|
INTERVIEWS |
||||||||
| HOME | CD REVIEWS | RADIO | ||||||
| A-Z BAND LIST | INTERVIEWS | VIDEO | ||||||
| MYSPACE | RESOURCES | FASHION | ||||||
| At the moment, I just have this one interview
that I did with Allison Robertson of "The Donnas". More to come soon!
Sugar
& Spikes Interviews
When you and your band mates first got together, did you have a long term battle plan? Did you ever think you would still be together after fourteen years? No, we definitely had ZERO plans for the future. We mostly wanted to get together because we liked the same bands and didn't relate to the other kids at our middle school, especially on a musical level. Also, when male classmates learned about any of us learning to play our respective instruments, the reaction was so explosive that it made us want to keep the band going merely to bewilder these doubting Thomases. As a young all girl band playing hard rock in the 90's, the odds of success were certainly against you. Aside from amazing perseverance and determination on the part of the band, (which I greatly admire you for), were there any specific events or people that really helped the band along the way? Do you think being based in California was a big advantage? I don't know about our location being that helpful,
we did grow up in a suburb and among people who only knew about Top 40...We
had the advantage of being able get our parents to give us rides to and from
rock/indie shows all around the Bay Area, and we took the train a lot up to
SF for shows too. Our parents really believed in us from the beginning and we
were lucky they let us practice all the time and go out on school nights to
see bands play. Also, in the 90's there were several female driven movements,
from Riot Grrrl to Lilith Fair, and women playing instruments and writing their
own songs were ACTUALLY in the media, MTV and the radio, so it didn't seem to
us like we were the only girls in the world, and we had a whole lot of cool
women to look up to. I would say after the first Atlantic album came out, things were going very well for us, but we toured non-stop and it took its toll on each of us in different ways, mentally and physically. You can lose your passion when you start to go through the motions, and I don't think we got that far, but we definitely got to a point where we all needed to be home, in one place for a while. Who tends to come up with the lyrics to your songs? Does everyone contribute? Yes, we all contribute. Usually someone comes up with a title, we'll work out a chorus first. for instance, and then lyrics for the verse and bridge we will fill in once the structure of the music is sorted out. I don't think I've ever seen you play any other guitar than a Les Paul. How many do you have, and do you use any other makes of guitars in the studio? I haven't counted my guitars lately, but I would say I have just under 20 good ones, and a few little interesting bits. On the last album I played mostly one guitar the whole time, with a spare or two around in case we needed texture. On Spend The Night and Gold Medal though, I brought my whole collection and borrowed from Gibson as well, and we used the whole arsenal.Based on listening to your "Fun in the Dungeon" show, you seem to have a vast musical knowledge going back to the fifties, which is pretty amazing for someone in their twenties! How did you come to know so much? I am lucky enough to come from very musical parents, who always encouraged me to be an individual and listen to whatever I wanted. Both my mother and father also have very eclectic tastes that differ drastically from each other, so not only did I inherit lots of great music from them, but I have always been an explorer beyond what I know. I can't even remember a time where I didn't love music, and since I was about 4 or 5 I have been meticulous about my music collection, keeping it in alphabetical order and always saving up for new additions! Ok, I might be getting you in trouble here. Describe as best you can the personalities of each band member, including yourself. I would say that I am the sensitive problem solver. Torry is the ultimate team spirit coach, Brett is the unafraid explorer, and Maya is the loose but straight shooter. I read about Torry's problems with her wrists from playing the drums so much. How is she doing with that? I love how she looks so intense when she plays. She is doing well! She went through a lot with her wrists, but she’s a tough cookie and I think she sounds better than ever. Although "Gold Medal" was technically your best album to date as far as song writing and musicianship goes, I think my favorite album is still "Spend the Night". It just blew me away with its incredible high energy, in your face hard rock sound. What musical direction will your new CD "Bitchin" take? It sounds like you're returning to your roots for this one. I would say that Bitchin' is something no one has heard yet, but we've all imagined. It is the album I would have wanted to make when I was 7, 17 and now I am 27. Throughout the years you change it up here and there, and outside influences get to you, friends, other bands, record labels. This album is bereft of any of that, and it is pure unadulterated rock and roll. Your guitar playing seems to improve in leaps and bounds with each new album. Was Gold Medal the most challenging album for you to record as a musician? Do you try to push yourself to the limits of your abilities when writing new songs? I do try to push myself, but at the end of the day I'm not competing with anyone else, I compete with myself. I am happy with myself when I like how something I've played sounds, not whether it shows my talent or speed as a guitarist. Gold Medal wasn't necessarily challenging as a musician, more on the writing side. I honestly practice guitar very little physically, unless we're practicing as a band. I listen to music and visualize playing a lot, and I practice in my head that way. Kelly Johnson was obviously a huge influence for you, are there any other guitarists that you admire or try to learn from? Yes, I love Kelly of course, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Tom Keifer of Cinderella, The Alice Cooper Band guitarists Glenn Buxton and Michael Bruce, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Steve Vai. Signing with a label is probably the scariest thing a band has to do. I've seen great bands like Tsunami Bomb pack it in because of label hassles, and it seems that bands are always getting screwed. I was wondering what your experience has been like with Lookout Records, and Atlantic. Do you feel that creating your own label and dealing with a distribution company as you have done with Red Eye is the way to go? I definitely think that every decision we've made so far along the way was the right one. When we put our records out with Lookout! it was perfect for the time, we were young, we wanted to tour, and honestly, we were just excited to release an actual "compact disc" as opposed to a 7 inch. They gave us total freedom and we were definitely lucky in that era when it came to press, it just sort of came to us. Once we did “Turn 21” though, even everyone at Lookout! felt that if we stayed there, it would be the same thing every time, same record sales, same story...they wanted us to go for something bigger, and obviously we wanted that as well eventually. We held out for a long time but that was the sign to start exploring major label options. At the time, we met with everyone and Atlantic and the people working there were the only ones we felt we could work with in harmony. The initial idea was to continue to build onto the structure we had already created with Lookout!, and that's what we did with Spend The Night. The cycle for Gold Medal, however, was timed very badly, the whole label was in turmoil, people we worked with were laid off, new people came in who didn't necessarily have a stake in our project, a lot of communication breakdown and in general when a big machine like that isn't running at top form, it's gonna malfunction. Basically we are living in a time where it IS possible to do this all yourself, and leaving Atlantic was amicable. We are lucky that thisis the album we have and that we own it and can do whatever we want with it! What countries have you toured in? Do you have any favorite cities or venues to play in? We've done
all of Europe many times, Scandinavia, Australia, NZ, Japan...I love Stockholm,
Germany, and Barcelona. Australia is the most rock and roll country ever and
is a blast to play. We loved touring with Sahara Hotnights in Europe and we want to tour with them in the US someday...Also touring with Bratmobile was a major party as well. I would love to play with Donita Sparks again in the future, Juliette and The Licks, and RATT. I guess this is a pretty standard question, but do you have any horror stories or embarrassing moments from touring that you would prefer not to share with us, but will anyway? I have seen the most frightening bathrooms of all time, touched the grimiest of grimy couches backstage, soaked with who knows what besides beer and urine. Not a lot phases me. We did get a pretty big scare when we played a small club in Belgium and this guy jumped up onstage and stripped naked. He was short and hairy. Hard rock audiences have traditionally been mostly male. Do you see a lot of female fans at your shows? It depends on the album and the situation, definitely we've had periods where the audience is mostly male, but after Spend The Night came many more females and younger fans. Currently I notice a fine balance in the crowd and I like that. I think you're doing something wrong if you're only getting one or the other, music is universal. Female fronted hard rock bands continue to be almost completely ignored by the mainstream music industry. Do you think the day will ever come when they will get the same attention as their male counterparts? What do you think needs to be done to make this happen? I think it's possible to achieve success as a female or female fronted hard rock band, but even after that success, you will still be branded as the "only" act like that, when there are so many more, and that's the problem: women being thrown into competition, there can only be "one", it's all absolutely crazy. Oh yes......Marshall or Mesa Boogie? MARSHALL!!! Thanks again for spending the time answering my questions. I hope to see you on tour up here in Canada again some time. Thank you!!!
|