Punk-pop band The Dollyrots may go down in history as the only good thing to come from the 2000 US Presidential elections, and by extension George W. Bush's presidency. So the story goes, Kelly Ogden (lead vocals, bass) and childhood friend and fellow student Luis Cabezas (guitar, piano) are attending New College Florida, preparing for medical school. On the night of November 7th they were watching the election results, when at four a.m. they found out that Bush had won and thought, “The world's probably gonna end anyway, and I don't want to go to med school.” So they decided to take their part-time college band full-time because, “We had no future anyways...” They may as well just be in a punk band.
So formed they began touring and creating their fun, poppy-without-compromising-punk sound. An accessible mix of fun bouncy melodies and harmonies but with all the ass kicking power and attitude of punk music. Their sound is a unique blend, precisely what pop-punk should be, honest, in your face, and accessible. If The Dead Kennedys and Gwen Stefani had a love child, they would have named it The Dollyrots. Punk music with pop sensibilities.
Much like Kelly Ogden herself. At first glance she could be mistaken for a pretty little thing with lots of curly blond hair, big doe eyes, and a baby-doll pout, and yet according to The Dollyrots website, Kelly just “might sucker punch you if you're dumb enough to try her patience”. In fact after interviewing Kelly I believe I am in the midsts of a full-on girl crush, she is an intelligent, witty, dirty-minded woman with a tough-girl attitude. Now before you get the horn imagining some Suicide Girl-on-girl action, I'm not talking about re-thinking my sexuality. No, just a good old fashioned, I-want-to-be-like-her crush. When we chatted, she was in the middle of the frozen Midwest at a truck stop on the way into Chicago on the Dollyrots latest tour. She was without sleep, wayworn, and coming down with a nasty cold, but still we laughed and talked like old friends, such was her friendly, open manner.
So tell us about your second album, Because I'm Awesome. Where did you get that name?
It's actually from the title track which is one of the more fun songs. It can be taken in different ways. When we wrote it, it was kind of a big F you to everyone who thinks they're better than the next person. When really they are just a big pile of crap. They've got no right to treat other people bad. The verses are meant to be sarcastic, the chorus is kind of a retort. But it's kind of hilarious because the song has been picked up by Radio Disney for example, as an empowering song for young girls. I was like “Oh! Okay. That's kind of interesting.” Not what we planned or anything. Then it's also been picked up by like punk-rock stations and XM Radio and mainstream alternative radio. So the song can be interpreted in different ways. Which is always cool, I think, in a song.
So how did you come up with the name The Dollyrots?
Well, when we first started out the music was very, very raw and punk-rock, it was really fast, very hard punk rock. Then I sang and my voice is so sweet. The words that I sang, a lot of time sounds like I'm being sweet, but it's not exactly the meanings. So we wanted to find two words that summed up the juxtaposition between my voice and the music. I feel like it's a good descriptive term. I hate when band names don't mean anything at all.
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