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May 06, 2016 Kristin Kontrol By Christopher Roberts

Dum Dum Girls frontwoman/main creative force Dee Dee recently announced a new solo project called Kristin Kontrol. Dee Dee’s real name is Kristin Welchez, hence the name of her new project, and Kristin Kontrol’s debut album, X-Communicate, is due out May 27 via Sub Pop (also Dum Dum Girls’ label). Now she’s shared another track from the album, the ballad “(Don’t) Wannabe.” Listen below.

Previously Kristin Kontrol had shared album title track “X-Communicate” and “Show Me.”

Welchez explained in a previous press release why she’s shifted her attention to this new project: “For me as leader of Dum Dum Girls it felt very stoic and serious, and I am serious, but anyone who really knows me knows I’m silly, too; I smile a lot. As the years went on, it was so weird that I kept so much of me out of what I was doing creatively.”

She later added: “The first music I really identified as my own was very poppy, classic ‘80s, from Debbie Gibson and Tiffany to Janet Jackson and Madonna. I didn’t want to make a record with typical rock vocals.”

Welchez wrote 62 songs for the album, which were then edited down to 10.

Kurt Feldman (of Ice Choir and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) and Andrew Miller (who played guitar in the Dum Dum Girls’ last incarnation) produced the album, while previous Dum Dum Girls producer Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, The Go-Go’s) provided “sonic consultation.”

Dum Dum Girls’ excellent third album, Too True, was released in 2014. Read our 2014 interview with Welchez about that album.

Also, Kristin Kontrol is interviewed in our just announced May/June print magazine issue. She takes part in our The End feature about endings and death.