Rollo Doherty joins Skinshape’s jam packed UK tour for a memorable October week
The week opened with Rollo Doherty setting the stage, joined by producer and musician Lord Verm (Vermin the Villain) for an intimate performance featuring layered loop pedal effects, percussion, flute, and keys. The initial show’s stripped-back atmosphere contrasted with the final two nights where Rollo returned with a full band, adding a dynamic edge to his sound. Closing the evening, Skinshape’s headlining set captivated with melodically rich tracks like I Didn’t Know, Summer and Don’t Call My Name, creating a warm, immersive vibe that made for an evening of consistently enchanting music.
I had the chance to sit down with Rollo Doherty to dive into his solo project, chat about life on tour, and get the latest updates on his band, ISLAND.
Tonight is your penultimate night on tour with Skinshape, how has it been so far and are you looking forward to tonight’s full-band set?
Rollo: “Tour has been amazing, it has been a bit of a whirlwind. I was in New York for a week playing with The Still Brothers who were supporting Skinshape there. At that point I had a sort of cameo role so I was pretty chill. Playing two songs at every gig, just one song from my EP (Papaya) and then a song that I feature on with The Still Brothers, who produced my EP and that track’s still to come out.”
You just mentioned you were in New York last week, I saw you were also in America earlier on this year, did that have any involvement with your EP?
Rollo: “So The Sun Goes Down Behind Your House (review – here) video we recorded when we were mixing the EP which we did in LA. Then in between LA and New York I did two months in Florida during the British winter and that was just writing and relaxing and writing and going to the beach, and writing.”
You are the frontman of ISLAND, how has going solo differed to being in a band?
Rollo: “I suppose from being in a band there are all these avenues that are of interest but don’t really suit what the band is doing and I guess when we decided to take a bit of a break, I just had an energy to release the kind of stuff that I had been listening to at the time, which is a bit different to the ISLAND stuff. I lent towards that direction and I also had always wanted to get into playing other instruments and I got into composing other soundtracks for friends and it all kind of merged and became a combination of the trip-hoppy stuff that I listen to with basically all the instruments I felt like playing. It’s the reverse way you would write in comparison to being in a live room where you keep rehearsing it and furnessing it and then record it. With this it was more getting stuff down and then layering it. It was a very different way of writing which felt nice.”
Speaking of ISLAND, what can you share about their return?
Rollo: “We’ve been making some demos, we’ve been insanely busy but whenever we have time we make more demos and then when there’s enough demos to say ok let’s figure out which songs we want to put out and make the album, then it’ll happen! There’s some goodies I think.” (very exciting!)
In 2023, Skinshape was your most listened to Spotify artist. Any predictions for your top 5 this year?
Rollo: “Definitely Jorge Ben who is a Brazilian artist who I started listening to a lot more in Florida through my friend Evan (The Still Brothers). Henry Mancini. I suppose some more orchestral stuff. I’ve listened to a lot of T. Rex recently and started listening to a bit of Beach House again and a bit of Joni Mitchell. Oh and Kendrick Lamar actually.”
I know you’ve done some directing in your time, is that a path you could see yourself going down more in the future?
Rollo: “Yeah definitely, I went to film school and it’s definitely a big part of my life! I guess I thought when I gave that up to do music that the doors are maybe more open for older directors than older musicians so I thought maybe I’ll be a musician while I’m young and then be a director when I’m older maybe. Doing the music videos is a way of combining the two. A big love of mine is music and film and now I’m doing soundtracks to other films, like friends stuff and little bits and bobs there which is a big part of what I enjoy about it.”
I noticed the EP dedications to Grace & Orly and in loving memory of Bonnie, are you ok with sharing more about that?
Rollo: “Sadly a friend’s baby didn’t make it so that was definitely a very sad time but nice to be able to kind of do something to give a bit of love back to them! And Grace and Orly are my new nieces so it’s dedicated to them. I get a lot of voice notes from my sister’s boyfriend saying Grace has learnt to say Rollo and apparently she just says it all the time now.”
The last question now, could there be anymore solo music to look forward to?
Rollo: “Yeah, definitely! There’s already a lot of stuff in the works and one thing kind of looping back to an earlier question is the process is able to be a lot quicker with writing solo stuff. My aim is, using Skinshape as a model hopefully, to just try and bring out as much music as possible! Maybe a project that is under a slightly different name.”
And here’s looking forward to what more is yet to come.
Press shot credit: Adrian Lee
What an electric interview! Amazing to hear more music will be on the way too, fantastic 🤞🏻