Interview: Donita Sparks from L7 – Tour Dates Updated

After a 13-year hiatus, 90’s Californian punk rock heroines L7 are back fighting and ready to hit our shores in a series of dirty and intimate shows to fill the void every rock lover didn’t know they had! We chatted with frontwoman Donita Sparks who revealed show spoilers, current project updates, and her frank opinion on the female artists of today.

What are you looking forward to most about your upcoming tour to Australia? 

I’m looking forward to seeing the fans because they’ve been very vocal on our Facebook page. They’re very excited so I think these are going to be pretty hot shows!

What do you think might surprise you’re Aussie fans the most about these shows?

I think we’re playing very tight…I’m gonna knock on wood saying that, but I think we sound pretty powerful so it’s gonna be a good rock show. I don’t know how often people see good rock shows anymore but I think this will be a good one! 

During L7’s long hiatus did you keep in regular contact with any of the other band members? 

I had a solo band with Dee on drums so we’ve always been in contact but I had not been in contact with Susie or Jennifer for many years…since the band broke up, really. It’s also good we’ve reunited as friends in addition to the band because life is short, sh*t happens right?

Hell yes! When you first reunited did it feel just like old times or do you now play with a different drive and purpose?

It’s not nostalgic for us. I think there’s a lot of love from the audience and back at them. I think back in the day we would’ve had a new record out and there was a bit of pressure. You’re hoping your fans like your new record, etcetera. This is kind of like a victory lap because we’re playing full songs but we’re not having to do a sell. We’ve paid those dues years ago and now it’s just playing what people want to hear and they’re super happy about it.

Do you get tired of repeatedly playing the hit songs at shows?

No, I don’t get tired of playing them. I think they all hold up for me, they rock! It’s not like I listen to L7 songs over the years, I haven’t heard these songs forever so this stuff feels pretty fresh. We’re also doing a couple of songs in the set we never did back in the day so that’s kind of fun as well. 

Apart from getting ready for this tour, what other projects are you currently working on?

The L7 documentary is finishing up, thank god. The documentary has been taking forever even though these things take a very long time to make. The director is finally wrapping that up and soon it will be behind us. I think it’s going to be released at film festivals in November so that’s cool.

I don’t know, at some point I might want to put out a tour book of old photographs I have – just snapshots from back in the day. Some of them are very funny and a lot of people in the photographs are not alive anymore so it’s just a cool time capsule kind of trip that I’m sitting on, so yeah, that’s what’s in the works till the end of the year.

Are there any surprises fans can expect from the documentary? 

It’s hard to say. A lot of it is our home movie footage so you’ll see a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and you’ll get the stories of what happened with the band and to the band. I’m sure there’ll be surprises. When I was listening to other band members’ [documentary] interviews I found out some things I never knew so if I don’t know about it then nobody knows about it. It was kind of interesting when somebody quits for Reason A, and it actually happens to be Reason C and you haven’t even thought of it.

Is a new L7 album on the cards for the future? 

Not right now. We might decide to do one down the line but not right now, no. We’re just putting on a good rock show, that’s the only pressure we can handle right now! (laughs)

Will your other band Donita Sparks and The Stellar Moments be making a comeback any time soon? 

I’ll probably put out some music eventually because I have a lot unfinished tracks but it won’t be with The Stellar Moments, I would do something different.

In terms of strong female musicians, do you think the talent has improved or gone downhill since L7 first came out in 1985? 

I don’t follow it very closely, I mean I have very picky taste in music anyway, so of any one genre I only like a couple of bands. I don’t know who is even out there. Who do you mean?

For example Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj. They have huge personas but have generally sparked debates in regards to feminism.

Well I’ll tell you this and this is no insult to them, it’s just my own personal musical taste: If I liked their songs more I would give a sh*t but I don’t. I’m not even making a statement about their careers or whatever, but if I liked their music more I would pay more attention. I do feel back in the 90s there were a lot more women singer-songwriters that were not pop who were getting into mainstream media like us, The Breeders, Hole, and even Liz Phair.

I guess I don’t see that quite as much and I’ve certainly heard from a lot of young people that they consider the early 90s a powerful time for women in music because it was sort of being taken over starting with the Spice Girls. They took that ‘girl power’ thing and commercialised it, making it into a pop avenue. You know what I’m saying? That was the first bastardisation of a ‘girl power’ kind of trip in my opinion. But I wasn’t twelve at the time. Maybe for a twelve year-old the Spice Girls were really fierce but I was in my thirties and I was like, “Oh God, what’s this?”.

Then it just sort of continued with pop taking on this fierce woman trip even though none of them are wearing pants, you know what I mean? They’ll show a lot of skin which is fine, that’s their bag. It just seems kind of cookie cutter to me. They’re all very beautiful, sexy women but I don’t know what kind of message that’s sending to younger girls and I don’t know if they’ve got a Kim Deal to look up to these days. The ‘Kim Deals’ of the world are important too, even more important in my opinion.

What do you do when you’re not playing music, do you have any secret hobbies? 

I don’t. I’m a cat lady, I love cats! I love animals in general. I hang out with my friends and I like to snorkel when I’m on vacation…that’s kind of my main joy other than music, I suppose. I don’t collect and I don’t have hobbies. I think of creative ideas very often but I have a little problem with follow through (laughs). That’s about it. I don’t cook either nor do I sew (laughs). 

What is essentially the heart of L7?

I think at this point we’re just really happy to see our fans and they’re really happy to see us. We’re not really a part of a major label and we don’t have major management behind us, we’re just a very small unit of friends…the band and our crew, which is very small, and we’re just travelling around. Other than that we’re not really attached to any current scenes or anything. It’s just this weird sort of feeling but it’s a very powerful feeling and we don’t need those big entities behind us. It’s just us and a Facebook page, really. It’s the whole ball of wax!

L7 2016 Australian Tour Dates (UPDATED)

THU 6 OCT
Capitol Fremantle, Perth
FRI 7 OCT
The Gov, Adelaide
TUE 11 OCT
170 Russell, Melbourne (SOLD OUT)
WED 12 OCT
170 Russell, Melbourne
FRI 14 OCT
Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
SAT 15 OCT
Metro Theatre, Sydney

Get Tickets HERE