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Sohodolls return with ‘What Kinda Love’

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Brand new Sohodolls single ‘What Kinda Love’ was written by central songwriter Maya Von Doll when she was in a really bad place in her life. She’d lost her job, was suffering from insomnia and anxiety, was out of a record deal and had just become a parent, and then lockdown hit and it seemed like her musical dreams were completely over. The track’s themes explore the feeling of your life slipping away and thinking the only place you’ll find excitement is in your daydreams.

Starting with gritty fuzzed-up riffs, ‘What Kinda Love’ drops into classic dark Sohodolls pulsating synth-based infectiousness, with their trademark sumptuous and seductive goth tendencies wrapping the listener in a thick gloss that’s hard to escape from without being addicted to the track.

“I wrote this song when I was in a bad place in my life. I had put on a lot of weight during my pregnancy, suffered from insomnia and anxiety, was out of a record deal and suddenly didn’t have the day job I’d always had. I had handed in my notice at my London office and was interviewing for new roles in the City when lockdown hit. I’d got to the final round of interviews for a finance firm and was banking on having a new career adventure but that all evaporated with Covid. I felt I was now in a lockdown within a lockdown. I had no music studio so I’d write this song on my walk to the supermarket in a scruffy tracksuit feeling invisible and like an utter unemployed failure. This was months before Bang Bang Bang Bang went viral giving Sohodolls a new lease of life and a new record deal.”, explains Maya Von Doll.

In Maya’s words, the song is about “how drained, weak and unfit you feel post-pregnancy, poorer and despondent. And with that came the fear that I was no longer independent, attractive nor strong. I had been feeling for a while that my dreams were over. I didn’t think I could ever find love nor be successful. So I thought ‘All of my excitement will now have to come from my imagination because it could never happen in real life’. And then I thought about that thought – the power I have always had to retreat into my mind and escape or exist there. I would pass attractive people that I would never meet and I thought it would be great to write lyrics about an invisible person relishing in her power of imagination. In it she could have anyone and do whatever she wants with them. She could also be the version of herself she accepts.”

A globally enforced lockdown revived Sohodolls classic ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ into an unexpected viral TikTok hit among the Gen Z glitterati and put Maya Von Doll back on track with her music career.It so happened that Madonna had posted a recording she made of her daughter Estere Ciccone performing her own original choreography to the track and as part of the ensuing TikTok trend ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ rocketed up the Billboard Top 50 and is now sitting on over 200m streams across platforms.

The new viral attention inspired Sohodolls to reform and release new singles ‘Letter To My Ex (Thank You Goodbye) and ‘Bad’ in 2022, which both picked up considerable press & radio attention, including airplay from Nels Hylton on Radio 1’s ‘Future Alternative’, Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio and features with highly regarded music blog Atwood Magazine. In early 2023 Sohodolls returned again to release a new re-write of ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ in a stand against gun violence.

Otabek Salamov (aka Needshes) produced ‘What Kinda Love’ and Future Cut (Lily Allen, Shakira, Rhianna) helped Maya Von Doll bring out the stomping hook in the track. It may also surprise some to know that 80s Billy Ocean track “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” is also an inspiration behind the song.

“There was a song in the 80s that had the hook ‘Get out of my dreams, get into my car’ and I thought ‘My life, my status is now the opposite of that 80s male rockstar” explains Maya Von Doll. “So, I flipped that sentiment to “Get out of your car and get into my dreams’ because that’s the only way I could ever have someone I desired”.

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Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.

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Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.

There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”

Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?

‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”

Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.

Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.

Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.

The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.

“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.

Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:

1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent

5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham

6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

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