DJ Ron Slomowicz: Your new single "Feels Good" is climbing the club charts; did you always want to be a dance singer?
Dolce: No, it just kind of worked out that way. I was working with Orange Factory and Tommy Boy records approached them wanting a vocalist to do a few dance songs. I was doing some studio work with them and they wanted to know if I would be interested and I did it. We put out Fire and it just went crazy. Then Sorrow did the same, and now Feels Good is going wild. So no, I really didn't have it in mind to become a dance artist. it just kind of happened that way.
RS: I heard a funny story about how you were discovered by Orange Factory in the Sony studios.
Dolce: Yes, I was working with a producer at the time and I was warming up doing a few sessions. He needed a session singer for a song he was submitting for Whitney Houston at the time. I was warming up in the hallway and Ellis (Miah, formerly of Orange Factory) heard me. I have been working with Orange Factory ever since.
RS: How did you get started singing?
Dolce: I started singing in the church when I was about five, I grew up in a Pentecostal church in Brooklyn. I have been singing in the choirs; childrens, young adult choir, and then the adult choir. I've been singing in the church all my life and I started singing professionally when I was fourteen.
RS: Going from church to nightclubs, that seems like a big jump.
Dolce: It's different but it's fun. It's similar in some ways because in church singing gospel music, you have a lot of energy in the music and dancing. In the Pentecostal church choirs, there's a lot of dancing and a lot of energy and it's the same thing in dance music. It's very energetic, powerful music and I enjoy it, it's different but it kind of has some similarities.
RS: In the songs you're singing, I hear a bit of spiritualism in them as well in that you're trying to teach a lesson through your music.
Dolce: Yes, I like to talk about experiences that I've had and I think that most people have gone through at one point in time or another. They understand where I'm coming from and can relate to them. We've all been through breakups or actually found a relationship that they like, it's new and it feels good. Or you have a relationship that's gone bad and you have to move on, like Sorrow. Then there's Fire, where someone has done you wrong and you want to teach them a lesson. It's just life experiences, and I think that's why people like the songs so much because they can just relate to them.
RS: Have you been performing a lot in clubs lately?
Dolce: Yes, I have been. I've recently done Splash in New York for Eddie Baez's birthday in a special party room along with Brooklyn and New York Pride. I was really excited to be selected to do pride in Amsterdam in August, so I've been quite busy.
RS: That's awesome. So how do you balance your musical career with your future medical career?
Dolce: It's a bit of a juggling act but it's working out for me so far, thank goodness. It started to be difficult, but I have a schedule that I try to maintain. Any free time I have, if I'm not in the studio or traveling, I take my books with me. On the road, I study on the plane and do my homework in the hotel room before if I go to a sound check or do my show. When I'm in school, it's a nice break away from the music world and I'm just like a regular student and no one really knows what I do when I am on campus. It's good to just chill and be a student and when its time to be an artist, I can do that too. So it's a nice little balance and I'm not overwhelmed in any one place or the other, it's working out for me. I always have to do things associated with my music, like doing my voice exercises everyday, or things I do for myself, like going to the gym or taking personal time to chill out. It's been working out so far so I can't really complain, it gets a little tricky sometimes but, I've been able to make it happen which is good.
