Dolly Ave
This is Her Time
by Kayla Marra
Dolly Ave is a Vietnamese American singer/songwriter from Missouri. She got her start in the industry as a photographer but has been writing songs for years and years. Dolly’s newest single “This is Our Time” is an empowering pop anthem that touches on the topics of coming-of-age, speaking and living your truth, and taking risks.
We recently sat down with Dolly to chat about her single, her inspirations, her writing process, and even an upcoming album.
Could you introduce yourself to our viewers and tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m an upcoming Vietnamese American artist and I have a new album coming out next year, early. It’s going to be eleven songs and it's a coming-of-age Indie album. I've been making music for about two years now, so I'm still pretty fresh at it and discovering my sound. I'm just excited to be here!
We’re so excited to have you! Congratulations on the release of “This Is Our Time” on the 17th! Could you tell us a bit about the song and what it means to you?
The last EP was seven songs, and it was centered around heartbreak. I was in a more somber soundscape, so coming into the new chapter of my life I wanted to make an empowering track that was more positive and energetic, and a song that I could perform live. The reason why I wrote the song and wrote this album of coming of age and my youth was that in the middle of the pandemic I had lost my mom, so it was my way of empowering myself after a grieving period.
I'm so sorry to hear that, but that's great that you had a positive outlook on the situation and had this creative way to help you through it. What is one lyric from “This Is Our Time” that you think encompasses the meaning?
Wow, that's a great question. I think my favorite lyric is “Life is better shared.” When I get to that part of the song, I got really really connected with whoever I'm saying two or what I'm saying about because life is scary and things are scary when they are uncertain, but it is still better to share with somebody at the end of the day.
Can you walk us through your writing process?
Before I became a singer, I was a photographer. I would usually write words in general so now when I go into a session, I'm just singing the melody and then writing to it, and it goes back and forth and here and there. I would usually say I think of a word that I feel responsive to. For instance, this one was time, and I wrote a whole melody around it. Yeah, I would say words first.
I heard that this is the lead single for an upcoming album, what can you tell us about that?
Every song is different. It has a lot of pop-punk elements, there are some songs that are more Indie soundscape, and I'm experimenting with a lot of different instruments and festival sounds. The other songs are all very different and it's just so exciting. I would say to expect a lot of dancing, jumping around, and wanting to scream.
How do you choose what will be a lead single?
That's a difficult process, honestly. You know, it takes a lot of mental decision-making because you have to think about what the audience likes, what represents me, and will they be excited about it, am I excited about it? Then you go on this psychological back and forth kind of “I don't know, maybe this is not representative of me” but then it's like “oh well, that's the album.” For this one, it was in the title. I needed something that just said everything about the album but also about my journey.
If you had to pick a color that best represents “This Is Our Time” or the album as a whole, which would you choose?
I think red and orange because it's very bright and intense. Yeah, intense is a good word. I'm very excited to share the rest of the album.
Who would you say are some of your biggest influences or inspirations?
I have various degrees of influences from the Beatles to Billie Holiday to FKA Twigs. Yeah, I listen to everything honestly, even to Paramore.
We can definitely hear all of your influences in your song which is cool. But then again, you're also your own unique artist which is super cool to see. What is the best advice you’ve been given?
I think the best advice I've ever gotten is to be at peace with yourself. At every step of the journey, I feel like there's a lot of noise in terms of, okay, this is what success looks like and this is what you should be doing at this age. I think when you live your truth and you're happy with yourself, you're just going to have a greater outcome in life.
Do you have anything you’d like to say to your fans and supporters?
I would just like to say that I'm excited to share this new music. It's different, it's fun, and it has a more mainstream appeal in a sense. I'm more excited for people to learn more about my story coming from Missouri and hearing a new sound.
Check out Dolly Ave’s newest single “This is Our Time” streaming on all platforms now, and make sure to listen to her upcoming single “Sit Still,” releasing on November 14th!
Copyright ©2022 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 26, 2022.
Photos ©2022 Dyan Jong & Heather Gildroy. Courtesy of Big Hassle Media. All rights reserved.