Molly Brandt
Recently, Eli met with local singer-songwriter Molly Brandt to share her unreleased song “Dollar Stores and Strip Malls.”
Molly Brandt. Photos by Eli Gardiner, 2024.
Molly and I chatted about her upcoming single, “Dollar Stores and Strip Malls,” and she shared some insight into the inspiration and creation of the song:
Molly: “While listening to a true crime podcast one day cleaning the kitchen, the host described a desolate town in Texas where there were really only ‘dollar stores and strip malls’ and the biggest thing the town had going for it was the high school football team. He said it was a ‘great place to grow up but nowhere you wanted to stay.’ The town didn’t really have flowers or trees, or community support; it was completely unwalkable and car-centric.
I paused the podcast to write down some of these quotes. I told Eric Carranza my idea for a song called ‘Dollar Stores & Strip Malls.’ He came up with an instrumental part that he felt had the vibes I was going for. I took his instrumental part and set it to the words I’d gathered from the podcast and also brainstormed.
I wanted a song that dealt with the loneliness and hopelessness of a town void of real community, taken over by the rampant capitalism that allowed these dollar stores & strip malls, parking lots, warehouses, and fast-food chains to be built instead of walkable community spaces. The song follows our character realizing they have to come back to this town, give up their dreams, and give in to a life of poverty, alcoholism, loneliness, and hopelessness as they look back on their life, constantly reliving the ‘glory days’ of youth, yet seeing their hometown as unrecognizable due to the changes occurring over the years from the capitalism: ‘These stomping grounds that raised me / they don’t feel the way they did yesterday.’
I plan to release this song as a single sometime in May or June of this year, in advance of a full album I’ll be releasing at the end of summer/early fall. ‘Dollar Stores & Strip Malls’ is one piece of the concept album that explores American struggles/stories/vignettes.”
Don’t miss Molly’s upcoming shows around the Twin Cities:
March 21 — Tommy Goodread / Molly Brandt / Bryan & the Haggards Icehouse, Minneapolis
March 22 — performing with her full band at The Root Note in La Crosse, WI
Eli Gardiner is a songwriter, photojournalist, and video creator. You can catch him playing shows all over the Midwest with his band or as a solo performer, and he also captures video and photography for local musicians and nonprofits. His passion is Storytelling through music and pictures.
