Lovelorn Dolls singer Kristell Lowagie has told Side-Line how the Belgian synth-goth band is moving forward as a duo with guitarist and sound engineer Eric Renwart, eight months after co-founder Bernard Daubresse died suddenly in November 2025. Her first response, she explains, was grief rather than planning: for weeks music was out of the question, because the band had always been a shared effort and Daubresse was a friend as much as a partner. What turned the tide was the idea of fifteen years of work simply disappearing, an outcome she is convinced he would have hated. Renwart, whom she knew from the Belgian alternative scene, is helping rebuild the writing process from scratch, and live bassist Fabien has since left the lineup. Nobody is trying to imitate Daubresse, she says.
A large part of the conversation is devoted to the “True Crimes” EP, whose four songs each draw on a real unsolved case: the Black Dahlia, JonBenét Ramsey, the “Boy in the Box” and the Zodiac Killer. All four were written before Daubresse’s death. Lowagie says the cases were picked because they still leave open questions, and that the songs follow the individuals behind the headlines, such as victims and families, more than the crimes themselves. Since the loss she hears the record differently, noticing the creativity of someone who is no longer there in every note. The video for “The Boy in the Box” was directed by Daubresse and Lowagie together and goes for a vintage mood built on half-forgotten memories, deserted locations and a fractured childhood. She also looks after the band’s visuals herself, building on her photography background, and opted for AI-generated imagery on the latest covers while admitting the topic is controversial and staying open to human illustrators or photographers later on.
Looking ahead, the band is already writing a new four-track EP that sets the true-crime concept aside and turns intimate and personal. Live, the duo performs with backing tracks for the extra arrangements, keeping Daubresse’s guitar parts central to the songs and reinterpreting them where that feels natural. Harmony Metal Fest (Antwerp), INFEST (Manchester) and NCN Festival (near Leipzig) are on the 2026 schedule. Lowagie describes “True Crimes” as a bridge rather than a farewell, closing one chapter while opening another, and hopes first-time listeners simply hear honest music that makes them feel something.
About Lovelorn Dolls
Lovelorn Dolls began in Brussels around 2010 as Lovelorn, the pairing of Kristell Lowagie (then using the stage name Ladyhell) and Bernard Daubresse, a guitarist and composer who came from Corpus Christi. Earlier, in 2002, Lowagie had started Skeptical Minds, a Belgian electro-industrial band, alongside Vincent Lacrosse, and she remained a member through 2007.
Alfa Matrix signed the duo in 2012, following their digital EP “An Intense Feeling of Affection”. “The House of Wonders” became the first album in 2013, “Japanese Robot Invasion” arrived a year later, and the “Happy Valentine” EP then gathered remixes alongside live recordings made at Eurorock 2015.
After a break in which Lowagie focused on SIN.SIN, her electro-pop side project, they returned in 2018 with the “Lament” EP and a third album, “Darker Ages”, made with producer Maxx Maryan. Spleen+ released the fourth album, “Deadtime Stories”, in May 2024; Maryan produced once more, and Dero Goi (ex-Oomph!) and the American rapper Vvitchboy guested. Earlier that year, in February, Lowagie also marked a decade of “Happy Valentine” with a fresh video and a Bandcamp fundraiser for the Belgian organisation CVFE.
The four-track “True Crimes” EP appeared on 3 October 2025 through Alfa Matrix/Spleen+ and was the first release to involve guitarist and sound engineer Eric Renwart. Daubresse, Lowagie’s co-writer and producer for about fifteen years, died suddenly the next month. A video for “Call Me Your Ghost” was unveiled in February 2026, when Fabien was also introduced as live bassist before the festival season; he has since left, and Lowagie and Renwart now carry on as a duo, writing a more personal four-track EP as the successor.
The complete question-and-answer session is on Side-Line: Read the full interview on Side-Line.
Listen to ‘True Crimes’
“True Crimes” is available now on the Alfa Matrix store as an EPCD with a bonus track, and the EP can also be streamed on Bandcamp.