erin_broadley

Donita Sparks is no stranger to breaking the rules. The razor sharp singer and guitarist championed the bad girl, rocker persona during her stay as frontwoman for L7 in the '80s and '90s -- breaking hearts and, undoubtedly, a few laws along the way. Today, with her L7 days behind her and on the release date of her long awaited solo debut, Transmiticate, Donita Sparks is less about breaking the rules of rock-n-roll music and more about breaking the mold of the music distribution business completely.

Releasing Transmiticate on her own SparksFly label, Donita Sparks has taken matters of music distribution into her own hands with the launch of her latest collaborative business venture, CASH Music (Coalition of Artists and Stake Holders). Donita and Kristin Hersh (of Throwing Muses), along with their managers, have created a subscription-based website that will not only serve as a distribution platform for their works and fan remixes, but also for original songs from independent artists.

Talking with Donita, there is an optimism and excitement in her voice when we chat about the future of CASH and also her own music. Its this same optimism that infuses her new album Transmiticate with a wicked playfulness absent from the more aggressive, trademark L7 releases. Dont get me wrong, the album still packs enough distorted guitars to raise the hairs on your arm, but as Donita would say, shes on more of a joyous trip these days.

Look for Transmiticate in stores February 19th and check out Donitas official website here.


Erin Broadley: How have things been going with the album release?

Donita Sparks: Things are going really well and super busy. Im releasing [Transmiticate] on my own label [SparksFly] and Im rebuilding my website. There is all sorts of shit going on but its all good. Also, were leaving for Brazil so were getting visas together and its super crazy. But Id rather be busy than not.

EB: Totally. There are always those horror stories where one band member cant get a visa or passport and is left behind.

DS: Oh, God. Yeah, I know. The promoter is already kind of flipping out because Im late with my visa. Oops. Oh, Jesus. [Laughs]

EB: [Laughs] So, why the choice to start the tour in Brazil? You had a great reception there with L7 but havent been back in awhile.

DS: Yeah. We just figured, What the hell? Were gonna go back [to Brazil] in the summer but these [initial shows] will prime us for the major media cities. Well get to do a more extensive tour later but who doesnt want to go to Brazil?

EB: Yeah, tough choice: you can road trip across the Midwest or start somewhere exotic

DS: Yeah, go to Fresno or San Paolo? I think itll be fun.

EB: For Transmiticate, you worked with Ethan Allan, who also produces (and is now a member of) Gram Rabbit. How was it working with him? Hes an excellent producer.

DS: It was great working with him. I had a lot recorded already and decided Ive got to finish this thing. Because, when you record a lot of it yourself and youre on Pro-tools, you can constantly go back and make changes to it so you never finish it.

EB: So youre a bit of a perfectionist in the studio?

DS: Yes, its so stupid; I spin out on stuff. Pro-tools is kind of a blessing and a curse for me. Last year I said, Ive got to finish this record so I went to Ethan and we finished it together. We rerecorded some stuff from scratch, plowed through it and got it done.

EB: With this album, youve moved in a different direction musically than your previous work with L7. Do you think any of these new directions will surprise fans?

DS: I think it may surprise some people. But even the dance rock stuff has got distorted guitars in it. I still wanted distorted guitars but also wanted to make it super fun.

EB: Yeah, some people forget that rock is supposed to be fun.

DS: Yeah, so I think people will dig the fun part. The slower stuff, you know, L7 did some slower stuff too it was just on our later albums that people werent really paying that much attention to. So this is just further along from that.

EB: Speaking of distorted guitar, I was reading an old piece in Rolling Stone where you talked about how much you loved guitar players like Dick Dale, Les Paul, and Johnny Ramone. Are there any guitar players today that you admire?

DS: No, I dont really worship at the altar of guitar players very much. You know what I mean? Ive seen Jack White play and I think hes really a phenomenal guitar player. And [laughs] I rediscovered Billy Idol. His guitar player is fantastic so, yeah, there ya have it.

EB: [Laughs] I dont think Ive ever heard anyone actually talk about rediscovering Billy Idol. I think more people should!

DS: Yeah, and I also got into Love and Rockets. I was never into Love and Rockets back in the day. I dont know why; I thought they were a Goth band or something, stupidly. Now I love their stuff. I think theyre fucking fantastic. I remember hearing them but I just never dove into them. Now, diving into them, I see theyre brilliant.

EB: Thats awesome. Music is all about discovery and rediscovery. Another thing you said in that Rolling Stone article about learning to play guitar was, I was taking guitar lessons, and once my teacher showed me how to do a bar chord, I could play the Ramones. And so that was it: I stopped my formal music education The Ramones have this special place in my heart as the band that changed my life.

DS: Yeah, its funny because once I learned a bar chord, you know, the way that the Ramones play, I very rarely played open chords again. Now Im getting into them, but for years it was bar chords. [Laughs] And no minors -- all majors -- so on this record Ive got some minor chords. Its crazy how much I dont know about guitar. Pretty mind blowing. Sometimes, when your skills are limited, thats how you come up with your own unique sound. Because, if you can play anything, its a bit more difficult to reel it in and then, Okay, now what do I want this to sound like? If youre limited in your playing, its going to kind of come out very unique because youre making it work with what you have.

EB: I like to think of any kind of creative breakthrough as just a form of problem solving. Lots of great sounds come by accident or out of necessity.

DS: Yeah, totally. Thats also true in the recording process. If youre just kind of doing it yourself, which is what Ive been doing, Im breaking all kind of engineering rules. If I were to go to school to be an engineer, there would be all these no-nos that Im actually doing out of necessity the mother of invention, right?

EB: Thats also where the fun happens. Its supposed to be a rebellion, of sorts.

DS: Yeah, totally. Very rudimentary stuff can be brilliant.

EB: How was your fall tour with the Donnas? I read a post of yours on Firedoglake.com where you wrote about how amazing their history and friendship is.

DS: Theyre amazing. [Laughs] In fact, two of them share the same birthday -- same day, same year -- and I just went to their birthday party and the [other] girls were preparing the cake and getting the candles. It was like, God this is so weird! [Laughs] They really love each other and they probably do this every year for each other. I think that their friendship is just amazing.

EB: Its rare for people to not only stay in the same band together for so many years, but to have their friendships not fall apart because of it.

DS: Completely rare.

EB: So often it ends up that the only time a band is even in the same room with each other is when they have to be on stage. Plus, I imagine having four girls on a tour bus for 20 years can get nutty.

DS: Oh, believe me, guys are just as bad [laughs]. Are you kidding me? Everybody thinks, Oh women fight so much." But, no, you get four dudes together and The thing about dudes is that they fall into Alpha mode more easily than women do. I find that men at least this is my half-baked theory fall into pack mode more easily than women do. With women theres a lot of Alphas but, with men, they kind of bow down to each other. You know what Im saying? They find the leader

EB: Its more of a are you in or are you out kind of mentality.

DS: Yes, and are you going to follow the Alpha or not?

EB: And heaven forbid the Alphas not the lead singer! [Laughs]

DS: Yeah, then youre really fucked. [Laughs]

EB: How did the lineup come together for your new band, The Stellar Moments? Youre obviously excited about the players you have on board.

DS: Yeah, Im really excited. Ive been playing with the drummer Dee [Plakas] since the L7 days. We were working on our own before the other members came [on-board] so when we figured we were ready and had enough material, we found some guys and theyve been great. Theyre great musicians, totally professional, and they very much are team players. There arent egos fighting for attention. Im the head honcho.

EB: [Laughs] Right. In an older interview a reporter asked you about your wit and your use of sense of humor in your approach to your career. You said that you needed to amuse yourself because often, in your L7 days, people misconstrued you in the press as really angry. Like, they already had their script in mind for how they wanted to portray you to the public. Do you still battle with this today?

DS: Well, I think that my performances with this group, Im on a bit more of a joyous trip, you know what I mean? In L7, we were always cracking each other up and the audience, too. Ive still got that for sure but I think a lot was misconstrued. But yeah, Im not really singing angry songs in this band. With L7 I had Shitlist there were some songs I was really belting it out on. Im not doing that with this. Although in Brazil they want me to play some fucking L7 songs so its like, Oh shit. Shitlist? How the hell am I gonna work that one into the set list? [Laughs] Now Ive got to scream my head off again? But Ill do what I have to do.

EB: Something Ive noticed is that as soon as a female entertainer gets labeled as a feminist or associated with the feminist movement then all of a sudden everyone expects them to be angry all the time. Theres like all this media pressure to maintain a certain persona.

DS: Yeah, with L7 we were either too feminist or not feminist enough.

EB: Right!

DS: Either was completely ridiculous. I think anytime you stick your neck out at all about any cause, or you let your politics be known, youre held up to a much higher standard. We were certainly held up to a higher standard than Axl Rose was. He never talked about his politics at all. So I think that artists who do that, all of a sudden youre supposed to be a vegan Or, youre not supposed to be on a major label. Great, be a vegan! [Laughs]

EB: Its that same old thing, people loathe you for the same reasons the love you. Its tricky and its a big decision to open up and put your personal beliefs or politics out there.

DS: Yeah and often times [reporters] have their story before they even talk about you. No matter what you say, theyre still going to write what their take is on the whole thing. The interviewers in Germany are quite amazing because [laughs] Oh God, theyre merciless. Like, if youre a feminist, [in German accent] Then why are you on major label? Everything is just this grilling of your politics. [German accent] Why are you smoking cigarettes? Arent they corporate? Everything -- from your leather shoes to your cigarettes theyre nailing you to the cross.

EB: Theyve got you under a microscope, trying to find any flaw in your persona.

DS: Right, right. Theyre trying to find our what a hypocrite you are.

EB: Yeah, so they can be the one to announce it to the world!

DS: [Laughs] Part of it is probably a bit of anti-Americanism too from that camp of journalists over there.

EB: Well, hopefully you dont have any nasty German interviews coming up. [Laughs]

DS: [Laughs] Its part of the appeal; you go to see the leaning tower or Pisa, you go to see the Eiffel tower, you get the German interviewer its part of the flavor of going out of the country. Its a tourist attraction; the cranky German interviewer.

EB: [Laughs]

DS: Now theyll be grilling me about this! [German accent] Why do you say this? [Laughs]

EB: Another thing youve said in the past is that you dont care for the music industry much because you dont feel the business people really have much loyalty to the artists, they just want to hang out with them.

DS: Well, as far as the suits go, a lot of them came into the music business because the money from CDs was pouring in. So it got to be a lot of guys who were accountants but thought, Oh yeah, lets go hang out with the musicians. You know what I mean? They want the glamour, sort of.

EB: The cool factor.

DS: The cool factor, and they want the fucking backstage blowjob they want the little taste of rock and roll. Theyre not really music lovers, I dont think, which shows and theyre all collapsing now it shows. Im sure that there are some exceptions but theres a reason [the music industry is] in trouble. Theres a lot of arrogance and a lot of cutthroat, bottom line bullshit instead of the nurturing of artists. Its a very cutthroat, get rid of them, kind of thing if [a bands] single doesnt break.

EB: Theres not much room for error. But the whole loyalty concept leads me to what I want to talk about next, which is your Coalition of Artists and Stakeholders CASH Music and how that started for you in hopes of encouraging more of a loyalty between the artist and the audience. How long have you been working on this?

DS: It formed as an idea between Kristin Hershs manager and my manager, and Kristin and myself. We became friends, we were just riffing on ideas, I had a record coming out and we figured there has got to be a way to just connect with fans directly. And, yes, people do download music a lot and they dont pay for it, but there are other people who love the artists enough that theyre going to pay for it or support them in more generous ways as well. In exchange for that you know, basically were giving up our music in the creative commons license which is, basically, take it, play with it, chop it up, remix it, do whatever you want with it and post it up on the site. Its encouraging read/write culture. Its like, Here. Im throwing this out and you respond to it. Boom, boom, back and forth. The site looks fantastic and there are all sorts of fun opportunities for fans to get involved. Its going to be great. Weve got stuff like tour support. Weve got sharing the profits of a song on the licensing. We got all kind of creative ways for people to truly become stakeholders.

EB: Its very much breaking down any barriers left between the artist and audience. Are you worried about any loopholes where there might be a backlash or someone totally steals your shit? Or do you guys pretty much have it locked down?

DS: I dont know if there is a way to lock it down. Theres going to be something on my site thats actually going to challenge the definition of creative commons itself. So this will be interesting. Its a learning process and everybody is saying we need a new business model. For Kristin and I and other artists, this is our business model right now. Will something better come along? Possibly. But in the meantime, this is great. Im on my own label. I own my own label. So I dont need a suit. I dont need a middleman. I want to go directly to my fans. Im fortunate enough and Kristins fortunate enough to have a fan base already. But were hoping with CASH that were going to help newer artists build up their thing too. So itll be good. Its exciting. Its like, Whats going to break through? Because something is going to.