- advertisement -

- advertisement -

All the way from Austin, TX; ONE-EYED DOLL has been making waves on the music scene as of late. One of Revolver Magazine’s "Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock", Kimberly Freeman fronts the two-piece band that brings a very eccentric and entertaining live show to the table. Prior to their performance with MUSHROOMHEAD at the Cleveland Agora I had the opportunity to sit down with Kimberly, as well as Drummer and Producer Junior to talk about touring, a new album, and everything else ONE-EYED DOLL.

KNAC.COM: What was the concept behind ONE-EYED DOLL, why did you start this band separate from your solo career?

FREEMAN: Well when I started out I was just an acoustic singer/songwriter, playing in coffee shops and whatever. Many of the ONE-EYED DOLL songs were just acoustic songs…this is sort of the development of that. We still go back and do singer/songwriter type stuff – we call it my solo stuff, we just can’t call it ONE-EYED DOLL because it doesn’t sound anything like it. Anything we do in another genre we just call something else.

JUNIOR: Sometimes people get mad because they will buy a bunch of CD’s and get them autographed and I will sign a Kimberly Freeman solo album and they will be like; "Hey! – You’re not even on there!" I am like "whoa, whoa actually I played all of the instruments on there." Like on the Sleep album I think I played drums, bass, mandolin, banjo, slide guitar, classical guitar, all the string arrangements.

FREEMAN: He is one of those. He is my one-man band. So actually with the solo albums, you are hearing both of us on them. With the solo stuff I focus on the singing and lyrics and leave the melodies up to him…it’s nice to be able to trust someone to do that.

JUNIOR: Before I joined the band, I was the producer. When we are in the studio, it’s like she is the artist and I am the producer and that’s how we attack every album. I still feel like my roll is being the producer. For the most part Kimberly will write all the music she will play the main guitar or piano part and I will fill in all the rest.

FREEMAN: He has played music all of his life…his main instrument is lead guitar-so it’s kinda funny that…

KNAC.COM: - that you play guitar in the band?

FREEMAN: (laughter) Yeah, that I play guitar.

KNAC.COM: Now Kimberly, I wanted to ask you – you were on the Revolver Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock list in 2011 and 2012…how did you feel about that? I know some artists can get offended by that and some are more accepting…

FREEMAN: Well the first time it was sort of a surprise to me…I didn’t know what the photo shoot was for. It was kind of a miscommunication between my publicist and I. When the magazine came out and I realized that I was the centerfold for the month I was like "wait…what?" I was more flattered than anything. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I mostly a little embarrassed because I never thought that I was hot. But, no, I wasn’t offended by it at all.

JUNIOR: The magazine actually had a really good, in-depth article to go along with it.

KNAC.COM: Well that’s good that there was decent exposure for the band.

JUNIOR: Absolutely.

KNAC.COM: So Junior…I did a little digging about you…apparently you ran for a California state senate seat…is that true?

JUNIOR: Yeah, Yeah…I did.

KNAC.COM: Libertarian party?

JUNIOR: Yeah, libertarian party. I got a lot closer to winning than I was actually comfortable with. The reason I did it was really as an educational experience. I just sort of wanted to stick my head in and see what this was all about. My district was basically the downtown area of Sacramento, so I was literally able to go house to house and interview people and talk to people. So when I went house to house I found that people really related to my ideas.

KNAC.COM: So is there any chance that you would give it a go again?

JUNIOR: No…I think I’m done with that.

KNAC.COM: I want to ask you about the single "Committed" - is that going to be on a new album?

FREEMAN: Yeah, that’s our plan…we have a whole album like that that we recorded with Sylvia Massy.

JUNIOR: If you don’t know, Sylvia Massy recorded the early TOOL albums, the first SYSTEM OF A DOWN album, the last JOHNNY CASH album – she’s this total legendary producer. There is actually another song on the album that was co-written by Jon Moyer of DISTURBED.

KNAC.COM: So are there any future touring plans on the horizon?

JUNIOR: We are touring with MUSHROOMHEAD until December 20th. A lot of shows aren’t announced yet.

FREEMAN: Are we allowed to announce that?

KNAC.COM: Should I scrub that from the interview?

JUNIOR: No No…we don’t have all of the dates or anything officially announced yet but some of the clubs started promoting it already so, you know, it’s out there. For the specific dates check www.oneeyeddoll.com for all of the details.

FREEMAN: You just broke it! (laughter)

KNAC.COM: Are you heading out west then?

FREEMAN: Yeah…west of Texas.

KNAC.COM: I know that MUSHROOMHEAD has a very loyal and ravenous fan base…how have the fans on this tour been treating you guys?

JUNIOR: They have all been great. Well this is the second time we have toured with MUSHROOMHEAD, so we’ve learned a lot. The first time…people were like "what is this?" so we learned that we just have to do our heavy and fast stuff.

FREEMAN: We love MUSHROOMHEAD-the guys personally, but their fans were really intimidating the first time. This time, though, something changed and they have been very supportive and very welcoming.

For more information on ONE-EYED DOLL check out:

http://www.oneeyeddoll.com