Premiere & Interview: New Songs from dollys and a Chat with Jeff Lane

dollys at the CoolDad Music 5th Anniversary Show

"collapse" / "girl"

Oof. OK.

Last week, dollys, a band who have meant a great deal to CoolDad Music and to me personally, announced that they were breaking up. I'm not going to lie. It was a blow to me.

I got to introduce the band last year at the inaugural North Jersey Indie Rock Festival. I didn't prepare a speech; but I said something along the lines of, "We always like to talk in terms of great LOCAL bands or favorite NEW JERSEY bands. dollys, though, are just a GREAT BAND. No modifier is necessary." And, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. And, if I only ever knew dollys by their music, I'd feel that way. But I also know Jeff Lane (guitar / vocals), Natalie Newbold (drums / vocals), and Erik Kase Romero (bass / vocals) personally; and they are three of the funniest, most genuine, and hardest working people you'll meet -- in music or anywhere else.

When dollys announced their break-up, they also announced that they'd be releasing their final album, tense, on July 21st via Sniffling Indie Kids. The band tracked the record at Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium Recordings in North Carolina, and then came back to Asbury Park to put everything together. Today, we are premiering the first two tracks from the album.

Both "collapse" and "girl" reveal a band that's leaving us just when their creative output is at its peak. I had the chance to talk to Jeff Lane about the band, recording the album, and these tracks in particular. Read along while you listen, and don't forget to pre-order tense. You're going to want to own this one. It's a record that people will talk about for a long time.



Let's get the obvious out of the way first. What are you able to tell us about the break-up of dollys?

Haha, jeez, not even a little small talk first, huh Jim? I love my bandmates very, very much and all I want is happiness and success for them, so I'd only like to emphasize how thrilled we are to have gotten as far as we did and to have met so many incredible people in the process. We loved it. We were so excited. All that matters now is the music we made, the kindhearted people we met, and memories we'll have, and what we'll each be doing individually in the future.

Natalie will continue making music as Well Wisher and will begin performing live in the late summer, maybe sooner. She's got two excellent songs on Bandcamp that feature Mike from Toy Cars on drums and Erik on bass. Erik really puts his heart into everything he records and is so passionate about producing and engineering bands. Here's his website, where you can hear his "voice" on all kinds of records. As for me, I'm just going to keep writing songs, and I'll be releasing them under my name. Maybe eventually I'll get a band together, but it's a little tough for me right now to think about doing that.

North Jersey Indie Rock Festival

OK. On to happier things, I hope. Over the course of 4+ years, dollys did some great things -- three albums, a covers tape, videos, tours, big shows, house shows -- can you talk about some of your favorite times with the band?

Thanks! We've got an EP, too! But those 6 songs are pretty far-removed from the sound we settled into. You know, my favorite time with the band was recording tense in NC because I felt like every moment of that experience was positive and we were so supportive of each other. If anybody had an idea, however outlandish or seemingly tedious, we'd go for it enthusiastically. To me, it was a barrage of fun, successful experiments that felt important and natural for the material. I believe that the LP we made was recorded with so much love and faith in what we were doing together. It was an arduous endeavor emotionally and physically getting the 10 songs ready to record, but when we turned off the lights in the studio to leave Fidelitorium on that last day, I think we all walked away with something truly meaningful to our lives and a closeness that we'll never forget. I really want to thank Nat, Erik, Timmy, Lisa, Tony, and Mitch for making those 7 days the highlight of my life. That was the least alone I've ever felt. I so wish I could go back and relive that.

Champagne Jam was also totally unforgettable. It felt like we were kings for a day, you know? We were walking and talking amongst our DIY heroes. It was so cool. We had worked so hard up to that point and it really felt like a "make it or break it" moment. I actually played a little gag on the group when we were leaving for NY on the morning of the show. The first track I played over Natalie's car speakers was Eminem's "Lose Yourself;" and Tony, Nat, and Erik all thoroughly rolled their eyes at me. I guess I thought I was being funny and trying to conquer our anxiety, but it may have had the opposite effect. It was all in good fun though, and we all had a laugh. I'll miss stuff like that.

One of the things that always really impressed me about dollys was that you seemed very ideologically committed. You didn't make music that anyone would consider punk in terms of sound, I think, but your approach to the band -- something as simple as the shows you chose to play, for example -- was always pretty punk. Am I reading that right? Did you have a lot of internal discussions about wanting to stay true to your ideals? Did that ever present you with any hard decisions as a band?

I'd say you're reading that right, yeah. We didn't stubbornly refuse opportunities in an effort to stay DIY or punk or anything, but that community of people took us in, you know? I feel a kinship with the kind of folks who let the weight of the world into their hearts and cling to the walls at social gatherings. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that being punk is all about being honest. No bullshit allowed. This might come off as a little heady and it's entirely irrelevant to your question, but I think cynicism and "punk-ness" stem from a sensitivity that makes you want to be sincere all of the time in either a brash way or a meek way. That's what punk means to me, so I feel right at home in that community. I wouldn't say we plotted our course or faced many fork-in-the-road type situations regarding DIY & punk. It was moreso the path that opened itself to us and the one that seemed most in line with who we are as people. We're really grateful to have been accepted by that community (as well as the other communities who welcomed us) and I hope we all will be able to continue contributing in both personal and artistic ways.

Jeff Lane

And, back to that idea of not really playing punk music… ...the band's whole DIY approach to things definitely placed you squarely in kind of a "punk rock scene" where you didn't sound like too many of the other bands. What was it like navigating your way around basements as a pop band?

It was a little tough in the beginning being the odd pop band sometimes, but once we got to know people better and our music became a little bit more familiar, we ended up really comfortable in most show situations. Booking was really tough at first, but we just kept pushing through; and, in time, we got to meet so many of the selfless people and bands involved in the east coast's many music scenes who keep the whole complicated machine going. They made it way easier and we attribute most of the success we had to them and, of course, the show-goers.

dollys also had a more, kind of, analog aesthetic than a lot of other bands. The first album, Oh, Please and the covers tape were, basically, all analog, right? Lots of your band photos were shot on film. Natalie even told me once that you were shooting footage for a video on a Lomokino. What is it about all of that stuff that you guys found so appealing?

Yessir, analog for the both of them! The covers tape may have been mixed and mastered digitally, though. I can't really remember. Tony Yebra, our close friend and genius music video guru, shot the video for "girl" on the Lomokino, which is a 35mm film hand-cranked movie camera that provides a distinct look once the film is developed and all that. Regrettably, we didn't get the chance to finish filming that one. I think our fondness for tape, film, and all that old-school analog stuff comes from the way that those mediums force you to work together to achieve a common goal. Tape and film both force you to work in a different way because editing becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible in many situations. I don't think it's necessarily a better way to work, it just inevitably gets you to a different sounding / looking result than working with something you can tweak endlessly in the digital realm. It's super nerdy. Anybody who's made it this far through my answer here is likely feeling exhausted by now.

Natalie Newbold

We're premiering two songs from the new album, tense, today -- "collapse" and "girl." You tracked these at Mitch Easter's Fidelitorium Recordings in North Carolina. Mitch Easter is an absolute giant in terms of influencing my own musical tastes through his work with R.E.M., The Connells, Game Theory, and others. What can you say about the experience of working on the songs there?

Yes we are, and thank you! Mitch is a true gentleman and a very thoughtful communicator. It was such a treat to meet him and record in his space, so I hope you get the chance to meet him someday if you haven't already. I talked about what our experience at Fidelitorium meant to me emotionally in an earlier question, but what we appreciated most about his spot was his eclectic collection of instruments and microphones and the way that his main live room sounded. Everything else was great too (including the décor!) but the room and the quirky gear were a big part of the album's sound. He also had a killer upright piano that we used on nearly everything. Erik and Timmy Pannella were able to come up with a very intuitive way of setting up the studio prior to recording so that anyone could experiment with weird instruments and ideas without wasting much time setting gear up or putting gear away. Through their hard work and planning, we were able to make the most of our time there and have as much fun as possible. Lisa Romero contributed beautiful piano, harpsichord, and synth parts that really glued the songs together. Tony had rigged much of the studio and the guesthouse with lighting equipment so that he could video document the more exciting moments of recording and the footage he captured was unreal. Natalie, Erik, and I were very much in tune with each other and performing every song with enthusiasm. It just all seemed really special and I am so glad to have been a part of it. Everybody involved was happy and at their best, I think. The record may not go as far as it could have in the end, but it feels really great to have been a part of something that inspired my friends and me to try our hardest.

After we wrapped up tracking in NC, we recorded vocals, mixed, and mastered the record at Lakehouse Recording Studios in Asbury Park, NJ with Timmy. We wouldn't have gotten far at all as a band without Jon Leidersdorff & Lakehouse's support, so we're very thankful and indebted to them as well.

Erik produced it. What's it like to work with such a big shot in the industry? In all seriousness, he's really becoming one of the most influential producers around.

Oh, it's amazing, and he keeps getting better and better at what he does. Erik is remarkable for his ability to engineer and produce records that sound and feel great, but he's also really enthusiastic about every single thing he works on. The stereotype of the curmudgeonly audio engineer who doesn't really care is about as common as the ill-tempered record store employee, but he is not that way at all. He makes recording fun, he makes it look easy, and somehow he still manages to make everything sound really good. Working on projects over a long period of time with him was a real trip. There are heaps of things related to the preproduction and recording processes that I completely overlooked in ignorance and he simply handled. I'm a lucky dumb guy, but I really appreciate his work.

Erik Kase Romero

Can you talk about the lyrics to "collapse?" It sounds like it's addressing someone who feels that the whole world is aligned against them. Is it about anyone in particular?

Well, yeah, it is. I started writing that song in March 2014, about a week before I started working on "doctor" from low year. I wanted to do something akin to The Smiths' "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" in the way that the music starts off in one direction and then immediately brings you somewhere else. At the time, my placeholder lyrics were very pointed at one person, but when the three of us worked on it together we brought it to a different place. We moved things around, cut some sections, trimmed the fat, and changed up the lyrics in such a way that I think it is much more about self-victimization now than about the person who inspired the song. I think everyone's been there at least once. It's such a scary and complicated thing because when you're stuck in that rut and blaming someone else for what you're unintentionally doing to yourself, it's impossible to look inward and recognize it. I think that, subconsciously, the guilt of your attempts to hurt someone else by playing the victim can just stack up and ruin you. It's a pretty mean song. But, you know... "Sticks and stones," I guess.

It seems like a lot of your songs come from a place of personal experience. Is that where you usually find inspiration?

Mostly, yeah! I've recently gotten into trying to write more story-songs that are unrelated to me entirely, but I'm pretty sure that's impossible. I only write when I have a reason to and I think I'm a very sensitive person who can only healthily blow off steam by writing music. I wish I could leave my perspective behind more frequently and write songs without that tinge of sadness to them, but I guess I just write more often when I'm bummed out or angry. I'll work on it. I'll tell you, I have a feeling that the next thing I do musically is going to be pretty sad, though.

The, I guess, B-side of the single is "girl." First, are there still A-sides and B-sides on digital releases? Do you still think of them that way? Second, what can you say about that song?

Sure, there are still A-sides and B-sides. We're analog freaks, remember? You'll inevitably get more plays on the first track than the second one, so I think the A/B terminology still applies.

"girl" breaks my heart and is certainly the song that's most personal to me, but it has a really fun backstory! One night after we played a show at the Old Mogul Theater in Montclair, NJ, Evan Hall of Pinegrove invited us back to his place to hang out and have a beer. While we were there, we all talked a little about songwriting and Natalie and Erik were innocently teasing me about how many chords I use when I write a song. My reaction was, of course, to try and write a song with only one chord. I'm pretty sure that because the bass is moving throughout the whole track that it technically has way more than one chord, but I was still happy with how it came out. It's another hopeless love song. It sounds like a Beach Boys ripoff. I'm pretty sure there's a gong in there somewhere, too. I think it's my favorite off the new record. Natalie sang it beautifully and her drum part is perfect. I don't mean to swoon over our own stuff, I'm just really proud of us for this one.

The first time I ever saw dollys. The Saint, 3/1/14.

Finally, just simply congratulations on everything you accomplished with dollys. You brought a lot of joy to a lot of people's lives. While it's extremely sad that we won't have that band to kick around anymore, it's wonderful that we get this last snapshot of you guys at the top of your game.

Thanks, Jim, for everything. I don’t really know what to say. I'm so proud of what we did, and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for everybody who cared. It's surreal.

tense is due from Sniffling Indie Kids on 7/21. Once again, you can pre-order the album here.