Earlier this year, Anara Publishing started a new series of Instagram Live sessions called “In Conversation With”, where once a month we have an in-depth chat with one of our artists about their plans for 2022. For our April 2022 session, we were joined by singer-songwriter DORRR who is originally from Poland but is now living in France. DORRR describes her life as a dreamy nostalgic pop universe, and she is influenced by artists such as Cyndi Lauper, Fleetwood Mac, and The War on Drugs.
For those who are new to your music, where did it all begin?
It’s a long story, I hope you guys have time! I was born in Poland and grew up in a pretty ordinary family. None of my family members were into music, I was the only one, the first one actually! I was attracted to drawing as a kid, and when I discovered I could sing – I became obsessed with music. I was 14 years old when I first started singing classes and then I joined a rock band. Things became complicated when I was in high school, I went on a school exchange to France and I met a French guy, it’s a nice story really…
We got along musically, and then we fell in love. I decided to move to France when I was 18 years old, and we moved in together. We started working on projects together from scratch, because neither of us had played music professionally before, so it was a learning process. It took us a lot of years to learn how things work, like DIY methods, working on songs, producing songs, creating a recording space, and an indie label too. It’s been 15 years since that started, and we still work together. Along with my DORRR project, we have a band called ‘The Blind Suns’ which has allowed us to become professional musicians, we make our money now from music which is great! I’d describe the band as a surf/rock/psychedelic vibe, and our third album is going to drop in a few days.
The DORRR project is my new project, my solo project. It all happened because of the pandemic, I had time to build something up, so I launched this during the lockdown. That’s how it started, it’s way more synthpop than rock.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Oh, wow, there’s a lot to say about that because I try to be very open to all music genres in general. I think The Kills are my first love, I’m absolutely obsessed with Alison Mosshart. But recently, I’ve been listening to some more indie electronic music, some cool lo-fi music, I really like listening to random playlists on YouTube or Spotify because that’s how I discover new artists and become inspired by different sounds. For example, that’s how I discovered Chvrches who are a big band now. At the beginning, they were a small indie band who I discovered by accident on the internet, and I really liked their vibe.
What has been your favourite part of working with Anara Publishing?
I’m very happy to be a part of the family, and publishing seems like a good way to meet people. I love meeting people. I love travelling. This is something I’ve been doing for a while with my band, and I want to develop this further with DORRR.
Anara Publishing works with many international artists, and they try to develop connections and put us in touch with each other. It’s a great opportunity to meet new artists and collaborate. I’m aware of the success of Anara Publishing’s songwriting camps, and I’d love to join these kinds of events in the future. I want to meet new people, meet new producers, and get out of my comfort zone a little bit, because I’ve been working with the same people for a long time. I feel like with my solo project, I can go further and create new sounds and opportunities for my music. I plan on writing more songs, toplining for other artists, and collaborating. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with Anara.
Your album cover is beautiful. Let’s talk about the album ‘Glitch and Glitter’ in more detail. How did it come about?
Oh, it started on the road, while I was touring with my band. I like to write down things when I’m travelling, I always have some lyric ideas, I was pretty much taking notes and writing stuff down for the whole time that I was touring. When we arrived back from the tour, we locked ourselves in the studio and experimented with new sounds, I thought that maybe I could try to do something on my own, so that’s how it started.
The songs on the album are about a lot of things, a lot of frustrations. When you are on tour it’s great. I mean, we always have a great time, but it’s not always easy. Sometimes it’s kind of disappointing, like the relationships we have with people on the road, or in general, and you kind of have all these emotions in you and you need to put them aside.
[On the album name] Glitch is this part when things get blurry, so it’s something like a problem, a visual problem. Glitter represents something shiny, something positive. That’s what it is, it’s a mix of stuff. It’s dark, but there’s always hope. I’m really happy with what we accomplished.
What are your plans for the rest of 2022?
First of all, the album with ‘The Blind Suns’ is going to be released very soon. For now, I’m trying to stay focused on the release. We’re playing in Paris for our release party, and then we’re going to Tallinn Music Week in Estonia for the showcase festival. We just came back from Texas, and we have a couple of shows over the next month in France too.
Concerning DORRR, I have a new project in mind with friends. I will work on that project in the next few months to come, so hopefully we can put up a nice collaboration on stage with DORRR. I haven’t talked about it yet on my on my socials because it’s all new!
In the meantime, I’m still working on toplines and new songs. I started working with a producer in Poland as well a few months ago, we’ve just dropped a cover song and we have some more to come. [On the cover songs] I mean, they are not really covers because we change everything. We just keep the vibe of the original songs, and we try to do something else with it.
How do you manage to maintain a good like work life balance?
I like to be busy, so I don’t mind doing a lot of things at the same time. I’ve just returned from two weeks in the western part of France where I’ve been working with kids on music workshops. Putting a project on stage with thirteen kids is completely new to me, but I get fully involved and I love the experience. So, I’ve just come back from a crazy two weeks away, I’m in my apartment for two days and then I’ll be off to Paris for my release party and other shows. I just try to sleep enough, take care of myself, and eat well. I have a lot of energy!
Let’s talk about the EU funded Key Change Programme. You’ve been awarded it twice now, which is amazing! Tell us more…
Yes, normally it’s one year programme. I was one of the seven French artists and innovators that joined the programme in 2020, but then the pandemic happened so things got complicated, they then rescheduled another year because we couldn’t really work the whole time.
I met a lot of amazing people, it’s how I met Jagoda from Anara Publishing. I would recommend the Key Change initiative to others for sure.
What do you miss about Poland?
This is a tricky one. I miss my friends, but I visit often, so it’s all good. I also miss the culture sometimes, the Polish vibe, like with the audience at shows. Audiences are great because every country has different approach to shows. In France, for example, people are kind of shy. In Poland, it’s more like a party every time. I also miss the food! I love Polish food.
If you had to give one piece of advice to up-and-coming songwriters, what would it be?
Don’t give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. I mean, it’s a complicated process, it’s tricky. If you’re passionate about what you do, things will just happen. For me, it’s something I’m really devoted to. It’s something I really need, in my life to exist. The rest will align later.