Introducing LA-based visual artist Doris Club; Releases ‘There’s Still Time’ Side A

Doris Club, the musical moniker of the enigmatic, Los Angeles-based artist, is a distinctive soloist tied to no boundaries on a sonic or lyrical level. Fruitful in song creation, collaborative by trait, genre fluid in sound, endlessly determined in artistry, and yet difficult to elucidate, Doris Club is a one-woman army set for deployment to musical prominence. Define her as simply indie-pop, and you’d miss out on her experimental and lush textures. Pigeonhole her as just a singer-songwriter and you’d discard her sprawling production work reflected in her affinity towards 1960’s jazz, pop, and folk. Call her unorthodox, and you’re inching closer to revealing her true self but for now, Doris Club would rather relish in the mystery and excitement of being unknown… at least for a little longer.

Today, a flair for visual storytelling is demonstrated in her Side A EP There’s Still Time, which arrives alongside her essay Doris Club is a Daughter, Trying to Keep Her Mother Alive Forever that pays homage to her ailing mother, who has been living with trigeminal neuralgia for several decades. The record is a poetic collection of pensive, melodic pieces that lovingly orbit around every existential lesson she’s learned from her mother (her name written into the artist’s moniker) about love, uncertainty, and surrender. Divided into two separate releases, Side A is an uplifting exploration of emotions that sets one up for the second half (Side B in 2024), a more personal, sprawling, and philosophical account.

Doris Club shares this of her Side A release,

“I was sensitive to the passage of time from a young age. The gentle, candid nature with which my mother talked to me about death and impermanence made a zealous disciple of the moment, obsessive hoarder of memories out of me – this was the conclusion I came to while making this record. I’ve feared time as much as I’ve worshipped it. Side A looks back and is an offering to the source of my sentimentalism.”

Opener “Wake Up (If I Was God)” is a springy, synth-y outpouring of empathy for her mom, who’s struggled with a deeply incurable, painful disease for almost 40 years — causing her to become unable to talk or sleep-deprived, often for months at a time. A hooky, harmonic soundtrack to watching yourself in the third person, “The Movie” features punchy breaks in percussion while light synths and bass carry melodies through a cinematic soundscape. A song that’s equally as ear-wormy as it is heartbreaking, “The Movie” is dedicated to finally understanding what it’s like to prolong the pain because you can’t bring yourself to do what’s right. Regarding the track, Doris Club shares, “‘The Movie’ is where you end up as an outsider to yourself – where you watch everything unfold and discover that you’re powerless to stop any of it.”

WATCH + SHARE “THE MOVIE” LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO

Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), whom Doris Club spent a week in Australia with, co-wrote “The Sea, The Ocean,” an earworm of a retro-pop track that serves as a metaphor for a lover who can’t weather the ebbs and flows of a relationship. A pair of songs titled “Oh, No!” — Part I, a percolating poem about the anticipation of romance and Part II, an alt-country-twinged wake-up call about its reality — are about feeling, but not resisting, that irrational pull towards forces beyond your control. “I often tell myself, ‘I’ll go with the flow.’ But the truth is the flow brings me so much emotional turmoil,” Doris Club reveals.

Closing track, the transcendent, theatrical “Seraphina,” broaches how the only battle you’re really fighting is with yourself. “In ‘Seraphina,’ I see who I both despise and desire to be in equal measure” shares Doris Club. “In time, I realize that I only have myself to blame. I’ve created her, perpetuated her and worn her like my second skin even when it’s made me miserable. Despite this, she has been my only companion for so long, and I don’t know that there is a version of me that can exist without her.”

Doris Club’s upcoming debut album includes production assists from Jordan Blackmon (Toro Y Moi, Leon Bridges) and Josh Wei (Rachel Platten, Stray Kids), along with co-writes from folk artist Field Medic and producer Chris Walla.

Earnestly intimate, danceable in many ways, and driven by life’s themes of ambiguity, confusion, and positivity that are explored through the lens of an intuitive daughter trying to make sense of it all, There’s Still Time is rooted with honesty and grief yet its shimmering undertones guide listeners back to a place of vast promise and wide-eyed optimism.

There’s Still Time Side A is available at all digital retailers here:

https://dorisclub.ffm.to/theresstilltime

Tour Dates:

*Supporting Lo Moon

October 18, 2023: Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon*

There’s Still Time (Side A) Tracklisting:

1. Wake Up (If I Was God)

2. The Movie

3. The Sea, The Ocean

4. Oh No! (Part I)

5. Oh No! (Part II)

6. Seraphina