Caroline Carl Reports (Interview)

By: Caroline Carl

### Intro

I thank Canada for many things: Scott Pilgrim, Arcade Fire, maple syrup, peanut butter.

Most recently, I thank our northern neighbor for spitting out a singer/songwriter and visual artist whose voice makes even lines like “scraped the remains from my starving bowels” sound angelic.

Only in her early twenties, Nicole Dollanganger has written and produced eight albums (and is working on a ninth), all for which she’s painted or photographed the cover art.

One would think that her sweet voice accompanied with minimal instrumentals would clash with her gory lyrics. On the contrary, this combination breeds the perfect songs to play while, but not limited to:

* staring pensively out of windows
* driving in the rain
* having an existential crisis

All will, more often than not, result in lots of angst-ridden tears.

What’s so compelling about Dollanganger’s work is not just that it’s poetically grim but that it’s profoundly sincere. Nicole Dollanganger isn’t trying to appeal to some macabre counterculture. Nicole Dollanganger is a spooky babe and I fucking love it.

Making sure to be accessible to her fans, she’s often answering their questions and giving them advice or encouragement via Tumblr. After contacting her about an interview she was more than happy to chat with me and I was seriously floored that someone with such a large and growing fan-base would so excitedly give me the time of day.

You can listen and download her music on her bandcamp. To see some of her artwork, thoughts and ask her questions you can go to her blog.

### Interview

**Caroline Carl**: You were originally posting your visual artwork online, what was the spark that steered you to music?

**Nicole Dollanganger**: It was only after posting my first song on my blog and getting some really encouraging and supportive feedback that I considered I could actually create songs! It had always been something I’d wanted to do, something I was embarrassed to admit because my lack of ability.

**CC**: A lot of people use song writing as a catharsis. Now that you have a pretty large fan base how do you handle writing such intimate lyrics knowing that so many people will have access to these private thoughts? Has this made you censor some of your songwriting?

**ND**: It hasn’t made me censor my songwriting, but I write a lot of songs I decide not to share, even if I’d wanted it to be on an album. Though I guess it depends on the subject. In some instances I find sharing something intimate liberating.

**CC**: You’re very interactive with your fans on your blog and often receive hand-written letters and other things in the mail from them such as teeth and locks of hair. Where others might be a little shaken, why do you happily welcome such?

**ND**: I think receiving hair or teeth when you haven’t expressed an interest in either could definitely shake someone, but for me it’s different, because the people who send me locks of hair and teeth know that I collect and cherish both. It’s a huge honour for me to have people give me something that is intimate to them. I am always overwhelmed by this. Sometimes I send written letters, paintings & other things to artists I admire a lot. So to be on the flip side of that interaction is an absolute honour. I’ll never be able to adequately express how it feels to be going through a very rough period in your life and then to suddenly have a parcel show up on your door full of things someone else has put a little bit of their soul into for you.

**CC**: What’s are some major themes in your upcoming album?

**ND**: A lot of the songs revolve around the idea of destruction & fear without consequence.

**CC**: Versus your first album how do you feel that you’ve grown, be it musically or personally?

**ND**: Musically I think I’m still struggling a bit to create things as I hear them in my mind, but personally I’d say I’ve grown a lot more. That first album’s creation coincided with an illness I was battling, and right after I released it, I went on bed rest for a year & completely shut the world out. I could probably count on my hands how many times I left the house throughout that year, actually. And after that period, I was a completely different person. Everything in my life had changed and I think for the first time I kind of came into myself. In that regard, I feel I have changed a lot.

**CC**: How has writing and producing your own songs changed the way you perceive the music you listen to?

**ND**: It’s changed a lot because whereas before I would just listen to listen, now I listen to learn. I learn a lot from the music I hear now. Even music I don’t particularly like.

**CC**: What advice do you have for anyone who’s a beginner singer/songwriter?

**ND**: I would say to never feel discouraged if you work at something and nothing comes of it. I used to always get discouraged if I wrote and wrote and hated everything I made because it made me feel like I’d wasted time on nothing. Now I look at it like time & thought invested into the song and the idea behind that song, and it’s generally made the whole process a lot better!