day Parade people, which was cool. The people were holding out those school signs, like Stop, Clear, Cross.
Georgie: Um, I think mine would've been a primary school talent show. Maybe like year three when I did a little dance and song with my best friend.
Has studying at Massey changed the way you approach making music?
Betty: I think in ways yes, I think majoring in industry has taught me a lot and I think I for Georgie as well. And being amongst a lot of other talented people can really influence you and you can get inspired by them. So definitely amongst the people in our course I've definitely kind of changed a little bit.
Georgie: I'd say the Wellington scene as a whole though, not just Massey, has definitely changed my music. Just all the people around us.
When you started the Dillon Jo project, did you know what you wanted it to sound like or was it kind of like an evolution to get to where you are today?
Georgie: I think we had ideas. We have relatively similar music tastes and we both come from backgrounds of liking a lot of different genres. So when it came to our sound, it was very experimental at first. Trying to figure out if we could make the Wellington scene as a whole kind of sound a bit different and incorporate more pop elements than maybe just classic shoegaze. Definitely our two band mates as well helped with curating the sound we are today.
What genre would you use to describe yourself?
Betty: I would say probably a mix of shoegaze, dream pop and rock. I think like a blend of those three.
Georgie: Yeah. We've coined a term that we call dreamy droppy rock pop, which is what we are. We like to call it that. I guess it's our new sound.
What artists are you guys most inspired by?
Betty: I'd say for me personally, I'm super inspired by this band called Slow Pulp. Um, definitely take inspiration from a lot of their music and yeah, I think that's my main one.
Georgie: Dillon Jo has definitely got Slow Pulp vibes. I would also say Tom York, as a creator of music like Radiohead has been a big influence throughout my whole life. But yeah, I love Slow Pulp. Good answer.
What's your songwriting process?
Georgie: I'd say our songwriting process for our band music is we usually sit down together and either me or Betty will write a song on guitar, and we'll bring parts of it to each other and it's almost kind of like a half made song.
And then we write it acoustically and then we go the step further to the band practices where we say like, we've got the bones of this song, how can we change it dynamically? Or add distortion, guitar and drums, and yeah. That kind of thing.
When did you realise you wanted to move from a duo to a band?
Betty: I think we always knew that that was something that was in the cards. I remember when we first started and had written about like five songs together, and I would be saying “oh, this would sound so much cooler with a band!” And so it was just taking those steps busking first and playing bars and open mic nights to then transition into a band. So we kind of broke into the scene a bit gradually.
How did you form the band? Is there a bit of a story there?
Georgie: Um, well I knew Kahu from Nelson and we knew we were looking for a bass and a drummer. And with Ruadh we met him through our Massey course in first year and then he started working in second year and we kind of reached out to him 'cause I've been in a practice band with him before and it was really fun.
So that was kind of us auditioning Ruadh in a way. And then Kahu is just an amazing asset to have with us, and he really changes our music for the better.
Betty: And I guess me and Georgie had known each other for a few years but we only started writing music together late 2024. And I think after writing quite a few songs together, we were like “Why not just make a project?”
So if someone was listening to you for the first time, what song should they start with?
Georgie: Um, at the moment our discography is pretty small. I'd say we're releasing an album this year, which we're really excited for and there's a lot of good finds on that. But if you were to listen to us from the get go, you'd probably wanna start with Shiver 'cause it's a bit harder and more driven.
Betty: I think that Shiver is kind of similar to a few other songs that we haven't released yet, rather than Jo, which is a bit more poppy than rock, if that makes sense.
Georgie: True, maybe Jo would be good to start with. Maybe either one.
Are you gonna release any singles or just go straight into releasing the album?
Betty: We'll definitely release a few singles before the album.
What's your favourite song to perform live?
Georgie: Um, at the moment for me, it's Vertigo. That's our newest song and it's definitely our most rock song that we've got on our set list at the moment. And yeah, it's just really fun to just like let loose.
Betty: Yeah, I would say the same actually.
Georgie: Yeah.
Do you prefer your live shows to be more intimate or more big hype sing along kind of vibe?
Georgie: I think one of my favourite sets we've ever done is when we first released It was you and it was the most intimate performance of just us in this little room with all our closest friends. And it was kind of an RSVP event. Um, and that was really special 'cause that made people kind of listen to our lyrics a lot more. But I'd say nothing beats a crowded San Fran gig. It's just like the best feeling ever.
Betty: Yeah. It's the best feeling.
Do you have any pre-show rituals that you do before going on stage?
Betty: I guess vocal warmups. The boring stuff.
Georgie: We’re a sucker for vocal warmups.
Betty: Also I think hyping up the band. And maybe a cheeky drink.
Do you guys have any dream venues or festivals you'd love to play?
Betty: I think for me personally, Laneway would be amazing to play.
Georgie: Oh yeah. I would love to play there. Or maybe like Glastonbury.
Betty: Yeah. Obviously that’s if we were dreaming that big, but I also agree with that. That is like “one day, surely.”
What about a dream collaboration?
Betty: Oh, Slow Pulp.
Georgie: Honestly, I'm thinking about Laneway now and how good this year's lineup was, like Wisp and Lucy Dacus like that would be pretty cool to collab with.
Betty: Yeah, collabing with Wisp, or even boygenius.
What's next for you guys?
Georgie: Uh, so we have CubaDupa coming up, and we're performing with Wet Denim at Meow this Friday. Uh, and we've got a few opening slots that we've announced and some we can't announce yet.
Betty: I'd say the main thing is to keep an eye out for our album release this year, which is probably gonna take up most of our time I reckon.
You can find Dillon Jo on Instagram @dillonjomusic
