What Happens When Barbie Kisses Stacey? Dreaming Soda Has the Answer

What does it mean when a child gets her Barbie dolls to kiss each other? Maybe it's a rebellion against Barbie's spotless pink fantasy house. Maybe it's a rebellion against heteronormativity's glistening wrapping paper. Or maybe, just maybe, it's an infantile expression of selfhood that plastic never quite envisioned to carry. That naughty tension—between capitalism's most glittering trinket and the gritty, questioning explorations of identity—is at the heart of Dreaming Soda's new single, Kissing Stacey.

The indie-pop duo have been building anticipation for this track since 2022, when it first rocketed to life at their Sydney and Melbourne live performances. A Kickstarter-backed fan favourite, Kissing Stacey now gets the full studio treatment at Sydney's Hercules Studios, mastered by Becki Whitton. It's the kind of glittery, mischievous anthem that will thump out of your retro Bratz lips speaker, giving sneaky lyrics a sheeny sound that is retro and ahead of its time. 

Dreaming Soda's inspirations stretch from St. Vincent and CHVRCHES to video game soundtracks and the vibrant chaos of youth culture. They've never been content to just cut it short at music—their EP release party was followed by a full-color graphic novel and bespoke cocktails. That world-building momentum is present and working in Kissing Stacey, complete with a mixed media lyric video, a pro music video, and a series of sketches to cap things off. It's not a song, it's an experience, the kind of undertaking that confirms Dreaming Soda live to create pop as a playground.

But hidden beneath its surface, Kissing Stacey is that moment of queerness—the kind of thing that left a little child questioning what it meant when Barbie kissed her best friend. It's saucy, it's thought-provoking, it's danceable, and it's unapologetically queer in spirit. And with two more fan favorites, "Martian Boy" and "Lemmings," on the way, Dreaming Soda aren't slowing down anytime soon. If this is the way they're beginning their next chapter, it's going to be a wild, glitter-covered ride.

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