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Meet The Dolly Rockers!

It's not often that a band comes along that is so refreshingly different and fun that they makes us have a mini rock-out at our office desk, but up-and-coming trio The Dolly Rockers have managed just that!

The girls appeared on 2006 X Factor but got sent home by mentor Louis Walsh just before the live shows - but considering how many of the show's runner's up have disappeared into oblivion, maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Now they are back with a vengeance and a completely overhauled image, but we have to say: We like!! In fact, we think it might be love...

In a music market full of wannabe Girls Aloud-alikes, Sophie, Lucie and Brooke's unique sound - think Spice Girls meets Arctic Monkeys meets Calvin Harris - and 'naughty but nice' attitude makes them a breath of fresh air, so we jumped at the chance to have a chat with the 'trio infernale'.

The Dolly Rockers first single Gold Digger is out now! Listen to it on the Closer Online blog!

You have changed quite a bit since we saw you on the X Factor in 2006! What happened?

Yeah! When we went on The X Factor we didn’t really have a style. Sharon Osborne took us to one side and told us to play on the 'cute image' because then girls wouldn't feel threatened by us. So we went for Ugg boots, baggy jeans and Dolly Rocker printed t-shirts. We were only 16 at the time anyway...

When we left X Factor we decided to express ourselves. Lots of girlbands do the sexy look, which isn't hard, but we wanted to be different! Flamboyant and fun!

Tell us about the judges on The X Factor! What are they really like?

Simon was really lovely, actually, he wasn't horrible at all! But we didn't see him that much because Louis Walsh was our mentor. He was really sweet. He looked at us like we were a band in the music industry rather than just on the show.

He could have got us on the live shows and made us look like idiots because we were so young and would have been awful! We hadn't even played a single gig yet! So he did what was best for us and sent us home. He told us to do our own thing for a few years and develop. It was the best thing for us really. At the time we hated him  for it but if we would have gone through we would have been kicked off and everyone would have only known us from the show, so it's great that we can start again.

Have you been watching The X Factor this year? Are you 'Team Dannii' or 'Team Cheryl'?

Yes, but we don’t really like the new format. To be honest, we don't think anybody does really. It’s not as personal and we don’t like that the audience laughs at people if they don’t do so well. At the end of the day, who are they to laugh? They’re not up on that stage, it’s really nerve-wracking! 

There’s amazing people so far though.  A lot better than even than some of the finalists from the last couple of years!

But we don’t think there’s any rivalry between Dannii and Cheryl - they’re just trying to hype that up for publicity!

Where do you get your inspiration and ideas from?
 
Anywhere really, think Alice in Wonderland meets Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku girls! We really liked their style, because it's really OTT and quite dolly, so we got all these books from Japan to see what they wear. We design a lot of our own outfits because we love being creative and it's all very colourful.

We’ve always looked up to the Spice Girls too, because of their attitude and how fun they made everything look. You got the impression that they were genuinely five best friends and they were so individual! We think it’s important to express yourself through your clothes. 

Even Girls Aloud - we were watching them the other day and they are amazing. They look gorgeous.

Your sound is quite different to traditional girlbands...  

When we started writing we were listening to Kate Nash and The Arctic Monkeys and that sound was really working for us. We also like singing in regional accents - no other girlband has done that yet, but it gives us a chance to get our personalities across because we’re all from different places.

We have always just done what felt right to us. We didn’t think ‘We want to be totally different’, it all just seemed to work out this way, from our music to the styling.

Who would you like to work with in the future?
 
We’ve actually got a song we really want to get a rap on. Jamie T. would be perfect for it, so we’ve got to get onto that!

You're currently searching for new dance talent. Is it weird being on the judging panel all of a sudden? 

We are holding dance auditions for kids to dance to our song Gold Digger and we are very excited about it! But we are going to be a lot nicer to them than the X Factor judges because they’re only young. We'll give them constructive criticism rather than telling anyone that they are rubbish. It's all about confidence and having fun!

The Dolly Rockers have teamed up with KangaROOS to find Britain’s next dance star. For more information and to see KangaROOS Dolly Rockers-inspired collection go to www.bebo.com/MyKangaroos.