Anton Newcombe and Dot Allison are two formative names in modern psychedelia. The American artist has led the Brian Jonestown Massacre for three decades, becoming a by-word in staunch individuality for the 21st century underground.

For her part, Scottish artist Dot Allison is one of the most sublime voices of her generation. From debut solo album ‘Afterglow’ in 1999 onwards, she’s built an enchanting catalogue, replete with more than a few surprises along the way.

In a new move, the two have joined forces. New collaborative endeavour All Seeing Dolls was introduced this week, with the duo sharing their magical single ‘That’s Amazing Grace’.

The pair’s full debut album will be released in early 2025 – chatting to CLASH, Dot Allison reveals their online working methods, her long-held respect for Anton, and the confidence she found in the reception to last year’s wonderful solo record ‘Consciousology’.

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It’s only been a short while since the release of your wonderful album ‘Consciousology’ – did the praise give you confidence? Do you feel in a good creative space right now?

Yes, it’s encouraging when something you have made is well received and it’s strange how you kind of live inside an album and then listen to it in quite a different way when you play it to others… so that is always a bit daunting… but yeah… I was thrilled. 

Anton is such a remarkable figure in modern underground music – how did the two of you first come into contact?

A mutual friend Chikashi Ojima in Japan had said to me that we were both his favourite artists and we should collaborate… and he kind of catalysed something there.

What was the spark that led to this collaboration? Was there a conversation, or a particular recording session, that made you both want to pursue this?

We bonded over a mutual love of Opal early recordings… and then found we were on a similar wavelength in a lot of ways and it just flowed from there… Anton is bold… and straight-up asked if I wanted to make music like that and I said yes…

You live in different cities, was the bulk of the collaborating done over email? How was that process?

We found our way… a lot of the songs were written during lockdown… we talked about music, life, what we feel is important and shared songs we like and talked about artists we like… we decided to exchange ideas .. so I might send over something with autoharp and voice or acoustic and voice, and he would send me amazing ideas back… we backed and forthed like that… and I said to him it’s like a bit of a little Christmas listening to the tracks after he sent back… the whole process happened via phone calls, we transfer or drop box, we briefly zoomed each other before our first spotting session for Annika so we had at least said hello face to face… most of all listened to each other I think… so that was key 

You’ve worked with a number of different people over the years, what makes a good collaboration? Is it chemistry, mutual influences, or some other factor?

Mutual respect, shared taste and vision, a compliment of ingredients I guess and a willingness to expose your raw ideas… which we both did and I guess were both rocks to each other in a way throughout that process… nothing grows in the shade… so not crushing the sun in an idea is very important… or it withers… 

It’s quite a free-flowing record, how was it to make? Did you have a structure or template? Or was it more independent than that?

More independent… we took each idea as they came and worked on them in a free and unrestrained way… then stopped when we had an album.. 

New single ‘That’s Amazing Grace’ leads the way – it’s wonderful, can you remember what inspired it?

I think that mutual love of that kind of sound… being able to lose yourself inside a dream when you are writing… and letting that take you where the song wants to go… in a way the song often writes itself while you make other plans anyway… may as well let it.

The two of you meet in IRL for the first time in Edinburgh post-album – that must have been a fun encounter! What was it like?

It was great… we probably had a shared understanding of each other already, so we just got on as if we’d always known each other, I think. 

Are the two of you going to perform live together? We’d love to see it!

Who knows… hadn’t planned to…                                                                                 



It seems like you’re on a real roll – what’s your next step, creatively?

More making things… that hopefully move people… to me that is the key.

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All Seeing Dolls will release their debut album ‘Parallel’ in February 2025.

Writer: Robin Murray
Photo Credit: Robbie Crawford

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