Hair of a dog
Gwen Dolyn and Steffen Israel as Duo Tears
“Hair of a Dog” is the name of the duo Tears’ first album. photo
© Selena Hamers/dpa
Strength club, blonde, power plush and now tears. With the album “Haare of a Dog”, another promising music formation from Chemnitz is making a name for itself. The two musicians are no strangers.
Singer Gwen Dolyn and Kraftklub guitarist Steffen Israel actually just wanted to help the 80s punk song “Duel of the Last” get a new edition. But the two musicians became a duo, and one song became an entire album (“Hair of a Dog”).
There has already been a sample with singles like “Capitulation” and “Stures stupides Herz”, which has received well over 900,000 views on Spotify since the summer.
Chemnitz – the “Saxon Manchester”
“Tears” shows once again that Chemnitz is becoming a creative hub in the music scene. Not only Kraftklub and frontman Felix Kummer are established nationally and bring big stages and festivals to life, the indie pop trio Blond is no longer an insider tip; In the spring the band Power Plush, also from Chemnitz, released their debut album.
Gwen Dolyn, who comes from Berlin, is now also at home in the former “Manchester of Saxony”, which will become the European Capital of Culture in 2025. “There is still space and air here,” she says. “You don’t need a lot of money or a lot of prestige here to be able to do your art in peace.” That reminds me of the time in Berlin. “It’s great here as a base.”
“My weapon is vulnerability”
The band name “Tears” came about through an interrogator on the telephone, says Steffen Israel. But it fits in with the very personal lyrics – they encourage vulnerability as a means of self-assertion. “My weapon is vulnerability, I’ll show you what I feel,” it says in the song “In the middle of the face” or “Let go of what hurts you” in “Stures stupid heart”.
Musically, tears move in indie pop and the NNDW, and they also make no secret of their sympathy for punk. They inevitably bring back memories of We Are Heroes and the Hamburg School.
For Israel, the album is initially a first stage. “I make music to play it in front of people,” he says, as a full-blooded live musician. “When I write a song, I always imagine it live.” That’s why he’s eager to go on tour with tears in the spring.
And how much strength club is in tears? Of course he brought the experiences he had with the band into the new project. “For Kraftklub, five people provide input, for Tears, two people,” calculates Israel. “So there is more of myself in tears than in strength club.”