by mariah estran
photo by rowan daly
Back in June, anti-pop artist Dolo Tonight released his latest EP, Life’s A Party Then You’re Dead. The colorful collection takes listeners on a trip through an organic retelling of stories.
“Once we made this EP, there was a moment where I was like, ‘Yeah, this is exactly what I was trying to make, and I could do this forever and be proud of it,’” the singer describes.
That freeing stream of consciousness allowed the artist to create a project that feels like him. It’s an array of moments, from “Car Ride” stemming from a discussion on relationships to “ppl under the stairs” being inspired by a light-hearted joke he told his friends. “It’s truly me, and it’s a step in the right direction,” the artist says.
We got the chance to speak to Dolo Tonight about the new project. He tells us more about the story, the concept of anti-pop, what we can expect from his visuals, and his favorite song on the EP.
You’ve released your EP, Life’s A Party Then You’re Dead. Listeners get to jump into this collection of songs that display the bigger picture. What’s the story behind this group of tracks?
Dolo Tonight: “Ah man! It feels so good to finally have it all out. It all really started when I went out to a studio with a collection of my friends who produce that go by Baggage Claim. We sat down for just over a week and made music all day every day nonstop and brought out the best in each other and just talked and told stories which ended up becoming songs.
It was super free flowing and something I hadn't done until that point. It's actually a concept project about a person who has 20 days left to live and tries to experience their life as fast as they possibly can.”
How do you feel this EP represents who you are as an artist?
Dolo Tonight: “I think for a long time I felt super misrepresented with some of my past work, it wasn't truly what I grew up listening to or just the best expression of my story and who I am.
Once we made this EP, there was a moment where I was like, ‘Yeah, this is exactly what I was trying to make, and I could do this forever and be proud of it.’ It’s literally all my personal stories, even ‘ppl under the stairs’ is a track I wrote about a hole under my current house where I joke that people live inside of.
It’s truly me and it’s a step in the right direction.”
You’ve described your track “Tucson” as kind of anti-pop, yet still a banger. What has influenced you while developing your sound?
Dolo Tonight: “I grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music. Mainly people like Two Door Cinema Club, MGMT, Passion Pit, Cage The Elephant, all that kinda stuff — I don’t know, something about that music feels so real to me and it tells actual stories.
The point of the sound of ‘Tucson’ was to give it this road trip feel but have a lot of emotion in the chorus. Something else that’s taking effect is that all my friends who I make music within the scene we’re building rubbed off on me — it was originally called, ‘living room socks voice note’ because that's how it started — we were just chillin’ making music and a couple of us were like, ‘Yo, we have to make this a real song.’”
The visual for “Tucson” has this candid, road-trip footage that still brings in those romantic vibes. What initiated the idea for the music video? How does it accompany the story on the track?
Dolo Tonight: “That was the first sneak peak of a short film that I’m working on about a girl who realizes something about her life is changing drastically and goes on a world bending mission to change everything on this insane road trip. A lot of these songs are going to be synced up in the film — I wanted to put a small bit of footage from it into the ‘Tucson’ music video.”
What song is your favorite on the EP and why?
Dolo Tonight: “Haha, don't make me do this one! Well — ahh, shoot dude — they're all my favorite, but I think ‘Car Ride’ was sick.
One of my homies out here, Roe Kapara, is this incredible singer-songwriter and storyteller. When I first met him, he had sung part of what is now ‘Car Ride’ to me at my house. I literally bugged out at how dope it was and was pacing around in my room singing it. Then months later, I couldn't get it out of my head, so we sat down together and reworked it in my kitchen. I just poured out a story of a relationship I was in, going through all of the small details that happen right after someone leaves and that became ‘Car Ride!’”
Lastly, now that your EP is released, what can we expect from you next? More visuals, maybe live shows?
Dolo Tonight: “I just did my first headline show at Catch One! I’m trying to get on tour so bad — that would be wicked. Definitely tons of visuals. I'm always working on more songs too and have an insane concept for a project I wanna do, but it’s a little early to talk about it just yet.
I’m just finalizing some music right now, and then everything usually falls into place how it’s supposed to.”