Dear Dario's single 'Name' an apt metaphor for a band climbing back to the scene
After a few years away from the Chicago music scene, Anthony Dario is back with a new single and a new lineup for his band Dear Dario.
"Name" - recalling the band's grungier alternative influences and rock touchstones from the mid-90s - is a stage-setter for an artist fighting his way back to the music scene. The release artwork depicts a man walking through fire, and the song challenges listeners to remember, to learn and to grow after they've crossed their own personal fire pits.
As a first responder, Dario has seen firsthand the devastation addiction, mental illness and abuse can wreak. And channeling that in the new single, he urges listeners to be strong, but to still remember.
"What this song is really meant to do is to make you strong enough or help you find the strength to be able to face those things head on," he explained. "I still remember your name. I still remember everything that you've done to me. I still remember all this stuff, but I'm not going to let you take over me."
"Now I'm able to really explain to people and help people with music in any way possible, to just make them realize you don't have to hide that stuff. You don't have to run away from those things," he added. "And if we can prevent anybody from hurting themselves or taking their own lives or feeling like they're not worthy enough because of things that they've gone through in the past, then that is the message that I want to deliver."
The song also deeply touched the band's new bassist, Tico Nerval, who was confined to the ICU while visiting family in Brazil last summer after contracting a severe variant of COVID-19.
"I was like, 'I want to get out of here. ... And I'm gonna go all in on this music thing,'" Nerval said. "I was just overwhelmed with this feeling of being grateful for life, because that's it. I needed to be here. In order to be part of this, in order to do something different and meet these guys and keep going with this music dream."
The band Dear Dario, a love letter to Dario's late grandfather and musical inspiration, last fall also brought in drummer Rafa Fernanz, a filmmaker and rock star on the Brazilian emo scene now living in Lisle. Fernanz shot, directed and edited the single's slick video, an introduction of sorts to the new incarnation of the band.
For Dario, the step back from the scene clarified his path, driving the band's return.
"The only thing that I really, really feel I am meant to do and also enjoy doing in life is music," he said. "It really opened my eyes to realize what it was."