ROX-TV chops it up with the Greek Darkwave Metal Band called SadDoLLs from Athens. They talk their about their music, history, and lots more.

Welcome back to the ROX-TV website. Today we will be speaking with the SadDoLLs, a Greek “darkwave metal band” rocking out on the other side of the world. We strive to bring the readers something new as much as possible, and also from different perspectives from around the world. The magic of the music is that it unites us all and I believe its the universal language we can all communicate in, whether or not we are fluent in the local spoken word. So without further to do, lets get into the weeds with the SadDoLLs….

Thanks for sitting down with the readers at ROX-TV tonight. Before we get started could you tell the people at home where the SadDoLLs are based out of?

GEORGE: Hello and thank you so much for this interview. SadDoLLs is a Darkwave Metal band from Athens, Greece.

The SadDoLLs have been together for about eleven years. Can you talk a little bit about how you guys formed up and what the early years of the group were like?

GEORGE: We can and could say that this is a big journey for us, being formed in 2006 originally as a cover band. We made this band mainly because of our love and support for Finnish metal bands like HIM, The 69 Eyes, Amorhips, Charon, Sentenced etc. We covered mainly this kind of music. The first step for our own music was the 2007 E.P. “Dead In The Dollhouse” that was self-released in a really small amount of copies that are now sold out. Our first album “About Darkness” was released in 2009 by Emotion Art mainly in Greece.

You guys have been described as a “Greek Darkwave Metal Band”. In your own words, how would you describe that scene to people reading about you for the first time, perhaps to people that are new to that specific genre?

GEORGE: This is the term we’ve been using since our third album “Grave Party” from 2014. I think the title Darkwave Metal describes the combined music elements we use in our songs. Most of them are heavy metal based as a structure, then combined with darkwave synths, keyboards and beats, all mixed with scream vocals (that brings us the heavy element) and classic low tuned dark vocals (that brings us the more old school gothic singing style).

The SadDoLLs have released four studio albums, with two of them gaining serious attention from the fans and critics “Grave Party” and “Blood of a kind”. I understand that first single from that latest drop “Lady Cry” has gotten a huge response in Germany. “Lady Cry” was featured on “Sonic Seducer’s” compilation album “Cold Hands Seduction” and sold more than sixty thousand copies in that country alone. Can you talk about the single “Lady Cry” and why you think it’s struck such a chord with the scene?

GEORGE: The track “Lady Cry” was released in 2014 as a part of “Grave Party”, our first serious attempt to reach the Northern European audience. We had a big help promoting the album in Europe from a fantastic PR Manager from Germany that led to some shows in Europe in 2013 – 2014. “Lady Cry” was the first song that our guitarist Paul composed for “Grave Party” in 2013 and when the vocal lines and lyrics came along we were sure that this song would be a wanted song, a hit song if I may. The great production behind that album and the adding of a sexy girl in the music video I Think is what made it more popular among fans.

Also Skinny Disco from Deathstars was doing some guest vocals in the second single from the album “Terminate Me” which led to a music video featuring him that now has reached almost 500K views, so that also helped a lot.

The SadDoLLs dropped “Call me pain” in October of 2020. Can you talk about that release and the concept behind the track?

GEORGE: We’ve been working on that song since 2019. It was taken from a bunch of 5 or 6 demo songs that Paul and the guys arranged in 2018 – 2019. We picked this song especially as the new release because for us it is the definition of Darkwave metal. I Personally think it is the best song and music video we’ve released so far. It has the groove, the heavy riffs, the psychedelic keyboard sheets and the catchy vocal lines. It has it all. The clip was filmed and edited by Bob Katsionis from Outloud and Firewind, that is a wizard of metal music videos here in Greece, so the positive outcome was a given fact. The model that appears in the clip is Marianna Painesi and she is one of the 3 finalists in the 2018 season of Greece’s Next Top Model.

The first studio album, which dropped in 2009 was called “About Darkness”. I really like the songs “Death is Your Name” and “Mistress Goodnight” and “Evilone”. I like the dark overtones of the music. We have a dark scene in Detroit as well with the underground rap scene. Although your music and the Detroit underground rap scene are different genres, I believe they share some of the same dark elements and feelings. “Don’t Say Goodbye” also has a nice midnight sound that I dig. What inspires the darker sides of your music?

GEORGE: The production of “About Darkness” was a troubled one because we entered the studio in 2008 to record the “debut” without complete songs (for example “Death Is Your Name” and “Don’t Say Goodbye”) where the only ideas at the time we entered the studio, and the first single “Watch Me Crawl Behind” was composed during the recordings. Also during the recordings we changed 3 keyboardists so the tracks has keyboards played by 3 different official band keyboardists and are finalized by the producer who added some additional too. As I recall at some point the producer lost some snare drumming sounds from the recording program he was using and it took like months to get the sounds close to the original recordings. Then it was mixed, then re- mixed and the re- mixed again. Then it was mastered by 2 different producers. It was tough and we spent a shitload of money to produce it. I Look back at this album and I have to say that I find it “experimental” “true” and “alive”. It has heart and feeling. If the final sound was better, I think it would be one of the best albums out of the bunch.

“Blood of a kind” (Tristol Records) dropped in 2017. Can you tell the readers at ROX-TV a little bit about that album and two songs they must check out from that release?

GEORGE: This is the latest album we released, we had the songs ready since 2015 and we started the production in 2016 in Athens. The album was mixed and mastered by Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, The 69 Eyes) and released by Trisol Music Group digitally and from Dark tunes as a physical album.

We recorded the song “Jigsaw” for this album intended as our tribute to the SAW movies, but it was ultimately removed from the final tracklist due to copyright issues that we were unaware of, so we released it as the first music video as a warm up for the album. Then the single “Cold Blood Inside” came in 2017 and “Creep It Into you” in 2018. I Think this album is the best of SadDoLLs but with new tracks, it is a mixture of all our previous works and marked the 10-year anniversary of the band upon release. I would recommend some highlights from this album like the songs “Dunkelstein” “Cold Blood Inside” “Sex In Church” (that features JP Leppaluotto from Charon and Poisonblack) and “Kiss You In Hell”.

We’ve been shut down in America for over a year in one form or another. Is Athens suffering from similar shut downs? How has the pandemic affected your music, the ability to reach out to fans at live events, and recording?

GEORGE: Thankfully the lockdown and the return to normality is starting to take shape here in Greece, coffee shops and restaurants are now open, the tourist season begun 3 days ago, things are slowly starting the get back to normal, so I really hope so we can celebrate it with a live show in Athens before the end of 2021. But during the lockdown it was really hard especially psychological wise. It felt like there is no future, like tomorrow you could be sick and then dead. But we were at least able to release the single and music video for “Call Me Pain” last October (it was originally scheduled for April of 2020 but was ultimately cancelled due to the pandemic) so the band kinda moved on during quarantine, but we dearly miss the shows, this is the first goal we have to get back to normal. A great live show to get us started.

The SadDoLLs have shared the stage with some dope acts including Skinny Disco (Deathstars), Zoltan Pluto (HIM), Mikki Chixx (Stoneman), and many more. What was your favorite collab with another group? If you could work with anyone out there right now, who would that be?

GEORGE: During our years as a band we had the opportunity to share the same stage with artists like The 69 Eyes, Lacrimas Profundere, Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Xandria, Skinny Disco (Deathstars), Zoltan Pluto (HIM) Mono Inc., Solar Fake, Gothminister, Blutengel, VNV Nation and Lord Of The Lost. We also had the pleasure to collaborate in our albums with Skinny Disco (Deathstars), Zoltan Pluto (HIM), Mikki Chixx (Stoneman), JP Leppaluotto (Charon, Poisonblack) Jape Peratalo (To/Die/For), Roberth Karlsson (Scar Symmetry) and Morgan Lacroix (Mandragora Scream). We always wanted to collaborate with HIM (or Ville Valo) in one of our songs, or even as a support act in a live show. A Show with Deathstars is one of our goals as well.

Are the SadDoLLs working on any new projects at the moment? Anything you’d like to tease out to your fans or the readers at ROX-TV?

GEORGE: We are still left with the scars of the lockdown, not yet able to get back on track, meet up and schedule our next release. The main deal within the band and the label was to release and new single along with a music video once a year. I think this is still the main goal, so that is the route we will probably follow. We have many great songs complete so we can always pick one of them and start producing it.

Where is the best place for new fans to find and buy your music and merchandise?

GEORGE: We are extremely active on our social so everyone could reach us there and via our official website that one can find our store and order everything that is available there. You can visit www.saddolls.net for that. You can also follow us on Instagram @saddolls_official and also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/saddolls, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/saddollstheband and on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/OFFICIALSADDOLLS

I’m from the 90’s and I always loved the shout outs. When artists would shout out people in songs or in the notes of albums whatever. Who are the SadDoLLs shouting out tonight?

GEORGE: I am also a 90’s kid but was never too familiar with shout outs. We kinda did some in the credits of previous albums but mostly friends and loved ones. We also did many of them in our live shows when supporting another band, to get the audience warmed up for them. Today I decide to do a shout out to Mr. Ville Valo and thank him for all that he’s done with the music genre and what he offered to the world with his music and lyrics and we would love to collaborate with him in the future and create something together! Kiitos Ville!

Unlucky question thirteen….this is just a space for you guys to say anything you want to the people of Detroit, The American Midwest, or any other state in North America. Say whatever you want. Pitch your band, a new song, or just tell people why they should check you guys out.

GEORGE: After the 2 shitty years that humanity’s been through I would like to say to everyone in the world that our time is now! We are free and alive! Let’s get back to the clubs, bars, pubs and live stages and celebrate it as a whole. As a unity! Time for grieve has passed and the days of joy and freedom is only upon us, let’s embrace that and move on with our lives! We only came out stronger from this. Peace and love to everyone and I hope to see you back in the music stages again as soon as possible.

Well that’s about all the time we have. I’d like to thank the SadDOLLs for chopping it up with the ROX-TV website. We know that they are busy and the fact that they made time for us was very cool. I wish them well for the rest of 2021 and will be keeping an eye out for them and their music. Until next time.

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer

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