We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dumb Belles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dumb below.

Dumb Belles, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Every part of this journey has felt like a risk. From starting the band with little to no experience, to releasing our very personal music, to investing so much time and energy into this project and growing together — still not knowing where or how its going to turn out.

All that being said, we were more scared of people liking our sound at first, so essentially the risk was …rejection. However, now that we’ve all gotten so close, the riskiest business is keeping our hearts on our sleeves for one another — knowing the journey could end in a snap.

Dumb Belles, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We’re a women led group based in Texas. Erika Parris is the predominant vocalist and keyboardist. Kris Davis is the Songwriter and guitarist, Sophia Kurihara is our bass/guitar player and composer, and Aaron Böehle is the drummer and producer.

We originally started out as a folky, singer-songwriter duo kind-of-thing. However, we realized we wanted a fuller sound, so we reached out to Sophie and asked if she would join — and with her came Aaron, our now drummer and producer — and it was just one of those things where all the parts clicked. Now our music has expanded into more of an indie-pop/rock climate and we’re excited to continue to solidify and explore that.

As a band, because of our extremely humble beginnings, we hope to inspire others to put themselves out there and chase their dreams at whatever capacity they can. Even if it’s scary and you have reservations about what you have to offer. We just want more people to take the jump and go after what they want.

We try to translate that into our music, and create songs that people can really connect to emotionally. Outside of that, our second biggest goal is to have as much fun as possible. We try to keep things playful and lighthearted with our performances in between all of the big feelings.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In our early days, we were really open to working with other musicians and creatives, and one of the people we had previously invited into the group ended up taking a lot of control of our songwriting, production, branding, and vocals — leaving everyone else with very little room to make decisions or contributions.

When we decided to part ways things became tense, and as this was happening we accepted a community-based fundraising show for abortion rights, because of how strongly we felt for its cause. The show was amazing, as were the artists and organizers who put it together, but this decision really forced us to find a new set and sound in a short time-span.

At the time this felt like a very tumultuous “make or break” experience, but when all the dust settled it ultimately solidified our bond and creative vision.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

We’ve each had our own individual unlearnings through this process, but collectively I think the major theme has been unlearning the negative thought patterns that cause distrust/doubt in yourself and others. I say this because it’s one thing to have those feelings towards yourself but once you start seeing those thought patterns affect the people you love around you, it really lights a fire in you to find better ways of thinking. I think the love and respect we have for one another has helped each of us to love and respect ourselves that much more.

Other than that, together we’re still untangling the ideas of who and what we have to be in order to fit the industry standards. The reality is that we will never be the perfect looking or sounding group, but we have incredible songs and messages and so much love to share with the world. The more we’re able to focus on that, the better we get.

Contact Info:

• Website: dumbbellesband.com
• Instagram: @dumbbellesband
• Youtube: Dumb Belles
• Other: [email protected] / Kris: (210) 365-7935

Image Credits
Nick Martinez, Corey Ward