Today, Belly released "Shiny One," the first single from their upcoming album,
Dove — the band's first release in over 20 years.

Belly are releasing Dove on May 4 through PledgeMusic, and Belly will be touring the US and UK in 2018 in support of the album: a tour that will bring them to the Fine Line Music Café on Oct. 5.

Today I talked with Belly's frontwoman Tanya Donelly about the band's reunion, upcoming album, and how it feels to be releasing new music in 2018. You can use the above player to hear our entire conversation.

In 2016, Belly — Donelly along with guitarist Tom Gorman, drummer Chris Gorman, and bassist Gail Greenwood — reunited for a tour, on which they debuted a handful of new songs. Although Belly had not played together in over 20 years, Donelly said that once they regrouped in 2016, the band fell nicely back into place. "Because it had been 20-plus years, it actually felt new again," she said.

Before their 2016 tour, Belly planned to release two new singles, but because of scheduling conflicts, the songs were debuted live instead. Donelly said that the songs have evolved in a way that they wouldn't have if they were recorded first.

"Playing something live is definitely really instructive in terms of how the song changes," she said. "I'm fully expecting that as we play the songs on the album that we did not workshop live, that those are going to change as we tour this time."

When Belly announced their reunion, they initially didn't plan on releasing a full album. Their plan was to tour, write new music, and maybe release an EP.

"We were kind of on a high after the tour," said Donelly, "and we had these five songs that we were psyched about that were going to be the EP. Then we decided, 'You know what, let's just double that number and put out a whole album.' So it was a very natural progression."

Donelly explained that Dove was written more collaboratively than Belly's first two albums. She described Dove as Belly's first "fully collaborative body of music."

"I am just a naturally collaborative person," she said. "I just enjoy writing with other people. I feel like it keeps me from repeating myself. Even lyrically, someone else's music will bring something out that I wouldn't have done on my own. And I just like being in a room playing music with people. More than being by myself doing it."

Over the years, the members of Belly have taken on other various responsibilities including new musical projects, jobs, and families. Donelly explained that because of these responsibilities, they don't have the luxury of focusing on the band full-time. For now, they're spending their energy on the upcoming tour and album, then will plan for the next steps farther down the road.

Since Belly released their first two albums in the '90s, technology has radically altered both the way that bands release their music and how listeners interact with it. In her more recent projects, Donelly has experimented with various different formats of releasing music, including her Swan Song Series, which she released on Bandcamp, and Throwing Muses' 2013 album Purgatory/Paradise, which was released as a CD and hardcover book.

Donelly said the new technology available to artists today has taken some of the pressure off of artists releasing music, and has allowed for more communication between artists and their fans. "It's this funny balance of things feeling more and less important simultaneously," she said.

"We officially [released] the single ['Shiny One'] today. It's exciting and it's a big deal, but again, it's not the same make-or-break feeling that releasing a single used to feel like," she continued. "It just feels like the walls have come down between players and listeners, and that's something that always kind of went up my spine, so I kind of like the fact that those walls are more porous now."