When Melbourne rockers The Cherry Dolls went into a studio on New Year’s Eve, little did they know they would come out with their debut, full-length album.
“We actually weren’t expecting to do an album,” vocalist Josh Aubry says. “We didn’t even have any songs, we just decided to go into the studio for some unknown reason and in three days we punched out ten songs.
“We never expected to go this approach where we only record ten songs. We always thought we’d do the whole ‘write and record 30 songs and pick the best’. These songs came so naturally to us, everything felt right and we couldn’t be happier.”
Their first LP, ‘Viva Los Dolls’, comes after releasing two previous EPs, ‘Pearls’ and ‘Lone Palm’, both of which Josh says were more like snapshots of the band’s sound. “It’s a massive step forward,” he says about the album.
“The two EPs were how we felt at the time. 'Lone Palm' we recorded in LA and I suppose they were just five or six songs of how we felt at that time in that time and space.
“Then the album is the sound we’ve always wanted to do and what we’ve always wanted to portray ourselves as, and I think for the first time as well we’ve finally been able to get the attitude and angst towards the live show, across on to the record.”
It’s the live aspect of their performance that Josh says he and the band were trying to encapsulate with ‘Viva Los Dolls’, something that had been lacking from previous releases according to Josh. “We’ve never been able, even in a single, to get the feeling of our live show across onto record and we feel like we’ve finally nailed it,” he says.
“As bad as this sounds, we never really cared about recordings. We were just playing live shows and putting on the best live show we could, until this album where we really wanted people to feel the way they felt at our live shows when they put the record on.”
Three singles have already been lifted from ‘Viva Los Dolls’: ‘Blister’, ‘Slave’ and ‘Let You Down'. Josh says the fourth and current single, ‘C.O.P. Out’, is his favourite from the record, being based on wild night out for the lads. “There’s a bit of a story,” he laughs. “I don’t know if I want to let it out of the bag.
“We were in Sydney at the casino and some things went down and we all got arrested. That’s the basis of the story; when you hear the song it speaks for itself for the rest of the story. ‘C.O.P. Out’ is our highlight of the album. I think it hits the head on the nail exactly what we want to do as artists and portray as musicians.”
The Cherry Dolls launched ‘Viva Los Dolls’ at a hometown show at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel in May and will embark on a national album tour; Josh says he and the band can’t wait to play the new album live.
“The response to the new songs was incredible,” he says of the launch. “It’s always good to be onstage playing the songs that fans haven’t heard and you can see they’re enjoying it, it’s not forced. I’m excited for people to see the new live show after listening to the album.”
‘Viva Los Dolls’ is released 28 July. The Cherry Dolls play Yah Yah's (Melbourne) 28 July and The Hideaway Bar (Sydney) 3 August.
