The Donnas' fourth effort, The Donnas Turn 21 (Lookout!), truly rocks, like nothing they've ever done before. The girls say that's because it's the first album they had complete control over, and like their Priest cover says, they've been "Living After Midnight" all along. One thing's for sure?they've grown up. Since the last time you heard from the Donnas they've waved to Britney at a party, realized all male bands are condescending and tried to order a drink called Foghat (which apparently relies heavily on dry ice) on their 21st, although they definitely, definitely don't consider themselves rock stars, because they're too poor.
The Donnas visited the New York Press offices, where the men blushed, the girls giggled and we got our pictures taken with them on the roof. Sweeet!
Tanya Richardson: When I was in high school, every guy had a guitar and they were all in bands. I didn't know any girls who even considered getting a guitar.
Donna F: That's kinda why we played. We knew a lot of guys playing guitars and we wanted to do it too.
Lisa LeeKing: I was at your CMJ show. The crowd in front of the stage looked like motorcycle dudes, and they got real excited when you broke into "Living After Midnight."
Donna R: Yeah, our crowd is always all dudes all the time.
LL: Maybe that explains why Allison from Bratmobile said something like, "This is for all the guys who came to get some Lookout! pussy tonight."
Donna C: Well, also, a lot of male bands are really weird to us.
Donna F: They're just very condescending.
Donna C: Like when we were on tour with Alice Cooper. They were nice, but, you know.
TR: The new album is really, really great. More rock and better than the last one. I'm not saying you're not a good band, but I know so many guys who say, "The Donnas rock?plus they're all chicks!" Rock 'n' roll is such a boys club and an all-girl band, shockingly, seems to intensify that.
Donna R: When we played in high school no guys liked us, but as soon as we started playing rock the audience was all men. Girls were saying things like, "My boyfriend really likes your band." We thought that was depressing, because you start out being into girl groups and going to shows like Bikini Kill where the audience is only girls.
LL: You can't read a Donnas review without a Ramones comparison. What about girl bands like Bikini Kill, the Runaways or the Bobbyteens?
Donna A: They just gave us the notion that we could do it. The Bobbyteens were a little bit after us, though. We used to know them from the Trashwomen. We'd play together.
LL: Is the scene real supportive in the Bay Area?
Donna R: It's hard to get girl bands to be friends with us because they're either snooty or they're younger than we are, so they look up to us. But usually they're just mad because we're totally going in the opposite direction from them.
TR: "You're playing 'Living After Midnight'? That's misogyny!"
Donna R: Exactly! But I think playing that kind of music and showing them girls can do it is a lot better than believing women are only allowed to play one type of music, and that rock 'n' roll is just for men.
TR: I prefer rock 'n' roll, and that's why I like girls to play it, because if they do, eventually the sexism will start to die out.
Donna R: And if sex is such a big part of rock 'n' roll, why does it always have to be about women? Why can't it be about grabbing guys' asses?
Donna A: Like we stopped wearing those matching shirts because people were concentrating too much on what we look like. And we didn't do it for the Runaway thing. We just did it as a joke, but then every time we did a photo shoot they'd ask us to wear our Donnas shirts.
Donna R: Plus we were really lazy and didn't want to worry about stage clothes.
TR: Ditching the shirts will help us get to the point where all-girl bands are no longer a novelty, and it's normal for girls to want guitars for Christmas.
Donna R: We used to try and look cute, because a lot of good girl bands did that, so we'd wear miniskirts and play this really scary thrash music. Then a friend of ours said, "Man, nobody wants to hear your stuff, they only go to the shows because you're all in miniskirts." But you want to have some gimmick, so you can collect all the band paraphernalia, like with Mötley Crüe. I mean, what's the fun in seeing a bunch of guys playing in jeans and t-shirts?
LL: How'd you end up doing that "Strutter" cover for Detroit Rock City?
Donna C: Mercury asked if we would be interested in doing something for this Kiss movie. Initially they wanted us to do "Barracuda" by Heart. And then they wanted us to do a Runaways song, but we didn't want to fuel all that. We said we loved Kiss so why don't we do a Kiss song?
LL: Have your parents made any comments about your lyrics?
Donna A: All the parents are in on the joke.
TR: Even about the drugs?
Donna C: My mom and I got pulled over by a cop once, and after he drove away she looked at me and said, "Thank goodness we weren't hot-boxin'!"
Donna R: We partied and got drunk when we were in high school, but we earned good grades, so there was no reason for them to get on us.
LL: [holds up an old album from when the band was called the Electrocutes] I found this the other day [all laugh]. And the only thing I have to say is, that's some big hair!
Donna R: People think that CD is so old it must be embarrassing, but the thing is, it wasn't that long ago!
TR: Why is the new record more rock-influenced? Does it reflect a general trend?
Donna C: When we were doing Get Skin Tight, it was a conscious choice to slow down the songs.
Donna A: But what sucks is that Get Skin Tight was supposed to sound more like The Donnas Turn 21 does, but the producer had a totally different idea. They didn't want it to sound big and rock like we did. We told them, "We want it to sound like Danzig."
TR: Fuck yeah!
Donna R: They thought we were joking. It was hard for us... We were more inexperienced then, and didn't want to argue.
Donna C: We had a lot more control this time, and The Donnas Turn 21 represents us best. We produced it with our sound engineer Robert Shimp.
Donna R: He knows how we sound live every night. Like the first album was very halfhearted. I mean our first outfits were shortsleeved sweatshirts! We thought the people who were into it were weird, because we didn't even like it! Our first fan was this guy named Tracy who would buy us french fries and come to our shows and take notes.
TR: Aw! That guy only exists in high school.
Donna R: Actually, he's like 40!
LL: What rock 'n' roll fantasies have you lived out on the road?
Donna R: We got to meet C.C. Deville [all swoon], Gene Simmons and we almost met Nikki Sixx last night.
Donna F: Joan Jett kept saying that whenever we came to New York she wanted to see us, and we even called her manager to try and make an appointment.
Donna R: She did come to some of our shows, and people would tell us she was there, but then she'd leave because, apparently, she's shy. But we finally met her last year.
TR: What do you think of Britney and those girls?
Donna F: We like Britney.
Donna A: But we don't like Christina, because she seems like a big ho. And Britney has a better body. She looks more like a woman.
TR: But are they real or fake?
Donna F: Both fake, definitely.
Donna R: I think Britney just wants to be taken seriously. Get Skin Tight was our first real album because we wrote everything on it, like we did on the new one. But people still think we're imitating someone, or ripping off... It's really sad that they want to do that to girls. Why can't a girl write her own song?
Donna C: A lot of the bigger rock bands and artists seem to write with other people and no one cares.
Donna F: If a guy does it it's okay. All the best songs are written by somebody else.
Donna C: Like Aerosmith, Kiss...
LL: Musicians rip off everyone. When you learn how to play an instrument you play along to your favorite albums and study Who songbooks. That's gonna show.
Donna F: As for ripping off bands, the Ramones wrote a formula that worked and it's hard to stray from that formula and still be in the same genre.
Donna R: In articles about us people say, "They write these really funny lyrics, but do they know that they're funny? Or are they stupid girls just trying to be cool?" All the while we're thinking of it as kitschy. But honestly, as far as music goes, we're really studious. I don't want to say we're geeks but we do study it constantly.
TR: So it's not all "40 Boys in 40 Nights"?
Donna R: Well, that's the goal. I mean the last thing on our minds is being serious.
TR: Because rock 'n' roll is about having a good time.
LL: So you're not going to put a quiet acoustic song on the next record?
Donna C: I don't think we'd be really into playing an acoustic song.
TR: There are plenty of girls playing acoustic songs. We don't need any more!
The Donnas Turn 21 comes out Jan. 23 on Lookout! Records. They return to New York to play Bowery Ballroom March 10-11.