Nicotine Dolls Drop New Single “Gimme Sympathy”

Before forming Nicotine Dolls in 2018, Cieri made ends meet by busking in the New York City subway for nearly three years. Over the years, he steadily built the band from the ground up (at one point working six jobs to fund their recording and tours), cultivating a devoted following.

Eventually, to become the band they always wanted to be, they had to blow up the old blueprint. The process included reconfiguring their lineup, scrapping a completed album and reconnecting with the reckless abandon that first made Cieri fall in love with rock & roll. Soon after recording an intended follow-up to their debut album An Attempt at Romantic, Nicotine Dolls hit the road for their first tour with Newsome in the lineup and quickly rediscovered the visceral thrill of rock music.

"We were having so much fun playing with John, and it reminded me of the way rock & roll made me feel as a teenager," Cieri recalls. "I realized that for a long time I'd been making the music I thought other people wanted to hear, instead of making music that I truly love."

Newly signed to BMG, the banddecided to shelve their first attempt at a sophomore album and start over. "I'd always wanted to make a record like the one we ended up with, but never had the right band to pull it off," says Cieri. "Somehow, everything came together and it felt like magic. That's why it's self-titled. To me, it's the first real Nicotine Dolls record."

Recorded in Nashville, Nicotine Dolls embodies a newfound audacity born from a revelation early in the writing process. While working with legendary songwriter and producer Desmond Child (Aerosmith, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts), Cieri shared a demo of a song he had written about longing to save a troubled relationship by running away to an idealized California. Along with changing the song's title from "Waiting for California" to "Here to California," Nicotine Dolls transformed the track into an exhilarating anthem about choosing forward motion over regret.

Across its 12 songs, the Nicotine Dolls album brings the same moody bravado to an unfiltered exploration of desire, regret and survival. The band moves the simmering defiance of "To the Wolves" and the groove-heavy frustration of "Little Games," attacking each song with equal parts unbridled energy and emotional force. At one point, Newsome tore through a guitar solo with bleeding fingers. "When we finished the record, I cried. I'd never had that happen before," says Cieri. "I believe in our band, and this is the closest I've ever come to making the record I always knew we could make."

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