Doll Skin: The Future of Outspoken Females

‘The Future Is Female’, a phrase of the decade popularised in the rise of fourth-wave feminism that rings true to so many pockets of society, but holds an evident significance in the music industry especially that of the rock/alternative/punk music scene. Once a barren wasteland of white-washed, male-fronted bands, the scene is now a glistening ocean of diversity with an increasing population of female musicians dominating the charts including the scene’s latest offering in outrageously outspoken, charismatically charming and all-around entertaining; DOLL SKIN.

DOLL SKIN represents the next renaissance for music where having a political stance isn’t optional anymore and music, especially alternative music, reflects that. From the likes of STRAY FROM THE PATH to THE 1975, music has evolved past its commercial sound and emphasises a message of political awareness within its lyricism, something DOLL SKIN has never been shy to. “A lot of bands write great music too but sometimes they don’t have meaning and purpose to them. I think we all want to create with a purpose and a message. We kinda feel like it’s our responsibility to,” says bassist Nicole Rich.

The topic of political messages within songs arose in discussion of their song Puncha Nazi from their album Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and how they avoid falling into the angry feminist trope when writing outspoken songs. Vocalist Sydney Dolezal explains, “we’ve kinda gotten that a couple times within the music industry, but I think especially in the Warped Tour crowd we’re a lot more supported then I feared at first. But the thing we were most worried about was our manager not being on board with the whole Puncha Nazi thing but he was like “oh I love it girls!” But Manic Pixie Dream Girl was where we were at then and now we’re in a different place and have a lot more to say in terms of what we want to talk about. And I don’t think we’ve had a lot of push back because we’ve spoken it without hesitation.”

Though they’ve been kicking around since their 2015 In Your Face EP, DOLL SKIN amassed their greatest success so far with their third studio album Love Is Dead And We Killed Her that marked a new chapter for the band as they signed with Hopeless Records. “We had the album name before we had the song and we had it secured, we felt it. I feel like it kinda fit the vibe of everything pretty well,” explains drummer Meghan Herring as she delves into where the title track Love Is Dead And We Killed Her got its name. “Because we wrote the song Love Is Dead… without coining it as that and we wrote it about a sex worker who is abused and then ends up killing the guy who abused her. We thought it fit, like love is dead and she is the we maybe?” adds Nicole.

Though their gender doesn’t define their music, one aspect that makes them so beloved is that they’re a collective of powerful young females climbing through an industry that’s historically been male-dominated. The climate of music has changed so drastically, yet sexism still exists and DOLL SKIN are no strangers to it either. Nicole reflects on sexism she’s experienced in the industry. “Oooh my favourite tiny one, this is really really small but it’s funny to see the attitude shift. We played a venue and I remember there was a sign on the greenroom that said: ‘no girlfriends allowed’. So basically, you’re assuming that only people dating women, presumably men, are playing this venue? Like you’re not saying ‘no partners’ you’re saying ‘no women’.” Alex cuts in, “it takes the same amount of effort to just put ‘artists only’ y’know? There’s a lot of things like this.” “It’s just people in the industry who are so outdated they have outdated ideas on women in the industry so they’ll treat us like that,” Nicole continues. “But everyone in the industry is aware that women work in every single pocket of it, you can’t work in the music industry without coming across women.”

If the future is female, then DOLL SKIN, along with the astounding growing collection of female musicians, are already on the frontline charging towards equality for women in the music industry.

You guys are currently touring with TRASH BOAT, in fact you posted a video on your Facebook the other day of an insane crowd from a recent show, how has this new cycle been?

Sydney Dolezal [lead vocals]: It’s been really cool, we’ve come to Europe a couple times and this is the first time we’ve been consistently playing for decent crowds so it’s been a different kind of experience.

Alex Snowden [guitar/vocals]: It’s really surprising how many people know the new songs. Like ultimately people aren’t there for us but hearing these people sing the songs back to us is mind-blowing.

Sydney: Yeah! Even if it’s one person who’s like ‘I came just for you guys!’ it’s like what?!

You signed to Hopeless Records this year, released a brand new album and toured across the world. What’s been your proudest achievement?

The band collectively: Oh god, so much!

Sydney: I can personally say I’ve got to talk to and speak with my idols and that’s come from us gaining a super decent platform.

Nicole Rich [bass]: I think signing to Hopeless Records was the big one, that was so big!

Meghan Herring [drums]: Yeah geez this year has been so successful, we’ve done so much. Every day, is successful, every show we play is successful. Even if things are going horribly wrong and we’re all really upset it’s still a success.

Alex: In one fucking weird way or another yeah!

Speaking of the album, I love the rat aesthetic because I relate. What is the inspiration behind that?

Sydney: Okay honestly, it’s just a really bad joke! So, we wrote the album and recorded a lot of it in a cabin and we were stuck there for a month, we got snowed in, it was crazy. There was a rat that lived in the walls and popped everywhere.

Nicole: Alex and I would share a room and I cleaned up the rat poop then there was more rat poop in the same spot again and I’d be like “ALEX! It struck again.”

Sydney: But it kind of just became this thing and we have stickers that says ‘get the rat out of here’ because we were all batshit crazy and our producer was like crawling up the stairs like “get the rat outta here!”

Alex: I think we all laughed at that for a solid three hours, like psychotic laughter.

Sydney: And then when we got to LA and they asked us what we wanted the album cover to be we were all going crazy and were like; RATS!

Meghan: What if we were all going crazy that the rat poop was just an illusion?

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