Dolata, a band out of Watertown featuring dual lead singers, recently released its debut single, and will soon host a listening party for its first EP.
Co-lead singers, Madi Donlan, of Watertown, and Joe Froeber, a native of the North Shore, teamed up recently to form the the new band. In November, Dolata released its first song, “Friday Girl,” which Donlan wrote based on her own experiences.
“When I first started writing it, it was about a best friend of mine, Jill, who passed away a few years back,” Donlan said. “So, it was super meaningful to me, and Joe and the band just really brought it to life.”
The song was Donlan’s first foray into music, while Froeber is an experienced musician.
“This is my first time in a band ever. I was super nervous to perform for people actually,” Donlan said. “The band helped me get over that fear.”
Froeber has a degree in music composition and technology from Northeastern and previously fronted a band for about half a dozen years called the Drunk Monkeys.
“I cut my teeth doing that,” Froeber said. “We started in playing house shows, and then built up to doing little mini tours and stuff on the East Coast.”
The two met through a mutual friend, and Donlan worked on a graphic design project for Froeber’s music. She had worked on some music on her own, and played some for Froeber. Later, he remembered her when he came up with an idea for a new musical project.
“I wanted to emulate the studio effect, like a studio double on vocals, but live,” Froeber said. “So from the jump, that was the idea to have two lead singers, and Madi was the first person I thought of.”
When coming up with a name for the band, Froeber wanted to find a word in another language that has multiple meanings.
“I had a list of about 20 different words in different languages, and Dolata means chisel in Belarusian, and that’s the one that I landed on, that sounded the coolest, I thought,” Froeber said. “It’s slang for cash. It means bullet in I forget which language, but it also means to reach one’s destination or arrive. So I thought there was kind of cool things to play with, visually for emotional stuff.”
Dolata plays pop forward, riff based indie rock songs, Froeber said. Ryan Garvey played lead guitar on the recordings, Amelia Allison (who is from Watertown) plays bass, and Alec Hutson plays saxophone. Froeber co-produced the EP with Matt Peiffer.
The EP includes an intro track and three full-length songs. The music was recorded with Mike Harmon at Wachusett Recording during a snow storm.
“It was surreal and kind of serene while we were recording, because we weren’t expecting snow, and there was, like, four inches of snow outside,” Froeber said. “It was just a cool environment to record, and it was very peaceful.”
The band’s music is available on Apple Music, Spotify and other streaming services.
Dolata played at a sold out show at Lizard Lounge in Cambridge in June, and will be hosing an EP listening party. The EP launch event will be held in Waltham on Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. (listening at 9 p.m.) see more info at dolata.party