Premiere: Pauline Herr disperses final pre-‘CONTRADICTIONS’ EP single, ‘Dodgeball’

by: Rachel Narozniak Jul 8, 2021

Two self-produced EPs, one year’s time. Safe to say, it’s been an industrious year for Pauline Herr, who, after becoming the first female artist to issue a self-produced EP via Trap Nation’s Lowly Palace in May 2020 (see ghost), is preparing her six-song sophomore project, CONTRADICTIONS, for its July 30 arrival via Seeking Blue Records. The songstress, notable for singing, producing, and mixing her productions, brings CONTRADICTIONS’ pre-release phase of the rollout to a mid-tempo close with the final pre-EP single, “Dodgeball.”

Despite the track’s titular reference to a recreational past time that, by mere mention, evokes nostalgia and a touch of whimsy, lyrically, “Dodgeball” courts a subject more serious than its name might suggest. Herr said of “Dodgeball’s” conceptual basis,

“The name ‘Dodgeball’ comes from the first few lyrics that go, ‘when we were younger, I would always want you on my team.’ I remember always hoping I’d get some quality time with my crush during gym class when we’d be split up into teams, and I think that situation kind of embodies the story I’m trying to tell with these lyrics-really just wanting to be noticed by someone you’re crushing on.
I wrote this song about a year ago when I caught myself reflecting on my high school crush. I decided to put some feelings that I had felt for a while about a weird situation into words, even though my feelings for that person had long passed. I felt an urge to write a song about the lingering wounds that always seemed to open back up again whenever this person-who-shall-not-be-named would show up in my life again some way or another. I always wondered if he’d been clueless to my feelings or just wasn’t as interested in me as he had been in the past. It’s quite the sticky situation that I’ll probably bring up to him one day and laugh about but it haunted me for a long time.”

“Dodgeball” will formally release on July 9, but can be streamed in full one day early, only on Dancing Astronaut.