Q&A: Dolly Ave Teases New Era with Explosive Single “Bad Brain”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
UNFILTERED REFLECTIONS ON PRESSURE, IDENTITY AND GROWTH — Blending nostalgic 90s-inspired indie rock textures with alt-pop vulnerability, Dolly Ave returns with her emotionally charged new single and music video, “Bad Brain” — a raw and cathartic exploration of self-doubt, adulthood, and the exhausting pursuit of meeting everyone else’s expectations while trying to discover yourself in the process.
Driven by fuzzy guitars and confessional lyricism, “Bad Brain” sees Ave confronting the internal pressures that come with growing older, chasing success and questioning whether the life you’re building is truly your own.
The song details her “frustration with not being exactly where I want to be in life,” Ave shares. “I am suffering from the weight of everyone’s expectations while navigating what I truly want. In the end I understand part of it is my own self-deprecating behavior. I accept my flaws and choose to continue on with uncertainty.”
The song’s title itself becomes symbolic of the push-and-pull between blaming circumstances.
“I blame it on the chemical of my brain and how it was made, but also expressing that I'm on this ride, whether it's for the better or for worse,” she says. “And just sharing my frustrations around trying to please everybody, and not knowing where I want to be in life, but then accepting it in a positive way.”
The accompanying music video further amplifies the song’s emotional tension, pairing Ave’s nostalgic aesthetic with striking visuals. Rooted in a deep appreciation for the sonic and visual worlds of the 90s alternative scene, “Bad Brain” balances grunge-inspired grit with modern alt-pop sensitivity.
The single also offers an exciting preview into Ave’s upcoming sophomore album, a project set to dive deeper into themes surrounding adulthood, sexuality, relationships, and the realities of navigating the music industry. Inspired by her love for the nostalgic era of live instrumentation and emotionally driven rock music, Ave is determined to revive the feeling of a true live-band experience while translating that energy into a modern record.
With more singles arriving in the coming months and a full-length album slated for later this year, Dolly Ave is entering a defining new chapter creatively. She’ll also be taking these songs on the road this summer with performances planned in major cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington — bringing the emotional intensity and live energy of “Bad Brain” directly to audiences across the country.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
DOLLY: I have been working on this new record for several years. I took a break to just experience life and it inspired me to write about the frustrations of adulthood and sexuality and personal relationships and the industry, and I would say this new era is very nostalgic, a lot of heavy, driving guitars. What inspired this sound was my love for the nostalgic world, because I grew up on midwest emo, Paramore, Cage the Elephant, Smashing Pumpkins, and just trying to bring back the live band experience, translate it into an album, and hopefully translate it into a stage.
LUNA: “Bad Brain” feels deeply personal and emotionally exposed. What inspired the song and what did you feel drawn to exploring this time around?
DOLLY: When I took a break, my last album was my first album I have ever put together with a big team, and I felt a lot of pressure because I didn't know my identity. I'm not sure what my sound was, and I had so many people telling me what made sense, and at the time I was really bad at saying no, and I was a people pleaser. Also, when you first release something, you're under pressure in terms of is this my path. There's a lot of uncertainty, and so I wrote a song just accepting that this is my path, because I can't help it. I just love art, and that's why it's called “Bad Brain.”
LUNA: The title itself is striking. What does “Bad Brain” mean to you personally?
DOLLY: I blame it on the chemical of my brain and how it was made, but also expressing that I'm on this ride, whether it's for the better or for worse, and just sharing my frustrations around trying to please everybody, and not knowing where I want to be in life, but then accepting it in a positive way.
LUNA: “Bad Brain” is accompanied by a music video. What did you set out to capture and how was your experience filming it?
DOLLY: I went backwards into how I started off making music videos, which was just with my friends on a budget, where we just were resourceful and tried to be creative with what we had, whereas the last album, it got larger scaled than needed to be, and that lost my creative in how I used to work. This has more of that DIY nature and brings back the feeling of nostalgia. We put things together, we had a blast, it was just trying to emulate this darker color, darker sound with different outfits, and it was fun. We had an all Asian crew, a Vietnamese director, a Vietnamese stylist, and Vietnamese hair and makeup. I think all those things just made me feel comfortable and happy to revisit the way we used to work, how I used to work.
LUNA: A lot of listeners are navigating burnout, uncertainty, and identity struggles right now. What do you hope people take away from “Bad Brain?”
DOLLY: For me, I wanted people to take a step back and slow down. I could have easily shared my first single off this record more of the upbeat, more pop-leaning, more commercial, or quote unquote, digestible songs that would make it more radio-friendly. I think it's really important as an artist to do what feels right for you, and I'm glad I shared a track that was slower and expected you to slow down and listen to the lyrics and wait till the payoff at the end where there's a bridge.
LUNA: I would love to hear anything you would like to share about the upcoming record. What are you excited for listeners to experience with this project?
DOLLY: I'm really excited for listeners to discover me again. It took me a few years to find my sound and develop my style and where I wanted to be as an artist, so I'm excited for them to come back and see me in a different light. I've been playing with an all-girl band, and this music is really fun, upbeat, lots of live instruments, and so I'm also really excited for people to hear it live and perform this music in this new era, because this is the closest to where I want to be musically. I'm excited for you to join the journey.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
DOLLY: I think it's okay to take up space and be loud and feminine and be a leader and say what you want with your platform. I think, especially in these alt-rock, indie-rock spaces, there's this pressure to say that the only way you can potentially be in this genre is to look a certain way and to dress a certain way, and I just don't think that's true. I think you can mix both worlds of being super hardcore and serious, and be playful, and wear a dress, and wear pink. I think there's no one way to do anything. Speak your mind. Say your truth. Play the music that you want to play. I think that the most important thing is to stay true to yourself.
LUNA: What is fueling your fire right now that’s pushing you into this new era of your career?
DOLLY: This is a really great time in my life, because I took my time on this record, where everything was more intentional. I'm pursuing quality over quantity. If it doesn't feel right, then we can always change it. Deadlines don't matter. I also have been able to build a beautiful, creative team, and working with a lot of really supportive people that inspire me every day on the visual side, on the booking side, on the music side, and so having all those things creates a perfect storm, and lying the intention down to release it my way and on my timeline.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
DOLLY: I'm definitely feeling overwhelmed, in a good way. I haven't released music in about two or three years, and so my mind has been very one way for a while. I write in the studio, I try to mix and master it, I work on the album, and now it's being released, so I'm being pulled in a lot of different directions. With this tour coming up in July, it'll be my first headlining tour where I'll be performing in the West Coast and the East Coast, and so just gearing up for that, taking care of all the logistics for the tour, and being excited to just share the rest of this album. Feeling overwhelmed, a lot of pressure, but it's a good pressure.
