Life for, and conversations with, Stella Donnelly moves quickly. Nestled into a freezing Shoreditch pub just hours after her arrival from the middle of a record-breaking heatwave in her native Australia, there are no signs of jet lag as she chats to Dork about the impending release of her debut full-length record, ‘Beware Of The Dogs'. A visceral, searing, emotionally raw takedown on society and the modern patriarchy, the album looks set to ruffle the same neanderthal feathers that the phenomenal ‘Boys Will Be Boys' did, when its rage-filled blast at those pointing their fingers at the victims of sexual assault rather than at the instigators, first arrived.
Primarily written in the studio that she had booked after, by her own admission, bluffing that she had enough songs when in reality she was nowhere near, the album came together after life took a left-turn as her relationship fell apart. Throwing herself into writing, a rush of songs came flooding out. "I think everything had been sitting there waiting to come out, but I hadn't given it a chance?" she says about this hot streak.
The emotional ‘Allergies' was written the day before recording, Stella's voice noticeably wavering as she was "bawling her eyes out all day". The tongue-in-cheek ‘Season's Greetings' pokes fun at family get-togethers, you know the ones, where that one extended family member that nobody really likes turns up ("I think families are good because you're forced to be with people you don't choose," she laughs). As Dork asks her whether her family are nervous about becoming her writing material, she giggles. "Ha! You should talk to my ex's, then."
