New York based Nina Dopamine has dropped her personal debut EP dopamine rush.
The coming-of-age story in the guise of a pop rock record splays the nostalgic alternative rock/pop punk of the Warped Tour era with a contemporary, alt-pop edge.
Dopamine evokes tales of growing up with an unshakeable honesty and candour that give a window into the heart of a teenager battling feelings, fantasies and fears.
Speaking on the EP moniker and it's prudence to the tracks, Dopamine shares: “The title reflects both the emotional high and the central illusion at the heart of the record. Like a dopamine rush, these relationships feel euphoric, transformative, and almost spiritual while they're happening. The feeling is powerful, the connection is real, and the temporary relief from pain is highly seductive — but it never lasts.”
The Nina Dopamine story doesn’t read like a copy + paste of a typical alternative rock artist origin story. After graduating from the University of Harvard, Nina worked as a software engineer in New York. It wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she wrote her first song.
As opposed to growing up dreaming of emulating her idols, Dopamine instead sought out music as an escape from the rigors of life, to outrun loneliness and childhood wounds. What began as a private emotional survival quickly evolved into an obsessive creative pursuit.
New EP dopamine rush is an honest and articulate collation of thoughts on love, emotional dependency and the desperate hope that another person might somehow save you from yourself. Confronting shame and fighting the feeling of being trapped inside her own life, Dopamine delivers a melodically weighted, palpably honest set of tracks, with self-deprecation and humour, interweaving raw vulnerability.
Sonically, the presence of hope emerges amidst the despair. From driving pop-punk grooves of "make you weep", to the anthemic, Avril Lavigne nodding "thirteen again", to the heart-rendering "broken boy", dopamine rush is an emotionally intense but unerringly self-aware collection, sitting brightly at the intersection of pop and alternative.
