Interview With…The Dolly Rockers!

Hey Sophie, how are you?

I am fine, thank you. How are you?

I’m great. My name’s Brad, I write for MuuMuse. Literally, I’m so excited, I kept telling everyone this week I was about to get Dolly Rockered. [LAUGHS]

Aww! [LAUGHS] Thank you!

Where are you right now? What are you doing?

We’re just getting for a photoshoot. We’re doing a photoshoot for the Gay Times in London.

Oh my God, are you in outrageous outfits right now?

Nice. So, it seems like “Je Suis Une Dolly” got picked up at Radio 1, it seems like things have been just going so super fast. Were you prepared for how quickly things have been going?

No, not really. It was really strange because we actually went into Radio 1 to interview with them, and it was all quite surreal. We didn’t—we didn’t expect that. I’ve only actually heard it once myself but all my friends and family were texting me saying “We can hear you on Radio 1!” In England we’re had quite a bit of press, and we’ve been doing the photoshoots and stuff. It hasn’t really sunk in or anything yet, like we haven’t seen ourselves on TV or anything like that yet.

Still, that’s so cool!

Yeah, it is. It’s really good—it’s nice that people are wanting to write about us. They’re being really positive about it as well.

Yeah, well you guys are really great. Actually, I wanted to ask to take it back for a second—when did you first meet and form the Dolly Rockers?

We met four years ago. It was an audition called The Stage in London, and we all went for it. We got the audition—the three of us. And then, our manager wasn’t very good so we left him, so that’s how we got together. We used to be called Innosense before we left. He was like really pervy and tried to like—he just wasn’t, he wasn’t very good. He just wanted us to do covers and do the club scene.

But what about the transformation into the Dollys today, because obviously you’re very different from when you first appeared on…that show.

Yeah, we got in touch with these amazing songwriters, and we were writing with them trying to find a style. Obviously we’re very loud vocally, so we were like “Why don’t we just, like, be us?” So we started writing all the music, and then we came up with the name ourselves. One of the girls was wearing a t-shirt from an old vintage company which is called the Dolly Rockers, so we saw the name and were like “That’s really cool.” Our styling always, always from day one—we always liked messy hair, we always wanted to be different. We didn’t want to do something that everybody else was doing.

Of course.

So everything we did creatively, down to like our video [for “Je Suis Une Dolly”] which is on YouTube. We’ve got a viral video, we directed it. Everything comes from us. We’re not manufactured at all really.

Really, I did want to talk about the video because that truly is the reason I fell in love you guys. Literally, someone messaged me and asked if I’d heard about the Dolly Rockers, and at first I thought it was going to be like a Dolly Parton tribute band, like I had no idea.

Yeah! [LAUGHS]

And within the first ten seconds, I was just—I was hooked. I knew you were like my new favorite girl group.

Aww, well we did that. We literally got in from a gig and got up at like four or five o’clock to do it ‘cause of hair and makeup and stuff. When we filmed it, no one actually—we didn’t get permission from anybody. So everything that you see is true.

So those reactions are really real.

Those reactions are actual people. Nobody knew we were gonna do it—we just ran out. We had this big van that we just ran out and did it in.

Were you absolutely terrified?

I think…we’d had so much Red Bull since we were really tired that I think we were just delusional.

[LAUGHS]

It didn’t really matter. It just seemed normal. It wasn’t like—when people see it and they’re like “Oh my god, it’s crazy!” Obviously we thought it was good but we never—we were just acting ourselves.

Wow. And then, in the massive dance scene where everyone’s dancing behind you, was the song really playing in their headphones and did they learn it?

Yeah. Basically we all had headphones on and we—like, we didn’t have a budget for the video because we didn’t have a record deal then—so we posted a link online and it was like a clip of us teaching the dance routine, we did it in like four steps, five steps. And we just posted it on YouTube and said “If you like it, come on and be in the video.” We didn’t know how many people would turn up, and then loads of people turned up so we gave them headphones and they all had the music. Nobody else in the station could actually hear the music so we looked crazy—we looked like we were just dancing to nothing.

[LAUGHS]

People were just stopping and staring. We did it in a big museum called Tate Modern in London. The people who worked there thought we were part of the workshop project or something they were doing there, so we just pretended we were.

[LAUGHS] Oh my God.

Yeah, no, definitely. Every time I show people they’re just like “Oh my God, this is fantastic.” [LAUGHS]

Also, you have the viral videos on YouTube which are amazing, and thanks to you I finally know how to wire a plug and do my hair really big.

What?

We couldn’t do it, and that was the only one that we really didn’t know how to do.

Really?

So what happened was, I shouldn’t really tell you, someone actually did that for us. We undid it, and then they re-winded it. It makes it look like we did it. It looks us like—‘cause I kept saying to the Girls, like, they said “Who wants to do the plug?” and I said “I do, ‘cause I’m really good at things ‘round the house and the Girls were like “No, you’re not.” And I was like “Yeah, I am!” When it came down to it, I didn’t know what to do, so there’s one bit where I scream and I’m like “I never said I knew how to wire a plug!!” They’re both like “Oh, you know how to do it. You do it.” And I couldn’t do it.

[LAUGHS] No, it definitely looked like you were having some difficulties.

We—me and Lucie lived in Manchester, she still stays with me when she comes down, but we’re getting a Dolly House in the next week or so. We’ve just been looking for one but we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had time. We finally just put in for a house, so we’ll be living together as of next week.

Oh, that’s cool!

Should be a bit crazy.

Is there going to be a lot of fighting?

Yeah.

Should be good.

Also, what’s coming up is “Gold Digger.” Got the video and the single coming out. I saw some pictures from the video, it looked fantastic. When are we gonna see it?

You know that actually we’re re-shooting a new video. We did that video, and then we got it back and it wasn’t really right, so we’re re-shooting a new video which is a secret, but you’ll probably see it when it’s out. We actually haven’t done it yet—we’re doing it next week. When we did the video, and we got it back and—obviously, you know, this our launch, we’ve been working for four years—we got it back and we just weren’t…you know, we let a director do it, we didn’t direct that one and he—it just didn’t really work for us for some reason. We didn’t love it, and we said “We want our first one to be amazing.” So we said to them that we wanted to do another one and have more input in it.

So then I guess that makes sense as to why the single’s not coming out until the very end of the summer.

Yeah, yeah, that’s why it got pushed back, ‘cause obviously we want to get it perfect. This was rushing it. And if we’re going to do it, you know you only get one chance. We want to do it properly.

No, definitely. It’s going to be an entirely different concept?

Um…yeah. Completely different, so it’ll be a surprise.

Ooh! I’m excited. [LAUGHS]
[LAUGHS] Hopefully it’ll have a bit more of a feel like the first one. We just need to—we just want to have fun with it, really and be proud of it.

And then you’ve got the album coming afterward, right?

Yeah, we’re just focusing on the single now. The second single will probably be released around Christmas time, and an album to follow.

Okay, so maybe next year?

Yeah, probably like around New Years or—maybe around Christmas, it depends how the singles do. If they do amazing, we can release it straight away, but we’ve got it ready to go.

I know you’re still recording because you said something on your Twitter that you were recording a song called “Boys Will Be Boys” yesterday?

Yeah. We just got in this morning from Jersey. It’s a really good new song which might be our second or third single.

Oh really?

Yeah. It’s really, really good. Really cool. We haven’t actually got the finished mix back yet, but it’s different from “Gold Digger.”

Are you working with any well known producers or writers?

We wrote with this guy who wrote all the Spice Girls’ stuff. He’s called—we called him Biff. We’ve done a couple album tracks with him, but the people that we write our main stuff, our singles with, are two guys called Ray Hedges and Nigel Butler, and they did a lot of the pop in the ‘90’s, like Take That and things like that, like really big British bands.

Yeah, that’s really classic writers. Okay, so maybe this will give a feel for the kind of music we’re about to hear, but what kind of music are you girls listening to lately?

Well, I personally love—you know the Veronicas?

Yes.

I really like them.

They’re great.

We love people like Lily Allen. Have you got La Roux, do you know who La Roux is over there yet?

Oh, yes, yes.

Yeah, we like her—just quite current stuff really.

How about Little Boots?

Yeah, Little Boots. We like her, we like Pixie Lott. We’re on the same label as Lily Allen, so we like her stuff. Do you like her?

Oh, I love Lily Allen, she’s great. And I think the second album—I like it better than the first one even.

Yeah, we like—we sort of really love her stuff and follow her stuff. We prefer people like that, we love Lady Gaga. Obviously they’re completely different, but just in regards to like they’re sort of self-made, you can tell that they have a big input into what they do.

So that’s really important to you—creative input.

Yeah, like we think like what’s the point in doing something if you can’t speak to people and tell them what you think. There’s no point in just doing something that someone else has written or someone else has told you to because they might not do it.

So then do you write your own lyrics?

Yeah, we co-write all of our stuff. We’ve written a couple of album tracks, but all of our tracks we co-write. We have a say in everything, because obviously we want to agree with what we’re talking about and if someone just writes us a song and we don’t actually know about that subject, there’s no sense in singing about it. That’s like with “Gold Digger”—we’ve been out in London in the West End clubs for years, we used to go all the time, and we’ve seen all the kinds of girls we write about which sort of inspired us. We’ve seen like all the gold diggers hanging outside over at the big clubs waiting for footballers to come out, and like…

And snag ‘em.

And you can see it if you go out in London.

Wow, well that’s good. I’m glad that’s so important to you guys because I think that’s important to being an artist.

I think that’s the only thing that makes people warm to you and actually see personality, otherwise…do you know what I mean?

Definitely.

People like you. Or hate you, it depends upon the person you are, but I think it’s really important to sort of like—it sounds really stupid—but stay true to yourself. I sound like a gang member. [LAUGHS]

Whether they like you or hate you, that’s all that matters as long as you’re getting a reaction really.

Yeah, yeah.

I saw your schedule for tour dates. You’ve got like forty or fifty shows you’re doing up until October.

Yeah.

That’s going to be a lot!

Yeah! [LAUGHS] I actually haven’t seen that yet.

Oh really? [LAUGHS]
Yeah.

Yeah, you’re doing a lot.

Okay. Well, that’s good!

You’re actually performing at my friend Raj’s show on Friday, it’s called ElectroQueer.

Oh, yeah.

And you’re doing a few Pride fests, and you’re doing G.A.Y., so I have to ask: Do the Dolly love their gays?

Yeah, we love them. They’re like—we love performing at gay clubs the most, I think. It’s because we get a really good reaction and I think that we just—I think they quite like us, which is obviously great.

Yeah, well speaking as a representative, I have a feeling they like you too.

I don’t want to stir up too much drama, but I’m genuinely interested in knowing—of the girl bands around the U.K. right now, which ones do you actually like and enjoy? Sugababes? Girls Aloud? The Saturdays?

Which ones do we like?

Yes.

Um, we love—there’s a new band called the Paradiso Girls in America. We actually know one of them, Lauren. We love them. Have you seen their video?

Yes, with Eve.

It’s amazing, isn’t it?

It is. It’s great.

They’re all so amazing, we really like them. We like Girls Aloud, we’ve sort of grown up around the music. Our main influence of the girl bands are the Spice Girls for us, really.

Well, I think you guys are—I’ve not seen such energy and amazing, just…fun, since the Spice Girls really, and I do think you are on that level.

They’re sort of our inspiration, really. We watch old videos of them. We YouTube it, and they just have so much fun. I think it’s so important, like, when you’re young and you get this opportunity. What’s the point in being a diva or pretending like something that you’re not? I’m twenty years old, and I get to have photoshoots and gigs and see all these amazing things. So we just have fun with it.

You can tell.

I think that’s what they did, and they were themselves. Like with a lot of girl bands, you don’t know who’s who, they’re just known as the blonde one or the brown-haired one. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, that’s true.

Which works for some people, but you know, that’s fine. A lot of bands make a lot of money from that and keep their private lives private, which is fine, but I just think if you’re going to do something, you might as well try and make it different or…be yourself.

Absolutely, and I think that’s why we knew the Spice Girls members so quickly, is because they had such distinct personalities.

Mmm. Yeah.

And especially since you’re going to be living with each other, that’s just like how they started out too.

Well, to be honest, we have been anyway. We share a bed, the three of us. Like, I used to have a house, and we’d share a bed. We’re all very close and we’re all like—we’re not best friends, but we do argue. We’re human. We’re more like sisters.

Aww, that’s great.

It’s good!

I know you’re probably really busy with the photoshoot and everything if you have to go, so…

I have to get my hair done. I’m not actually doing anything, I’m actually looking in the mirror. [LAUGHS] I shouldn’t tell you that.

[LAUGHS] Okay! Well, I’m gonna let you go.

Are you in America or are you here?

No, I’m in America.

Oh, I was gonna say you should come to our gig on Friday.

Oh, I really want to! I feel like you should come to America.

I think that we’re—[TO MANAGEMENT] are we doing that gig in New York? Oh no, we were going to do a gig in New York, but apparently we’re not doing it now. It might be postponed or something.

Aw! I would love to see you guys.

Whereabouts in America are you?

Well, I’m close to New York. I’m in Connecticut.

Oh, okay. Well if we ever do anything…

Absolutely!

We’ll be sure to let you know.

Do you have any plans to go international, or is that just…

Well, yeah. We’d love to, of course we do, but at the moment we’re just going to concentrate on releasing the single and hopefully it going well, ‘cause we are like a Marmite band, you either love us or hate us. We just hope that we do well, and if we do do well and if we get the opportunity to, then we’d love to come to America or Japan and everywhere.

Yeah, well Japan’s becoming the best music market actually, so that would be great.

Mm, we’d love to go anywhere. We want to see the world as well. Anyone who’ll have us, we’ll come there.

One more question. I know that your look is like big hair, cinched waist, puffy skirt, accessories and things like that. Did anything in particular inspire that or did you just sort of like grow into that look?

No, we always just thought like we want to be like Dolls. We always wanted to be a bit theatrical and a bit different and to stand out, like we wear these outfits sometimes and just go to parties. People tell us to come over and we’ll turn up like that, and people just stare at us like “What are they doing?” but at least they know that they can remember us. We just like big hair, literally. And the puffy skirts and stuff, I think we just came up with it, ‘cause it was like Dolly-fied. We just sort of think it’s different and we want to eventually have a clothing range. That’d be really cool to design loads of things for kids, and these outfits and stuff for people.

That would be really cool, yeah. You should look into doing a thing with TopShop or something.

Yeah, we’d love to! [LAUGHS] So yep, that was why we decided to do that. We just thought—we’ve always done that, I don’t even know where it came from, it was just what we did from day one.

Yeah. Hmm! Very cool.

Thank you.

So, alright, I’m going to let you go. I just wanted to say that I’m very excited to see what you guys do next. I’m excited for the single, I’m excited for the album, and I’m going to do all I can to help promote because I do think you guys are like the next big thing, and I think there’s going to be a lot of wonderful things happening. I’m a huge fan, so I wish you all the luck!

Aw, thank you so much!

You’re welcome.

Alright then, well nice talking to you.

Nice talking to you too! I hope to meet you soon! Come to America.

Yeah, well I’ll try! Okay, thank you!

Bye!

Bye!

Click here to listen to the Dolly Rockers’ “Gold Digger.”