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Meet The Donnas
from MTV Online
If you've forgotten what rock and roll is all about, the Donnas would be more than happy to offer you a refresher course.
Playing with the sort of unbridled punk glee that could only come from four teenage girls, the Donnas crank out high-octane three-chord odes to the virtues of guys, cruising, and the conquering power of rock. In the age of Lilith, the heaviest lyrical issues these recent high school grads tackle are how much school sucks and where they can find some action. Even the title of the band's Lookout Records debut, "American Teenage Rock 'N' Roll Machine," speaks to the Donnas' devotion to the rock altar.
So as summer comes rolling down, kids start chucking their textbooks into the air, and people start driving just to feel the wind in their hair, it seemed like the perfect time to cozy up to bassist Donna F., singer Donna A., guitarist Donna R., and drummer Donna C. (whose real names are Maya, Brett, Allison, and Torry respectively). Here the Valedictorians of Rock And Roll High School wax enthusiastic about meeting a real Ramone, not taking anything too seriously, and worshipping at the feet of Ace Frehley.
In addition to our interview with the band, you'll also find plenty of QuickTime video footage of the Donnas doing what they do best... rockin'.
Let's ride...
MTV NEWS: I think I read somewhere that you guys were in an eighth grade social studies class and that's where you met. Is that right?
BRETT: That's where we met.
ALLISON: Brett and I met like that. We knew each other at school. I was best friends with Maya since like 6th grade. And I knew Torry since 4th grade.
TORRY: So we've known each other for pretty long.
ALLISON: But the band sort of started... I asked her (points to Maya), and we decided that we wanted to play guitar and bass. We didn't have a band and there was this show called "Day on the Green."
TORRY: It was at our middle school at lunch time and it was like the big thing for the boys and they came up to me one day and said, "Do you want to play drums?" and I was like "OK" then we just started it.
ALLISON: We actually just played covers our first show because we had about a month before to get the whole band together and rehearse something to play. And it was only like a 15 minute show that you would get to do because it was half of the lunch time. So we did just four songs that weren't even ours, and basically, we had so much fun we just kept doing it. It was never meant to be a long term thing. It was just totally for fun and it still is for us.
TORRY: Yeah.
ALLISON: It's not like we do it for money or whatever, because it's not like we make any money (they all laugh). Right now we're kind of losing money. But it's cool. I'd rather lose money than just sit at home.
TORRY: Yeah, totally.
BRETT: Costs less than college. (They laugh)
MTV NEWS: You say your first show you just did covers. Were you a cover band for a while, or did you start doing original stuff right away?
TORRY: The next show after that, which was a few months later, we started doing original stuff. It was after 8th grade that we started. Then there was the whole summer and then the first couple of months of 9th grade we played our first show. But it wasn't in a with Maya since like 6th grade. And I knew Torry since 4th grade.
**This seems to be a break in the original article on MTV Online. It's not my doing. -Jon**
club, it was in a community center for high school bands. The city put it on and we had written all of our own songs by then.
ALLISON: So I would say we probably had eight or nine songs that we wrote. We don't play those songs anymore (they all laugh). We didn't do covers for a long time after that first show, but now we play one or two covers like any normal band.
MTV NEWS: How serious were you about the band and the music at that point? Was it more just like a joke, a fun thing to do on the side, or were you really serious?
MAYA: We practiced everyday.
TORRY: We practiced everyday for hours after school.
ALLISON: We didn't have anything better to do.
TORRY: But we were never like, "We're going to make it to the top." So we weren't serious like that. It was always fun but we basically did practice all the time.
MTV NEWS: So what do thirteen-year-olds write about, what were those first songs about?
ALL: Cereal. Tammy the New Feminist.
ALLISON: Not really making fun of feminists. People thought either we were making fun of feminists or we were feminists -- it really wasn't either. All of our songs were pretty much jokes.
MTV NEWS: Do any recordings exist of that stuff?
TORRY: We have a 7 inch that we put out when we were three and it has our first few songs on it. It's called "Raggedy Ann" because that's what we were called at the time.
ALLISON: It's really hard to find.
TORRY: There are about 500 copies of it out there somewhere.
MTV NEWS: Do you guys have one?
ALLISON: I have like thirty, maybe.
MTV NEWS: So now let's talk about your high school years. How important was the band and how important was school? What was the ratio?
ALLISON: We were pretty good at balancing it out -- except I remember, junior year, the Donnas were kind of going like full force, getting more interesting and stuff, and also, that's the hardest year in high school. So we didn't practice but we played lots of shows, so they were pretty crappy shows (they laugh) because we weren't very rehearsed.
MAYA: We practiced once before the shows.
ALLISON: We just weren't putting as much effort to it. Then senior years we all had like half days at school because it was pretty easy.
TORRY: Never went to school.
MAYA: It was pretty easy -- had three classes.
ALLISON: We cut a lot senior year -- you don't need to go as much. So I mean, pretty much by the end of senior year, we were practicing a lot more and we had a lot more stuff to do too.
TORRY: Basically, when we signed to Lookout, that's when all the stuff -- all the press and that kind of stuff started to happen and going on the tour and stuff.
MTV NEWS: When you were in high school, how often were you guys practicing, and how often were you gigging?
TORRY: At the beginning, we had a show every couple of months and we would practice every day after school. And then it kind of switched. I mean, like, we still practice a lot, but we have a lot more shows now.
MTV NEWS: When you guys were in high school, where did you practice? At whose house did you practice?
ALLISON: Torry's garage is where we practiced.
TORRY: And we still practice there.
ALLISON: People used to go by always from school when they heard us playing, basically to bug us and taunt us.
TORRY: The boys from the other bands would come and listen or they would come in and say, "Let's see you practice." And they would like --
ALLISON: Make fun of us.
TORRY: Whisper about us. It was kind of lame.
MAYA: They had all taken lots of lessons.
ALLISON: Yeah, and we had really bad equipment for a long time.
All: Yeah.
ALLISON: For at least three or four years, like cheap guitars...
TORRY: Like I had a handed down drum set.
BRETT: My amp was like this big -- it sounded like blaaaaah.
ALLISON: I mean, they just thought we were a joke for the longest time until we started getting shows. And they actually started breaking up because they weren't getting any shows.
TORRY: None of the bands that were around in our high school are together anymore.
MTV NEWS: Is Palo Alto a big music town?
ALLISON: Just high school bands. I think it's because it's kind of boring there -- there's no nightlife, no place to hang out. If you like music at all it would be the kind of thing to do, get a band together.
TORRY: Plus, a lot of the kids are really rich, so their parents can just buy them all this equipment -- if they show any interest.
ALLISON: People say that about us, but that isn't true because we aren't from Palo Alto. People say, "Oh they're from Palo Alto and their mommies bought them nice equipment from the start." And it was a total lie! (She puts her thumbs down) Like I'm from L.A. and Maya's from Berkeley and Torry's from San Francisco and Brett's from Indiana, and we all moved there, so we aren't those stable Palo Alto kind of homes that have always been there. It's not like that, but people will get that picture.
MTV NEWS: So when you guys decided to form this band, did any of you actually play instruments, yet, at that point?
ALLISON: Maya and I played guitar and bass before we asked them to play. But like for the show, Torry didn't have time to get together... Maya and I had only been playing -- how long had we been playing?
MAYA: Only a couple of months -- not that long.
ALLISON: I mean, we couldn't read music and we never had lessons, but we taught ourselves.
MAYA: We just practiced R.E.M. songs.
ALLISON: We totally practiced R.E.M. songs.
BRETT: I really liked Faith No More and Shonen Knife.
ALLISON: Yeah, Shonen Knife. We were all into girl bands like L7 and Shonen Knife.
TORRY: I wanted to be Lars from Metallica. I just thought he was the best, then.
ALLISON: Maya and I started playing because of R.E.M. and XTC, which is kind of a weird combination, but we were into kind of weird bands like that. And before, since I was a little kid, I have liked little glam bands like Poison and stuff. That kind of stuff sticks in your brain forever if you like music.
MTV NEWS: Lookout Records is often thought of as a punk rock label. How do you think of yourselves? How do you describe your sound?
ALL: Rock, just rock.
BRETT: Rock without the punk.
TORRY: Yeah, really.
ALLISON: I mean, it's not that we don't like punk or anything like that, it's just that we never considered ourselves like that because it's kind of going into a domain where you have to look the part, act the part, you know? You have to play the part, and we are just not like that. We're just us. You know we don't like to label it, really.
TORRY: It's a lot of infighting. "You're a poser, you're a poser" and all that kind of stuff, and we're just, we don't care about that kind of stuff.
MTV NEWS: Who today would you say are you biggest influences?
ALLISON: Kiss. I love Kiss.
BRETT: Mtley Crže.
ALLISON: I'm in love with Ace Frehley, he's my idol. Scorpions' Alice Cooper, I would love to meet Alice Cooper. We were actually going out to cover schools for a Rhino compilation, and then when we found out they wanted us to do it tonight, we were sad because we were going to learn it, but we didn't know that like we needed to learn it by today because... I mean I know it, I know it, but I can't actually... we hadn't rehearsed it together, you know what I mean? It wouldn't sound good, it would be kind of messy and weird, so we only play songs so they're all rehearsed in tight.
MTV NEWS: So, heavy metal and Kiss -- how did you guys get all into that?
ALLISON: Kiss was around in the '80s when we were kids. It just wasn't what it was in the '70s, but you can find out about the '70s. It's not like they stopped making the records, and you can totally get the videos and everything. I like the '70s stuff.
TORRY: Yeah.
ALLISON: I like the '70s stuff but, like, you know, we knew who they were in the '80s, too, we were just little kids.
TORRY: Plus, when we were little, we liked other bands like Mtley Crže and Poison.
ALLISON: We were totally into all those bands when we were kids. That was what was hot, especially for girls I think, because maybe some boys made fun of the guys in makeup and stuff, but for girls, they're hot.
ALL: Yeahhhh.
MAYA: We like guys with long hair and makeup.
ALL: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ALLISON: That's still how it is. I know so many girls and women that just go, "When is it going to be in style to have guys wearing makeup and long hair and tight pants again? We're waiting, but it's just not happening, yet.
MTV NEWS: Lita Ford is with you. Did you see that special on MTV?
ALLISON: Yes, yes, yes. We love Lita!
MTV NEWS: I've read a lot about your Ace Frehley obsession. Could you tell me a little about that?
ALLISON: I'm obsessed with Ace Frehley, I love him so much. If I met him, I would just die. I wouldn't know...
BRETT & TORRY: I would die, too.
ALLISON: I mean, he's a huge star, but he, he... I used to play guitar, but not do anything interesting, just chords. And like, when I started to get really into him, I had to play like him, you know. And I got a Les Paul and I was like, "I can't play this, I need to get better." So he's basically my teacher because I never really had any actual lessons. I just learned from him, and I watch his videos all the time. And I totally read this book called "Kiss And Tell." It's all the bad stuff about him, like all his cocaine addictions and pranks he plays. It's really good, it makes him sound cooler, I think. But someone actually tried to make me hate him. They were like, "You got to read this book, you won't like him anymore." And I wasn't going to read it because I wanted to love him forever, but actually, I like him a lot better now.
MTV NEWS: You mentioned that you were into girl groups. Which groups influenced you?
ALLISON: That was earlier.
TORRY: Yeah, that was earlier, like maybe four years ago or something.
ALLISON: We were really obsessed.
TORRY: We were into Bikini Kill, Batmobile... just all of those, all the time.
MTV NEWS: Why don't we talk about the current record, "American Teenage Rock N' Roll Machine"? Who came up with the title?
ALLISON: A friend of ours did, but it has to do with everything about us. We're American, we're teenage. You know what I mean? It's pretty straightforward. I mean, there's isn't really any meaning in that title at all. There's not like a hidden message. It's just straightforward.
MTV NEWS: Have you ever been embarrassed when your parents are in the audience and you're singing lyrics like "stick it in"?
ALL: (laugh)
ALLISON: That's going to be Torry's lyric.
BRETT: For all my mom knows, "stick it in" is like the tape in the tape player. I mean, she's just like (she immitates her mother by turning away, covering ears and acting like she can't hear the lyrics her daughter is singing) "Um, I don't know... what?" (They all laugh)
TORRY: One time, I heard that my mom in the audience was like (she makes a surprised face), but I mean, it's not like they sit us down and have some heart to heart talk or anything.
ALLISON: No, I think they kind of think it's funny.
ALL: Yeah.
BRETT: 'Cause they know it's a joke. It's not like they're like, "Oh, I'm worried about you. Are you taking care of yourself?"
TORRY: Yeah, really.
MTV NEWS: I understand that a couple of you are in college right now, and some of you plan to go. Why don't you explain...
BRETT: We're all planning to go.
TORRY: All of us took time off. Like I took a year off and I'm taking another year off now from NYU.
MTV NEWS: So is the future up in the air as far as the Donnas and school is going? Where do you think your priorities lay right now?
MAYA: School is like not even on the priority list.
BRETT: We're not going to kick this 'til it's dead though. We're not going to be like shoving the Donnas down people's throats. I mean, if people don't want to hear us, we're not, you know... but as long as there's people out there who are going to get excited at our shows, we'll keep playing.
MTV NEWS: Do you guys have any interest in doing any of the packaged tours here in the States -- the Warped tour, or if the Lilith came calling? Would you guys be interested?
ALLISON: Umm... I don't know, it really depends on like what kind of --
MAYA: If we can get a driver.
ALL: Yeah.
BRETT: None of us are old enough to drive rental cars.
TORRY: We don't have a van so it all depends on...
MAYA: If someone buys us a van.