The Dollyrots Interview

The Dollyrots have spent the last few weeks playing their first ever UK shows with Flecking-favourites Bowling for Soup. It’s about time the American trio graced our stages with their infectious pop-punk tunes so we jumped at the chance to have a chat with them about getting signed by Joan Jett, appreciating their fans and spending the night in Chris Burney’s closet…!

First of all, introduce yourselves AA-style. Who are The Dollyrots?!
Kelly: I’m Kelly and I play bass and sing!
Luis: I’m Luis and I play guitar!
Chris: I’m Chris and I play drums!
Kelly: And make sure and tell them that we all waved too!

So, how did The Dollyrots form?
Luis: Well I’ve known Kelly since middle school, since I was about twelve years old. We started a band in college which was kind of a jokey band. About eight years ago, we ended up moving to California and starting the band for real and that’s when we met Chris. He was in a different band that we toured with but eventually our drummer quit about the same time Chris quit his band and we just kind of merged together as one.
Chris: Yeah, and the super-group The Dollyrots was formed!
Kelly: We live in LA now but we started out in Florida.

You’ve been together over ten years which is a long time in this industry. Do you think that the reason you’ve lasted so long is down to the fact that you have worked hard over the years and found success gradually rather than simply blow up overnight?
Kelly: Yeah, we definitely know how to ride the rollercoaster that being in a band is – there are a lot of ups and downs. Our record cycle starts out really great but then it starts to slow down and it gets really, really quiet whilst you go and write another one but then you put it out and the cycle starts all over again. I think we understand the natural cycle of it and we’ve made real fans that are long-term fans. We’re not a trendy band at all.
Luis: And we’ve made a lot of friends in other bands too and stuff like that is realty important.
Kelly: It’s definitely more organic and will probably last longer because of that.
Chris: I think that you definitely don’t burn out as quickly if you build yourself up as a band that way.

In this age of single-track downloads, Facebook and Twitter, do you ever worry that if you’re not constantly touring or releasing new music that you’re fans will forget about you? Fans have become a lot more ADD about music in the past few years…
Luis: Yeah but, at the same time, sometimes it gets annoying to get the same messages over and over again. I like bands that have a little bit of mystery about them.
Kelly: It’s best to look forward to things from bands that you care about instead of having constant inundation from them.

So, we hear you were signed by Joan Jett’s record label after meeting her on Warped Tour. Were you all fans of hers growing up?
Kelly: Of course! She’ s amazing and a total rock and roll icon. The fact that she is a woman also made it really cool for us as obviously as we are fronted by a girl as well. In the world of rock and roll, she is such a role model.
Chris: She’ s so good to watch live!

So, how did that actually come about?
Kelly: I actually gave her a CD of what ended up becoming the bulk of our second record, Because I’m Awesome, and she listened to it and really, really liked it and decided to put it out.
Luis: That’ s how cool she is – she actually listens to music that people hand her!

What is it like to work with her?
Kelly: She is so sweet!
Chris: She’ s awesome! She’ s very nurturing.

So she’s not intimidating or scary then?
Chris: At first, I guess!
Kelly: I think just because of who she is, I think you imagine that she’ s intimidating I think that she kind of seems that way from afar but she’ s a really kind-hearted vegan.
Luis: She’ s tough – she’ s basically a New Yorker without the attitude. She believes in working hard and she believes in our band which is so cool.

What other bands or artists are you inspired by?
Luis: We grew up in the Nineties so there was a lot of influence by alternative music from the nineties. Not like the watered-down late-nineties stuff though, we hate bands like Third Eyed Blind. We like the stuff that emerged out of the eighties underground scene like Nirvana and Hole.
Kelly: I’ m inspired by the whole riot girl movement – I love The Vaselines!

Your new album ‘A Little M essed Up’ just came out in August. Where did you get your inspiration for that from? Are you more influenced by other musicians or by the things and people around you?
Kelly: It’ s not so much from other music anymore I don’ t think.
Chris: We don’ t even listen to that much other music anymore!
Kelly: Yeah, when we’ re touring we tend to just listen to talk radio, audio books and obviously the other bands that we’ re touring with.
Luis: We get demos all the time too though.
Kelly: I think most of our influence now comes from within, our experiences as individuals and as a band and the people we have come to be. We’ re also inspired by the people we come across and the travelling we do. We stay informed about new music too though.
Luis: Musically, we are already who we are so it’ s not like we’ re going to go and change our style tomorrow to fit in with whoever is popular this week so I think we’re pretty comfortable with our sound.

Tonight you’re performing with Bowling for Soup. You’ve toured with them in the states before, what are they like to tour with?
Kelly: They’ re the sweetest, silliest band in the whole wide world! We actually love them!
Chris: You know you’ re favourite cousin that you spend time with over the holidays and stay up with ‘ till like 7 in the morning, laughing and joking all night long? That’s what Bowling for Soup is to me!
Luis: They’ re amazing and they want to bring us along for the ride and help our band out because they love us.
Kelly: Yeah, they’ re definitely the kind of band that we love and that we respect.They’ re just a group of friends and it’ s about that as much as it is about making music.
Luis: On this tour, nobody has egos or locked dressing room doors and everyone is happy to party with everyone else and share their drinks and everything. They are such a cool band and they try to help out as many bands as they can which is amazing.

Talking of which, what is the craziest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced whilst out on tour?
Chris: Oh my God!
Luis: Well, one time we found out that Kelly can’ t deal with strobe lights and whisky at the same time and we didn’ t know anything about it! If you stick strobe light in her face she turns into Courtney Love!
Kelly: I blacked out onstage and I totally split my hand open!
Luis: We had fans that were like ‘ Oh, this is the coolest show we’ ve ever seen!’ (laughs).
Kelly: One time when we were opening for Joan Jett I totally split my head open and had to get it stapled back together! (laughs)
Chris: We were literally playing in the grandstand of a horse ground and there was a shortcut you could take to get from the stage to the merch stand and there was this big spiky pipe sticking out the ground and somehow Kelly managed to run headfirst into it (laughs).
Kelly: I had to wrap this bit material round my head to stop the bleeding and it totally looked like I was just wearing a turban.
Luis: We took her to this walk-in clinic where they stapled her head back together. It wasn’ t even like a proper hospital!
Chris: So, as you can see, the list goes on and on…

You should write a book about all your crazy tour stories…!
Luis: We should and we will!
Chris: We actually slept in Chris Burney’ s closet once a few months ago!
Luis: Yeah, we stayed at his house and had a great night! Kelly was more hammered than I’ ve seen her in a long time!
Chris: He has this great walk-in closet that’ s just filled with basketball jerseys!
Kelly: It’ s huge closet and the floor was really, really clean with this gorgeous white carpet so for some reason I decided to just lie down and go to bed!
Luis: I think you actually just said ‘ I’ m sleeping here!’
Chris: Then Chris Burney, Luis and I decided to have a shirts-off party in the living room and watch Pineapple Express!
Kelly: Yeah!! I had to get up in the middle of the night to pee and I walked into the living room and saw those three sitting on the couch shirtless, only in boxer briefs drinking whiskey! I don’ t know what I missed but I’ m so glad I missed it! I just walked straight out, went back into the closet and passed out!

So, what is it with Chris Burney and whiskey?
Kelly: I don’ t know!
Chris: I love whiskey too though! And we’ re in Scotland so…

And finally, is there anything else you’d like to add?!
Kelly: Just that we like to talk to our fans and we think of them as friends! We’ ll be on Facebook and Twitter and we’ re really good at replying on there! If you want us back in the UK again then just let us know because we’ re having a ball!
Chris: Yeah, it’ s been amazing! It’ s our first time here and it’ s been awesome!
Luis: It’ s been crazy to play to so many people over here and to have people coming out to the shows who already know the words to our songs! Thank you!

To find out more about The Dollyrots, log onto www.thedollyrots.com

By Amy Anderson