The South-African born singer had a buzz-saw voice that can cut through steel and is a polished live performer that had enough awareness of dynamics to change up her sound. She did a version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on the show that was absolutely hypnotic.

Dilana has a new record out. Read ahead to find out the strange story behind its release. Inside Out is a tremendous record which plays to a lot of the singer's strengths; powerful, emotive rock and heavily melodic hooks that stick in your head.

Hollywood residents have the opportunity to hear her in person on February 5 at the Roxy at an all-ages show.

In the meantime, here is an interview I did this past week with Dilana. It was a pleasure to speak with the singer who turned out to be as funny and great to talk with as she is as skilled behind the mic.

antiMusic.com: Congratulations on Inside Out. It's a tremendous record. I just got the Mp3s yesterday so I haven't had a chance to live with it for a long time. But just after several playings, I mean every cut is good but you go through the first 5 cuts and it's like one Mike Tyson shot after another.

Dilana: Wow. Thanks. I appreciate that.

antiMusic.com: Rock Star Supernova happened in 2006. It was said that you had a record coming out shortly thereafter…

Dilana: (laughs)

antiMusic.com:…with Gilby possibly producing. The record didn't come out until, if I'm correct, Nov of last year. I've heard about a stalled recording contract. What went on following Rock Star up until the CD release? If you can bring us up to date…

Dilana: Well, yeah, it's a good question because a lot of people don't really know. Basically the first problem that occurred was bad management obviously. I, immediately after the show, started writing, co-writing with other artists, so I basically had the record ready June of 2007 which was exactly a year after the show.

I signed a really bad contract with an independent label in the UK who went bankrupt five shows into a six-week tour. And basically left me stranded in London with my entire band and no way to get back to the US. So that was the first you know, big let down. And then I had another guy who basically was a fan of mine and won the lottery on the East Coast. So he bought the record from the label in the UK that went bankrupt.

antiMusic.com: Huh, wow.

Dilana: And yeah, that was my reaction. I was like "Oh my god. This is so great because this guy is such a fan and you know, he's going to work with me on this. But the thing is he had never been in the music industry. So he started up the label and this all happened in January of last year---I can't believe it." It's a year ago, oh my God. So about four months later we were still going back and forth between our lawyers trying to figure out the contracts and I just couldn't get to a place of comfort and feeling that "this isn't going to happen to me again."

And I was dealing with a guy who suddenly puts together a label with people who know nothing. And it was kind of a weird thing but we both at the same time decided that this is not going to work. I never signed a deal with him and he still owns the record. And the label has released it. So basically my hands are tied. I have no control over the record. I have no power I can't give him direction and ask them to market it and you know. I don't even have a hard copy of the cd available. It's only available on iTtunes. So I had to convince them to make me a thousand hard copies that I could sell in the States. Because demand for hard copies is so huge.

So that's basically what's been going down for the last three and a half years. It's insane. And now I've just decided I'm going to remain independent. My big thing is working on movies and acting and also writing songs for the movies. So I'm really focusing on that for now and enjoying it a lot. And you know, I've got a bunch of new songs and I'll see what happens. I might put out my own record independently in the next few months.

antiMusic.com: Wow.

Dilana: Yeah. It's a mouthful, huh? Laughs. I'm telling you, it's a movie on its own. I'm thinking of actually writing a movie about this, just this experience from Rock Star up until today. I mean I've left out all the juicy details, as you can imagine.

antiMusic.com: Yeah…all the interesting characters involved…

Dilana: Oh yes. Oh my god. Yeah. I co-wrote it with a bunch of people. Like I started writing just a few months after Rock Star ended. And then, that's when the first guy, you can mention their names if you want to. The first label was Hurricane Music Group. And it's so ironic, just yesterday someone forwarded me an email which had a link attached to Hurricane Music Group and basically it's the person trying to Google search Hurricane and the message that popped up was something like:" this website is no longer active." They are completely dead. So that's Hurricane Music Group. And then this second guy is Kabunk Records.

antiMusic.com: So tell us about the CD. Your last record was in 2000. Do some of these songs go back almost that far?

Dilana: One of the songs on there, the one called "Ice", the ballad, goes way back. I probably wrote that with my guitarist in Holland around 1999-2000. But everything else is new. It's stuff that either I wrote on the writing tour or stuff that kind of just happened in the studio as we were recording. So to give you an idea, track no. 12, the very last one, that one was a complete improvisation. We were tracking both bass and drums and I was watching the musicians through the control room window and wanted to give them something to play to, a reference. So I asked the engineer for a microphone and I was just singing along with them because I knew what melody I wanted. And I was just singing along and I had some lyrical ideas but the song was not done. I didn't even know how we would end it. So I was just started singing with them and that is the exact track. I didn't even re-record anything. I didn't rewrite any lyrics. I didn't sing through a proper microphone, in a vocal booth. I was standing next to the producer and the engineer in the control room. It's my favourite track on the record because it's so real and because I can remember how it was born. It's such a great song. I love it. And that's how that song happened…on the spot.

antiMusic.com: Wow. How often does that happen?

Dilana: Well you know, when I'm in the mode, when I'm in the right place, it happens quite often. And I love it because that's always the best stuff because it's just so raw and from the heart. I've got a bunch of songs that I'm probably going to use for a movie that happened just like that. One take. I wouldn't change anything on the production as far as the writing, or the sound of the voice or anything.

antiMusic.com: Wow. That's amazing.

Dilana: Yeah. It's so much fun. I just love to do it, so I really get into it. If I'm working with somebody who is motivating and inspiring to me, just rolls out of my mouth. It's such a great feeling.

antiMusic.com: Yeah. It's not a one-way street.

Dilana: Exactly. Right. You're working for each other.

antiMusic.com: Tell us about some of the songs on the record, either what they're about or something memorable that happened while recording them:
"Holiday" – It's sounds kind of like "London Calling" at the beginning.

Dilana: (laughs) Yeah. That's a good comparison; I hadn't heard that one yet. "Holiday" was the first song I wrote after Rock Star Supernova. And I co-wrote that one with Dave Bassett who produced the record. I wrote all the lyrics. He started with this little riff. I told him my idea of the kind of song I wanted; the energy, the tempo, the feel. So he started with duh-da-dum, duh-da-dum and we took it from there.

We wrote that song in one day. It's basically about coming to Hollywood and how things just suddenly changed from one day to the next. So it's a little bit about being on the show, the getting off the show and realizing that it's still a crazy life, but it's a brand new shade of blue. It's still going to be stressful and full of obstacles but it's a new shade. It's a new kind of stress and pressure that I have to get used to.

antiMusic: Possibly my favourite song on the whole record; although it's hard to choose here, the follow-up song, "My Drug"…what can you tell us about it?

Dilana: Okay, "My Drug". Completely inspired by blow jobs.

antiMusic: (laughs)

Dilana: (laughs) Now you're going to listen to that song in a whole new fashion, I bet you.

antiMusic: Yes I guess so.

Dilana: That's absolutely the truth. I literally wrote it with that in mind. I've got to say I'm a fan of the blow job. If it's a nice one. And yeah, I was dating a really hot guy at the time and he kind of inspired me. (laughs)

antiMusic: Best kind of inspiration I guess you can get, right?

Dilana: Yeah. (laughs) and good luck in writing your piece on that. (laughs)

antiMusic.com: Next is one of the ballads on the record, "Ice". You said was one of your oldest songs.

Dilana: Yeah. That song is really special to me. I wrote that song in the back of a car coming driving home from a gig I was doing in Holland. I was married at the time, and we were going through a lot of s*** and I was just so numb. I remember riding in the back seat of the car and I just started thinking that I just didn't have any feelings left. I felt like an ice cube. I was completely numb.

And I felt like a victim because he was cheating on me and I just realized in that car that, no more, I'm just not doing it anymore. And so that's basically when I decided that I was going to get divorced. That's exactly when I came up with those lyrics. And those lyrics kind of came in one flow. When I started writing them, I wrote the entire song just in one go because I was in such an emotional place. We're really really good friends today so, no hard feelings. It's inspiring when people do us wrong, it inspires me. I couldn't live my life without pain and wrongdoing. It sounds very depressing but I couldn't function if I didn't have a lot of feelings and emotions stirred up in me. That's probably why I break up with every single guy. (laughs) "I need a new song right f*cking now so that's why I've got to break up with this guy." (laughs)

antiMusic.com: "Solid Gold". I love the almost tribal drums on there.

Dilana: Oh, thank you. You know that was my favorite part of that song because I really wanted an African/eastern part so I played the percussion part in the beginning

antiMusic.com: Wow!

Dilana: And I'm not a drummer or percussionist but that specific beat, it's that one beat I can really do well. And I was trying to show Adrian Young how to play it because he played that track and he couldn't get it. And so I was like, give me some drums in there and I'll do it and you just play something along. And he said okay, cool. And so I did the percussion with my hands and he had a stick and played along.

I wanted a kind of African feel with those drums in the beginning. So "Solid Gold" is really about how people are often quick to make judgments and forms opinions based on people's appearance and I have first hand experience with that (laughs). I just wanted to write something sort of for the streets and for the people who call the freaks freaks. It's so much more important to look at someone from the Inside Out versus from the outside in and that happens so much. People look at looks more that the things that really matter.

So it's a song I like to do live because I always get a great reaction when I tell the story that this song is all about giving each other a chance, looking at people in a different way. Because we all have a beautiful soft place somewhere inside. But if we continually judge and poke that beautiful part sometimes it gets hidden away. That's what that one's about. And I've always thought that song should have been a theme song for a James Bond movie. Every time I hear it, even when I was writing it, I'm like: oh my god! This song reminds me of a James Bond movie and I don't know why. Yeah. I've actually had other people email me without even seeing each other and they say "Ah, this sounds like a James Bond track."

antiMusic.com: You have a couple of special guests on the record, namely Mr. Mick Mars (Motley Crue) and Adrian Young (No Doubt). How did they end up playing with you?

Dilana: Well Mick and I met right after the show. We have the same attorney and the same publishing company. So the publishing company hooked me up with some of their artists to work with. That's how we met and we instantly hit it off. We just completely fell in love and just had such a great time becoming friends. We even have bonding tattoos, matching tattoos. He said that as soon as I got the record done he would definitely want to be a part of it so I gave him the solo on "The Question". So it was great.

antiMusic.com: And how about Adrian?

Dilana: Well Adrian is another amazing man in my life. Love him and his entire family to death. Such a great group of people. He approached me right after the show; I was with a few of the contestants. Like two days of the show, he went to Hollywood to a Butch Walker concert. And this guy walks up to me in the lobby and he goes: "Dilana, oh my god, I love you. My wife and I are big fans. We rooted for you every week. I'd like to work with you sometime." And I'm like: "Okay, sure." He gave me his number and walked off. And I turned to, I think I was standing with Magni and I said, "Who the hell was that?" And Magni goes: "Dilana, that was Adrian Young from No Doubt." And he was with Tony. And I was like; "What? No way?" I was too shy to call him. I mean, at that point I was still so inexperienced. I just gave the number to my manager and he called him and pretty soon we were hooking up. And he did some live shows with me. And yeah, we've done a bunch of stuff together. So he played half the record.

antiMusic.com: Wow. Excellent.

Dilana: Yeah. And then of course I had Rami Jaffe plays on 2 tracks. He did some amazing keys and piano stuff. I had Scarlet Rivera, who was Bob Dylan's violinist for years and years. So that for that for me was a great honor. I met her at a little party one night and again we hit it off and she said, "Whenever you do the record, let me know."

Let me see. I wrote some of the songs with Johnny Colt, the original bass player for the Black Crowes. And that was a really cool experience because I had never written that way before. I flew to Atlanta where he's based and he's very much into beats and loops, drum loops so he would just record, just come up with these beats and record like a minute loop and then send me this little room that I had and I would come down after like 20 or 30 minutes with my ideas and he would track it right there on the spot with live instruments. But I had never done that before just add drum beats with no melody, no structure no nothing. And I loved it. It was a really cool new way to be creative. Like, wow, what can I do with this? It was a great challenge. So "Hate U" which I think it was the third track on there or something, that song was literally written and recorded within one hour.

antiMusic.com: Wow. That's cool. Some artists are torn by the different aspects of their personality and on a first record they tend to put everything in there but the kitchen sink. On Inside Out, there are a couple of so-called ballads but generally you stick to a high-energy hard rock sound. Is this your sweet spot for what you consider your signature sound or can we expect you to branch out into other styles on future records?

Dilana: What an AWESOME question. Really. I wish more people would think like you do. That really is a good question.

antiMusic.com: Oh, thank you so much.

Dilana: I really have a different side to me which I've been focusing on a lot. And that's probably the biggest reason why I didn't sign this last deal with this guy who'd won the lottery because he wanted me to sign a five-year deal. He wanted me to have every record sound hard and heavy and rocking like this one. And I was telling him, "I don't WANT to do that. I'm evolving, I'm growing, I'm changing. I don't want to put myself in a box." And he wouldn't agree with that. So, as far as the creative aspect, that was the biggest thing for me why I didn't want to sign that deal.

There's definitely a side to me that's a lot more organic, a lot more…my voice is the main instrument. I would like the sounds behind me to just be fillers. I don't want to have to compete with the guitars and drums constantly. So yeah, the movie that I just filmed this past November, there are a couple of little scenes where I'm playing the guitar. They're very stripped down in the movie but we're going to bring out a soundtrack where those same songs are more produced with more instruments. But they're much more laid back. My voice isn't in its usual, going up in the higher octaves. A lot more gentle and organic.

antiMusic.com: You're playing a couple of shows at the Roxy coming up in Feb and at least one is with the house band from RockStar Supernova. Is this the first time you've played with them since the show and how much are you looking forward to this?

Dilana: Actually, it's not the first time but it's been a while. And I'm really, really excited. I love the guys. Unfortunately, one of them had to pull out. He got another offer, obviously from someone else who's paying him a lot more. Money talks in this business, big time. So I'm only having two of the house band guys instead of three. But it's still going to be a great, great show. I'm doing a lot of originals mostly and one or two brand new tracks. And I'm probably going to have a very special surprise which I can't tell you too much about but it's a brand new song that's in the movie that's I just filmed. And actually, I'm thinking of showing some of the movie before the show starts so yeah, the song is called "Sexaholic" (laughs) and it's just amazing. Don't ask me about that.

antiMusic.com: (laughs) OK but my interest is peaked though.

Dilana: (laughs)

antiMusic.com: Well it was great talking to you. Thanks so much for taking the time.

Dilana: Ok, Honey. Thank you. It was my pleasure. Have a great day