BABES IN BOYLAND (w/ Out of the Box)
The Donnas : Seattle, Graceland (02.17.2001).


In the cozy Graceland backstage on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Alisha, Derin and I sit around the table with the Donnas. Although they have just 'turned 21', no alcohol is served (just yet) and the ususal abundance of vegetables and dip cover the table. In the background, The Bratmobile are doing there soundcheck, which completed the painting with a very nice soundtrack. The girls introduce the selves and their instruments: Donna C plays the drum, Donna A sings, Donna F plays bass and Donna R plays guitar.

OotB/Bib : What is the signification of the letters ?
The Donnas : They are the fist letter of our last name. Everyone think mine is 'fuck', but it's not…

OftB/Bib : So how did you come up with 'the Donnas'. Does it make any kind of reference to bands such as the Ramones or something ?
The Donnas : It came as kind of a joke, really. We were in a band at that time, acalled the Electrocutes, so we were doing that and at the same time a side project. We thought about the McDonald's 'Happy Meal', you know their messing around with the Flintstones and all that? and the letters got rearanged, which came up as the Donnas and that's how it all started, really. We didn't really think that much about it. It was not like 'ok, we're going to do this Ramones thing, you know where you have the names on the shirts. The shirt kind of came later. It all seemed like a joke when we came up with it and then it stuck, because people seemed to like it a lot, I don't know.

OotB/Bib : I was wondering what your stanze on Napster was ? Since it's such a Hot Topic right now.
The Donnas : I don't really have a problem about it. Metallica is crazy for being so upset about it, because they're so rich anyway, so why would they care ? I heard some people heard us on napster and they want to buy our album. I guess it depends on what band you are. Some bands make money without it, some bands do better with it. Like for smaller bands, it's better because more people hear it, but then for bigger bands it might cut in their record sales, but we're small, so we don't worry about that..

Oot/Bib : I can't use it anyway, my computer is so slow.
The Donnas : Yes, it takes like the whole day to actually download what you need. Yeah, we're not the type of people that would waste they time doing that, we're more the type of people who like record covers. It's a lot better to have a little packet.
But I mean if someone doesn't care about that, it's their problem and they are free to use Napster. But you know, they can also just tape it from their friends… it's the same.

OotB/Bib : So after this interview we can just go home and download a bunch of stuff from the Donnas ? (laugh)
The Donnas : (laugh) Well, I am sure people will do it anyway, even when it's forbidden. You can't stop them. And besides, some people can't get our record where they live, so it's better that they get our songs from Napster than not hearing us at all.. I'd rather have people that know our songs, you know Then they'll come to the show! If there was proof that people only get our albums out of the internet and nobody bought records, then I would hate Napster. But I mean our records sell pretty good, so…

OotB/Bib : How did you end up on LookOut !?
The Donnas : Well, we heard about it for a long time that they were gonna sign us. We used to think it was gonna happen on certain show, because we knew like Chris, or Mollie (you know, the president and the general manager there) or both of them were going to be there. Finally Derin Ofali, the guy that we started the Donnas with, and this other guy sat down and talked about the deal and stuff.

OotB/Bib : I heard that you guys don't write your own music, is that true ?
The Donnas : No. I mean the first three singles were written by this guy, Derin, we were working with.People seem to assume that young girls working with an older man was just to make money. The Donnas were then a side project bands, and we had writtten songs before, so it was not like we were a new band that had never written songs. Everybody is now saying 'oh, he was controlling you, you guys are puppets', but he was a friend, it was more of a collaboration. We hung out with him all the time. And it gets really annoying, you know, even now. Because we don't have anything to do with him anymore, except for friendship. And if people think that girls can't write songs without other people, then they have a problem.
I didn't think it was a big deal at the time. We had already written so many songs then. Besides, we never had like this master plan. We would go like 'yeah, let's make this single with Derin, it will be fun. We never think anyone would actually buy it. Yeah, even he was just writing those songs with us for fun Any way to get anything out with your name on it, or with your face on it was cool. So we already had one single out with our own band and wee were like 'well, he's going to put it out and we'll have to play th songs, but I mean, it's just something else to give your friends and say 'hey look, I've got two records now!' It was really fun to go and hang out with him it was good to go after hours and like play those songs. But I don't think we ever thought that people actually would buy it, you know. It was strange too because when we stopped working with him, it was kind of odd to see him just out of necessity people who would see ourshirt would think it was some kind of novelty act, saying we were wearing costumes, you're working with this pupeteer. So when we stopped working with him, everybody was like'yeah, you finally kicked his ass', but we were like'God, this is just so notlikethat, you know' And beside what outside people, those who don't know him, don't know is that this guy writes songs for many other people too. Like all his friends' bands. He put out lots of other singles too. That's why it didn't seem weird, because it was a whole group of people who did it. I don't really understand why we got singled out like this.


> page 2