POP-ROCK QUARTET, NICOTINE DOLLS, ANNOUNCE MARCH 7 DEBUT ALBUM, ‘AN ATTEMPT AT ROMANTIC’; Latest Track, “You Won’t Have Me” Written by Legendary Songwriter Diane Warren Available Now

February 3, 2025 BY Bailey Vigliaturo

On the heels of announcing their 28-city an Attempt at Romantic Tour, pop-rock quartet Nicotine Dolls have released another taste of new music with “You Won’t Have Me.” The track, penned by songwriting legend Diane Warren, is one of two songs written by the GRAMMY-winner to be included on the band’s forthcoming, debut album, an Attempt at Romantic, set for release March 7, 2025 via Nettwerk Music Group. 

Listen to “You Won’t Have Me” HERE Pre-save an Attempt at Romantic HERE

A devastating ballad, “You Won’t Have Me” exhumes the pain of saying goodbye to someone you love but have reached a breaking point and have to leave for your own well-being.

You won’t have me to call in the middle of the night no more

Won’t be running to your door when you need a friend

You won’t have me to lift you up when you’re sinking

Chase away all the demons when they’re in your head

You won’t have me to hold you and to console you

Don’t know who it’s gonna be

But it won’t be me

Cause you won’t have me

“First thing I had to do was get over the fact that I was standing in the same room as one of the greatest living songwriters of all time, though I don’t know if I ever truly got over that,” shares  the band’s lead singer Sam Cieri on working with the music icon. “From a production standpoint, I was pretty confident that the song only needed vocal piano and strings. We didn’t really get to in depth on where the song came from for her or where I would be coming at it from on my end and I liked that. Sometimes things don’t need to be pulled apart like that. It just needs to exist in the song. And for me this one was the internal monologue of somebody leaving. Quietly packing a bag and walking away.”

Founded in 2017 first by Cieri and John Hays who met and became friends on the Broadway tour for the Tony Award Winning show “Once.” Fellow members John Merritt and Abel Tabares joined a year later. Nicotine Dolls have released a series of self-penned and produced singles and EPs, including the 2023 EP How Do You Love Me. After signing with Nettwerk Music Group, the band have been hailed by SPIN for their “vulnerability and determination,” calling Cieri a “charismatic, gravelly-throated powerhouse with the rasp of Bruce Springsteen and the emotion of Lewis Capaldi.”

Cieri, who wrote or co-wrote ten of the 12 tracks for the debut LP, shares, “This album has been my own internal attempt to be OK with wanting to love, and be loved in return,” he explains. “I wanted to be dumb and nervous and brave and scared and everything that you drown in when someone looks at you in that way that derails the whole plan you had for your life. I live alone with my dog and I’m not saying I don’t adore that life, because I do (my dog is my sweet big boy Indiana). But I miss laughing with someone in the kitchen or falling asleep watching trashy TV. I pride myself on my independence, but I think I made this record as a way to admit to myself that having someone there…would be nice.”

The group chose to postpone their tour last fall to focus on completing the upcoming album. “At the time it was such a difficult decision because I knew we would be disappointing people. Looking back at it now I know it was the right thing to do because otherwise we wouldn’t have an album ready and this is going to be the first time that we go out in support of an album,” shared Cieri.

With stops across the US and Canada including Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Toronto, and more, tickets for the band’s an Attempt at Romantic Tour are on sale now. Visit nicotinedolls.com to purchase.