The Donnas
(Credit: Purple Feather Records)
At this time in its life, the band is nothing short of a fully functional independent rock ’n’ roll machine. Destiny or a miracle? “It’s both,” says drummer Torry Castellano. “It’s fate, because we’re all such good friends. But it’s also a miracle, having seen all of the craziness that most bands—the Donnas included—have had to deal with over the past 15 years. It’s kind of awesome that we’re still excited to do this.”
“The idea was to be hard and metal like L7,” says guitarist Allison Robertson of the band’s inception. “But we also liked cute bands like Shonen Knife and more indie stuff like Sonic Youth. More than anything, I just remember us learning how to play our instruments and how much we liked playing together.”
With a shared love of music ranging from KISS to the Kill Rock Stars label, the Donnas (then known as the Electrocutes) were a social anomaly in high school—and not just because the band was all female.
“While we wanted to be accepted, we didn’t really want to fit in either,” Robertson confesses. “Our music was so different than what was going on at our school. Let’s just say there were a lot of jam bands.” At that memory, all four girls erupt in laughter.
“It felt like we were getting away with murder,” says lead singer Brett Anderson. “Obviously, it’s a lot of work, but it’s so much fun to have your job be playing music with your friends. In high school we weren’t really making a living at it, but we did get to tour Japan. I thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world.”
Upon graduation, the Donnas did what most people their age in Palo Alto did—they got ready for college.
“It was important for us to show our parents that we’d gotten the grades and got into school, even with the band,” Robertson says. “But we loved the band too much to stop. That’s why when people accuse us of selling out, I’m like, hello! Our first 10 years as a band, we didn’t make any money. There was no reason to keep going. Nobody really liked us. Our friends barely liked us, as far as the music was concerned. But they’d always support us, and we loved them for it.”
Releasing their first record for famed indie imprint Lookout! Records, the Donnas went on their first American tour with a bunch of their new label mates. They were surprised to find fans waiting for them.
“I remember the day we got to New York City for the first time, and we were interviewed by both Rolling Stone and SPIN. That’s when I thought, ‘Well, I guess we’re not going to college,’” Castellano deadpans.
The Donnas saw that initial curiosity and buzz and raised it a serious work ethic, relentlessly touring and recording four albums for Lookout! before taking the precarious plunge into the major-label world, signing with Atlantic Records in 2001.
“It wasn’t always easy,” Castellano adds. “There were definitely meetings with someone telling us to lose the instruments and pick up a hot choreographer. Atlantic was the only label that didn’t want to turn us into a pop act.”
When corporate mergers found the Donnas getting lost in the shuffle by the end of their successful two-album run with Atlantic, the label eventually granted the band members their freedom when attempts to compromise fizzled. Escaping their deal debt-free, the ladies began writing their latest record, “Bitchin’,” and joked about releasing the record independently.
“But once we did the research, we realized that we really could do it ourselves,” says Castellano of the genesis of their label, Purple Feather Records. “It’s the distributors that do so much of the work that the labels did in the past. They gave us money to make a video, they got our CD into all of the major chains. And they don’t talk back to you!”
Having completed two triumphant tours since going indie, the Donnas have drafted an impressive roadmap of how to succeed at rocking out for a living.
“It’s about always having fun and being with your friends. Our fans have been so good to us,” Anderson says finally before the Donnas bolt for an appointment with a TV crew. “I could see us going for another 15 years.”
That comment elicits the biggest laugh of the day.
Celebrate The Donnas turning sweet 15 at the Viper Room on May 9.
Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
