Dulcie’s Timieka Denton on growing up on a marron farm in Denmark, a new sound and touring with Amy Shark

For Dulcie bassist Timieka Denton, who was raised on a marron farm near Denmark, playing a show with her band in front of a sold-out Albany crowd as Amy Shark’s support act felt like coming home. Dulcie joined Gold Coast indie pop star Amy Shark for the 12 WA tour dates of her mammoth 60-show regional tour supporting her latest album, “Cry Forever”. The band, comprising lead singer and keyboardist Ashleigh Carr-White, guitarist and vocalist Saskia Brittain, and Denton as the bassist and vocalist, got to hang out with Shark before a couple of the shows. After travelling thousands of kilometres on this leg alone, she is in awe of Shark’s work ethic and commitment to life on the road. “It’s so crazy,” Denton said. “I literally said to her ‘Amy, I don’t know how you do it, I really don’t’, and she was like ‘look, I just don’t think about it, I just do day by day, get rest, look after myself and drink lots of water’.” The fast-paced WA tour started in Bunbury on May 18 and finished in Broome on June 4, covering major regional cities and towns along the way. A sold-out show on May 26 brought Denton to play in front of a home crowd at the Albany Entertainment Centre. “It was so lovely, so good to be playing to a home crowd and seeing familiar faces,” Denton said. “When we were up on stage, we really felt like we were just at home and it was such a beautiful, wholesome gig really, to play for our hometown.” Denton has her fingers crossed that she will be able to visit the south coast again soon. There is the possibility of a headline show down this way in January off the back of a future EP — “but don’t hold me accountable,” she laughed. Denton is proud to have been one of the last babies born at the old Denmark hospital. She was raised on a farm 20 minutes out of the idyllic south coast town. “I was lucky enough to have horses and sheep,” she said. “I grew up on a marron farm which had like 50 ponds, and that’s what we kind of did, living and growing up.” Fellow Dulcie member Brittain moved to Denmark while she was in primary school, which is where she and Denton first met. “We were kind of best friends ever since really,” Denton said. “It is so lovely, and it’s just so amazing to be able to do music with your best friend — and travel the world, eventually.” When she was in Year 9, Denton moved from Denmark Senior High School to Albany Senior High School for its music program, and in Year 11, Brittain joined her. One of the highlights of their time at ASHS was playing at the Albany Entertainment Centre with visiting WA Academy of Performing Arts students the RadioActive workshop. This inspired Denton and Brittain to study the music artist course at WAAPA, and it was there they met Carr-White and formed Dulcie. “We kind of decided that’s what we went to WAAPA for, to meet our band,” Denton said. “And then we didn’t end up doing the second year, the advanced diploma, because we released our debut single and started playing a lot of shows and touring.” After uploading their debut single “Fall” to Triple J Unearthed in January 2019, they ended up winning the radio station’s competition to get a coveted slot at the 2020 Laneway Festival in Fremantle. Dulcie played shows as the support acts for artists including GFlip, and were booked to support 2018 Hottest 100 winners Ocean Alley on a 2020 nationwide tour, but COVID stalled their plans. Denton estimated the tour was booked and rebooked “about five times” due to the ever changing COVID situation, until they were finally able to join the band on tour in February this year. They followed this by supporting Lime Cordiale in Perth, before headlining a show at the Rosemount in April. In the meantime, Dulcie released two new singles this year: “tell ur friends” and “Nothing Left”. These songs have marked a shift in the band’s sound, moving more towards pop with electronic influences, and away from the blissed-out folk sounds that shaped their earlier singles and their first EP “Sake of Sound” released last year. Denton said the new sound “possibly” signalled the start of a new era for the band, who now enlist Eskimo Joe pianist Joel Quartermain as their producer. “I think we’re trying to incorporate a live sound as well as production into our new music and upcoming music,” Denton said. “You’re forever evolving as an artist and as a band as well, so I think we’re just trying new things and seeing where it takes us really.” After a busy few months on tour, the 22-year-old is happy to be back in her new home base of Perth, speaking to Inspire from her backyard. But it’s not all rest and relaxation — for Dalton and her bandmates it’s “back to reality” as she returns to her retail job and the others to their day jobs. Such is the life for working musicians. And soon they will be on the road again, this time for a headline tour in August that will take them to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane before returning to Margaret River. “I feel like I’d rather be busy than not,” Denton said. “I’m a person to kind of book my full calendar out, and not have any time to just chill. “So it works out well.”