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THE DONNAS
40 Nights, 40 Daze
by Greg Uhrlen |
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Making a name for themselves as The Donnas, "Donna A." Brett
Anderson (vocals), "Donnas R." Allison Robertson (guitar),
"Donna F." Maya Ford (bass), and "Donna C." Torry Castellano
(drums), deliver straight ahead rock and roll with influences of
AC/DC, Kiss and Joan Jett.
With the release of their latest album, The Donnas Turn 21
(Lookout), the band has received high acclaim on the college
radio circuit, drawn fans young and old, and opened for the
likes of Alice Cooper and Green Day, aside from successfully
touring the states and abroad on their own. We recently spoke to
Castellano and Anderson, who are better known as Donna C. and
Donna A., respectively, about life as a young band awaiting
their big break.
According to drummer Torry Castellano (Donna C.), breaking into
mainstream radio and video rotation is always a difficult thing,
but with the release of their new album, the band has been
seeing bigger results they they've seen in the past. In fact,
vocalist Brett Anderson (Donna A.) says, that they are already
in full rotation on a major radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio,
and light rotation on MTV's M2 with their first single from the
album, "40 Boys in 40 Nights."
The single for the video was shot with the goal of capturing the
band's live show, according to Donna C. She says, "We made
videos where we played before, but it didn't really get the
feeling of the live show. I think this one did more than other
shows."
Luckily the Donnas are receiving excellent support from a
variety of people, including the very dedicated staff at Lookout
Records. Erin Smith and Molly Neuman from Lookout are even
currently touring with their own band, Bratmobile, as one of the
opening acts. The Donnas also are happy to say that their
families have all been very supportive.
"They love it, they just were always really excited about it,
and always come to our shows and stuff. It's really cool, all
our moms sing all the lyrics to the songs and they listen to
us," says Donna C.
"I think at first, like us, they didn't know it was going to be
a real thing -- like a job or something, like it was just
extracurricular you know, and then like when we started to get
more serious about it, they were excited for us about that too,"
Donna A. recalls.
Part of taking on the band as a career has required the girls to
tour extensively, and they have had no trouble recruiting an
audience. Donna A. explained that while their original fans were
typically older men, who had grown up on the straight-edged rock
that the band delivers, they are happy to say that their
audience has become more diverse these days. Even in such an
elementary stage of their careers, they have been asked for
advice from many of their fans in regards to how to start a band
and which mistakes not to make, especially from young girls.
Donna C. says that they had their first real taste of rock
stardom dating back to their high school years. That was when
they were introduced to the "super dedicated" fans they have
recruited in Japan, who've showered them with dolls, candy, and
other gifts. And now, they have become so popular that their
ticket prices have been hiked up to more than fifty US dollars,
though they hope to perform for a more reasonable price in the
future so that kids can afford the shows.
While the majority of their audiences consist of about "99
percent totally cool fans," there is almost always a persistent
one percent, who show up in the front row looking bored. To
encourage those fans to join in the fun, their guitarist wrote
the lyrics for "Are you Gonna Move it Form Me," the opening
track from their new album. And in the case that fans get too
rowdy by crowd surfing or jumping on stage, they have security
on hand to keep things under control.
As far as post-show meetings with their fans go, the girls have
been pretty good at dealing with over zealous male fans. They
say that they tend to watch out for each other and while their
manager has made threats, he has never had the opportunity to
act on them.
"You try to be nice to everyone, because some people who look
like they are going to be pretty creepy actually end up being
really nice," says Donna C., and Donna A. agrees, "It's hard to
get mad at your fans."
When offered chances to perform with other major acts and
recruit new fans, the band doesn’t like to let the opportunity
slip by totally, but they are well aware of the double-edged
sword that comes along with such gigs. As we’ve mentioned,
they’ve joined Green Day on the road already, as part of the
Vans Warped tour last summer, and they’ve even had a few gigs
opening for Alice Cooper in California. And despite their
concerns, they’ve successfully handled diverse and difficult
audiences, and dealing with compromises that come along with
being an opening act (little stage room, no sound check, etc.).
Due to the absence of straight-ahead rock bands today, the
Donnas wish they could open up for one of their favorite bands,
like AC/DC, but they say have set their sights on more
“realistic” goals, especially since, one of their biggest fears
is that the idealized visions that they have of their heroes
won’t manifest themselves in the real world. However, the band
finds it difficult touring with other new artists, because they
don’t necessarily fit into a particular musical genre. |
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