Before we were tossed keys to our residences, whether student housing or a beach hut that matched the color scheme of rolling waves, we first owned a dollhouse with its funky walls and spiral staircases. The miniature furniture and how it felt in our hands when we moved it around the space. The conversations lilting around the rooms, our quips of dialogue ping-ponging compliments from Barbie to Ken, falling both in and out of love upon us growing bored. It’s funny how those creative realms become echoed. Not long after, the dollhouse that once tumbled over our tiny frame became too small for us. And we’re not in a dollhouse anymore. The youthful joy crashes down around the heartbreak that’s grown as mold.
Isabella Kensington’s upcoming EP centers around growing up and passing through the five stages of grief until we mature. Maybe it’s a breakup that gets you there, like hers. Or another situation entirely. But we’ve all had times when we’ve realized that the once-imagined conversations that came to life in those dollhouses are a little too honest.
We chatted with Isabella about the making of not in a dollhouse anymore, mainly her latest single, ‘in another life,’ co-written by Phil Cook and Phia Brenan. Open the downsized fridge to snack on something even a doll would recommend and read along!
Hi Isabella! Welcome to the hive. We absolutely love your upcoming EP’s name: not in a dollhouse anymore! Of course, it already has us thinking back to our childhoods. What dollhouse, whether Barbie-related or even Bratz, most illustrates the overall vibe you were trying to achieve?
“not in a dollhouse anymore” is actually a lyric on the first track of the EP, and I felt like it encompassed the essence of the project—so I’m glad you like it! The dollhouse I picture when I think about writing these songs, while very niche and specific, is the dollhouse Lorelai Gilmore has on Gilmore Girls from when she was a child… a lifelike house that feels a lot like a dream house, but not in a Barbie kind of way.
‘all the best’
More so, not in a dollhouse anymore was spelled out in white through the lyric visualizer for ‘all the best,’ the first single for this EP. How much fun did you have seeing fans work out what it spelled out but not know what it alludes to?
I loved it. Writing those messages has been so fun for me. Some actually guessed that it would be an album or song title. I just thought it would be a silly way to encourage people to watch the lyric videos and read my lyrics, but now it’s become a way for me to put hints about what’s to come.
‘all the best’ is also the first time you’ve had a Times Square Billboard! That’s so exciting. How was that moment for you?
It was such a surreal experience. Having a Times Square Billboard has been a big dream of mine since I was a kid, so actually seeing my face on one of those screens was just wild. My mum and I wanted to camp out there all day just to watch it pop up every hour. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time!
‘loves me like L.A.‘
About the EPs title, we’re straightaway drawing comparisons to escapism, breaking out of the confines of our youth and undergoing a maturing. That idea of comparing two life stages can also be seen in ‘loves me like L.A.,’ a cute, romantic serenade. Interestingly, your home bases are London and New York. So, symbolically, love could appear a little fleeting or even more challenging to obtain. How do you see the L.A. metaphor?
I love this question.
To me, London is a symbol of my childhood, my past, and my previous relationships. I loved growing up in London, and this is by no means a goodbye because I would love to wind up back there again eventually. But when I visit now, I’m reminded of a lot of memories on every street I go on. Not necessarily in a bad way—it just feels like a representation of my history.
New York feels very here and now. Even the city itself, with its busyness and chaos, is very in the moment. It’s where I’m living for a lot of the year and where my current relationship and friendships are. It’s exciting but impermanent, and after being here for a few years, I’m already itching to explore a new home base.
L.A., to me, feels like the future. It’s warm and sunny all year round, which is a huge pull for me, having grown up in London. And, while I’m somewhat familiar with it, there is so much I’m excited to explore there. It feels like driving with the windows down—a very carefree kind of love that I’ve always wanted to have in my early 20s…
All three places hold a very special place in my heart and my life, but I can see this next chapter drawing me closer to that L.A. kind of feeling and lifestyle.
Both ‘all the best’ and ‘loves me like L.A’ use the color blue as their palette, from the skies to the rolling waves to even leaving a blue heart in the comments section to a fan. How does that color relate to this body of work?
I love that you noticed that. I like to use a lot of colors in my songwriting to represent feelings or experiences. And I feel like blue is often seen as a sad color. But growing up, I spent a lot of time near water, so I associate it with happy moments – watching the sunset with the wind in your hair on a warm summer evening. The color palette being blue is a me reclaiming the sadness and flipping it to be this empowering, ‘this made me who I am’ kind of feeling.
‘in another life‘
‘in another life,’ a song inspired by Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Maybe In Another Life, explores the idea of closing doors and parallel realities of how our lives get split off through every decision. Is there a particular lyric on the track that you’d dedicate to the book’s main protagonist, Hannah Martin?
“It’d be easier to be yours, maybe in another life.”
I think that lyric symbolizes that sometimes circumstances make the decisions for you. While, at the moment, it might feel like the wrong path, it’s often the hard things that are right for you in the end—or they just make you who you are.
I also think the last lyric is a nice moment of acceptance that I feel represents one of the final moments in the book for Hannah Martin: “I know I’ll find a way to be alright and stop the overthinking. There’s a million things that could’ve been, but maybe we’re just in another life.”
There’s a peacefulness to the realization that things are going to be alright when you’re in the thick of a breakup that I really wanted to capture, and it really reflects how I felt when I finished the book. So it only felt right to have it be the last line of the song.
You co-wrote this track alongside big powerhouses Phil Cook, known for Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ and Little Mix’s ‘Happiness,’ and Phia Brenan, known for her work with New Rules. What was your main takeaway from that writing session that will directly impact your writing in the future?
I love them both as writers and as people. Phil and Phia are such warm and welcoming people, and I’m so grateful for that because we were able to write a really honest and vulnerable song that day. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I think my biggest takeaway is that in those moments of heartbreak and hopelessness when I often feel creative but also like I want to curl up in my bed for the day, songwriting (especially with other people who I trust and love collaborating with) almost always flips my mood completely on its head. I’ll go into the studio feeling down and leave with joy. I’ll listen to the song we wrote over and over and over again, and it changes everything for me. And when you sense something special in a song you just wrote about something you went through, there’s truly nothing better than the feeling of turning something difficult into something beautiful.
In contrast to your other tracks, a grungy guitar riff and alt-pop synths differentiate from the light pop and country on your The Story Begins EP. What about Cook’s producing brought out this other facet to you?
I think when it comes to the actual songwriting process, the vibe in the room can completely dictate where the song will go. The energy of the writers and the production style and mood of the producer have the ability to take over the song in a really incredible way. Most of my debut EP was written acoustically (either on guitar or piano), and most of this upcoming EP was written while producing simultaneously. When Phil started playing that swung guitar part, I knew exactly where I wanted the story to go. And he’s so talented that there wasn’t anything he played that I didn’t like. The lyrics came really naturally to us after that, and Phia even sang some of the backing vocals that day that are still on the song.
I haven’t exactly stepped away from light pop and country on this EP, but there’s definitely an edge to it that the last EP didn’t have. And it’s definitely not the last you’ll be hearing of it…
While the song touches on delving into this other reality where a breakup never happened, you’ve also stated that the track holds acceptance for the situation, so it centers around dualism. Do you particularly agree with the saying that “everything happens for a reason” or that in both realities, whether the breakup occurred or not, you still would’ve had the personal development?
“Everything happens for a reason” is a phrase I go back and forth over a lot. I think in any situation, we have a tendency to make the best of things and rationalize the past in order to keep moving forward. So I do think that there’s personal development to be had anywhere and everywhere, so long as we are interested in that movement forward. But I’m not sure if everything happens for a reason. I know now, in hindsight, that the breakup I wrote this song about definitely happened for the better. I just hope that everyone who relates to the lyrics feels the same way when they listen.
Adding Someone To Her Playlist, And Us Adding Her To Ours!
Finally, we adore Maisie Peters around here, so it’s lovely that you’ve drawn sonic influences from her! What song of hers mainly gravitates toward you, perhaps to add to your “be my valentine” Spotify playlist?
This is so tricky; I love so many of her songs. I tend to gravitate towards a lot of her pettier/snarkier lyrics and songs, especially when she sings them in a sweet and innocent kind of way. There’s so much to be said for a song that just makes you giggle while helping you get over a breakup. For my Spotify playlist, I actually have her ‘Elvis Song’ on it because I just adore everything about it, from the imagery to the melodies to the gorgeous synth voicing that makes you feel like you’re falling in love right alongside her.
not in a dollhouse anymore comes out on September 20th, which gives us enough time to pack our tiny suitcases and head into the real world, no matter how daunting it may be! Perhaps ‘in another life,’ the EP would be on our streaming devices sooner, so we wouldn’t be in constant anticipation. Do you have a favorite lyric from the tune? Let us know on one of our social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ISABELLA KENSINGTON :
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE
