Little Dove

Get rid of any mental ideas that Little Dove are a twee folk band destined for Radio 1's Breakfast Show. Your frontal lobe could not be further from the truth.

This rocking female-fronted getup are an awesome grungy, glitchy heavy rock group underpinned by a trashy home-made drumkit.

Based out of LA, Little Dove are heading to the UK/Europe for some serious live shows and festival dates this year and in 2015. Famed back in the US for their gritty, energetic live shows, there's going to be nothing standing in the way of these ones-to-watch. The two piece are working on a new EP to be released later this year. - Never Enough Notes

Little Dove are an independent, and at the moment, unsigned band from Los Angeles. Their Self titled Debut Album is out now and we managed to get a copy for review.

Initially, you automatically think of the White Stripes in as much as the set up is the same except in reverse (male/female drummer/guitarist) and the sound is not dis-similar but what sets them aside is the more raw, trashy sound of the record and lead singer, Vanja James' almost screeching vocals through the tracks.

Obviously as an independent record there is no "studio polishing" and this brings an added freshness to the sound.

The opening song "Eyes" brings you straight into what to expect from the rest of the record with powerful vocals and catchy beat lines to want you to carry on listening.

"Sink Ships" although takes you down a different route and has a blues - New Orleans sound to it with the backing vocals reminiscent of a church choir repeating the words in almost praising fashion to the gods of rock.

Over-all an impressive debut and with a proper recording contract and money pushed their way, god only knows what they could produce if this is anything to go by.

Little Dove are planning to do some heavy touring of the UK and Europe along with lots of festivals in 2014 and 2015 so if you get the chance go and see them and check them out! - Music Mafia UK

Today I will be interviewing LA based rock Duo Little Dove featuring Female fronted (Vanya James) & Drummer (Dylan Cooper) with their gritty rock vocals and their punk edge.


Tell us a little about yourselves and your music?
Vanya: I moved to LA in December to pursue music. I’m from San Diego – prior to this project I was playing music solo for a long time.

Dylan: I’m an LA native. I’m actually an upright bass player, but I’ve been building my own instruments for a few years now. When I started making drum kits, and realized there’s no turning back.

How long has Little Dove been creating music?
Vanya: Officially together as a duo, only about…oh, a month.

Where does Little Dove draw it’s inspiration from?
Vanya: My influences are all over the place. Aretha Franklin is probably my favorite vocalist. But I definitely look to bands like Against Me!, Rocket From the Crypt, Queens of the Stoneage – as influences. And Rival Sons! Love those guys.

Dylan: Led Zeppelin for sure.

Your love for music shows through the music you create. I especially love your song “Your Misery”. How do you capture that unique sound?
Vanya: Cut your soul wide open and bleed out a song. Thats pretty much how I do it. Oh and lots of practice singing. Lots and lots.

Dylan: Groove as hard as you can for as long as you can.

Tell me about the instruments you use?
Vanya: My setup includes a 1994 american made Tele, a smarvo amp, and a Kealy modified distortion pedal. Sometimes I will play a Heart Shaped Daisy rock guitar which I got an additional pickup put into it so it actually sounds amazing, and I also have a Gibson Les Paul artists series I use for recording.

Dylan: I found an old clothes hamper on the street… added some springs, sheet metal, a salad bowl, a candy dish, bottle caps, tennis ball, and old chandelier stand… drilled a few holes, screwed a few things together…and BOOM!
The Drumpster was born! It’s a drum kit made from stuff I’ve “recycled” off the street.

What was your first live gig like & where did you play?
Vanya: The Viper Room! But in general….I think my first live performance was in school.

Dylan: We rocked the Viper Room. They’re still not sure what happened… but everybody was digging it. When the door guy is nodding his head to your tunes… you’re doing something right!



Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Vanya: Hopefully we will have some serious tour dates and big festivals in the US and Europe under our belts. I hope we get to break through to the masses so hopefully Little Dove will be a household name, and our bills will be paid, and we can afford to drive decent cars, n’ stuff.

Dylan: Japan, Brazil, Spain, Mexico… look out for Little Dove!

Where can we hear your material?
www.LittleDoveBand.com or www.Youtube.com/LittleDoveBand - our fans have been amazing posting videos. Thanks you guys!

Can you name some tips for those who want to learn more about developing a music career?
Vanya: When you are starting out, try to collaborate with as many people as you can. If you plan to thrive (make a living) in music, then study up on business. Talk to business owners and people that own their own businesses, even ones that aren’t related to music. You’ll be putting in long hours, and if you want to get stuff done, and you want to see your project go somewhere – you’re going to be doing the hustle yourself. Don’t expect any magical band fairy to come along, go “poof!” and make you famous. Do it because you love it, treat people with respect, and play from your heart, always.

Dylan: Don’t give up. That’s the only difference between musicians and regular people… Musicians don’t give up. - I know Where its At

I was keen to introduce Little Dove for a few reasons, predominately of course for the music – but also…
Their first gig was only 8 days ago (4th April 2013) at The Viper Room, have already gained TV exposure, have a catalogue of music, a live EP recording…. A home made drum-kit which includes items such as a Clothes Hamper and a Salad Bowl which Dylan calls The Drumster…. An EP in production, a US tour scheduled and a European tour in planning…. An EPK, which makes the whole process of finding out about the band readily available…



The very essence of a band who have ambition and are doing all the hard work necessary to ensure the only thing will that hold them back is if the music sucks – and it doesn’t…
With the two players and unique drum-kit there is a stark sound to the music that heightens the material to a space that entrances and captivates. Simple pared back rock that spills of emotional context and the essence of the spirit of indie music. The percussion resonates of that primitive dance that still lives within us ensuring the listener becomes engaged with the sound and just wants to join in while circling the flickering firelight.
I look forward to catching up with Little Dove in the future as the duo develop further. - Indie Mirror

Note: Immediately I’ll let you know the way in which I reviewed these. The reviews of each song were written immediately after the video was watched. I started with the Night & Day performance of ‘Your Misery’ before moving onto the Viper Room performance of the same tune, and finally finishing with the live performance from the Casbah. The beginning of each of these videos were first watched without the music so that the image and stage presence presented by the duo could be completely taken in. The entire video, music and all, were then watched so a full review of each could be made.


From a completely visual basis, prior to listening to the music, the image put forward by Little Dove appears to be that of an intriguingly inventive, role-reversed version of the White Stripes (which I can only assume is a comparison that has been made countless times). Using the performance of ‘Your Misery’ on Night & Day as a reference, instant comparisons can be made to many blues-rock groups from the early 70’s, especially through the image portrayed by the duo. However, this is also incredibly evenident once the music starts, particularly through the use of the exceptionally strong and captivating vocals, and through the exceedingly effective, yet brutally simplistic, guitar line throughout the song. Similar sounding artists include the aforementioned White Stripes, early work by PJ Harvey and the psychedelically influenced Stonefield.

The only fault that can be derived from this performance is perhaps the simplicity of the lyrics, and I only say perhaps because many of the catchiest (which this is, undoubtedly) songs out there are in fact popular due to their lyrically simplistic nature.
Another fault, which is by no means a problem created by the duo, is that of the clarity of the vocals within the mix. However, again, this can very easily be defended by the sheer fact that the song was an in-studio live recording, whereas an official live recording would almost certainly eliminate that problem altogether.

The Viper Room performance of ‘Your Misery’ then proved that the duo is practically faultless as a live act. The energetic, powerful and seemingly crowd-captivating performance is extremely superior to the Night & Day version, effectively making the previous criticism about the vocals completely moot. As before, stage presence and musicianship is quite clearly not a problem, and in fact, this performance seems completely flawless.

The live performance from the Casbah (of a song whose title I’m unsure of), is completely on par with the Viper Room performance of ‘Your Misery’, effectively meaning that as a live band, Little Dove appear to be very consistent, with no evidence of faltering.

In conclusion, Little Dove appear to be a band who show immense promise as not only a captivating and powerful live act, but also as a group who have emerged from what seem to be the collective influences of blues, garage and stadium rock, and are doing an amazing job at managing to sound unique and enjoyable.

- Tyler Jenke - 20/4/2013
- Music Addicts Blog Review

The Little Dove duo is yet to produce a recording coming from a professional production environment, which fortunately did not prevent this unit of two from releasing live (!) recordings of their trade. When you go for the music "itself", the ensuing shape reminds me of the most wildest-, the wildestest - sorry about that - top form of Kidneythieves, - a fellow industrial cyberneticorganism act from Lost Angeles - consorted with an image of delirium-grade Nirvana. You can hear verbatim harmonic structures from certain Nirvana songs, but they are complimented by freshly fabricated and relevant ideas. The lead singer chick can sing like there is no tomorrow, while sticking to a guitar with both hands in the process. Her rhythm guitar playing is surprisingly ballsy and relevant, as is the rhythm section, that fuels and guarantees crude yet efficient beat-backrop environments for the crystal clear respective anatomies the songs convey. Read on to know more about this.

I remain utterly curious to hear what this band will produce in the context of a full fledged studio recording, as it is evident that they have no problem at all with high octane morose songwriting - the tracks are simultaneously wild/bitter/sweet/energetic/vile/beautiful, and reveal originality by sheer sonic muscle power, though I won't be bolloxing you and will admit that the mid-section of this debut EP sounds to have some segments of tamer and relatively zoned-out - in an "uhuh" sense - moments, and the release brings its top form with its introductory pieces, showing top tier fangs at the climax, too.

Even a Heart connotation comes to mind. The way Annie Wilson of Heart sings in 1977 in front of the huge crimson "Heart" logo in her blue "bad school girl" outfit with the white dots on it, - here you are - is an ethos that sounds to be chased relentlessly by this duo, even though they might not even be aware of said group. Little Dove, as an enterprise organized for silence massacre - logically - sounds to be a legitimate club act already, and I can't wait to hear these slick, elemental songs revealing their faces amidst professional production standards.
- Noise Shaft

Little Dove is a fresh new gritty rock duo from Los Angeles CA. Featuring Vanya James, a left handed guitarist/vocalist, and Cooper providing the backbeat on the drums. Whats Dylan interesting about this project is that they have a surprisingly full sound for a duo, and drummer Dylan plays on a kit that he has made himself, using items such as dinner ware to make some big percussive sounds. Little Dove is happy staying a duo project, and their live performance echoes the early days of the White Stripes. Mix all this in with well-crafted songs filled with catchy hooks and soaring melodies, and you see indie music doing what it does best. - Real Magic TV

I was keen to introduce Little Dove for a few reasons, predominately of course for the music – but also…

Their first gig was only 8 days ago (4th April 2013) at The Viper Room, have already gained TV exposure, have a catalogue of music, a live EP recording…. A home made drum-kit which includes items such as a Clothes Hamper and a Salad Bowl which Dylan calls The Drumster…. An EP in production, a US tour scheduled and a European tour in planning…. An EPK, which makes the whole process of finding out about the band readily available…



The very essence of a band who have ambition and are doing all the hard work necessary to ensure the only thing will that hold them back is if the music sucks – and it doesn’t…
With the two players and unique drum-kit there is a stark sound to the music that heightens the material to a space that entrances and captivates. Simple pared back rock that spills of emotional context and the essence of the spirit of indie music. The percussion resonates of that primitive dance that still lives within us ensuring the listener becomes engaged with the sound and just wants to join in while circling the flickering firelight.
I look forward to catching up with Little Dove in the future as the duo develop further. - IndieBandsBlog.com