Interview: WORRY DOLLS, Nashville Meets London, Canary Wharf

Country music is so very varied – my last interview was with country/rock band Holloway Road, and today’s is with indie/folk band Worry Dolls, who wowed everyone at Nashville Meets London with their soft and haunting melodies (you can read my review here). I caught up with band members Rosie and Zoe after their set to discuss their unique sound, the next Adele, and representing redheads in country music – read on!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m joined by Worry Doll’s Zoe and Rosie here at Nashville Meets London in Canary Wharf! Fantastic set today, very different from some of the other stuff that we’ve heard. How did you find that unique sound?

Rosie (R): We started off as solo artists and we gigged for years on our own. When we got together, the sound that we create is very different to what we do solo. Our voices are quite different but when they come together it’s like one voice.

Zoe (Z): We found the sound from working together for so many years and being in tune with each other and bringing our different influences and fusing them together. And also writing together as well – we write differently when we write together.

R: Zoe comes from more of a folk background and I come from more of a country background so it’s a fusion of the two that makes it a bit different. It’s not straight country and it’s not straight folk.

CC: So you didn’t necessarily come into this partnership thinking ‘this is the type of music we’re going to make’?

Z: Not at all. We started off very indie/folk and it developed from there. Mainly with just influences – our trip to Nashville made a big difference.

CC: I was going to ask about your trip to Nashville – that’s where you recorded your debut album, right?

R: Yeah, we lived out there for three months. We recorded the album out there and wrote most of the songs out there, bar two I think.

CC: And we’re of course at Nashville Meets London – how do you compare the two cities?

Z: Well we live here! So it’s very different. When we go out to Nashville, we’re living in a dream world, but living somewhere is very different. We love London. In London, you just need to know where to go because it’s so big! And you’re not driving everywhere, you’re getting on the Tube. It’s a different experience.

R: London is London! It’s incredible. We never tire of London. The thing we love about Nashville is that it’s very kind of ‘small town’ – they call it Little Big Town, right? So we love being able to nip from one place to another, we can go to three or four gigs in one night and just drive to someone’s house and play, write a song, and then drive to somewhere else and play a gig.

Z: It’s so much more music focused too. In Nashville, everyone’s doing music so it’s easier to find it. In London, you just have to know where to go.

CC: But living there for three months didn’t convince you that that’s where you want to live instead?

Z: I think we just love being able to go out there and spend time there, because anywhere is different to live. For us, it means so much to keep going back to visit. We’d love to go out there for longer periods as we develop, but we love London as well. Home. We’re very lucky to be based here.

CC: I’m hoping for a London Meets Nashville festival.

Z: Yeah, that’s a great idea!

CC: I think you brought a lot of people into the festival today during your set, the crowd swelled. How did you feel about today’s set?

R: It felt amazing. We had so much fun out there.

Z: There’s such a buzz, seeing familiar faces in the audience. The sun kept coming out at point, it was really emotional! So great.

CC: As well as having beautiful voices, you’re also multi-talented instrumentalists – I saw a banjo and guitar, do you play any other instruments?

R: A bit of lots of things really. I actually grew up playing clarinet, but I can play a lot of things at a small level. Guitar’s my favourite instrument.

Z: Yeah, Rosie’s a multi-instrumentalist. She can pick up anything. We’re doing our demos at the moment for our next album and she’ll just pick up a bass or put some electronic drums on it. She’s super talented, she’s selling herself short to you! I’ve started playing the piano recently – I find it so relaxing and it’s a very different sound to what I do on the banjo. It’s really nice to be able to start performing with my new Roland.

R: It’s really nice to have a band as well and switch between instruments, because when it’s just the two of us, you’re having to hold down the rhythm the whole time. When you have a drummer, you can move around a bit more.

Z: We can just stop playing!

CC: It’s nice that because you have this skill of being able to play your own instruments, you can switch easily from a band to an acoustic set.

Z: I think that was actually something that was really important with the album. We didn’t want to go out to Nashville and make a record that wasn’t us, with a bunch of Nashville session musicians (who are all absolutely incredible) but we wanted to be able to come back home and recreate as a duo. We’d been touring that album for a good few years just as a duo so it’s nice to be able to have the band for special moments like this, but we need to be able to recreate that live. I think we’ve got that balance because we’ve worked with a very sensitive producer, and he was all about female vocals and wanted to keep it very sparse – Neilson Hubbard – he was honestly the best producer we could’ve picked for our debut album. He was so in tune with us and I felt so comfortable working with him and that was super important going out to Nashville, working with these big time musicians and this producer, but it felt like home. We recorded all our parts in such a short space of time because we felt so comfortable.

CC: When you were recording and writing your songs, were you drawing on your London-based influences?

R: Yeah, I mean we’re very influenced by a lot of UK folk music, but also a lot of friends here who are in the folk and Americana scene that we’ve been hugely inspired by. Also, we took a lot of inspiration from bands in Nashville as well. It was definitely the case that we wanted it to feel like a British record by a British band but it drew influences from all over the place.

Z: The best of both worlds.

CC: Well that’s exactly why we’re here today! And you mention there that you were listening to different kinds of bands here and abroad – were there any lesser known artists you think need their time to shine who people should be listening to?

R: One of our favourite artists is Aubrey Sellers.

Z: We met her at Country 2 Country a few years ago when she was doing an acoustic set with her guitarist.

R: She’s Lee Ann Womack’s daughter. She’s just absolutely incredible. They need to bring her over here. She’s very busy over in the States touring with Chris Stapleton.

Z: We also got to tour with two wonderful guys called Robert Vincent and Dean Owens back in December last year. I think they’re both incredible.

R: I tell you who’s going to be the next superstar is Jade Bird. She’s going to be the next Adele. The next Americana Adele.

CC: High praise indeed!

R: We met her when she was 17, just did a show together in a tiny bar in Camden, and we were like ‘this girl is going to be mega.’

CC: And what about the next steps for you two then?

Z: Undecided! We’re off to Holland, then Portugal, and then Germany in November. We’re also going to be coming back and playing a couple of UK dates at Americana in a Day, the Long Road.

R: And then we’re going to Nashville!

CC: Nice for some! So a very busy rest of the year! And to finish up our interview, what’s a question you would love to be asked, but never have been?

R: I don’t know!

Z: That’s a really hard question!

R: I don’t know, I’m not an interviewer! What about you, what’s a question you’ve never asked anyone but have always wanted to?

CC: Well, I’ve never interviewed fellow redheads like myself. Good to see you representing!

Z: We actually have built quite a strong redheaded team.

R: No one’s asked me about my haircare routine… I wash it with shampoo and conditioner.

Z: A lot of people think Rosie has blond hair because when she’s next to me it looks a lot more blond.

R: It’s definitely red, I didn’t get bullied my entire life for nothing!

Z: Redheads have to stick together!

CC: Absolutely! Well thank you to you both for taking the time to talk to me today!

Thanks to Rosie and Zoe for chatting to me – I hope you enjoyed this interview! If you did, make sure to drop me a message in the comments letting me know who else you’d like to see me interview, and follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more Nashville Meets London reviews and interviews coming soon. Thanks for reading!