{"id":30505,"date":"2016-09-20T21:24:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T11:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=30505"},"modified":"2016-09-20T21:24:35","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T11:24:35","slug":"donita-sparks-l7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2016\/09\/donita-sparks-l7\/","title":{"rendered":"Donita Sparks of L7"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"l7-new-photo\"<\/a>
\n\u201cI feel now that we\u2019ve already proved ourselves, we\u2019re playing material that people have been waiting years for us to play live and it\u2019s already a given that they like us *laughs* and like the music that they\u2019re gonna hear because they\u2019ve already bought the stuff twenty years ago you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: One of the most anticipated acts that were announced for Soundwave 2016, Venues across Australia are\u00a0NOW\u00a0<\/strong>about to get the roof blown off when\u00a0L7\u00a0take to the stage for an ass-kicking live experience this\u00a0October\u00a0presented by Metropolis and Select Touring. It\u2019s been a long hiatus, but the female punk heroes are FINALLY BACK, giving Australians a down and dirty intimate club tour. Having dominated the music scene throughout the 90\u2019s and spearheading a ferocious underground musical movement whilst defying gender expectations for the greater good of kick-ass alternative grungy punk rock, the iconic queens of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u00a0L7\u00a0are exactly that, and so much more.<\/p>\n

At home in Los Angeles we gave Donita from L7 a call to talk about the band\u2019s upcoming tour of Australia, the return of the band in general, new music possibilities and more\u2026<\/p>\n

It’s been a long time since you’ve been to Australia and the reaction to the tour has been great. How does that make you feel after so long away?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s super great to be playing shows again, and we\u2019ve been having a lot of fun and connecting with a lot of people who really love us and we love them back, and there\u2019s a cool love fest going on.<\/p>\n

Especially coming back to a territory like Australia and knowing that people still love you after so long\u2026<\/strong>
\nYes, I\u2019ve been thinking that there must be something in the water or some sort of pollutant going on, something in the air that\u2019s causing this devotion and excitement.<\/p>\n

So how are you planning to put the set list together?\u00a0<\/strong>
\nWell we\u2019re playing very much the songs that probably our most popular songs, there\u2019s maybe a couple lesser known songs in the set but the majority is the songs people want to hear. We\u2019re not getting weird with it, I love Prince but we\u2019re not getting Prince with it *laughs* you know?<\/p>\n

What do you remember from your last tour here?<\/strong>
\nI remember we played some festivals, I remember getting a little drunk with the Jesus Lizard backstage at one of those festivals, Primus was on the show, I can\u2019t remember the name of it…<\/p>\n

Thirteen years is a big break, what was the catalyst behind getting back together after so long?<\/strong>
\nIt was probably more like fourteen years, the catalyst was basically seeing the amount of fans we still had on social media on our facebook page, I started a facebook page just archiving our photographs and people started getting very enthusiastic like we were hinting at a reunion which we actually were not, it was just me posting this stuff. Then our booking agent in the US called me up and said can I put your name out there for festivals? I said well we\u2019re not a band, but let me think about it\u2026 then I called everybody up and said think about it for nine months and I\u2019ll call you in nine months to see if you\u2019re in or out, and I kind of didn\u2019t care either way, I wasn\u2019t even sure if I wanted to do it, and now I\u2019m so glad that we did it because it\u2019s really, really been enjoyable, maybe even more enjoyable than the first time around.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it great that the power of social media can give you a resurgence like that\u2026<\/strong>
\nNo, it\u2019s so great because in the hiatus we kind of missed the digital age just by like a couple of years, there was hardly anything on the web relating to L7 for years, and then slowly but surely people started posting YouTubes and photographs and tumblr accounts, and all these fan sites, so it really kind of kept us alive and brought us back.<\/p>\n

Did it take a little bit of time to get your footing back again or did it all just come back together nicely?<\/strong>
\nYou know, for me it was kind of very much like riding a bicycle and it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 but I just kind of really jumped back in, I think everybody did. We rehearsed for a few months because we didn\u2019t want to be bad, we wanted to be very tight, we wanted to be good, so we did take the time to sound good, and once you sound good then you can start being a stage performer at least in my mind. Once you sound good then you can start showboating, and we\u2019ve been doing a lot of showboating *laughs* so that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

What are you finding is different this time around?<\/strong>
\nThis time around we\u2019re not promoting an album, so there\u2019s a lightness of being to it, there\u2019s no pressure, there\u2019s no fear of people not buying your record, when you create a piece of art the masochist is alive and well because you want people to like it and it\u2019s just this weird thing. I feel now that we\u2019ve already proved ourselves, we\u2019re playing material that people have been waiting years for us to play live and it\u2019s already a given that they like us *laughs* and like the music that they\u2019re gonna hear because they\u2019ve already bought the stuff twenty years ago you know what I mean? And we\u2019re not dealing with any labels, it\u2019s just us, we don\u2019t have a huge management company behind us, it\u2019s a good friend of ours is managing us and we have a very small crew and we\u2019re just kind of this self-contained thing that\u2019s going around and doing pretty well.<\/p>\n

After being out there touring for a while have there been thoughts of some new music from L7 in the foreseeable future or is that something you\u2019re not even considering?<\/strong>
\nWell we\u2019re only considering it because we\u2019re being asked about it by you guys, by the press and fans are asking too but they\u2019re mostly just excited about the live shows coming up and that\u2019s where our focus has been. We\u2019re gonna take a break after Australia until next summer for us, so maybe in that time we might attempt to record a couple of songs, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m in to recording a full album at this point, it\u2019s just too much pressure.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m finding a lot of independent artists now are using crowd funding platforms and basically now doing it for the fans which is great\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, I mean that\u2019s a possibility but again a full album I don\u2019t know, it just sounds like\u2026 I don\u2019t know\u2026 we\u2019ll see talk to me next year *laughs*it may be a couple of songs, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Now there is a documentary in the works, can you give us an update on how that’s coming along?<\/strong>
\nThe film is still being edited but it\u2019s very close, and a rough cut has already been accepted to a couple of festivals in The United States in November, so I would imagine that the premiere will be in November and it\u2019ll be released I don\u2019t know, December? I\u2019m not really sure but I know the edit is taking place right now.<\/p>\n

I remember when ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ was released it was so new and different and my school latched on to it, what do you think it was about that song that truly took off?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know but I think that\u2019s great that your whole school was into it, that\u2019s such a cool memory, yeah I love that. Its super cool, like we didn\u2019t have a lot of hits, in fact that was probably our only hit that made it onto the actual charts, we had underground hits, maybe \u2018Andre\u2019 made it as a minor hit, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s really cool to have that experience, to cross over and you\u2019re not on the fringe anymore, you made it into the mainstream for just a second or two and that\u2019s a cool feeling, that\u2019s something cool to experience. I recommend it to anyone *laughs*.<\/p>\n

So what are some of your best memories when it really took off for you?<\/strong>
\nGetting on some weird television shows, I always liked the idea of infiltrating the masses and getting on TV and getting into sort of mainstream press and blow some minds, I always really liked that idea, just like a lot of my idols did, like Bowie getting on talk shows and stuff and doing something weird *laughs* I always loved that about him. A lot of bands from the underground really are very strong in their stance of staying in the underground and not going corporate or anything like that, I was not that way I very much thought it would be hilarious to get into the mainstream *laughs* because we were a little bit threatening sort of, we were kinda funny but we were also a little bit of a threat. So achieving that was great, like you said, your school was into that song, probably saw us on MTV and maybe we inspired some kids to not be so status quo or something, you know? Some of the huge shows that we did, some of the crazy festivals we did, like Reading in England, and some festivals down in South America, all over the place, and we got to go to Australia a few times and Japan. So it was a good run.<\/p>\n

Well when you were announced for Soundwave people were excited, then you cancelled and then you rescheduled, so we\u2019re glad you\u2019re finally coming back\u2026<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019re so glad, we really wanted to play Soundwave and that didn\u2019t work out but I think our fans are really happy that we\u2019re doing these venues that are a bit more intimate, and we\u2019ll be playing in the dark, Soundwave we probably would\u2019ve been playing in the daytime which in my opinion is not as cool as getting a light show with us *laughs*. Everyone loves a smoke machine and crazy lights *laughs* so hopefully we\u2019ll be delivering that in our shows.<\/p>\n

Lastly with 2016 on the downhill let’s see if we can predict it… Finish this sentence for me by the end of 2016 the one thing L7 wants to do is…<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s such a hard question *laughs*\u2026 We want to successfully complete this touring cycle which would end pretty much with Australia. We want the documentary to be finished, that\u2019s what we fuckin\u2019 want, its taking a lot of time and energy, so that\u2019ll be great that that\u2019s finished, it\u2019ll be great, it\u2019ll be awesome.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"l7-a3_web-copymay\"<\/a>L7 Australian Tour Dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday 6th<\/sup>\u00a0October\u00a0PERTH<\/strong>\u00a0Metropolis Fremantle<\/p>\n

Friday 7th<\/sup>\u00a0October\u00a0<\/strong>ADELAIDE\u00a0<\/strong>The Gov<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u00a011th<\/sup>\u00a0October\u00a0MELBOURNE<\/strong>\u00a0170 Russell<\/p>\n

Wednesday 12th<\/sup> October MELBOURNE <\/strong>170 Russell<\/p>\n

Friday\u00a014th October\u00a0BRISBANE<\/strong>\u00a0Eatons Hill<\/p>\n

Saturday\u00a015th<\/sup>\u00a0October\u00a0SYDNEY<\/strong>\u00a0Metro Theatre<\/p>\n

Tickets on Now sale via:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.metropolistouring.com\/L7<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Los Angeles, CA, USA<\/p>\n

Band Members:<\/strong>\u00a0Donita Sparks \u2013 vocals, guitar, Suzi Gardner \u2013 guitar, vocals, Jennifer Finch \u2013 bass, vocals, Demetra Plakas \u2013 drums, vocals<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.l7official.com<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n