Thomas Dollbaum might look like benefiting from timing. His wonderful new album, Birds Of Paradise (out Friday), is a group of country-inflected rock songs set within the seedy corners of his native Florida. Dollbaum, 32 and at the moment residing in New Orleans, has a grasp’s diploma in poetry and sings at lengthy, conversational lengths that convey her Southernness, regardless of her lack of a pronounced accent. (His voice sounds a bit like that of iconic hometown inheritor Bobby Charles, with an analogous “man you may meet in a dive bar” high quality.) Most notably – from a business standpoint – the brand new document was co-written with MJ Lenderman, the present main determine in this type of music in indie rock. On the only “Coyote” (among the finest songs of 2026), Lenderman’s voice may be heard singing within the background. The music options Adam Duritz within the function with Dollbaum’s sturdy lead voice.
Nonetheless, Dollbaum has really been showing on Birds of Paradise for years. Truly it has been 3 years. Not lengthy after the discharge of his promising 2022 debut, Wellswood, and across the time he recorded his acclaimed 2025 EP, Drive All Night time, Dollbaum gathered some associates and fellow vacationers in a studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, in 2023. Amongst them was Lenderman, who was nonetheless a yr away from the discharge of the groundbreaking Manning Fireworks, and was employed to play drums. (He later added guitar to one of many standout songs, “Dozen Roses,” and added harmonies to a number of tracks.) Dollbaum taught his songs to an advert hoc band and recorded them in simply 4 days.
And…he waited. A falling out together with his previous label over horrific “artistic variations” put the brakes on Birds of Paradise. Lastly, upstart indie Expensive Life Information, house of 2020s alt-country cornerstones Quick and Flory and Lenderman’s Boat Songs, agreed to launch the album, however they too needed to wait some time.
Once I requested Mr. Dollbaum (wanting good-looking with a robust jaw and beach-blonde hair) over Zoom in regards to the infinite lag between manufacturing and launch, he was surprisingly forgiving in regards to the inconvenience. “I imply, there was a interval the place I felt like I used to be in a little bit of a wilderness. Nobody was paying that a lot consideration. Then Expensive Life contacted me and so they have been simply busy. They solely make a specific amount of information a yr,” he shrugs. “I feel they have been planning on placing this out a yr and a half in the past. I believed, ‘Properly, we have been ready for six months, virtually a yr, so why not simply wait and put it out with folks we like?'”
Dollbaum was equally unenthusiastic once I advised that the postponement is likely to be a superb factor, since there’s a actual viewers for his type of music. “I do not assume it hurts in any respect,” he answered. “I feel even I took the time I wanted to digest this music. It took me some time to type every thing out. It is in nice form. It is like one of the best model of itself. It is humorous, even with Jake, Manning Fireworks hadn’t come out but after we recorded this. It is attention-grabbing to see the place he is at now.”
No matter his informal demeanor, Dollbaum appears to be like to me like a possible star, at the least within the more and more crowded scene he is populating. On songs like “Florida” and “Whippits/Trailer Lights,” he shows a pure storytelling capability imbued with the regional specificity that distinguishes Renderman from Carly Hartsman in his world. His office is house to dropouts and castaways looking for respite or only a heat place to sleep. This sense of immersion continues in new songs like “Massive Boi,” which is predicated on the true story of two drug addicts, the Dollbaums, who by accident drove round in a taxi one morning on their technique to a neighborhood “capsule mill.”
Comparisons to older indie troubadours like Renderman and acknowledged affect Damien Jurado are apparent. However Dollbaum’s music has an additional layer of rugged heartland rock muscle that places him within the Jason Isbell zone. Like Isbell, Dollbaum is a devotee of John Prine, whose Americana parts are positive to hook Birds of Paradise to his viewers as soon as they begin listening.
These days, indie rock guys who play guitar within the vein of nation rock are inevitably in comparison with MJ Lenderman. Is that burdensome or bothersome to you?
Nothing particularly. So I suppose the explanation we turned associates was most likely as a result of we had related hobbies and we beloved writing. I actually do not assume it is a coincidence. All of the individuals who do that type of music know one another. Colin Miller is an effective buddy of mine. I met him by Jake. The friendship I realized by Jake. It is like discovering these folks after touring that you just’re like, “Oh, I like their music.” And you may need to do one thing with them. I simply ran with Quick and Mars Lemon and I really like their music.
How do you know Jake?
I met him as soon as in Asheville simply earlier than Boat Track was launched. I used to be doing a present and my buddy Ashley Bryant Phillips knew about him and he or she invited him, so he got here out. Then after the present we simply talked and frolicked and have become quick associates. We have been speaking about doing a present and he mentioned he needed to see if I needed to play the Boat Songs launch. So I got here up with the concept and did a launch present.
His backing vocals are actually distinctive on this document. The best way you harmonize is one in every of my favourite elements of “Coyote.”
We recorded the entire session and he mentioned, “Oh, if you would like, you are able to do the harmonies on ‘Coyote.'” So he did that and I believed, “We must always do a pair extra songs, I feel they sound good,” and he got here up with the backing vocals for “Pulverize” and “Waterbird.”
You at the moment stay in New Orleans however are initially from Florida. Florida appears to loom massive in your songs.
I could not think about New Orleans as a setting. As a result of I am not from right here, and I feel if you are going to write about New Orleans, you ought to be from New Orleans. Possibly I am going to write about New Orleans sooner or later, however I do not know what I am going to do about it. There are such a lot of Louisiana songs it is a mess.
Is there one thing about Florida that appeals to you as a topic, past simply being from Florida?
For me, it has all the time felt like a non secular house and a spot the place issues exist.
You appear notably drawn to the seedy aspect of Florida.
So Florida actually is a brief place. I felt that far more than common as a result of I grew up there… I wouldn’t say I grew up there, but it surely felt prefer it was all the time round. It is a very short-term place for me. And it’s misunderstood in some ways.
To an outsider, that a part of Florida appears to be like like a uniquely Southern-ness. It is just like the South on steroids. It is like a bastion of con artists, serial killers, and outsiders making a final stand.
It would not actually really feel like a tropical nation. It is type of its personal factor. However there’s undoubtedly plenty of southern points to it. Older folks in Florida are largely Southerners.
I did not stay in Tampa once I was rising up. I went to high school half the time in rural Florida and the opposite half close to the town. It is a unusual place. Most individuals aren’t from there. My mother and father aren’t even from Florida. They moved there within the 80’s. It is the type of place folks go to begin over.
It is like Hollywood with out the glamor.
Properly, it is undoubtedly the Midwest. It is typically mentioned that whenever you come down 95 levels down the West Coast, the general public transferring down are New Yorkers. And plenty of my a part of Florida is concentrated within the Midwest. We have now lots of people from Ohio. Many got here from Texas. Individuals simply go there as a result of it is so good. I feel there are various individuals who immigrate considering that issues will change, however in actuality they do not. They’re in a greater atmosphere. So for those who have been a rural Ohioan and moved there, your life can be the identical. Issues will get somewhat higher exterior. Nothing will get higher till you get higher.
However at the least it is not freezing chilly.
Florida has modified rather a lot since I moved. It was very inexpensive to stay in Tampa. That is not the case anymore. It is actually costly now. My complete household lives there and we go to typically, so I’ve even considered going again. I really like the pure world of Florida. It appears to be like like a subtropical space, but it surely’s really not, and it is also a type of grassland. It would not look very similar to Louisiana. There should not many swamps, however there are swamps. In a way, it is a huge swamp.
When did you begin taking part in music?
I had some associates in Tampa who have been a part of the DIY punk scene, and we used to go to punk reveals. However the music I favored to play wasn’t actually that. I could not discover a scene that huge. Possibly it was there. I simply did not see it.
Have been you taking part in the type of music you are taking part in now?
Oh my god. There was nothing like that. I’ve all the time favored this type of music, and at one level I used to be in a reggae band.
What sort of band was the reggae band?
It is a fairly simple cowl. A type of jambandi.
Like rusty roots?
Much like Elegant. Very Florida really feel.
So that you have been like, “We’re not going to attract an viewers for a singer-songwriter storytelling piece, so let’s play one thing Elegant”?
Yeah. Should you do a canopy, folks will come.
Which songwriters have influenced you?
Rising up, I beloved Dylan, after which I fell in love with John Prine. After which once I obtained somewhat older, it was Damian Jurado, and once I was at first of school or the tip of highschool, it was the 90’s children. I listened to somewhat Neil Younger. Once I was youthful, I wasn’t as obsessive about Neil as I’m now. As I obtained older, I began to worth Neil increasingly more.
It additionally jogs my memory a little bit of Zevon and Todd Snyder due to the “suspicious characters” theme.
Sure, I really like Zevon. I’ve by no means heard of Todd Snyder. I have to dig into him. I feel you may prefer it.
Your music “Massive Boi” is in that lane. It is based mostly on a real story, proper?
Yeah, I met these guys at Waffle Home. Their automobile broke down and I spent a loopy morning with them afterwards. I believed I used to be going to assist them, however I ended up hanging out with them increasingly more. I spent 6 hours with them. There have been two kids within the again and a canine. I took them to Autozone and some different spots. They usually mentioned, “Can you’re taking me to the pharmacy?” We ended up going to the capsule mill and a bunch of medication got here out and I believed, “I am on this scenario now.” However it turned out okay.
What’s a capsule mill?
In Florida, there was a legislation that allowed you to purchase as many opiates as you needed. If you wish to get 400 hydrocodone for any purpose, they will simply approve. There was no legislation towards it. So folks drove from the Northeast to purchase 1,000 drugs and drove house. Pharmacies might seem at gasoline stations. However all they actually did was promote hydrocodone and Roxy.
Do you assume you have been in search of materials in that scenario, consciously or not?
I imply, I’ve all the time been fairly open with folks. Once I was younger, I used to provide folks rides. I actually do not do this a lot anymore. However there was a time in highschool once I would decide up folks and take them to bus stops and issues like that.
That type of expertise is admittedly put to good use in songwriting.
I do not assume I considered it that method. I feel the extra time passes, the extra issues will accumulate. However that is simply a part of assembly folks.
