Forever maintaining their signature sense of resilience both sonically and emotionally, Buffalo-based rock act Stress Dolls are ready and willing to face the unknown. The musical moniker of Chelsea O’Donnell, Stress Dolls fuses together ’90s hard rock with a modern and unrelenting indie flair. Having rereleased Stress Dolls’ 2024 album Queen of No through O’Donnell’s indie record label Angry Girl Music back in May, the newly-acquired ownership now symbolizes a new artistic era for the rock artist.
Aside from initially releasing Queen of No through Sun Pedal Recordings in 2024, O’Donnell has released all of Stress Dolls’ music through Angry Girl Music. An apt name for the singer-songwriter’s label, O’Donnell’s artistry is one that is fueled by all the women before her who have had the guts to pick up a guitar in a male-dominated scene. Channelling the likes of Avril Lavigne, Courtney Love and Hayley Williams, Stress Dolls keeps the fire of raging female empowerment alive and well in the modern indie rock scene.
Initially taking shape around 2013, Stress Dolls went through several lineup changes until O’Donnell decided to reshape the project as a solo effort in 2017. Now, Stress Dolls take on several forms: a solo endeavor with O’Donnell and her trusty acoustic guitar, a duo when she is joined by longtime collaborator and violinist Sally Schaefer, or a complete band when accompanied by bassist TJ Luckman, lead guitarist Jordan Smith, and drummer Josh English.
Throughout their career, perseverance has been a common theme. Despite O’Donnell’s struggle with chronic illness, she has used this battle to fuel her work — particularly with Queen of No. Across its 10 tracks listeners will find tales of self-identity, self-acceptance and unapologetic vulnerability. After buying back the rights to the album and reissuing it across all platforms, O’Donnell sat down with Melodic Magazine to discuss musical influences, being an independent artist and the future of Stress Dolls.
You recently bought back the rights to your album Queen of No, and you’ve rereleased the album through your own record label Angry Girl Music. Why was it important for you to buy back those rights to that album?
I was working with a label called Sun Pedal Recordings, an indie label out of Cleveland. I signed them back in 2023 and that’s how I even worked with Jim Wirt. It was always a dream of mine growing up to work with the label, so I’m thankful for the experience. But ultimately after a year together, I was feeling like there wasn’t really much more to go off of with the current standing relationship. And I’m not trying to paint the picture that they were an evil record label and I was this innocent artist trying to buy back my rights. It really wasn’t like that. It was more that we both felt like amicably it was probably time to part ways. I’m really thankful that they were receptive to me buying back the rights to the music and ultimately, at the end of the day, we came to a very fair deal for me to do that. It feels good to just be able to own those recordings and know that I have the say of what happens with them, because you never know. I’m not trying to imply that I believe that someday I’m going to be some massive artist, but I do think it’s important for artists to own the rights to their music.
Aside from releasing that album with Sun Pedal Recordings, all your other music has been released independently. Is signing with another label something you’d consider in the future? How important is it for you to be an independent artist at this time?
Now that I’ve had that one experience, I feel like I can safely to say to people that with every label you just have to go in knowing what you want out of the relationship and you have to see if what they have to offer what it is you’re looking for. Because we’re in such a strange time within the music industry, as everyone knows. It’s been a strange time now for a while, and I think especially for smaller labels it’s tough, because it’s not really clear what the future holds, and there are so many artists now that are taking off on their own just through the Internet, and thus they don’t even need the label necessarily. The reason why this label and I worked together and why I will be forever grateful is because they had a relationship with the producer who made really great sounding music and they were fronting the cost for that production. So I think right now being an independent artist is great and I’m proud to have reissued the record on my own label, but I’m never opposed to seeing what other working relationships can happen in the future.
With this new ownership of the record, what would you say it represents for the future of Stress Dolls?
I think that Stress Dolls is ultimately always going to be whatever feels right. I’m never going to continue doing this project if at any point it feels false or phony, and at the moment this feels like the right path. I don’t know where it’s going to lead, but at the end of the day we’ve been fortunate to play a lot of shows regionally and locally throughout the past five years or so where we’ve met new fans and have gotten people to pay attention in the music that way. I’ve also been really lucky in that I have found a community of people online that have become interested in the music. It’s such a cool thing to see and to know that that’s possible, that people will engage and actually be legitimately interested in your music. The future of Stress Dolls at the moment is that I have a whole new record already written. I want to start demoing those songs with my bandmates and hopefully coming up with musical arrangements with them. I really want us to figure out how we’re going to make this next record, but that all boils down to many different factors. As an independent artist this time around, it’s going to be a little more challenging to figure out.
I’m glad you bring up a new album, because I did want to ask about that. Without giving too much away, how would you say it’s different from Queen of No?
I think with this particular collection of songs there’s still quite a few that have that kind of pop, punky, alternative vibe, and I think that’s always going to run throughout my songwriting because my biggest influences have that sound. But I feel like more of these songs have a singer-songwriter approach. It’s not like it’s Phoebe Bridgers, but I just think perhaps a little less punky and a little more scaled back, at least how I’m envisioning it and experimenting outside of my comfort zone a tiny bit. I think that’s natural. I think anybody who is a creator you grow and change with every piece that you create and you don’t want to stay in the same box. My favorite artists, they have their era for each album and once that era is over, it’s like a chapter closes. But I think it’s kind of fun to have every record have a certain vibe about it.
I wanted to ask about your record label too. With Angry Girl Music, what is the ethos or message behind the label?
With Angry Girl Music, I feel like I’ve heard that terminology for a very long time. During my early teens when I was most getting into music and songwriting, I loved Avril Lavigne. I loved all these female singer-songwriters that had emotionally open and sometimes angry music. But when you would see that portrayed in the media, a lot of times it was almost treated as a joke. Even when I started playing live, you’d get people who would come up and say, “You have aggressive vocals.” Especially because I was with my acoustic guitar most of the time, and then I wasn’t doing traditional singer-songwriter, acoustic guitar type music. It turns heads, and sometimes not in the way you want. And I think a part of me internalized that to the point where then I would sometimes even make self-deprecating jokes about being the angry girl. Then I just reached a point where I was like, “This is so ridiculous.” You can’t be emotionally open and vulnerable in your music without it being seen as you’re being overdramatic or you’re making things up. I would rather take the term “angry girl music” and wear it proudly.
It’s so upsetting that there’s this double standard still, because if a male artist were to write an “angry song,” then all their fans would think it’s so deep and relatable. But if a female artist does it, then it’s like, “Why is she so mad?” It’s something I still see in 2025.
Exactly. I mean, one of the biggest bands in the ‘90s was Nirvana. Kurt Cobain definitely sounded pissed in his music, but they were just worshipped. And then on the other hand you have Hole and Courtney Love, and she’s totally demonized and seen as a psycho. And yes, I understand she has a personality outside of her band that people probably have attributed that to, but at the same time I just think it’s a double standard. A woman’s aggressive in the music and it gets people to react in a negative way, whereas a man is aggressive in the music and people just accept it as is. It’s annoying, but I’d like to think it’s getting better.
For sure. A couple questions going off of that. Obviously you mentioned Hole, but who are some other female artists or even artists in general who influence Stress Dolls?
It’s funny because there are so many different phases we go through with music and what we like, and I feel like my earliest influences were artists like Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day. Then I got a little older and Nirvana came into play. I’ve always loved Paramore. I think Paramore changes and grows with every record they make and their music is always very intriguing. Seeing how they interpret pop in their music is really interesting to me. It’s tough because I feel like growing up I listened to so many male-centric bands, because that’s what was popular and that’s what was out there. And it’s funny because I would listen to music at night in my bed, and I would be pretending to be rocking out or I’d be envisioning myself playing, and i’s a weird thing as a young woman because you can’t see yourself in their position. You’re almost assuming the role of a masculine figure in your dreams of being in a band, because that’s what you’re primarily seeing. As a 12-year-old girl Avril Lavigne was really the first woman I saw picking up a guitar and performing. I was born in the ‘90s, so I was way too young to be aware of bands such as Hole or Babes In Toyland. I didn’t know any of that stuff existed, so it wasn’t until I was a preteen seeing Avril that it was like, there’s a whole world out there of women with guitars.
It’s so funny because it might have been Avril Lavigne for me too, where it was the first time that I saw a woman in rock music. But aside from that growing up most of the artists I listened to were mostly men.
And I mean that’s the other part of it. Avril Lavigne is the person who you’re seeing for the first time, and then in the media all I’m seeing is people making fun of her. And yes, as an adult, I understand that she came out as teenage pop star. And people who are older think it’s a joke because they’ve “actually lived through the era of true punk” and whatever. So seeing her come out with her bracelets and the spikes to them was a joke. But to recognize what it means for a young woman seeing somebody like that and finally seeing a beacon, it’s something that I carry with me now. Even when I see really young people getting into music. For example, when Billie Eilish first came out. I know there were a lot of people that were skeptical, and she didn’t necessarily dress or look like your typical pop star. And to me, that’s really important to show kids that you don’t have to look one way, you don’t have to be one way and that there are people out there around your age who are interested in the same things you are.
I love that that’s something you keep in mind when it comes to your own songwriting. Going back to Angry Girl Music, you only release your own music through the label. Would you be open to adding other artists to the roster in the future?
I’ve thought about it for sure, and it’s not something I’m necessarily opposed to, but I think I need to figure out on my end what it is that I would even have to offer these artists. I think one of the biggest things that a label can offer anybody is financial backing and that’s not something that I necessarily feel confident in that I could do for other artists at this point. I guess it depends on what you do. Some labels are just there to print physical copies of your music. It’s like you go through the whole process of the production work and everything and then they come out the other side and they help front some cash for you to print out cassettes or CD’s or vinyl or what have you. There are so many really awesome independent artists I know, and I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to potentially that happening in the future, but I think I’ve got to do some more digging to figure out how I could even make that work.
Going back to Queen of No as well. It came out in May of last year, but is there a specific song off that album that resonates with you now that it’s been out for some time?
A song that was special when I made it, and it’s even more special to me now, is “Better.” I deal with chronic illness, so “Better” is specifically written about a time period where I was hospitalized for a month and I came out the other side and truly felt like music and the whole pursuit of music was over and I really wasn’t sure if I could ever perform out again. I had come to that acceptance, but then I did end up getting better, at least for that time. I went into a period of remission and during that period of remission that’s when I got this opportunity with the record label and with Jim. When we were recording the album, we did a few songs in March of 2022 and then we met up again in summer of 2022 to finish the rest of the record. In between those two sessions is when I wrote “Better,” and I think I wanted to just end the record on a triumphant note because, after everything I had been through, I felt like this was such a gift to be able to have that opportunity and I really wanted to have a song that vocalized that and spoke about it. For once in a song I wanted to be able to own that moment of feeling good instead of living in fear of when the next time I was going to feel bad was.
Queen of No has this overall theme of overcoming obstacles and taking ownership of yourself and your life. Going off of that, what would you say you want the album’s ultimate message to be for listeners?
I think the ultimate message of the entire thing is just keep going. Keep doing what you want to do. You never know where it’s going to lead you. I understand that we all have hopes and dreams, and unfortunately maybe not all of those work out. But I think what I’ve learned throughout this whole process is perhaps they won’t happen the way that you felt that they should or you thought that they would, but it doesn’t mean that things can’t happen. And whatever your journey or your path is, is yours. That’s what makes it so special. And in our era of social media, it’s so hard to not be comparing constantly to other people. But I think with every day that passes and with more time having this experience with this record, I just keep coming back to that. Each of us has a path and you have one life. It sounds so cheesy, but it’s true. I think you just got to do what you feel is right for you and not give up.
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