London-hailing Sohodolls have revealed latest single What Kinda Love, 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.
Sohodolls / Maya Von Doll
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 Von Doll.
Check out What Kinda Love below:
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. 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 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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