London’s influential electro-rockers Sohodolls are back! After being out of the limelight for more than a decade, a globally enforced lockdown revived one of their classics ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ into an unexpected viral TikTok hit among the Gen Z glitterati, which has inspired the band to reform and release some stunning new music.
Musically, ‘Letter To My Ex (Thank You, Goodbye)’ may take its cues from ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’, however, Maya von Doll’s return can only be described as a perfect pop anthem for any break up. Blending old school beats and new wave synths with that sauciest of Britpop wit, alongside hook laden singalong parts, it is a poignant single to capture her, and some of her band members’ actual real life present divorce situations as only they can.
Maya von Doll never holds back with her favoured kinky BDSM language to express her breaking free from an unhappy situation, “‘So, if I could press rewind, untie the ribbons from my eyes, unkiss the kiss that led to this, no swallowing of the lies you spit’.
No stranger to cult following and success, Sohodolls debut album in the naughties ‘Ribbed Music for the Numb Generation’ has always gone down well with a young crowd, having been the sound of one of ‘Gossip Girl’s’ most famous striptease scenes from Leighton Meester to writing pop bangers with the likes of Charli XCX and then this unexpected viral revival in 2021, Maya von Doll recalls,
“One morning I received a flurry of frantic texts from friends, saying Madonna has just shared and tagged your song, I was in the middle of a house move, no internet so I had no idea, but it was crazy.”
It so happens that Madonna had posted a recording she made of her daughter Estere Ciccone performing her own original choreography to the Sohodolls classic ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ and as part of the ensuing TikTok trend the track rocketed up the Billboard Top 50 and is now sitting on 100m Spotify streams. From a song Maya wrote as a teenage misfit, about the urge to find your tribe it shows how the Covid Gen Z’s try to find theirs.
We had the amazing opportunity to catch up with Maya, the amazing female voice of the SohoDolls:
When did you develop your love for music?
As a child listening to my Mum’s tapes of Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Blondie.
How did you get your start with the SOHODOLLS, What influenced the name?
I walked into Alan McGee’s indie club night in Notting Hill and gave him my demo. He emailed me a month later and that was my first record deal. I thought up the name Sohodolls when I was 17 cos I heard there was an old band called the New York Dolls.
You have a very unique talented sound, can you tell us what artists influence your sound?
Thank you! My biggest influences are Depeche Mode, Marylin Manson, Garbage, Nirvana, Blondie, Kraftwerk.
Tell us about your new divorce anthem “Letter To My Ex” what message do you hope listeners takeaway?
I would love my listeners to know that if you’re stuck in a bad relationship then you can and will be free one day. Everything is a process – including realizing that you are unhappy.
How has social media helped with reintroducing your sound to a whole new generation or group of people?
It’s the only reason we are back! Sohodolls was inactive when our old tracks Bang Bang Bang Bang and ‘Stripper’ blew up on TikTok and then Spotify. We saw a TikTok post of an American teenager who said ‘I can’t believe that a band from 2006 wrote a song about Strippers that wasn’t misogynistic’. It’s very humbling to know that our viewpoint on life, love, and sex is resonating with Gen Z.
What is your definition of a Pretty Woman Who Hustles?
Yikes that’s a question and a half, isn’t it? For me, I like the juxtaposition of ‘pretty’ and ‘hustle’. So for me, it’s someone who possesses both the traditional perspective of the female (dainty, feminine, fairer, etc) and what the natural world’s truth is of the female (also have fangs/hunt/kill and fight)!
PRETTY WOMEN HUSTLE ONLINE 