Backstage with The Donnas

Entering the backstage trailer where The Donnas sat relaxing, I noticed a copy of next month's Nylon magazine out on the counter—and who was on the cover? The Donnas. I casually asked what they thought of it, and with a tone of subdued enthusiasm, they answered. The four of them – drummer Torry Castellano (Donna C), bassist Maya Ford (Donna F), guitarist Allison Robertson (Donna R), and singer Brett Anderson (Donna A) – all agree that media coverage is good, even essential. But reading or hearing about what others' think of you, good or bad, can be weird. Even if a writer does nothing but dote over them, they can still get it wrong. "Sometimes we're not into the style of the writer, sometimes we say things that later we regret, or we'll see it and even though it came out of our mouths and sounded good at the time, it looks stupid on paper," said Maya, who complains that she always gets labeled as the quiet one. Note to self: Maya is not quiet. Actually, nothing is quiet about The Donnas. And with their sixth album "Gold Medal," due out next month, it's only getting louder.

[Ed. Note: Yet another article I came across and thought to post. A good read for any fan of The Donnas. One of the funnest interviews I've ever done. Such cool girls.]



Many of the females that I have spoken to about The Donnas all respect the fact that you all play your own instruments. Why do you think that's one of the things that always come up?

Allison: [Smiles] I know -- Imagine how funny it would be if someone was like, 'I love Sum 41 – and did you know they, like, play their own instruments? [Laughter all around.]

I sense you're being sarcastic.

Allison: No, seriously, we like that question, especially coming from girls because we want people to know things about how we learned to play. I mean—we didn't take lessons. When we started we didn't have money for it. Our parents were supportive enough to help a little, but my parents couldn't afford to buy me a big amplifier and a nice new guitar. We all started with crappy or rented equipment, like Torry. She had a rented drum set. Brett borrowed her brother's guitar amp that was only three inches wide – you know, practically impossible to sing with.

Maya: And that was for like the first five years we were a band.

Allison: You should have seen the practice stands Maya and I both had; they were tiny, little pieces of junk.

Maya: My bass guitar cost only a hundred dollars.

Allison: Yeah, my guitar cost like a hundred-fifty or something. We had no choice but to play crappy equipment.

Brett: We even tried to sound proof the house garage ourselves. It was funny -- our moms' would buy the foam.

Allison: A lot of it was just homemade and just for fun. I think if you start out trying to be stars, and try to do everything all 'big' right away, it becomes a problem with a lot of bands. We didn't have big egos, because we didn't even know if we could play. We just thought, 'hey, this is a fun idea, let's roll with this.'

And that was back when you were the Electrocutes?

Allison: Actually before that we were called "Screen" and then "Ragady Anne." We've had a lot of names.

Torry: A lot of people, especially girls, come to us after we play and they're like, 'I really want to be in a band but I don't know how to play an instrument.' But we've sort of proven that you can just get your friends together, without knowing how to play like experts. We just went out and practiced so much – but always just had fun with it. That's all it takes to be able to be in a band.

Allison: And besides, everyone has to learn. There are a couple of prodigies out there that are the exception, but everyone else has to learn.

Torry: Exactly. We're still learning and practicing. We don't ever have the attitude like, 'Wow, we're awesome! We've made it! I know everything about the drums, I don't have to learn anymore...'

Allison: Right – we're always trying to get better.

Maya: I want to learn Abba songs.

Allison: Abba has got some killer bass lines [Everyone Laughing.]

Donna A plays the guitar better than you. Kind of turns you on, doesn't it?

So how did you come up with the name of the band?

Allison: It was kind of a fluke, actually. Our friends found this logo on a McDonald's Happy Meal that had really cool lettering. The design was cool, but, of course, it spelled out McDonalds. So our friends were trying to piece the letters together to spell something else out, and they came up with a couple different names. The Donnas was one of them, and we thought it was cool. We didn't really think it would last that long – the name or the band. We weren't really sure how we felt about the matching names. We thought it was funny though, because we're from the Bay Area and before The Hives and bands like that, there were all those bands that dressed up in matching suits, or they would all have the same name, or the same last name. It was an inside joke to us.

So The Donnas was a parody of those bands.

Torry: Exactly, and anyway, The Donnas then was our side project to The Electrocutes.

Brett: And in our "real" band, we used our "real" names and our "real" good ideas.

Allison: The Donnas was our joke and then one day it just sort of took over. We started changing the sound gradually until it became more of a band we could be proud of. At first we didn't even want our name on it, you know, that's why we didn't use them. But then people started coming to the shows.

Speaking of shows, The Donnas are about to kick off a tour with the Von Bondies and Starlight Desperation, right?

Torry: Yeah, we're really excited.

Allison: Maya met one of them.

Maya: I what?

Allison: We met the singer of the Von Bondies.

Jason Von Bondie?

Brett: Yeah, that's the guy.

Allison: You met him Maya, remember?

Maya: No ... I don't remember [Everyone is laughing, talking over each other].

What was the deal with him and Jack White? I heard they got in a fight.

Brett: Yeah, I heard he lost [Jason Von Bondie].

Maya: Beat him up pretty bad, too.

Allison: I think the question is what's up with Jack White.

Brett: [Changing the subject.] Whatever. All I know is we saw the Von Bondies at The Great American Music Hall [in San Francisco].

Torry: And they were awesome.

Brett: When we met them afterwards, they were nice people, and getting along is so important to us. We hate touring with bands that at first you think are cool or trendy or fun, but when you hook up with them, when you meet them, they end up being total dicks.

Torry: And it's nice to hang out after shows or traveling. I mean –hanging out with cool people is part of the fun of touring.

Allison: And the Von Bondies have a cool sound – it's bluesy and you can really get into it. That's the kind of stuff we can listen to every night. I can imagine people getting excited for our show listening to Von Bondies music.

Maya: It sucks going on tour with a band that plays music you don't like.

Allison: Yeah, like some times you get put on a music tour ticket where you don't have much choice in the band you'll tour with. Technically, you can make a big stink out of it and say 'I don't want to tour with them,' but a lot of times it comes down to people telling you that 'If you tour with this band, you're going to get a lot more support from the label...' You know what I mean? You get put in these positions where it's not a threat, but it sort of comes down to the fact that maybe it will be better for ticket sales or whatever. So you listen to them, you go on tour, and then you're right and it doesn't work out.

Maya: And it's important to be with bands with good music because I like to watch the opening bands and get pumped before I go on stage to play. It's gets you in the mood, and you're like 'Alright, let's do this, let's get on that stage and rock the show.'

Allison: But it's hard to know because sometimes people put together a bill and you're thinking to yourself that you would never like that band – but then you make friends with them. Sometimes it's just like 'Wow, I never thought I would like them or listen to them.' But they end up being really cool, and their music ends up being good, so I guess my point is that you can't always judge things before you start. You have to just take a chance.

If you were Donna B's boyfriend and you cheated on her, this is the wrath you'd face.

So how do you all feel about being here at the Gravity Games in Cleveland?

Brett: So far it's pretty stormy.

Allison: We have no idea because right when we arrived, they closed everything because of this crazy weather.

Torry: We're not even allowed to be on the stage right now because it's so windy.

Allison: We're stuck inside this motor home in the middle of a tornado [They all laugh, obviously still having a good time].

So what do you think of the all the sports? Are you familiar with any of them?

Allison: The bikes are cool.

Brett: I think it's all really cool, but because we're from San Francisco, we've been around a lot of this lifestyle our whole lives.

The skate scene is good in San Francisco.

Brett: It's cool because some skaters can be really nice. But then a lot of them, when I run into them around the city, can act like total chauvinists, and their behavior just totally turns me off of the scene. Maybe it's just my own experience, I don't know. I had this boyfriend that worked at Deluxe [Skate shop in SF] for a long time, and every Saturday he would go over to this guy Jim's house because he had a skate ramp. I was never invited. Five years and I was never invited! I couldn't even go and watch – even if I wanted to, unless maybe ... I was naked. And that's still a maybe. It was like every Saturday was only for guys. Why have a boyfriend if you aren't even included in his life. I feel like so many girls that go out with skaters, or whatever – football players, anyone – get into a situation where it becomes all about the guy and what is going on in his life. Relationships need to be equal.

With those words of advice, I think we'll call it a wrap.

Torry: Oh, really? We were just getting warmed up.

Allison: Did you even get to ask any questions?

Torry: [Laughing] Sorry. Once we get talking, it can be hard to stop us.

No it was perfect. It was totally fun hanging out.