Towards the end of October, I had the pleasure of catching up with the Bristol based ‘South-West Emo’ band Chasing Dolls, ahead of their gig at Fuel Rock club. Huddled around a table outside Wetherspoon’s on Womanby street, Hayden (frontman), Theo (bassist) and I discussed the band’s roots, influences and missing fingers.
Emerging onto the music scene a few years ago when the band were in college, their eclectic sound merges the likes of 1990’s Midwest Emo, Rock & Roll, Post-Punk and Shoegaze, forming a multifaceted style which is brimming with energy. To anyone who prides themselves on good taste, Chasing Dolls create an amalgamation of alternative music’s finest components.
Whilst in sixth-form college in Cirencester and Swindon, Hayden recalled how Chasing Dolls “kind of started in the garage of my parents’ house’, when the boys ‘moved all the frozen food over to one side (of the room)” so they could fit a drumkit, amongst all their other equipment, into the garage for a jam. Having been to primary school together, and growing up just minutes away from each other, the band feels very home-grown. Hayden expressed ” We skated together for years, just kind of started talking about music and then eventually that lead to us all having a jam”.
Starting off authentically home-made, beginning the band’s journey as late teens provided them with a steady ready-made fanbase. “In college everyone was looking for something to do, so gig-wise, people were super keen and started pulling up” Hayden said. Theo described it as “the weekend motive” and expressed how “all the college kids would come down and have a big party with us”.
Hayden: “We’re a four quarters band, if you take one of us out it doesn’t really work. Theo and I really learnt to play our instruments with the band. Each year we get older and a bit better and the sound feels more polished”.
However, the origins of Chasing Dolls weren’t always smooth sailing and garage rocking, when lead singer and previous rhythm guitarist Hayden revealed that in the band’s early days he unfortunately lost one of his fingers in an accident. This threw a spanner into the mix and the nightmare of losing a finger, which most guitarists can hardly wish to imagine, became real for Hayden. Naturally, Hayden expressed how he was “quite down in the dumps for a while” as he’d just purchased a new pedal board for his guitar which then felt unusable. But, the group proved that they were unstoppable, as Hayden recounted: “we put the pedal board through this old keyboard and worked out how to have a jam with Theo on bass, me on this weird keyboard and Will on drums”.
Hayden: “We adapted like a lizard”.
This makeshift set up “brought the love of the buzz back”, said Hayden, as he decided “we’ve got to keep doing this”.
We laughed about how every cloud has its’ silver lining, even in the most unfortunate circumstances, as Hayden’s lost finger lead to Munch (guitarist) joining the band. Theo recalled how the band were previously “quite rock and roll”, and Hayden expressed how when Munch then joined, “he came in with a different style, this nineties Midwest emo movement and implemented it on our old sound”. Upon joining forces with Munch, sides of their music which they hadn’t yet explored were teased out and the versatility of the band’s distinct sound was developed.
Theo: “We’re always discovering, it’s always shifting. We really just play the music that we love to listen to. Our taste in music and what the band is like to listen to always develops”.
Describing themselves as a ‘South-West emo’ band, which echoes the Mid-West emo subgenre of the nineteen-nineties, Chasing Dolls are adding their own fresh twist to their inspirations. Emerging in the late 1990’s in Midwestern U.S.A, the Midwest emo subgenre became a style of indie music heavily characterised by intricate guitar riffs, delicate fingerpicking and profound lyricism. “The revival is roaring”, commented Hayden, and they are getting creative with it. Chasing Dolls take the heartfelt sounds of Midwest Emo and amplify it with Munch’s ‘twinkling’ guitar, whilst implementing heavier aspects reminiscent of rock and post-punk. Theo expressed “We like the clean tinkly tones as well as the heavier overdriven sounds; it’s a cool blend to have”. Chasing Dolls are driving the South-West emo scene, as they both honour and subvert the tropes of the influential Midwest emo, to create a sound that has become their own.
Their lyricism furthers their innovative sound, as Hayden described it as being driven by a “romantic rebellion”.
Hayden: “We believe a lot in perspective and mindset. We kind of build the music around that. A mindset is dynamic, and perspective changes all the time, and that’s how our sound is”.
Chasing Dolls have since moved from Cirencester to Bristol after their college days ended, and they were itching to move onto bigger and better things. Chasing the horizon of the big city, Hayden explained how Bristol was incredibly welcoming to them and that it has now become their ‘creative hub’. The band has come into their own even more so than before and have been tapping into the plethora of musical and artistic niches that Bristol has to offer for them.
They released their first single Step On My Shadow (Demo) nearly a year ago in November 2024, and their second, Cobweb, came out a couple months ago in September 2025. Cobweb opens with a twinkling guitar lick, reminiscent of that of the Midwest emo band American Football, which is then embraced by overdriven guitar riffs and Hayden’s distinct emotionally charged vocals. The song is sewn together seamlessly by punchy drums and warm bass-tones which climb and fall with the rhythm. Each component complements the other in a way that highlights each member’s individual talent, whilst combining effortlessly to create a sound that races and ripples through your bloodstream.
After our interview, I was lucky to attend their gig at Fuel Rock Club Cardiff. Cascaded in blue light on stage in Fuel’s back room, Chasing Dolls held the intimate crowd in the palm of their hand. Shifting between soft guitar riffs to energised overdrive, their songs dipped deliciously between power and peace, reeling the audience in like fish on a hook in quieter moments and then throwing them out into a sea of sparkling sound as the music rose again.
The band embodied their music perfectly as Hayden glided between the microphone stand and the drumkit, twirling and pointing to the ceiling and audience with his head bobbing in time to the crash of the drum’s cymbals like South-West emo’s very own Mick Jagger. Beneath Munch’s cap, his eyes were softly closed as the intricate melodies of his guitar flowed out like a dream. Hayden gently leaned into his bass, cocooned in the heartbeat of the sound, whilst Will held the backbone at the drumkit behind.
Head banging, foot tapping, body spinning and ears warmly ringing; from start to finish, it was impossible not to move along to their music and I’m sure that they could get even the most reluctant and unlikeliest of dancers to twirl around. Playing at McCann’s in Newport on the 15 November, Chasing Dolls return to the ‘Wild West’ as Hayden called it – and it isn’t one to miss!
“Adapting like lizards”, Chasing Dolls are the indestructible forefront of the South-West emo scene, providing an innovative sound paired with introspective lyricism and a magical stage presence.
Words by Jemima Lake
Photography courtesy of Shelby Stainer
