FEATURE: Spotlight: Dolores Forever

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Dolores Forever

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THIS time out…

I am featuring an extremely exciting duo whose music is among the best I have heard in a while. Dolores Forever met in London at a party and formed this instant connection. Although there are not that many interviews with them available, I have found some that I want to bring in. I have seen Dolores Forever tipped for acclaim this year. I am not surprised. Whilst there is always a lot of focus put on bands and solo artists, I feel duos are still a little overlooked or not featured as much. You only need to look as far as Wet Leg to see what an incredibly close and talented duo can achieve. Dolores Forever should settle in for a very long and fruitful career in music. I want to start with this interview from September. We find out how Hannah and Julia met and formed Dolores Forever:

“Two friends, Hannah from Leeds and Julia from Copenhagen, met at a house party in London a few years back and they quickly bonded over their music favourites, such as Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks.

Now in 2022 , Dolores Forever are the hottest indie-pop duo around, we caught up with them both to find out a bit more about the band..

Introduce yourselves – how did you guys meet and how did Dolores Forever form?

We’re two songwriters (Hannah from Leeds and Julia from Copenhagen) who met at a house party and decided to skip the “we should write together” small talk and be friends instead – then realised we have a ton of favourite music in common so starting a band seemed like a no-brainer!

Who are your main influences, and how do they come into play within the music you write?

Oh this is such a big question! We’re both obsessive music fans, our influences span from 90’s pop (we challenge you to a pub quiz) and musicals to alt folk and indie rock. But we also have our own big influences, Hannah loves Joni Mitchell and Julia loves Taylor Swift, we both love Stevie Nicks and songs with big choruses. That’s what plays into our own music, we’re forever trying to write our favourite songs.

What’s the best gig you’ve played so far?

Glastonbury was a vibe – we played the Rabbit Hole, definitely a gig highlight so far!

Where do you see Dolores Forever in 5 years?

We’ll have released a double album, gone on tour a bunch, made some bops that mean something to someone out there. Isn’t that the ultimate artist dream, to soundtrack peoples’ lives?

What does your songwriting process look like? Is it always the same?

We’re not giving away any trade secrets! Just kidding. But no, it’s not always the same, sometimes we send each other ideas and develop them before taking them to the studio, sometimes we write in the studio based on concepts or titles we might have, we ping pong off each other and see where we land.

You’ve recently been added to the Neighbourhood lineup. Are you excited to play? Is there anyone else you’re looking forward to see?

Of course we’re excited to play – Manchester played a big part in Hannah’s younger years. Very much looking forward to seeing Everything Everything again, such a cool band.

What’s next for you guys? Anything exciting in the pipeline?

Our next single is coming out pretty soon – there’s a video being edited right now, so that’s very exciting. Quite a few new songs coming before the end of the year actually”.

Last year was one of discovery and cementing for Dolores Forever. Producing their best music and getting under the skin of fans and the media alike, this year is going to be one where they expand and enter new territory. It is always exciting hearing about a duo or band that form seemingly randomly or by chance, and then go onto success. Everybody is behind Dolores Forever right now. LOCK spoke with the du last year about the plans for summer (2022) and what their songwriting process is:

“Hey Hannah & Julia, how’s your year been so far?

Great thanks. It’s been so incredible experiencing more elements of normality post-Covid, and it’s allowed us to finally bring Dolores Forever out into the world after chipping away at it over the last few years.

Can you tell us more about how Dolores Forever formed?

We met through a mutual friend at a party. She thought we’d get on and was pretty spot on!

Let’s talk about your new single “Rothko”, it’s out July 22nd, what’s it about?

Rothko is about trying to shape a relationship into something it’s not. We often bring together fragments from different experiences we’ve both had, and this one pokes at some quite painful ones. That feeling when you’re dead set on trying to make someone see how amazing you are is just….ugh.

When you’re writing tracks together, is it quite a collaborative process? Or do you sort of write separately then come together later to discuss?

Often we’ll start an idea on our own and bring it to the other before it’s developed too far. We go back and forth on our melodies and lyrics a lot, really trying to squeeze the best out of a song that we can.

Do you each have different artists that inspire you?

Hannah: The songs are always key for me so it’s older artists like Joni Mitchell and Carole King, or songwriters like Max Martin who changed the game of pop music. In terms of more recent stuff, I love Mitski, Sharon Van Etten, Self Esteem…

Julia: As an obsessive pop culture consumer, I’m fascinated by how something can connect with a larger audience yet be very personal to the individual. That’s what a song can do. Big fan of Taylor Swift, Tom Petty, Phoebe Bridgers, Arcade Fire, and will take my Spice Girls merch with me to the grave.

What does the rest of the summer have in store for you both?

Releasing more songs and playing a couple of festival shows…can’t wait! Oh and Julia is welcoming a new band member into the world and having a baby!

You’re playing NBHD Festival in Manchester, what can we expect from your set?

Bangers only”.

I am going to end with this interview from RGM. I have chosen a few secretions from the interview that caught me. Whilst they appear quite random, it did strike my eye. Dolores Forever seem really fascinating and down to earth in interviews. I hope that there are a lot more interviews with them through this year:

“I think as well, the self-care industry is quite toxic now as well even like the therapy people that you see on TikTok, and they’re like, oh, you shouldn’t care what other people think, but it’s like, it is quite normal to think that, like it’d be ridiculous not to…

Exactly! You can love yourself but also hate yourself sometimes or you know, it’s like, like with so much stuff in society these days, it can be quite polarising, like you have to be all this, or all that?

Yeah, like with toxic positivity you can’t be happy 24/7!

Of course you can’t! All those dimensions are there to be felt and like, you know, as musicians, we’re all pretty sensitive people. So, there’s always going to be a big range of emotions there. And there’s nuance to these kinds of things. So yeah, I think what we enjoy our songs is like pushing some of these things to slightly extreme levels, because it’s kind of fun and an interesting to us.

Would you say that you challenge yourself to go to like extremes?

Yeah, we do! And not all of it makes it into a song. We’ve always said we’re not interested in like little emotions. And like, you know, we want things to either make you feel like bouncing off the ceiling, euphorically happy, like your heart is going to burst out your chest, or like, you’re going to shrink and you want to be swallowed up by the world because something’s so devastating. You know, it’s about those extremes for us – we find big feelings really interesting.

And you’ve already played Glasto, and Reading and Leeds!

I know… it’s been I mean, the project’s been sort of rumbling, we’ve been working on the songs for a long time. So, it was really amazing that we were given those live opportunities quite early on. And it’s just such an incredible learning curve, like, and it’s just an amazing feeling. Yeah, its great to play the songs out of our studios, and to play them to people and see how people react.

Have you got a new EP coming out anytime soon?

So, we’ve got a couple more songs coming this year, and that will formulate our second EP. And then next year onto a bigger and better things!

Album!?

Hopefully! I think so… if we can write enough songs”.

An amazing duo who are among a crop of really incredible British acts, I would advise everyone to check them out now. It is hard to describe their music in terms of genre, so the best judge is to listen to yourself and decide. They are very original, but you bond with the music right away. I think we may see an album from them son enough. I think that will cement their reputation as one of the most exciting and must-hear acts. Their fanbase is growing, and there is a lot of appreciation from the media too. You just know that people will…