"DollSquad ain’t just another cutesy girl band"Dice OSCAR CUBILLO que DollSquad son seis australianas de Melbourne que pasan el día ocupadas en empleos formales (seguros, arqueología, funcionariado...) y de noche se embuten en escotados trajes de cuero para rocanrolear con el salvajismo del garaje primitivo. Y que las seis barbarellas han editado un segundo álbum, Lethal in leather, en la escuela Sonics y Trashmen. Su cantante, Joey (abogada en la vida normal), defiende que tras su maquillaje hay autenticidad.
Influencias.
Well our influences are wide and varied both individually among the members of the band and in terms of the united image and sound of the band. Of course Lyn Carey (The Carrie Nations), The Ronettes, She, The Daughters of Eve, Goldie & The Gingerbreads, Nikki & The Corvettes, Shocking Blue, Joan Jet, Quatro and Johnny Thunders and Paul Collins' Beat, Radio Birdman, The Zeros. Also bands like The Yum Yums, The Dictators, Le Tigre, Redd Kross, Teen Machine, The Undertones, The Fuzztones, The New York Dolls, Exploding Hearts, X, Steve Lucas, Elinor Rigby, The Stems, The Friggs. Maria Dallas, Dinah Lee and Lulu.
We jumble all of these around so that there is a dramatic dichotomy between the softness of the girl groups sound (“Doll”) an the military like toughness and urgency of 77 rock n roll bands like Radio Birdman and The Dictators (“Squad”). That is why the band name is one word: “DollSquad”. We want to be a fusion between two (usually) mutually exclusive or contradictory images: the feminine and the tough.
Seis chicas en la banda.
Competent girl bands are rare. Girl bands that survive more than a few years are rare! Girl bands with more than 4 members are rare. Girl bands that write all their own material are rare. DollSquad has been going for over 6 years now. We write our own songs. Right now we have myself on vocals, Yolanda on guitar, Lulu on percussion and backing vocals, Alice on organ, Ash on drums and Alex on bass. The aim was to capture all of the best parts of 60s garage punk and 77 power pop combined with the atmosphere, harmonies and gang image of the sixties girl groups and we need three part harmonies to make this ‘girl group’ sound authentic! Very few lady bands merge both of these styles and make it work. She, The Runaways, The Pandoras, The Brood, Babes In Toyland and Nikki and the Corvettes are some of the bands I admire for achieving this so well. Many (by all means not all) lady bands are either sexy and sweet sounding with passive lyrics or they play fast kick-arse rock n roll but tend to play down the fact that they are women because they often dress in a more masculine way with jeans etc. The connotation is that pretty girls or women generally can't rock... unless they dress like guys! This always disappoints us. It is a little bit like a cop out for us. It does not have to be that way.
Cuero negro.
DollSquad ain’t just another cutesy girl band! And on the other hand we don’t want to dress like a pre-pubescent boys to be taken seriously as rock n rollers! Each of us laughs at the fact that jeans, converse and t-shirts is what DollSquad often wear off-stage. We wear these clothes when we are setting up our gear or doing sound check. This is not an outfit for the stage!
Leather outfits are classic rock n roll wear. They have been worn by Elvis, Suzi Quatro, Lita Ford and Doc Neeson (The Angels).
There is a very big feminist aspect to that band because of the above but that does not mean we can’t also be a fun band. Again it is about the fusion of things that people do not ordinarily group together: feminism and fun though many people don’t think about DollSquad enough to see it. In my opinion DollSquad is even more feminist than many obviously political bands because we are not compromising our image as women. Instead of being intimidated about being women in the rock n roll scene we emphasize the fact that we are women so much that this fact is transformed from a passive non-threatening thing into a powerful tool against narrow mindedness. I think our message is more subliminal than obvious political bands but in that respect it is much more potent than getting up on a soapbox in dungarees and saying that men suck. The real enemy is the social conditioning that says women dance to bands or have boyfriends in bands but they don’t play in bands themselves.
Trabajos al margen.
We are professional musicians and each of us can play a few instruments and has been in quite a few bands in the past. Some were all girl some were mixed gender. Of course we do all have professional day jobs too. I am a lawyer working in insurance underwriting, Yolanda is a professional sales representative, Alice works for the government (shhhhh) Aleks is an archeologist, Ash is a drumming teacher and Lulu is a graphic designer.
Lethal in leather.‘Lethal In Leather’ is an intentionally ‘Australian’ album. I particularly wanted a departure from the last album and from the image associated with the band on the last album and the recordings before that. Out with the cute girlie dresses and in with the leather. 'Lethal In Leather’ was produced by Steve Lucas from 'legendary Australian band' X. Despite the fact that DollSquad was courted briefly by Kim Fowley who was up for the task of production, we chose to record our second album with Steve Lucas at Bakehouse Studios in Melbourne, Australia. The band’s idea is that Australian bands should be recording in Australia, not overseas. Making an album is not like buying a designer pair of jeans! You don’t go to some big name producer just to get their ‘name’ on your record. The record has to stand up on its own not because of the ‘brand’. We did not want a well known producer involved with our album on this occasion. While it was the ultimate compliment to get attention from Kim Fowley, we felt that Australian bands should be utilizing the resources at home so as to foster our musical economy. Where is it stated that the further something is from Australia they better it is? I actually chose Steve Lucas because I loved the fact that his band called X intentionally disassociated themselves from the Australian mainstream music scene. They gave up a mainstream deal in order to remain true to their art. They did not want to be hair styled, and glamorized to ‘fit’ into somebody’s idea of what they should be just to make money. That was something I respected. Of course we want to make money with our music but on our own terms! Plus because Steve had never produced anybody before he would be give the album a fresh and pure production and he would not be limited by ‘the way things are usually done’. He made the recording process a lot of fun too. We recorded live and we did 15 songs in one day! 11 of them made it on the album. There is a lot of variety on the album in terms of song styles and lyrics. We have moved on and progressed from the last album. Yolanda and I are now a song writing partnership. There is nothing on that album that we cannot do at a live show and that is something to boast about in an age where many bands are using pro tools to fix up every single imperfection and dub and over dub a million times. They are using drum machines and samples. Yuk! Sod that idea right off. Live and raw that is where it is at for ‘Lethal in Leather’. ‘Lethal in Leather’ is actually a gatefold digipack and it has a really great booklet inside with photos of each of us in catsuits as well as in really wild costumes that tie in very well with the lyrics of the songs. I am dressed as a vampire, and Yolanda as a cave girl and Lulu as a bad girl and Alice as a dreaming prom queen and our bass player at the time as a spy and Ash as a rock n roll girl. These are all titles or themes in the songs. It’s very clever artwork and it’s got a lot of in jokes and humor about it too. You have to see it to believe it really! The cd is also now coming out on Vinyl (Kamikaze Records). This album is by far the best recording DollSquad has ever done and one of the main reasons for that is that we had an objective person in Steve Lucas who was making the hard decisions so that we did not have any opportunity to be self indulgent. Bands amongst themselves cannot be objective. Every band needs a producer, but they need to find the right one for them! We found that in Steve Lucas.
Puesta en escena.
All our gigs are fantastic when people have fun and dance. This always makes a good atmosphere - I enjoy them all. DollSquad always try to entertain our audience. We try to make a fun show. Being in a girl band is always a novelty I guess and that is ok but then you also must have the musical competence and prowess to support it. The image can be sexy but it has to be strong. Also, the songs have to be good with catchy melodies and danceable back beats so people can dance to them.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario