SPOTLIGHT ON DOLORRES

It's All Happening Somewhere Else is out now!

Image: Supplied.

Last week, Melbourne-based musician DoloRRes dropped his debut EP, It’s All Happening Somewhere Else. We caught up with the artist to chat about the release, weaving together different sonic notes, his experiences on the road and so much more!

Could you tell us a bit about your background in music and what led you to pursuing a career in music?

Kind of lame but in short I used to make hella movies when I was little, but only ever really wrote scripts, never got made into anything. And always listened to music casually growing up with mostly my mums music, so like massive attack, black eyed peas, David Bowie, Eno, Gorillaz, ect… but I never actually made the connection between listening to these artists and actually making music, music felt like an abstract distant concept. Then one day at like 13 I was at JB-HiFi, saw the WOLF CD in the bargain bin and thought the cover looked cool so I bought it. And then basically became obsessed with Odd Future and Tyler as most people my age did at the time. That was the point where I was like oh I can actually do this, something about it made the idea of music less distant. Made it more tangible.

You’ve just unveiled your debut EP It's All Happening Somewhere Else. What’s in store for us from this collection of songs?

Just imagine as many genres u can think of in ur brain and then put it through a meat grinder.

The release sees you venture away from your hip-hop roots, moving towards an alt-pop sound. What prompted that sonic shift?

I been making hip hop since like 2014, and I’ve slowly over time found all these other genres, hip hop was the gateway to all this new music cos of sampling, so I’ve always wanted to make every genre of song, I still wanna make a blues and a jazz project, and a ambient project ect. So I was just waiting till I was good enough to do that sound at a level that I actually like and I guess this is how long it took me to make alt-pop. And so it shall go forever.

Take us through your creative process when writing and recording. Do you have a particular songwriting formula you follow, or does each song and project take on its own form?

Uhh the second one. Yeah there’s no consistency. Might start with the drums or the words or the keys or the bass. It gets kinda annoying because I have to rely entirely on my creativity sparking which don’t happen all the time. I don’t know what any of the notes are so I have to get lucky when fuck around with an instrument. I’ll have whole studio sessions with an artist and not make a single beat.

Which song from the EP are you most excited for listeners to what and why?

Probably track 3, Subdivide, it’s the longest song on the EP at about six and a half minutes, it has 3 sections and it’s crazy. I wanna see how many people actually listen to the whole thing. Also when we do this song live it’s gonna go for twice as long.

The EP was prefaced by the single D.T.R! Tell us a bit about the conceptual nature of the track and what prompted you to document that exploration on this particular track?

Like many of my songs, the words often come last, I value a lot of directness and simplicity in my lyrics, simplest lines always impact me the most, MIKE is amazing at this, I take big inspo from him lyrically. This song is about a relationship that starts off very intense and very active, seems like they your whole world for a couple weeks or months and then suddenly the feeling goes away and they just another person to you. I’m sort of documenting the aftermath of this, this character trying to mentally process this sudden shift, and at the same time avoiding the confrontation, for fear that this other person will confirm what he knows is true.

What’s one line from the song you find at times could be stuck in your head? Or a line that you come back to?

From my song? Ummm I don’t really have any lines that jump out it’s kinda just one cohesive thing to me. I do have melodies that jump out at me, like that little vocal run at the end of the second verse and also that “If you could be” line where the beat drop out. This song took like over 100 takes deadset.

Australia has a diverse and vibrant music scene, who are some of your favourite Aussie acts and why?

Damn, that’s true. Lots of names, I’m mainly in tune to Melbourne specifically although my boy Muka Vhatti in Perth is dope, we on the same label. Obviously Agung Mango, 3K, Gabriel LCR, YKM, Savage The Girl, Brick Baby, Mammoth, CD, Baro, Nasty Mars, oh and Genesis Owusu of course. But these are all just my friends or people I know. Which I think is dope, when you actually bump your friends' music because it’s a dope song, not just cos they are your friends.

You’ve toured with Genesis Owusu and Agung Mango. What did you take away from those experiences that you’ve integrated into your own approach to music?

Touring with them two was surreal as shit. Going to so many places I've never been, and things I never done. I learned so much, a lot of it not directly music related, just life shit. But more specifically I learned so much about live performance, how to act on stage and off, how to control crowds, people in Adelaide really like the saxophone. I haven't made much music since then so I haven't integrated much yet,

but on the second E.P... whole new angle.

Will we be seeing you hit the road-post lockdown, do you have any live show plans?

Hopefully, I haven't performed for a fair few years, not since I rebooted my whole career at the start of 2019. We are playing a launch show on August 21st at The Curtin here in Melbourne, first time with a full band, all new songs, all new energy and we got Gabriel LCR opening. After that I really don't know depends how this show goes cos it's our first ever. I think we were gonna go Big Sound too but I'm pretty sure it got cancelled.

What can audiences expect from one of your live performances?

You can expect every detail to be taken care of, we got stage, light, costume, sound, touch, taste, smell and sight. It'll be like a night at the opera but three times as loud.

RAPID FIRE

Biggest influences?

Frank Ocean, Pharrell, Kanye, Lou Reed, Eno, Rick Rubin, Kimya Dawson, Sonic Youth, ect.. changes everyday.

Album that has had the most impact on you?

Fly Or Die - N.E.R.D

How do you define your musical style in 3 words?

Colourful, Raw & Inconsistent.

Best song of 2021 so far?

Moon - Kanye West & Don Toliver

If you could create the soundtrack for any film, which one would it be?

Blade Runner

Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus?

Hannah Montana

A song you would love to cover on tour?

It’s Oh So Quiet - Bjork

Album you would listen to on repeat on a road trip?

Black on Both Sides is a great road trip album

First concert you went to?

Ummmmm I think it was Kanye in 2014, on the Yeezus tour, my brother has the shirt.

Best concert you have been to?

Tie between Young Lean, Skepta and Stormzy, all at the same festival in Germany.

First album you ever bought?

WOLF - Tyler The Creator

Would you rather be a Spice Girl or a Backstreet Boy?

Spice Girl

If you were a Spice Girl, what would your spice nickname be?

Posh spice

Most memorable show you’ve ever performed?

It would probably be my first ever show back in 2017, we essentially did a rap doof. We had a bunch of people on the set, borrowed my friends generator and everything, huge speakers and subwoofa. We built a stage out of wooden pallets that we stole from construction sites, no cops came and I think only one person got hooked. My set went for like an hour and a half. I was surprised how smoothly it went but it was crazy, so many people. Someone tried to light the stage on fire at the end with the left over petrol from the generator but it didn't really work.

Guilty music pleasure?

No music pleasure is guilty.

If you could support any artist on tour, who would it be?

Agung Mango, when that motherfucker goes on tour, omg, insanity.

An artist you think has had the most influence on the music industry.

Overall probably Kanye, once again. He's everywhere

What advice would your current self, give your future self, for a year from now?

I don't think I would know until I'm there. I can't think ahead more than a month or two, things change too much.

The moment you knew you wanted to be a musician?

When I inserted the WOLF CD-ROM into my DVD drive on my Macbook Pro.