Christina Kasper, vocalist / guitarist for Ottawa-based post grunge / punk band DOLL recently discussed the band's debut album, Inside The Dollhouse, and their influences in a new interview. An excerpt from the story is available below.

One of the most striking aspects of Inside The Dollhouse, after Christina’s whiskey-and-hell voice, is a fictional character by the name of Sally created to carry the songs. A concept completely unexpected given the band’s twentysomething youth, immediately reminiscent of Alice Cooper’s infamous character Steven, introduced on Welcome To My Nightmare in 1975. Steven remains part of Cooper’s songwriting to this day.

“Alice Cooper is one of our influences,” Christina reveals, “and it’s funny you mention that because we’ve talked about his character Steven before. It’s fun putting the songs together using Sally because it creates an entirely new element that can be used. It was more a case of having a character to bring the song ideas across instead of ‘I did this’ or ‘I want to do that.’ We decided to put our personal experiences into this Sally character. She’s the sum of our ideas and thoughts and she brought them all together. I don’t know if all the songs are going to be about Sally on the next album but she’ll definitely be a part of it. It’s really cool how Alice does it; it’s not like all the songs are about Steven, just a song here and there every couple albums.”

When Doll’s all-important second album will see the light of day is still up in the air, and Christina admits she can see the band releasing in similar independent fashion to Inside The Dollhouse. They’re keeping their options open but are beyond the point of expecting the perfect record deal.

“We’ve been approached about record deals, and it’s funny because friends of our who are in bigger bands are telling us not to bother. They’re telling us to go to Money Mart and get the worst loan ever in the history of the world and we’ll be better off (laughs). Our plan is to find proper management because that can help us get tours and more exposure that way. At the same time we want to record new stuff in the fall and launch the new album at the beginning of next year. If we get a small label deal, great, but if not we’re just going to do it on our own. We’ve got the experience, and we know we can get the music out there without a label if we have to.”

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Following is the official Doll band bio:

Spearheading the new wave of Alternative music, Doll, a four-piece based out of Ottawa, Canada, formed in 2006 provides the spark necessary to grab the music scene by its horns. Fronted by the multi-talented vocal duo of Christina (vox, guitars) and Julie-Anne (vox, bass) their vocal melodies and intensity are second to none. Christina provides the angst filled vocals similar to that of Brodi of the DISTILLERS, while Julie-Anne's powerful range and pitch cuts through the anger and provides listeners with a false sense of security before Pete Kasper and Nick Richer provide the aural onslaught that rounds out Doll.

The spirit of the band is summed up in the alter ego named Sally, who’s disturbing life experiences fill out the subject matter sung up by the band. Inspired by the great bands such as SONIC YOUTH, HOLE and L7, as well as new additions to the scene SPINERETTE and DIE MANNEQUIN, Doll is on its way to becoming another underground staple.

Doll released their debut album Inside the Dollhouse, which was nominated for Best Rock album of 2009 by the Ottawa Xpress, on April 10th 2009.