Dora Jar released her long-awaited debut album ‘No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire’ in September via Island Records and was worth the wait. The project consists of a variety of sounds and themes of the existential through richly whimsical, dark pop fantasia. Sonically, the songs range from folk to rock, to her signature bright psychedelic pop to tranquil lullabies, which are rooted in her songwriting. Standout tracks include recent singles “Timelapse”, which is an introspective and cinematic ode her time spent living in New York City, and “She Loves Me”, a study of the layers of her personhood that references Dora’s internal conversations with the two sides of herself: who she is in a group of people versus who she is alone. The material was written and recorded over the course of the last two years in multiple locations like Poland, California, Alaska and Mississipi. Poland was of great source of inspiration as Dora shared, “I have a lot of family who live in Warsaw, all on my dad’s side. I didn’t grow up speaking Polish and I didn’t go until I was 14 years old, so there’s this sort of familiar unfamiliar relationship that I have with it where I’m really intrigued and curious about it but also feel a little bit on the outside,” she noted, “the old town is really magical and so I was there mostly to write. I didn’t record proper anything really but I came up with the demo of “Behind the Curtain” and “Devil Eye”. Dora recently wrapped up a headlining tour in support of the new material and has plans for more in the upcoming year.
Dora Jar spoke with B-Sides host, Pete Mar, about how going to the Bridge School Benefit helped shape her passion for playing music, talks about her debut album ‘No Way To Relax When You Are On Fire’ and more.
