The foundation for their award-winning harmony began in music class at Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Toronto’s east end.
“It really felt like a family,” said Walther.
Today the pop duo is known as Dala and has won awards for their unique sound, which Carabine calls a “little bit folk, little bit pop and a lot of harmony.”
The best friends have opened for Jann Arden at Massey Hall, won the 2010 Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal Group of the Year and toured North America. They are counting down the days until they will return to headline at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre on Dec. 5. At the theatre, fans can expect new material, and the duo will be taking requests.
Walther and Carabine studied music throughout high school and, says Carabine, those years were the building blocks for today’s success.
“Mary Ward is a self-directed school, which as a teenager I found very empowering,” said Carabine. “I think that kind of responsibility helped prepare me for the demands of the music business. Artists today really have to be their own advocates.”
They had been friends for years when they wrote their first song together and knew instantly that there was something “magical” about what they had created. That was 11 years ago. They’ve been writing and singing together ever since.
Carabine also studied piano with the Royal Conservatory of Music from age eight to 18.
“As far as singing and playing the guitar, we are both self-taught. We follow our ears,” she said. And their ears have lead to their almost ethereal sound.
“I grew up in a wonderful church community and my first experience singing was in our church youth choir. I’m sure those years of singing from the heart have seeped into our music somehow,” said Walther.
Walther is extremely proud of Dala’s most recent album, Best Day, which was released in 2012. Dala has released five albums to date.
“I feel like it took us our whole lives and all the courage we could muster to make that record,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to discovering again and again the songs that we have yet to write. Every album brings us to a new place.”
But being in studio is no match for performing live, says Carabine.
“Being on stage and looking out into a darkened theatre is a thrill like no other. That’s the easy part,” she said. “The challenge nowadays is the amount of travel required to maintain a full-time career. You have to tour constantly. Maybe that’s why artists get permanent shows in Vegas.”
She jokingly adds that maybe Dala should work on their Celine Dion covers.
If Walther could go back in time and give one piece of advice to herself and Carabine’s teenage selves, she jokes it would be to invest in Google stock.
“I think every hard thing we’ve had to learn along the way has led us to write the songs we write now. I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said.