Out of all the years to break out as a 2020 probably wasn’t the best year to do so, but Dolly Zoom did it anyway. Officially forming in 2019, the Brissie band released their debut single ‘Easy for You’ and since then have been providing us with funky dance tracks loaded with a technicolour synth goodness! Their most recent single ‘So Much to Talk About’ is a sweet track all about socialising – which we are all learning to do again. We got to chat with Ed from the band all about the new single and their beginnings.
“All five of the songs that we will be releasing this year were done probably a year and a half ago. That song [So Much to Talk About] was really just about spending time with friends, the irony is not lost on me that there is only four lines in the whole song but the song is about when you have those nights, those experiences with friends that could literally go on forever and you could never get bored or ever stop talking – it’s like a really warm and comfortable environment to be with each other. There was a night with a few friends where we went out at 6 or 7 and then came home and stayed up until like 3 or 4 and I was just like ‘that is so cool’, that I get to do that fairly regularly with people that I like. I was like, how do I express this in a song? It’s not really a happy or a sad song, it’s sort of in-between. It’s really simple”
2020 is really the return of the synth! With big bands such as Tame Impala showcasing the power of synthesisers it is no surprise how popular they are. For Ed, half of the choice to use synth was the love of the sound – and the second half is the ability to create such a big sound that no other instruments provides.
“I think the big thing is my lack of ability as a singer-songwriter and as a guitarist. Synthesisers are great because if you just know two chords, you can play two chords and two chords can sound so different through different synthesisers and the layering of them is really easy as well. That’s what drew me initially, I just started off in Garage Band playing; because I can play piano but just really simple stuff. The freedom that I found I got with synthesisers is what drew me initially. I really love cinematic, synthesiser music and then when Tame Impala started going more synthesiser-y as well I was like ‘ah, you can use it in a really dance-y context’ as well, without losing the band side of things. But I think the initial thing that drew me was just me not being very good at guitar”
Working on their upcoming EP, the band do not wish to be defined by genres. The ability to be able to express emotions purely through sounds not lyrics, like seen in movie scores, is a magical sensation that Dolly Zoom wish to explore and we might see from them soon.
“I love cinematic music. Film scores and those sorts of things, so I want to be able to be able to have songs that aren’t written for the sake of being a song. Something that can express a feeling, like a film score does where it expresses a moment without saying too much. Instrumental stuff is something I want to get into more – an even bigger sound without it necessarily being a dance-y track. That’s one end of the spectrum and on the other end I want to do more house stuff. I just want to spread even more across the spectrum of music. I think just having less rules imposed on us as well, which is something I think the next EP is going to allow us to do.
"I think we’re going into it with a bit more of a plan of what the whole picture will look like whereas this one has been five singles that we selected out of a large group, so they sort of feel like five singles. They are five songs that I really like but there’s not much continuity between the five of them whereas, moving forward I wanna do something that has less rules and I think if we have more of a structure going then we can have a song that goes for two minutes and it has no words and it’s more of a feeling like a film score, and then the last track on the EP can be a house song and it can all make sense in the context of the EP”
After completing the endurance race that was 2020, Dolly Zoom are looking towards the future and have some major goals for 2021 – mainly a tour and an EP if COVID allows them!
“From the last few releases we have been trying to steer our promotion towards Sydney and Melbourne so that we can plan some sort of East Coast tour. Who knows how and if that will be possible at the moment, but that’s been a dream of ours for a while. So, play a festival, do an East Coast tour, and then for me to have an EP that is really thought and has more to it than just singles on it – almost like an album. I want to do an album straight away but that’s just stupid, you can’t release 12, 13, 14, or 15 songs if you’ve never released songs before; that’s just dumb. They’re the three big things I wanna do next year, but who knows - time will tell. We will see if COVID lets us do the things we want to do”
Dolly Zoom are easily one of the most fun bands we have discovered this year and with their adventurous minds we cannot wait to see what they come up with next! Until then, we will keep listening to their funky dance tracks infused with 1980’s nostalgia!
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