dolly has fans 'tense' waiting for its LP release and tour
The product of New Brunswick basement band scene, dollys headlined Asbury Park’s intimate Lakehouse Studios show Wednesday night on one of its last shows in New Jersey before its spring tour begins.
Dollys played a set of fan favorites and teased the crowd with two new songs from its upcoming album “tense,” which is scheduled to be released this summer and has just finished being recorded, said lead singer and drummer Natalie Newbold.
The music from “tense” will deliver the dollys’ trademark brand of honest lyrics centered on the good and bad of the human condition.
“(There are) no tricks, just as humbly as you can, (we’re) talking about how you feel and your emotions: being mad, being sad, being happy,” Newbold said.
“Tense” is the first album that dollys collaborated on writing its lyrics, composing every song as a band, she said.
“We loved the process of it,” Newbold said. “It was kind of tough at first, but we just felt like we got a so much better and clearer clear message in all of the songs.”
In the new album, Newbold, guitarist Jeff Lane and bassist Erik Romero will continue to unapologetically share their feelings and will even reveal their reactions to recent political news, Newbold said.
“I think we were really, deeply disturbed by the past year … with the political climate and everything that we’ve seen,” she said. “So some of the songs touch a little bit on that and are a little sad.”
Politics has also inspired dollys to take an active role in advocating for services that have been threatened recently, such as Planned Parenthood (PP). To raise money for PP, the band released a cassette tape of song covers that was sold at Wednesday night’s show with all proceeds going to the women’s health organization.
Now that the recording of both projects are finished, the three-piece band is shooting music videos for songs on “tense” and creating a timetable of release dates, all on top of a two-month long tour.
On tour, dollys will be traveling across the Northeast. The threesome will visit Canada — a favorite of Newbold’s — and travel to Chicago for the first time. The tour will end in the band’s home state at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park at the end of March.
