KAREN DIO: Brazilian heat keeping it cool in St Leonards
Words by Jon Everall
Photos by Toby Shaw
Punk Rocker Karen Dió opens up about life at the seaside, her quarter-million Spotify monthly streams, plans for a European summer tour, and her first tattoo.
With all the FLs, the AFBs (Across From Brighton), FILTH (Failed In London, Trying Hastings), more Northern accents, Scots, and Americans making Hastings and St Leonards their home, it’s Brazilian punk rocker Karen Dió that can probably lay claim to having travelled amongst the furthest. Spending her formative years growing up in Santos, a coastal city in the State of São Paulo, two hundred-odd miles down the coast from Rio de Janeiro, there is something of an informal twin-town connection.
“I love this about Hastings and Santos because you go to your local shop and you know their names and you have this conversation, you actually live the life, being close to people, talking to people, the sense of community,” she says about our similar environments, celebrating neighbourliness over anonymity.
Deciding to move from the city, Karen and her husband, Matt Bigland of the band Dinosaur Pile-Up, tested the water with a comfortable short stay at B&B 15 Grosvenor. Immediately taken with the town, its people and friendliness, she cites the warm welcome and great pizza they received from Frankie and Francesca at Monelli’s on George Street on their very first day here. Around Trinity Triangle, it was the zines in Wow And Flutter that won her over. And in a quip that will surprise exactly no one living in the UK’s unofficial most canine friendly town, Karen adds, “All of a sudden we were stopped talking with someone that we never knew because of a dog. You know what I mean?”
It’s cats, rather than dogs, that they live with, and Kaka and Mr Christmas complete their East Sussex family. But how do we get to seaside feline nirvana from sharing a stage with Limp Bizkit in front of thousands and screaming into a mic before a swirling moshpit of rock fans?
Back in Brazil, Karen spent a decade in Santos - the ‘X’ tattoo on her leg, her first of many, marking the period in Roman numerals. As a youngster, it was the catchy pop and girl power of the Spice Girls that turned her on to music. As she matured, the sound, freedom and politics of punk rock became more appealing. The creative do-it-yourself attitude also tied into her study of graphic design and pursuit of a visual communications career. It is this side of her artistic output that has been paying the bills - both here, as a requirement of her visa, and previously in South America, where her passion for music evolved.
Violet Soda, her former garage band launched in São Paulo city in 2018, sang a majority of their songs in English. The reasons behind this were threefold. Firstly, because most of their musical influences were from the States (Green Day, Offspring, Avril Lavigne - “I never realised I could be on stage until I saw Avril.”). Secondly, for greater commercial appeal and more universal fans, and thirdly, because, “There is something about English that is sharp and pointy and really matches rock and punk rock.”
The Romantic languages are too rounded and gentle for acerbic choruses. “I do want to write more songs in Portuguese. I like the challenge of trying to make Portuguese sound dangerous. It's very hard.”
She’s had to embrace other cultural differences too. British sarcasm and humour have taken a little getting used to over the last half-decade of assimilation, via her marriage, day job, and the music business. While it’s not how people tend to be in Latin America, it’s an alternative way of lightening the mood. We might put it down to the inclement weather. She’s more generous, feeling liberated in the UK and seeing individuality and queer visibility more readily accepted.
The urge to sing and perform was lessened by the hard realities of long days, client deadlines and creative agency work. It’s no small transition to move halfway across the world and start again. Keeping both home and the Home Office happy is an additional effort. But gradually, the desire to get on stage crept back, and K (as she’s known to Matt, with increasing musical encouragement) or Kaz (to colleagues at supportive London studio Make Agency), created the exaggerated version of herself, Karen Dió.
The stage name, as much to her grandfather’s delight as to her own surprise, echoes an older spelling of her family name. And with it, a reinvention of how she wants to be seen in the public sphere. There’s a huge change from being in a band to becoming a solo artist, not least of these is having to work with more people. Through happenstance, Dinosaur Pile-Up was having a little downtime last year, so Matt was able to play guitar on stage for his wife. This scenario has further helped in dealing with some of the familiarities or hardships of international touring, something Matt is a two decade veteran of. Drummer-wise, it’s not been quite so cut and dry, with a small list of session drummers hired for recordings and tours on a more ad hoc basis and by availability, including the brilliantly nicknamed J-Lo (Jamie Lee Oliver).
“I see Karen Dió as my alter ego, a bigger version of me. It is not actually who I am. Keeping it separate is a good thing for my mental health. When I'm on stage, I am the amplified version of me. I am cheeky. I'm silly. I am dumb. I'm ridiculous. I'm loud.”
The Paaspop Festival in the Netherlands with its incredible production was arguably her favourite place to experience back in April but the wildest crowd was at Rock for People, in Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic) last year. “It was bigger than Download, and they were so ready to just fucking do this and break shit up. It was definitely the biggest circle pit that I ever had, it was insane.”
Camden’s famed Underworld played host to her earlier in the year, and it’s not lost on her that it’s a rite of passage for many, making a racket with a guitar. “It was really, really cool,” she enthuses. “It's a very big name for a venue, right? Especially in the punk scene.” Returning to do a couple of gigs in Brazil, she was thrilled to discover fans still cared and remembered her. A musical homecoming as a career high? Well, yes, that is until the invite from Shirley Manson to open for Garbage in Hamburg as this magazine goes to print.
With her insomnia track ‘3am’ coming in at a spritely 52 seconds, her live sets aren’t the bloated long performances of heritage acts’ arena tours. A combination of chatting to the audience, a few covers, and long intros all stretch out the stage time but fans of alternative hits ‘Sick Ride’ and ‘So Funny,’ barely four minutes between them, can be reassured that the pop punk anthems are being added to. A release, still under wraps, though several songs, is promised later in the year. Maybe, if we’re really lucky, with a Hastings or St Leonards’ promo gig. She hopes to release her debut album in 2027.
Karen has balanced creativity and capitalism for a decade. “I don’t make one penny from music.” There is an undeniable precarity to the music business. Modern labour, contemporary creativity, and artificial intelligence are changing both the industries she moves between, and she has to be realistic. There are survival pressures and financial immigration hurdles - is there a contradiction between punk DIY values and agency life? Of course, but isn’t everyone increasingly wearing different hats? She has a dual identity, both punk frontwoman and designer. Happily, the two overlap with her cover art and cut-and-paste aesthetic merchandise.
Sadly, inevitably, as a female performer, she is the target of online abuse, unwanted harassment, and most pettily of all, music scene gatekeeping. For all the exotic dreams of Brazil to the average Brit, it’s actually a country of many conservative values - sexism is rife, and wider social issues are more backward than what we might tolerate in the UK. But the unwanted reach of the manosphere, with men hiding anonymously behind their screens and keyboards, is all too common. “I try to protect myself, especially because I'm in a different country, so I'm still learning how things go here. I feel like men are better here for some reason, but it is everywhere. It's systemic.”
As Matt, who is both partner and musical peer, sees it, “Men think there’s ownership over rock music and that they know better, even if they're not musicians themselves. And they're not out there doing it.”
“I wonder, because I'm on stage, that it’s also scary for [some] men, because I'm not afraid to say things,” states Karen. Most confidently perhaps, in her song ‘Bexy’ - a song title misinterpreted as being bigger or better than sexy but is actually about a fan called Bex. In any case, all the more sense and value in separating the person who knows her local butcher’s name and is part of a community, and the fearsome singer screaming onstage. Visibility matters, but so too, privacy and a personal life.
An incredible amount has happened in such a short period - Karen’s former band was pre-Covid, that era increasingly distant from the present. In the last twelve months, as a solo artist, there has been a Times Square digital billboard through Amazon Music, further releases on Hopeless Records and all of last summer’s festival appearances. 2026 sees her schedule ramp up a level or two with higher billing across line-ups. All of which should lead to a real explosion of popularity, and an income that more than covers her costs.
Further down the line, Karen and Matt aspire to live off-grid, growing their own food. Beyond that, they would love to be able to live in both the UK and Brazil, avoiding the winters. Dual citizenship with all the perks! But for now, to be able to focus more on music and make a living from it, without 9 - 5 responsibilities and a whole second career, that’s the dream, that’s the focus. That and Hastings, “The town is amazing. Every single time that we walk a little bit more, I feel like we find our new spot, a new corner, something new to learn. I love this town, and I want to stay here forever.”
For gig listings and merch visit www.karendio.com
Karen Dio's latest single 'Free Yourself' came out last week and can be found on all major music streaming srevices.
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