Femme Punk Band The Aquadolls Embrace Sparkles, Love and Sisterhood
Think of glitter – but aggressive glitter – and that is exactly what the LA-femme punk band The Aquadolls bring into their new era of music that is saturated with gleaming sparkles, smashed cake, silk ribbons on knives and burning dollhouses. What you see is what you get with The Aquadolls. The trio (Melissa Brooks, Keilah Nina and Jacqueline Proctor) released the single and video for “Sneaky,” the freshest cut off their upcoming third studio album Charmed. “Sneaky” tells a story of uncertainties and not knowing what lies ahead with the person laying next to you. The band shows the struggle of being someone’s dirty little secret.
Produced by Chris Szczech, “Sneaky” puts the angst surrounding the uncertainty of a relationship directly under a microscope; this close study fueled by a gritty sound that juxtaposes the heaviness of bands like The Breeders and Veruca Salt, and captures the hopeful dreaminess of shoegaze bands like Cocteau Twins and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Instead of attempting to escape these simmering feelings of doubt, The Aquadolls lean into them, opening the floodgates and letting all their inhibitions pour into this bombastic cascade of sound. Daydreams about tender nights spent tangled under the sheets must cease – there is only room for anxiety-ridden intrusive thoughts, “Am I just your late night sneaky little thing?” lead vocalist Melissa Brooks questions.
Later this year, The Aquadolls will unveil the entirety of Charmed, which is heavily inspired by the popular 90s show on magic and the occult. In 2022, they released the project’s first single “Beachy” that emerged as a powerhouse, reverb-drenched, twinkle of nostalgia tale that rejects longing for someone and focusing on loving yourself first.
Charmed is a direct reflection of the band’s love for love, and that encompasses love in all its purest forms from self-love and romantic love to the undying love of sisterhood.
“The album is, I would like to say sparkly. I just think sparkles when I listen to it, but aggressive sparkles,” says bassist Keilah Nina. “ I really listened to the album today and it's very lovey, like it's super duper lovey dovey, and I like to say that it's love in all aspects, whether it's self-love, romantic love, platonic love or sisterhood. I think it's having a lot of gratitude and being very grateful for what we have been able to pull ourselves out of tough situations.”
Do not let the relatable tales focused on relationships and heartbreak fool you. The Aquadolls still are having fun and are showcasing their humor in their lyrics. Charmed charts the growth in the band’s sound, fusing elements of melodic 60s harmonies and 90s driven grittiness with a contemporary twist that ushers in an unapologetically bold era for them, and it serves as a strong representation of what they will evolve to.
“Charmed is baked with love and there’s a lot of love within it. Sonically, there's a lot of heavy guitars and a lot of reverb on vocals and harmonies and that's like our signature sound,” Brooks says.
Even as the current edition of The Aquadolls continues to evolve, their signature sound as a guitar-driven band remains the same. Armed with a continued desire to promote their message of self-love and sisterhood, Charmed is the perfect step forward. Combining a cohesive sound with the message of unconditional love, The Aquadolls are comfortable growing with their audience.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar, what inspires your creative style and artistic persona?
[MELISSA]: We all pull from different pieces, but we love the 90s and early 2000s vibes like the bad bitch energy of Riot Grrrl meets pop star, but a badass punk rock version of it.
[KEILAH]: I like that you use the word personas because that definitely feels when I play, my favorite thing to say is that I’m almost like a John Waters character which has been a really big inspiration for me and that definitely inspires my online and onstage persona, crusty and cute.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your single “Sneaky” released and a huge congratulations is in order. It sounds like you are stepping into a new empowered era in your music and I adore the grunge-inspired soundscaping and the screaming. What was the inspiration behind “Sneaky?”
[MELISSA]: Shoutout to my old sneaky link who inspired that. Literally it was my sneaky link and I was driving home one late night and I was talking to myself and some of the lyrics came to my brain and showed it to the gang. We all collaborated on it and made it come to life.
[KEILAH]: Obviously Mel did a lot of the heavy writing on that song, but there are some accents in there that are inspired by Hole. There’s an echo that we do that reminds me a lot of Hole and there’s a breakdown that we do where we’re yelling, so that is very Hole inspired as well.
[JACKIE]: I honestly black out mentally sometimes when we write. It was definitely Hole inspired because of the gritty sound and the yelling.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What did the creative process look like for “Sneaky?”
[KEILAH]: When we have a song or a vibe, a lot of the times we Pinterest board it immediately. It helps us curate a kind of a vibe, whatever we're listening to at the moment always ends up showing in our songs. We'll do a collaborative board and listen to things that we want to be similar because I know for damn sure I was listening to Live Through This every single day. Creatively, visuals help a lot for me and it definitely helps in the music realm. It also helps that we recorded the whole album in just two weeks, so we had to be very time conscious of everything and get it all together. I think Pinterest and whatever songs we're playing definitely help us polish off the finishing touches of our songs.
[UNPUBLISHED]: “Sneaky Link” is a sneak peek glimpse into your upcoming third album Charmed. Even the name of the album sounds magical. What can listeners expect from you guys in this new era of music?
[MELISSA]: Lots of fun rock n’roll. I'm excited that we have this new music video [“Sneaky”] that we're putting out and it's very grunge meets fucking up a cake. Just being silly, whimsical and getting down with your friends. It’s a lot of friendship and fantasy elements as well.
[KEILAH]: The album is, I would like to say sparkly. I just think sparkles when I listen to it, but aggressive sparkles. I really listened to the album today and it's very lovey, like it's super duper lovey dovey, and I like to say that it's love in all aspects, whether it's self-love, romantic love, platonic love or sisterhood. I think it's having a lot of gratitude and being very grateful for what we have been able to pull ourselves out of tough situations. Just a lot of love. I’m very thankful that we get to do this, so I think the album definitely reflects our love for love.
[JACKIE]: Love stories for love.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How was your experience filming the music video for “Sneaky?”
[MELISSA]: It was so silly. We spaced it out like a minute because we started filming it before we did Austin City Limits.
[KEILAH]: The first day of filming I just remember being really, really fun. It was so fun. There's these scenes that we have where our heads are poking out of this dollhouse and it just looks so wacky and our videographer, Jenna, had done a photo shoot earlier that day, so I remember just pulling random pieces and there's a Marie Antoinette wig that I took off. There's just so many videos of us fucking around that day, so it was really fun getting to do that because it's just silly, like I don't take it very serious. I'm really excited that people are gonna see it because I feel like with every video we do, they're getting a little bit more authentic to who we are as people and it's nice letting people see the real side and not the hyper-scripted version.
[UNPUBLISHED]: When I first heard the body of work and saw the name Charmed attached to it, my instant thought was the show and how it represents this magical sisterhood and friendship. Why did you guys decide to name the album Charmed?
[JACKIE]: Keilah came up with that. We were brainstorming at Veggie Grill. When Keilah said it, mine and Mel’s eyes just lit up and it was super cute. It was pretty evident that Charmed just encapsulated a lot of the magic and energy we are bringing into this new album.
[KEILAH]: I forgot what synonyms I was looking up but I wanted it to be very lovey-dovey and I wanted it to feel lovey-dovey and have a whimsical and cutesy energy behind it. I remember looking up infatuation and just that realm of worlds and that one ended up sticking out because it was so charming. I thought of it having a very witchy and nostalgic vibe because of the TV show. You can also be charmed by someone and be under their spell. It was definitely at Veggie Grill, for sure.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Have you taken any new creative risks or approaches, either lyrically or sonically, with Charmed since your last 2018 release The Dream and the Deception?
[MELISSA]: Absolutely. I feel like this is very personal, not to say that the last record was not personal because it was, but this has a little bit of everybody within the songs. It's our first time that we've all gotten to get in a studio and make a record together, so it really shows a little piece of everybody within all the songs that the last record didn't have. That’s what Keilah was saying that Charmed is baked with love and there’s a lot of love within it. Sonically, there's a lot of heavy guitars and a lot of reverb on vocals and harmonies and that's like our signature sound, but definitely sprucing it up with the quality of recordings we recorded with Chris Szczech, who did the Goo Dolls and he was awesome – and his two dogs, they were great emotional support dogs in the studio too. When I was recording The Dream and the Deception, it was mostly me sitting in a Panera Bread by myself, so actually being in the studio with Keilah and Jackie and writing together and collaborating all together was really the root of the love from the sound and everything.
[KEILAH]: I think something that's exciting too is that we all fully got to play all of our instruments with the drums fully live. I play all the bass and Mel does all the guitars. We do all the singing, which I think is cool because in the past, our schedules wouldn't line up necessarily so a lot of people do program stuff. I thought it was cool that we all got to stand in the booth together, record and play everything which was exciting because it feels like a bigger chunk of our heart is in the album because we fully got to add our hold on the reins. In the last album, we were in the band, but it was Mel's gig, so I think it's nice that we finally all got to do our little thing, which is cool.
[MELISSA]: It's more hands on than anything that we've ever put out before and everything was made with love. Jackie's drums have way more soul than a program could ever have, so shoutout to that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song from Charmed and why do you love the song? Is there like a favorite lyric that stands out to you the most or a specific message that draws you in?
[KEILAH]: I know that mine is going to be a song called “Spotlight” because it's a song that I can't stop listening to. I think the lyrics are hilarious like, “We can watch the sunset and I'll sit on your face.” I just love that line so much. I think it's so silly and perfect, and I just really love that line. I think it's so good.
[JACKIE]: I mean if anything, that's probably my favorite too. I also like “My butt looks good in the mirror,” I'm pretty sure we've all felt this way, because I don’t think we talked about how much we hate every single part of our bodies. Why are we talking about flaws more than talking about what we love? We have to twist it in a positive light and that’s why it’s our favorite.
[MELISSA]: One of my favorites is “Cutthroat” and Jackie wrote that one and that's like the mosh pit of Charmed, like push somebody and go crazy song. I love that and I love your vocals on that one.
[JACKIE]: Thanks, it was a personal experience and I had written and performed it before with other bands, but it was really nice to have your support and put your own twist and amplify it in a way that I have never experienced before. I feel very lucky that they let me still express some old songs that I had, and I think as a lot of drummers feel the need to just get it out and in a song. I think a lot of people in our audiences will appreciate just getting it out.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You guys are also about to do a headlining tour to celebrate the magic and the love that created Charmed. What is your favorite part of touring?
[MELISSA]: The show, making friends, being on stage, meeting everybody and the crew. Roadies are the best.
[JACKIE]: Keilah loves hanging out with the security. I was hanging with security the other day because when you get a compliment from the security or the guy standing in front that looks super intimidating, when you get their approval like I don’t need anyone else’s approval. We love the roadies because I just have an inner Dave Grohl bro and me and I love to go out to the bros and especially when they're cool and they're not gonna be weird. They understand that you want to be a bro. Sometimes you are one of the guys and I just love it, so that's my fave.
[KEILAH]: Besides the show, the post-show grub hits so different. I don't know what it is, like my profile picture of Jackie is us in a Burger King Drive thru with a handful of granola. I remember when we were in Colorado, we got Voodoo Doughnuts and that was a different level. We were in that hotel room so happy and crying to Mitski. Mitski was playing and I was eating a donut that was supposed to be a blunt but it looked like a foot, and this was everything that I have ever needed. Post-show grubs are a ritual.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals that help ensure that you perform your best?
[JACKIE]: We warm up and I just start doing push ups like crazy. We just let it out and scream at each other and a lot of times, we start to put on fun throwback music like Black Eyed Peas and jam out.
[MELISSA]: We just party in the greenroom, dance, hydrate and warmup.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you have any memorable tour stories that you would like to share?
[JACKIE]: I used to drink, I don't drink anymore, so that was definitely a factor to it. I've always dreamed of having some sort of variation of a Mötley Crüe moment that is super rock n’ roll. I’m a rock chick at heart, that’s what it is. We used to do tequila nights and Melissa was there to witness it. It was tequila time, 3 a.m., and we went down to the jacuzzi and at some point, bikinis started coming off and I got a bad feeling about going back and I still didn’t put my bikini on. I run through the hotel naked and the security guard comes and I am a second away from getting out of there. I run towards security so I can get into the elevator. I got into the elevator and then right before the elevator closed on his face I went “byeeee.”
[KEILAH]: Something that I remember is it was our last day of tour and we were with our manager. We were going over the Brooklyn Bridge and our manager was intoxicated. It was our last show. He realized he left his tab open and he just yelled to let him out of the ban. He’s like “I will run across the Brooklyn Bridge and I will close it and meet you guys at the hotel in Jersey.” He was trying to open the van door while driving. It was funny because we were giving our friend a ride home from the venue in New York to our hotel and she was gonna get picked up there. Our friend was witnessing our manager go, “I love you and I promise I'm gonna get back and it's gonna be fine.” It was pouring rain, so that was really funny. A more chill one was on the last tour we did, which was a lot different than any other tours that we did. I really, really, really loved the days off where we all just gotta hang out like family. They were so nice because it felt like a really huge road trip. We were at an RV site and there were cats and it felt like a National Lampoon movie, but imagine a whole bunch of rock n’ rollers, roadies and tour managers were all there. It was great and really fun. There were some little kids there that were really hilarious. It felt very humanizing after being on the road for so long, and it was just like, wow, we really are just like a really big fucked up family.
[MELISSA]: We were staying with the guitar tech for Incubus on a tour bus together and y’all put a brick in his bunk and he did not notice for several days and just slept on top of a brick.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your favorite song to perform live and why?
[KEILAH]: I think “Sneaky” is my favorite to play. We've played it on two tours so far and it's my favorite. Since it's unreleased, it always made me feel good when people would say they like that song. The bass part is really fun to play. We get to sing on it. We get to yell on it. I feel like you go through all of the emotions, so that one's a really fun one to do live.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Unpublished Magazine?
[MELISSA]: I’m excited and hopeful that it's gonna fucking rock. We're just gonna have no choice but to make this year rock and we have our album coming out soon. We have a tour and I'm just ready to keep all these opportunities coming, all these blessings and I'm just really grateful that we get to do this and that people enjoy it.
[KEILAH]: Yeah, definitely very hopeful. My tarot reading that I got from my coworker is very promising, and so I'm definitely gonna go back to her because they've been very promising. I would love to leave my nine-to-five and pursue music full time, but every musician's dream is to do it full time. I'm pretty hopeful that this year is the year I'm speaking it into existence. I got the sun card for May so we're really holding on until May, and it's all glitz and glamor online but real life is hard. Behind the scenes is a lot of hard work and blood, sweat and tears that goes into it. This music and this band is our passion. It's our baby and all we want is to be able to share it with people and hopefully it resonates with everyone, so I just hope that this year we can make more human connections. I just feel like it's so easy to compare to everyone else's success and I just want people to know that we are a lot more alike. I want to connect with humans. I want heart to hearts.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Is there anything that I didn't ask that you guys want to add to the interview?
[JACKIE]: I would say just be yourself and surround yourself with love and what feels warm and good, and just rock rock out because guess what, we're here for a good time, not a long time.
