Deep Dive: Dalmatia – Lillies

The wash and weft of Lillies is part of the upcoming Adagio concept album from San Francisco alt-shoegazers Dalmatia.

Autumn and Joe from the band have kindly done a Deep Dive on the track for us, you’re certain to hear it when the band play the hometown edition of mybloodyshoegazefest.

Genesis of the song and lyrics

I wrote the lyrics with a narrative in mind before the album’s storyline was fully fleshed out. We built the overall concept partially surrounding Lillies, starting at the end of the story and working backwards. This song is The Narrators’ surrender; it’s about her succumbing to the Marine Layer Reality where The Agent controls her life and she is haunted by The Lover who wants her to escape from everything.

Tragically, she does. The lyrics convey a more abstract perspective than the rest of the album, being a mixture of her talking to herself, the lover, and the agent. It’s her white flag and a full collapse of the self. (Autumn Henriksen, Vocals)

Instrumentation and recording

“I wrote this song at my friend’s house. I was dating a girl at the time and she had just left for a trip abroad. For the first time in that relationship, I felt pain, and writing the music behind Lillies was my release. It started with the main riff and slowly, through collaboration, was built into what we have now.” (Joe Khorge, guitar)

Making the video

With our storyline in mind, every visual aid and choice has intention behind it. For Dive In, we recruited our good friend James Merkle to direct the music video, and he put together an incredible crew, with Eden Moshe as DP and Lucy Mallory as wardrobe/stylist.

And now, we have Lillies. We asked James to direct again, and he expanded an already great team to include PA Guilherme Gomes and SFX makeup artist Ava Jane. The filming process included 3 shoot days and two months of planning. All characters are played by the band members: me (Autumn Henriksen, vocals) as The Narrator, Joe Khorge (guitar) as The Agent, Ran Liu (bass) as The Lover, Jackson Robb (guitar) as The Brother, and Cole Hone (drums) as The Gatekeeper.

For the Dalmatia universe, we draw a lot of inspiration from David Lynch films’ overall fever dream vibe, Fight Club’s nameless characters and distinctive 90s style, the storytelling and visuals of Black Swan, and The Matrix. We are so excited to share this song with the world. (Autumn)

Where does this Lillies fit within your wider body of work?

This song serves as the climax of the story within Adagio. It is Autumn’s character finally succumbing to all the forces around her as she quickly spirals into her demise.” (Joe)

“Our upcoming concept album Adagio has a full written narrative which the music portrays. Inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter, where there is reason behind every visual, every lyric, and every live performance. Lillies serves as the climax, the final act of the album, where The Narrator decides her own fate. It’s a tragic story, but it’s not the end of the story…” (Autumn)

What are you up to in the coming months?

We have a lot coming up! Including one more single called Lakefront Estate, then in early 2027 (aiming for February), we will release Adagio, our debut concept album. In between releases, we have many local live performances planned or in the works; our typical month includes at least 2-3 gigs in the Bay Area, and we plan to go on tour for Adagio as well. Keep an eye out for one more music video which will come out with the album and merch! We release new stuff bi-annually, all designed by our guitarist Jax.” (Autumn)

Lillies is out now on Psyched! Records; for news on Adagio, as well as upcoming live dates connect with Dalmatia on Instagram or TikTok.