The Donnas: Going for Gold

You probably heard a little about this femme rock'n'roll group after their 2002 release "Spend The Night" but what you probably don't know is that this all girl ensemble has been around for almost 11 years and has just released their 6th album which is sure to be a hit. These loud playing, guitar slamming chicks started jamming in their garage after school every day. They formed groups like "Raggedy Ann" and the punk rock band "The Electrocutes" before finally settling down as their own alter egos "The Donnas". They've since grown out of the teenage rebellion thing and have developed their own personas (they use their own first names now). Their newest sound may be a bit easier for fans to swallow but there's nothing soft about these four rockers from Palo Alto, California.

We caught up with the band in Ohio on the last leg of their American tour. Join us as we chat with Maya (she's the bass player). She talks about the bond between her and her band mates, what they did while drummer Torry recovered from tendonitis, why nobody liked their first attempts at making music, and the Olympic challenges behind their new less attitude, more feeling release- "Gold Medal".

TeenMusic.com: Is it true that you dropped the same name thing? Why?

Maya: Yeah. I mean it really wasn't that big of a deal to us. We just kind of thought it would be nice to go by our names for a change. Everyone was getting confused 'what should we call you?' and we're like 'we don't really care!'. We never really cared that much. It was always a joke.

TeenMusic.com: "Teenage Rock and Roll Machine" was really your breakout album; do you think you've changed a lot as a group since then?

Maya: Yeah I think we have. We had really bad satin pants for that album cover and really weird matching t-shirts and I didn't know how to wear make-up. I was 18 then.

Maya: I really like the House of Blues. We want to go on a House of Blues tour because they had really good food. I kind of like how they are voodoo scary and how there's a lot of stuff to look at when you're there. I like it when it's more intimate and you can interact with the crowd and you feel their energy more. When I can see people having fun and jumping around it makes me excited and then I play better and get more into it.

Maya: Our U.S. tour is almost over. Our last show is in New York. In January we're going to go to Australia and Japan doing some promo. We're going to do this thing called Big Day Out which is really cool because they just play weekends so we have the whole week off just to be on vacation in Australia. We've been to Japan twice. (Our tour) is kind of like Lollapalooza or Warped Tour, the Beastie Boys are playing and Le Tigre, there's a bunch of bands playing. I think Slipknot might be playing.

Maya: Yeah. It's really, really lame and I'm really sad that I'm an American. I want to move to Jamaica.

Maya: No, not Canada. I like South Park and they're always making fun of Canadians.

Maya: I don't think we're really a punk-rock band, I think we're kind of just a rock band. I think our first records were lo-fi and we didn't have that much money to make them sound very good so they sounded garage-y and we also played really fast so that makes people think we were punk but I think we were always just rock. We were always trying to sound like a rock band but I think we didn't really know how to do it. Why can't we just be plain old rock?

Maya: It's kind of an insult. Even 'pretty good rocker' is messed up. Why can't they say "You're good"? Why does it have to be "pretty good" and "for girls" – that's really messed up. They wouldn't be saying that if we were guys.

Maya: Guys have totally asked to join our group. But only because they want to hang out with us. They're not very serious. They're like "Can I play the tambourine in your band or the triangle?" and we're like "Uhh, no thanks". We're pretty happy, we've been together for 11 years and we think it would mess up the chemistry if anything changed, if there were any new people. We have our own language and an outsider would not understand it and they probably wouldn't be that happy because they would feel left out and weird.

Maya: I think we chose "Gold Medal" because someone thought of it one day and it kind of stuck and we never thought of anything better and we just though it was funny because it's like "Gold Metal" with the "t" like Heavy Metal but it's Gold Metal. Also we really wanted our last album to go Gold and it didn't and we were like "once our next album goes out "Spend the Night" will have to go Gold" and we were really excited about that. Also, this is a lot of reasons (laughs), what was I saying? OH! and we've never won a race and no one will give us a gold medal so we're giving it to ourselves. It's like our own Special Olympics with ourselves.

TeenMusic.com: Was it an Olympic feat to get this album out?

Maya: Yeah, it was kind of difficult to get this album out. There was a time, or several times, where we thought it would never get finished and that we could never do it. We'd been on tour for thirteen months and then we had to stop touring because our drummer (Torry) had to get surgery and it took a really long time to heal. We were supposed to get off the road and really quickly write an album but we couldn't because we really had to wait so we had a lot of time to sit around and think about stuff. We were supposed to start recording in April so we moved to LA and we started working with this producer and it didn't work out and then we had to find another producer so that was when we were like "on no!" we're never going to finish.

TeenMusic.com: Are you thinking about your next album? You can't get much better than Gold.

Maya: Platinum! Our next album is going to be called Diamond.(laughs) No, we don't like to write when we're on the road. We're too busy and tired. When we're not playing shows we're just watching the OC or we'll go to the mall or just be really lazy and stay in our pyjamas and we don't have time to write songs. We just got the box set of The OC and we're kind of obsessed right now. When The OC was on TV the "Rooney" episode was the only one I watched because I boycotted it. I thought "The OC- that's so lame, it can never be as good as Beverly Hills 90210" but I've gotten sucked into it. My favourite character is Seth.

TeenMusic.com: Some have said that your bad-girl image is just a fabrication of your record label. What would you say to those people?

Maya: I don't think it's made by our record label at all. I don't think we're really going for the bad girl image. I think it's just that we've had a lot of songs on our albums about drinking and smoking pot and having sex with boys or just making our with boys and so I guess that's bad. I guess being in a rock band and playing loud guitars and guitar solos is considered bad.

TeenMusic.com: Do you still play as "The Electrocutes"? Has the release of "Steal Yer Lunch Money" been a success? – it wasn't released until 3 years after it was recorded.

Maya: We haven't played any Electorcutes songs in a while just because we don't remember how to play them. We always wanted to release "Steal Yer Lunch Money" but our friend that was going to put it out had to finish college and we just lost touch with him. We were distracted by The Donnas so it took us a long time to finish it.

TeenMusic.com: Who or what would you credit to your success so far?

Maya: I think practicing everyday and sticking with it is what got us to where we are now. We played for five years and nobody gave a s**t about us and I still don't think we're taken that seriously but at least people buy our records. When we started we were really bad and we just kept practising and kept writing bad songs and eventually we wrote a good song. I think finding Darrin (Raffelli) was really good for us because before we found Darrin we were so afraid of people making fun of us and saying that we are a bad band that we would play really fast and make our songs really complicated and really loud and we were just overdoing it. Darrin showed us how to write simpler songs that had more of a melody and were easier where people could sing along. Nobody liked The Electrocutes and people liked The Donnas and if we wouldn't have met Darrin we would have just been The Electrocutes and if no one had ever liked us, then maybe we would have gone to college and not continued to try with the band.

TeenMusic.com: What would you be doing now if it hadn't worked out that way?

Maya: I don't really know. I was in college and then I took a leave of absence to go on tour and we liked touring and we were making money so we kept doing it and I never went back(to college). I guess I would have to be doing something if I wasn't in The Donnas.

TeenMusic.com: Did you have a hand in picking who produced your songs for"Gold Medal"?

Maya: We had some meetings with different producers and we just really liked Butch (Walker). He was a really friendly guy that was funny and he got all of our musical influences and we just really understood each other.

TeenMusic.com: Has a magazine like Maxim or FHM ever approached you to do a photo shoot? What would you say?

Maya: We really want to be on the cover of Maxim or Stuff but we want to dress in turtlenecks and suits and maybe masks so all you can see is our eyes. It would be the opposite of the Bikini clad ladies. I would be okay with being in the magazine if they used a good picture of my head and someone else's sexy airbrushed body.

TeenMusic.com: Do you have a message you would like to get across to your fans?

Maya: Just that if you want to have some fun and listen to some rock music you should buy our record and buy a copy for everyone in your family and give it to people for Christmas.

TeenMusic.com: What are your plans for Christmas?

Maya: I'm going to be in New York with my boyfriend during Christmas. My parents are kind of mad at me, they're like "We're going to come to New York and spend it with you" and I'm like "no, I'm going to be gone, I'm going to be away"(laughs). I'm just going to New York for the snow and the lights.

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