Memoria, new single by Indochine, and how a title becomes a cult

French rock would not be the same without Indochine nowadays. Here is the band that has become a reference for a lot of new bands as Nicola the enigmatic leader and songwriter explained in an exclusive interview recently. Not many French bands with a 30 year old career have been following the new trends and reviving the old ones as Indochine does. We are all waiting eagerly for their 12th album due on the 11^th of February. The first single was released on the 15^th of November on the digital platforms. Memoria is its name: An intriguing title that the fans have discussed with passion on the social network. Abstract, symbolic, mysterious, this is a title that catches the attention and makes you wonder where it comes from. This is how a new album should start: a strong title and a good cover artwork. We will come back to the artwork later.

When I first heard the introductory sound of the single on soundcloud, that was released as a first teaser, it was a raw version of the final product…It was like hearing an organ in a church. Three long mesmerizing notes that set the atmosphere for what was to follow: Something to do with the cold -wave influences of the past, a darkness reminding me of Interpol or Editors. We already know that Editors have written a song for Indochine’s new album. It was officially announced on the band’s website when the titles were revealed. We also know that Lescop,the popular French new wave band famous for its song “La foret” on the label Pop Noire that also produces Savages, contributed to the album. It speaks of the absurdity of the traffic ladies who do their work in nonexistent traffic in North Corea. This came out in a video on youtube posted by Nicola Sirkis on twitter before we were told that Lescop had written a song about it.The singer, Mathieu, who is also frontman of his other band Asyl, had already co-written a song for the band on the album Alice et June, called “Les portes du Soir" and supported Indochine during their previous tour.

 https://soundcloud.com/indochineofficiel/memoria-intro

Memoria follows a trend of titles that the band has for words ending in “a”therefore sounding latin. Adora, Ceremonia, Dancetaria..Words that reflect a near Latin passion and romanticism, the provocative lyrics dealing with religion and sex, lost faith and emblematic crosses, like the one of their album Paradize that has become a  model for all sorts of artwork like tattoos or merchandising objects. Words with a Latin consonance often express melancholy and nostalgia, ideal themes for new wave bands. Then we have words that sound Latin but are English like Amnesia of Dead Can Dance from their new album Anastasis released in 2012. Memoria falls into the first category but can be accepted as an English derivation as well and it confuses us.. And that is enticing enough.

When in November the single Memoria was released, the fans had already been fantasizing over the content and the context of the single, the media was teasing us on twitter with information leaking here and there about the rest of the album and a tour promised to be the biggest in their history. The fans were already tuned in when the band officially revealed on their website the 16 titles of their forthcoming album. When I hear the start of Memoria I cannot help thinking of the introduction of Next Exit of Interpol. The lyrics, emotionally charged, are sad but there is a positivity in it, hope to revive a lost love mixed with the anxiety of the time that passes, the fear of growing old alone. 

Memoria came with a dark cover, showing an illuminated city surrounded by a faint halo and an overwhelming black sky. The title Memoria hangs in the middle of this sky, a font similar to the one used for the album covers of Editors. Now not only the title of the single was enticing us  because of its dark connotations but also the cover that went with it. A good cover catches the eye of the public by its strong visual symbolism and is supposed to bring out emotions, which is what this cover does. 

Some of the greatest bands have used this strong conceptual architectural design of the city buildings for their albums covers. I can think of Pink Floyd with Animals, or the White Lies with Lose my Life and more recently the solo album of Paul Banks called very simply Banks. His cover was described by Letterman as “mysterious”, like a premonition to the Sandy Hurricane. Paul Banks bravely played on the show in an almost empty room after the disaster.

But not only the mesmerizing title of the single and its cover artwork are a platform for discussion on the social networks but it makes us want to know more about the thematic of the album. What is the connection between the artwork of the cover and the title of the single?

When the title of the album was revealed, Black City parade, there was more brain teasing.. So we recapitulate: A Latin-sounding title, a title in English and a cover of a city skyline: Enough to give you food for thought.

As the discussions became more passionate on the forums and on twitter and facebook ( some did not like the word ”parade” for example), I decided to ask some friends on twitter what they thought of it.

The impressions of a fan about the title Memoria and its introductory teaser, before the title was released on the radio.. the title Black City Parade and the cover:

“Memoria reminds me of a Mass, a communion with people.” “To remember (the last time?). When I say Communion, I do not necessarily think the religious side, but really the story of a symbiosis between two people or groups of people!”

“Regarding the Image: maybe a gaze that makes these two groups reflect on their lives (or it could be their city). It is far, it is a nostalgic look. At night, everyone is at home,this is a good time to reflect. Maybe they are afraid somehow of the future, so they cling to their memories. There are lights that shine like tears too.”

“For the title Black City Parade, I think of the parade at the end of a show of a lifetime. A farewell parade ...”

I also decided to do a spontaneous interview of some teachers, mostly English, and some international students, from my school in Mexico. I collected impressions about what they thought of the two titles Memoria and Black City Parade and their relation to the cover. Most had never heard of Indochine and none had heard the new single. The only clue they had of the album was that it had been written in different cities of the world: Berlin, Tokyo, New-York, Paris, Bruxelles, and they were only told that after they had attempted to answer the questions. They found through their own experiences and emotions felt during their travels in the big cities a connection between the titles and the cover that matched quite well what the singer Nicola Sirkis has revealed about it. In his exclusive interview, he said that the word “Parade” comes from a combination of emotions felt while absorbing the architecture around him, and the events that took place in these cities, like the students revolution in Montreal about the college fees. This epic journey was spent with his daughter for her 10 year old birthday.

The video of the interview:

Enthralling or discontenting the media and fans, one thing we can be sure is that Indochine does not leave anyone indifferent, they never had, and this reflects their strong personality and their unique character, which brings so many passions. 

The exclusive inteview by Nicola Sirkis ;

http://yahoo.skynet.be/actualites/people/article/935573/indochine-pour-premiere-fois-spectacle-sera-aussi-dans-salle?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tweet&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tweet

News about the band

Indochine is back after three years of absence. 300 000 copies of their latest album La Republique des Meteors were sold

The video has 16 titles

Tracklisting de Black City Parade
(album available the 11th of februray2013)

BLACK OUVERTURE
1/ BLACK CITY PARADE
2/ COLLEGE BOY
3/ MEMORIA
4/ LE FOND DE L’AIR EST ROUGE
5/ WUPPERTAL
6/ LE MESSIE
7/ BELFAST
8/ TRAFFIC GIRL
9/ THEA SONATA
10/ ANYWAY
11/ NOUS DEMAIN
12/ KILL NICO
13/ EUROPANE ou le dernier bal

+  THE LOVERS
SALOME
TRASH MEN

The video for the new single, filmed by Yves Botalico was out on the 10^th of December and is out on every music channel. It is currently number one according to Twitter feeds of the 18^th of December.

A film about the making of the album is in progress and teasers are posted regularly on twitter. It is due in June 2013.

It was said on twitter on the 18^th of December that the sale of the tour tickets is number one at the FNAC, the giant bookshop company, in front of Muse.

The biggest tour in their career will take place over at least the next two years and is run by Live Nation:

16 dates for the first part of the tour, called the Black City Tour1, starting on the 21^th of February and finishing on the 2nd of April

25 dates for the second part of the tour, called the Black City Tour2, starting on the 11^th of October and finishing on the 18^th of December.

A date  at the festival in Arras

New dates for Lille and Bruxelles were added to the tour as the tickets were sold out in one day

Indochine is the only French band that has played at the Stade de France. They played there on the 26^th of June 2010. There may be another date, if not two, in June 2014, to complete the tour.

Memoria, Nostalgie, Espoir

Memoria: Nostalgie et espoir Texte de Vladimir Os'es+
http://estadoscaoticos.blogspot.fr/2012/11/memoria-nostalgia-y-esperanza.html

 « La nostalgie est un des sentiments les plus métaphysiques, une intention de retourner au passé. La nostalgie est la prise de conscience de notre statut d'homme»

Le présentateur d’un programme matinal (RTL2) présente une nouvelle chanson, pendant que dans le fonds, on entend l’introduction de cette chanson et de suite, je porte mon attention sur les paroles, je l’écoute et immédiatement je réfléchis sur le sens de ces paroles. Le titre c’est Memoria, le nouveau single de Indochine, qui il ya 24 ans est venu en Amérique du Sud (spécifiquement au Pérou). Mais qu’est ce que le groupe français a en commun avec la métaphysique ?

Dans un article sur Vladimir Jankélévitch, il est dit que « depuis sa jeunesse prometteuse et un peu fanfaronne jusqu'à sa vieillesse assombrie par le sentiment qu'il éprouvait de n'avoir ni lecteurs ni critiques, il se sentait mal compris, négligé, démodé. » Personne n’avait pris conscience de la profonde réflexion de son œuvre "L'Irréversible et la nostalgie" 

Cet article le décrit comme « un merveilleux chroniqueur d'une vie scandée par l'urgence d'écrire et de penser juste, consacrée à philosopher sur les vertus, le pardon, le temps, la mort, à parler, comme d'une métaphysique, de la musique impressionniste française, et cette correspondance traverse le siècle et l'éclaire. »

Le groupe Indochine, avec son leader Nicola Sirkis, est une référence à la langue de Voltaire. Avec 30 ans de carrière musicale. Beaucoup des chansons sont composées avec les textes venant du bagage littéraire de Nicola Sirkis. Parmi ses chansons on peut citer : "Des Fleurs Pour Salinger", en référence a J. D. Salinger,  auteur de "L'Attrape-cœurs", censuré dans son pays pendant plusieurs années. Une autre chanson du groupe est "Go Rimbaud Go", avec comme référence le poète français Arthur Rimbaud. 

Vladimir Jankélévitch a dit: "J'écris pour le xxie siècle, siècle qui discutera mes idées avec passion, contrairement au xxe.". Ce qui est très similaire à ce que le leader du groupe a vécu avec ses chansons, ignoré par la plupart à certaines périodes de son parcours musical.

Dans le programme Philosophie d’Arte tv, Raphaël Enthove traite du thème de la nostalgie avec Patrick Dandrey. Dans ce programme Dandrey se réfère aux propos de Emmanuel Kann : «Quand on s’aperçoit que le monde a changé, ce n’est pas véritablement la souffrance que le monde ait changé, ce changement du monde ne fait que refléter et répercuter que nous avons changé, que nous avons vieilli et que nous ne sommes plus nous  mêmes. "

Pour Patrick Dandrey, la nostalgie, qui se reflète clairement dans les paroles de Memoria, affirme que “la nostalgie est un des sentiments les plus métaphysiques”, c'est-à-dire l’intention de retourner dans le passé.  « La nostalgie est la prise de conscience de notre statut d'homme», ajoute le philosophe.

La nostalgie couvre un univers entre l'espace et le temps, dans le sens philosophique du terme, en laissant de côté la définition étymologique du dix-neuvième siècle comme une maladie. La nostalgie, même si nous reconnaissons notre humanité, nous concerne tous, nous pouvons donc dire que la nostalgie est intrinsèquement humaine.

Dans les paroles de Memoria, Nicola Sirkis est entre nostalgie et espoir. Le pire est derrière moi, Je reviendrai tout recommencer comme un amoureux à tes pieds. Un jour, je serai de retour près de toi, un jour je ferai tout pour être avec toi. On s’en sortira, et on vieillira. Un jour, je ferai tout en notre mémoire… 

Pour le plus grand bonheur de tous, le groupe est de retour, certains se souviennent avec une certaine nostalgie, d'autres ne perdent pas l'espoir de les voir en concert.

Les vertiges et les murs des âmes sensibles

Des paysages de montagnes  peuvent paraitre aussi variés que ce qu'on trouverait en Europe. Des plateaux arides, des forets de sapins, et dans le fond les rochers qu'on vient escalader. Et toujours les mêmes petits commerces qui bordent les routes, des petits restaurants d’où en sortent des musiques traditionnelles mexicaines au rythme mélancolique. Ces musiques accompagnent la routine quotidienne dans la solitude du temps qui se fige, ces musiques qui chantent les amours idéales et pleurent les amours déçues, un mugissement languissant sur un air de guitares et de cuivres. Ces musiques qui se transmettent au fil des générations comme les repas qu'on sert dans ces restaurants. Au bord des routes, des femmes portent des bébés emmitouflés dans des couvertures, des chiens vagabondent ou dorment en plein soleil, gisant sur leurs flancs comme des épaves, des musiciens attendent, habillés comme pour un mariage.

Les gens de la capitale viennent dans ce parc naturel pour échapper a la chaleur de l’été, a la pollution, au bruit et retrouver un équilibre. C'est aussi pour ça que j'y suis allée.
Escalader les rochers, vaincre le vertige, surpasser les peurs, se sentir fier de ses efforts, allier persévérance et l'espoir d'y arriver. Le premier rocher, j'ai essayé mais arrivée a mi-chemin j'ai abandonné. J'ai senti mes membres se figer, un blocage m'a glacée. j'ai eu l'impression de vaciller comme si la terre bougeait sous mes pieds. Je suis redescendue, déçue. Mais pour le deuxième rocher, connaissant mes faiblesses et ses effets, j'ai pu anticiper ma peur et la dompter. J'ai peu enfin arriver au sommet et mes efforts ont été récompensés par une vue splendide du lac et des forets de cèdres.
En bas on fait le tour du lac, on loue une barque et a son centre on observe les familles qui s'offrent des plaisirs simples, les restaurants offrent des plats traditionnels sans prétention mais cuisinés avec soin. La, pas de tourisme agressif, pas d’hôtels de luxe. C'est dimanche, petit a petit l'endroit se vide, les gens ne restent pas dormir. On vient la pour escalader les rochers, explorer les sentiers, échapper a la chaleur torride de l’été.

Dehors, dans le pré qui sert de jardin sauvage, mes enfants se roulent dans les herbes hautes et fraiches. Un cri, je cours. ils ont trouvé un serpent de la taille de ce qu'on voit derrière les vitres d'un zoo. Le serpent siffle et sonne a nos pieds, se faufile dans l'herbe, nerveux et en colère.
Notre cabaña est basique, deux lits simples, une table basse, l'eau est chauffée au charbon et au bois. On compose une chanson pour égayer la soirée.

C'est la vue du dehors, a travers les vitres de l'unique fenêtre, qui rend cet espace agréable. Allongée sur le lit, je fixe le ciel et les nuages qui se font et se défont. Je relâche mes pensées, je m’évade pour me retrouver. Cet endroit me rappelle mes Pyrénées et la maison de mes grands-parents. Cette pièce me rappelle la chambre que j'y occupais. Je ferme les yeux et je revois tous ces moments uniques qui faisaient mon bonheur. J'aimais y aller, même dans la solitude d'être enfant unique, même appartenant a une famille désunie. Passer quinze jours dans une maison trop grande pour moi, explorer les greniers, rêver dans la pièce du sous- sol qui abritait les centaines de bobines, allumer le projecteur, voir l'écran prendre vie, sur fond de musique classique que mon grand-père avait choisi pour ses montages.
Puis le son du piano qui résonnait dans la maison quand il jouait, l'esprit ailleurs.

Ce n'est que bien plus tard que j'ai compris pourquoi cette maison me rendait si mélancolique, imprégnée de l'amour de mes grands parents mais dont les ombres du passé refroidissait les murs. Un passé sordide qui habitait les lieux, dont on m'a informé après leur mort. Des fenêtres scellées pour protéger une grand-mère aux tendances suicidaires dont j'ignore toujours les raisons.
C'est la que j'ai compris que le bonheur se construit avec des moments uniques connectés les uns aux autres, cohabitant avec les démons intérieurs qui nous hantent. Ces moments qui imprègnent les murs qui nous abritent, et c'est pour ça que les âmes sensibles ressentent la mélancolie dans ces endroits que l'existence a habité, puis abandonné. Et des lieux neutres comme la cabaña que j'ai occupé le temps d'un weekend, sont l'auberge des souvenirs, la réminiscence des temps passés.

 http://www.aa13.fr/photographie/lieux-abandonnes-aurelien-villette-13355  

mariage homosexuel et adoption en France, pour janvier 2013

Le gouvernement Ayrault l'a promis : mariage homosexuel et adoption seront légalisés. "Magazine de la rédaction". Ici : http://bit.ly/MpYgIS

Documentaire a Mexico City de la projection du DVD Putain de Stade...5 mai 2011

21st Century Girl tonight

for the international women's day, I wanted to put here the script for the programme about female rock musicians that Justine Frischmann (Former Elastica frontwoman) has done for BBC6: How do they see their status as female musicians in the world of rock?...Here is the 1st part of the programme. It lasts 30  minutes.

Pour la journée internationale de la femme j'avais envie de partager le programme sur les rockeuses que Justine Frischmann (chanteuse guitariste de Elastica )a fait pour BBC6: Comment  vivent elles leur statut de musiciennes dans le monde du rock? C'est la première partie de son programme. Cela dure 30  minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cytf2 

or

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01cyt53

I’m Justine and you’re listening to 21^st Century Girl Tonight, and I’ll be talking to female musicians who’ve pushed the boundaries for women In rock, dance, urban, and electronic music. I’ll be looking at the impact these artists have made and discover from them if Rock’N’Roll is still a boy’s club.

None has challenged herself more than Polly Harvey. She’s always preferred to speak through her music.

PJ Harvey “When I’m playing in front of a crowd and I can see people’s faces and I can see their reaction, that means more to me than anything really, and the way it’s reflected in the way records are selling. But mostly the most direct is seeing an audience reaction and how the feedback is going between myself and the crowd, and that’s really how I get the feeling for it. that’s the people I most respect. You have to kind of meet people half way by doing interviews, I mean I don’t mind it, it’s obviously not something I’ve chosen to do. I’d rather be a musician because I don’t speak very well, doing music is a different way of communication. But I see it as a necessary part to get the people to know the music. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to keep faith in what you’re doing. I’m always trying to experiment going in different directions. People recognize that and acknowledge that, and then that’s great”

Polly has established herself as a wide respected musician, a rare achievement for a female artist. Somehow it seems harder for female artists to remain credible as well as successful but Polly is unusual in this sense. Female Journalist of the NME tries to explain why: She’s really exceptional PJ Harvey in the way that Tricky is really exceptional or Tom Yorke is exceptional."

Male journalist NME: “ I think PJ Harvey is revered as a convert pioneer, very English in her own way but at the same time totally self-created. PJ Harvey is quite different from other women in music. She’s first and foremost an artist, she’s a proper musician, there’s never any doubt. She’s definitely managed to stay credible and successful as a female artist, each record is different from the one before”

Although Polly’s most recent material has established her more commercially and critically, it’s 1998 ”It’s Desire” she’s the proudest of.

PJ Harvey: I feel that was the highlights for me only because it was such a difficult record to make. Im just glad I pushed myself and stood by it and I knew this is how it is and I wanted it to be. It didn’t win a lot of favours and not many people bought it (Laugh)

In 2001 Polly won the Mercury Music Prize with “Stories from the cities, stories from the Sea”. She was the first female to do so. When she began work on the follow-up album, she was determined to take a very different approach. 

PJ :  “I did want to make it a very home-made way, in my house, and wanted to have a very warm sounding, welcoming record, just very homely. I did want to play most of it myself, as a form of intimacy. It’s got more of me in it because it’s not filtered through by so many different people. I just feel it’s inexhaustible really, the amount of music and sounds that remain to be discovered and things that I want to try doing and experimenting with that. I want to do other things, branch in different other forms of writings. Some writing is such a strong part of my soul, I can’t imagine ever not wanting to do that.”

Despite deliberately subverting traditional concepts of female sexuality, and writing lyrics exploring the darker side of the feminine psyche, Polly has quickly distanced herself from talking about gender differences in music. “ I can’t say I have been aware of being a woman in this business, I only see myself as a musician, not a female musician. Music interests me, not gender”

Female NME journalist: “ I think that it’s a bit simplistic for her to say that there is no difference between her and let’s say Nick Cave, because with women there’s always a kind of presentation issue with your body and the way you look, and she’s definitely associated with that.”

Male NME journalist: “The fact that she gets irritated by these questions about being a woman, suggests that she has been treated differently. It sorts of marginalizes her to say that she is a female artist. It implies that she’s not worthy as being from the same podium as male artists.”

In America, you could look at Coutney Love. She’s almost a case of her own because her life is so chaotic. She’s not been able to have a coherent artistic progress in the way that PJ. Harvey has because probably Courtney Love decides to embrace celebrity. 

Opinionated, blunt and ever eager to attract controversy, Courtney Love is one of the most recognized female musicians. Since emerging in the 1990’s, Courtney Love has been demonized in the press and accused of all sorts. Although normally outspoken, Courtney is surprisingly reticent to have her own words broadcast.

Her friend Melissa says : “she is a revolutionary type of woman. She’s been picked on because there’s not many other women like that. She’s like an easy target. The old-fashioned world wants you to smell proper, but I already feel we’re beyond that”

Melissa “A lot of the men who admired Nirvana really loved Kurt Cobain and they don’t want that love to be taken away by a woman. It’s a classic. You can say whatever you like. They can’t stand it, and she would always suffer from that”

Melissa “ Because she shouts louder than other women, it scares you. It’s so old fashioned. Give me a break. There’s lots of wild, eccentric men in the rock history.”

Male journalist NME: “ Compared to Pete Doherty who has been into robberies etc…, people tend to forget he’s the father of a very young child, as Courtney Love, people want to take her kid away from her. She’s an irresponsible mother. I mean that’s an obvious inequality”

After the demise of Hole and the brief time with the Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa focuses on her songs. She decided the only way forward for complete artistic control was to go alone. “ My instinct when I decided to get out was to deconstruct all structure that I had been around, like record companies, bad stuff that weighed me down a little bit. I blew all the structures and said: I’m gonna make the record of my dreams and the only way was that if Im creatively and financially in charge, in a way it was about returning to my innocence and be the 19 year old who picked up a bass just because she loves music.”

Unlike Hole, when Ash was looking for a new member, gender wasn’t really an issue.

Ash Frontman, Tim Wheeler: “We advertised in different fanzines, and I met Charlotte, she was in another band.”

Charlotte: “ The studio we were recording in was called The Fortress, it was a den full of bands, and I met the boys there when I first moved to London.”

Tim “She learnt 20 songs in two days” Ash band was divided at first. Many had seen that Charlotte must be Tim Wheeler’s girlfriend.

Tim: “When Charlotte joined there was a lot of jealousy. She was a quick singer and a quick learner too”

Meanwhile Charlotte started composing her own material. Her creative drive grew so strong that she managed to write 10 songs for her solo project, at the same time as recording Ash’s “Meltdown” in L.A

Charlotte “ I just started laying down songs with thousands of harmonies. It was really good fun writing all this stuff. Earlier this year, Charlotte found herself in an embarrassing situation. When her debut album “Summer” was released in the same week as Ash’s latest one.

Charlotte “ At this time last year I didn’t want to do any gig at all, I found it extremely daunting and now that I’ve done it, I want to do it again. I love writing guitar stuff, I love doing both, it’s a challenge. I really want to do something bigger and better.”

In Elastica, it was a huge relief to speak out and be free at last from male ego issues although it did take a long time to prove ourselves in the studio..We knew exactly how we wanted it to sound and had a grasp with the technologies we were using. I wonder if things have changed.

Electreline are a new girl band from Brighton

“ Maybe it is changing but I still think that for bands starting out, it can be quite tough. I could see how girls in bands can end up being put off. Most guitar shops are run by men and stuff so it can feel a bit like a boy’s club. When you’re walking in and there’s a kind of expectation that you’re not gonna know anything and that your worries are being on stage looking pretty.”

Electreline’s second album “The Power Out” was produced by Steve Albini. On its release, the band was surprised to read reviews that suggested that he had more input than they remembered. “Oh he must have played all that record, etc.. In fact he didn’t have any input in the contents of the songs. It’s frustrating! you don’t want to go around saying that all the time! We totally respect him, and it’s not his fault that people just assumed that!”

Despite the progress of PJ Harvey and Courtney Love’s influence, it’s still a struggle for girls with guitars to be taken seriously. The Duke Spirit  are a London based rock band fronted by Liela Moss.  Liela is well too aware of being the only woman on tour.

Liela: “The other day, we were all seated at this huge table with a crew of 11 people, and someone said: You’re the only bird, does it feel weird?”

Male journalist NME: “We would put more female musicians in the NME if there were more female musicians!” Deputy Editor says that there are simply not enough girl bands around.

“ We did a lineup of underground bands in London and when we got the pictures back we thought there weren’t many women in here. We’re conscious of it but we can’t add a female artist in it just for the sake of it. The readers would hate that and the female artists would feel patronized.”

Female journalist NME: “ As a female journalist you’re often asked to write or talk about women in rock.: “would you like to write a book about women in rock?”.. I find it a bit disheartening.. “do we have to? We’re here now! Aren’t we?”

All girl band The Donnas are still in the 8^th grade. Apart from wanting to express themselves artistically and creatively, they don’t mind confessing that they also have other motives.

“It’s really unfair because the guys in bands have lots of girls, but we didn’t get any guys!. They would make fun of us at school. And there were all these strange rumours they would spread about us. We got a lot of “girls can’t play..Play with your dolls” We wanted to show them that we could play better than them and that we would go further than them.”

They certainly managed that. They were signed by Atlantic Records and are now enjoying mainstream popularity. How did attitudes change towards them since they became successful?

“ People don’t come up to us and say “you can’t play cos you’re a girl” It’s a little more settled, but there are still these attitudes . We have to prove ourselves every time we walk into a new club, to a new radio station or whatever. Lots of people think they know what we’re all about just because we’re girls, and it’s not true!”

“ I think that there are more women in rock so it has become more acceptable, but it’s like “Oh I didn’t know that chicks could play”..”You’re good for a girl”..and that’s really annoying…”But I just sound good!”}

Part 1 over

Videos of the bands here