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Piano is at the center of Dolson’s rock sound
By John Benson
Less banter, more music is the rally cry of Akron rock act Dolson, which returns to Youngstown on Saturday at Cedars.
“We like to make our shows seamless, like an actual show,” singer-pianist Andy Dolson said. “It’s not just a group of songs. We’ve thought it out from beginning to end. While we may banter, we keep a quick pace. We want our live show to feel like an experience, as one whole piece.”
The band’s show is drawing material from its untitled debut release, which is due out this spring.
The list of tunes, including the popish “It’s Not Over” and the Kings of Leon-meets-piano-rock vibe of “Hurricane,” have been honed over the past year when Dolson was opening for the likes of Third Eye Blind, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, One Eskimo and a short stint with We Shot the Moon.
Whereas the outfit’s namesake released two solo albums, working with Nashville producer-engineer Vance Powell (The Raconteurs), it wasn’t until he crossed paths in the summer of 2010 with guitarist Patrick Boyle in a backing band for Kate Tucker that Dolson was formed. The two quickly hit it off playing what is basically piano rock. And if you say piano rock today, invariably, Ben Folds comes up in the conversation.
“I love Ben Folds Five; they’re one of my favorite bands, and my own music tends to lean toward that,” Dolson said. “It was mainly for years just me and a drummer. The piano was the main instrument, but now with Dolson, we’re just as much guitar melody. Lots of guitar hooks, almost like the guitar is the second melody. You have the vocal melodies and guitar melodies, and the piano is more of a texture than it is a lead instrument.”
Naturally, Dolson the band has garnered comparisons to Keane and even The Fray. While Dolson is cool with the former, it’s the latter that results in clarification.
“With The Fray, the guitar riffs aren’t really central to the music,” Dolson said. “In a way, Patrick is not unlike how The Edge [U2] has been described, where the guitar is like the second vocalist. So the guitar is just as central as the piano and the voice.”
This brings up another aspect of the piano in a rock band that, well, isn’t always received in a positive manner.
“Yeah, sure, you could say the piano is the wussy-er aspect, but we’re not hard rockers,” Dolson said. “We rock out on stage, but we don’t really listen to heavy rock music. We admit to really liking that melancholy type feel, which the piano has much more of. That’s something that resonates with us.”
Another band that Dolson cites for comparison sake is ’80s act Tears for Fears, which is known for its hits “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule The World.” When it’s pointed out not too many groups are name-checking the work of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith these days, he replied, “The Tears for Fears comparison comes from our use of synth. We grew up in the ’80s, but we’re definitely not an ’80s band by any means.”