Doll Interview


How did the band originally form?


Well Pete and I were reminiscing about the good old grunge days one day and we were talking about how the majority of our favourite bands are from that era. That sparked the idea to create Doll as Pete had always wanted to start up a grungey rock band. We had known Nick for a while and knew he played drums so one night at an Evanescence show we ran into each other and and we told him about the band and asked him to be a part of it. He was
interested and we jammed the next week, it was funny because he kind of played a joke on us and played all weird and we thought he didn’t know what he was doing, only to get blown away the very next jam! Christina knew Veronique from past bands and knew she would like the style of music, so we asked her to join up as well. The best part was that it all just fell into place, we didn’t actual hold auditions, it was like we knew it would work out, and just went with it. 


What bands or artists have influenced Dolls sound?


There’s too many too list, and some influences just don’t make any sense, but it’s all from the bands we grew up listening to, some influence our sound, others the stage show, sound wise, we’re all influenced by different styles, grunge, rock, punk and metal, earlier bands such as L7, Sonic Youth, Hole, Nirvana, The Cure, Killing Joke, Jack Off Jill, Babes in Toyland were some big influences for sure, as well as newer bands like Die Mannequin, Magneta Lane, The Sounds, but we’re into everything, as a musician you have to be, if you limit yourself to only listening to one style, then you’re really limiting what you can do, and taking away from your audience, we love Slayer, Lamb of God, Florence and the Machine, ZZ-Top, Alice Cooper, and as Nick would want us to say, Styx.


Whats the strangest thing thats ever happened at a show?


Hands down splitting Christina’s head in half at a Quebec City gig. Nick jumped over the drum kit and his cymbal directly fell on her head. We had to take the ambulance out of there and get a few stitches. 


If you had the opportunity to be a major label band, would you take it?


As much as the industry has changed, and almost everyone is telling you not to sign and DIY instead, the goal of being in a band hasn’t changed, everyone wants to get signed, and if they say otherwise, they’re lying. 


Rock music isn't as big of a market as it was in the past. Why do you think that is?


Everything is music is like on rotation, with styles coming in and out of popularity, rock might be on a low point for the past while, but it always remains a contender, to poorly quote Phil Anselmo when he talked about metal vs trendy music, metal is like a mole, it’s always there, it never goes away, while other styles are like zits, they get really big but then they burst and it’s gone, we feel the same way about rock. There’s been a big movement towards the 70’s in the past little while with bands like the Strokes getting really big, and now you have a bit of that 80’s thing going, so very soon, it’s be the 90’s again, love it or hate it, but I’d rather be hearing rock then Justin Bieber or all these commercially created bands that we have now on the radio. 


How would you describe the sound of your upcoming cd? 


We can’t wait to launch the album “The Ragdoll Sessions”. As with every new record should be, it’s definitely the best work we’ve done, where it be the song-writing, the production, the lyrics, everything sounds and feels better.  Sound wise, that’s a hard question, we feel like that it sounds like Doll, we’ll leave it to the media to make comparisons. Haha. 


We’ve always been said to be a high intensity band, and this album doesn’t disappoint, but we’ve also shown a different side with Sleeping in the Clouds of NYC, as you never want to be seen as a one trick pony, we love the “kick your face in” type of alternative we create, but we’re also huge fans of more atmospheric and melodic songs, so we believe we’ve really nailed the “Doll” sound with this album, and provided the listener with a record that will hopefully last the test of time. 


The songs are more focused, catchier, and true, that is one of our biggest things, each song is a story basically, and it’s up to the listener to determine what that story is. Our musicianship has really evolved over the years and it shows on this new album. 


We’ve been writing tons of new songs and only keeping the best. We’re also taking our time with recording to make it perfect. Needless to say we think you’ll love it!


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