THE INDUSTRY REPORT # 17 | A CONVERSATION WITH L7’s DONITA SPARKS
THE INDUSTRY REPORT # 17
A Conversation with Donita Sparks
April 25, 2024 by Traci Turner
Growing up in SoCal, I was spoiled by having KROQ and 91X to introduce me to amazing music. While I know other major cities had similar stations, Nashville apparently did not. In fact, many would say Nashville was still a “small” town until 15ish years ago. All that to say, when I tell my Nashville friends who I am going to interview, I usually get a “Who?”
This week I expected the typical responses, but when I said, “I’m going to talk to Donita Sparks from L7,” not only did my Gen X friends flip out, the 20-somethings were excited and began naming off L7 tracks. L7 not only kicked ass “back in the day,” but continues to do so, gaining new fans of every generation.
When L7 spawned out of Los Angeles in 1985, the all-female punk rock band stormed the “boy’s club” of the music industry. They were often grouped in with the grunge movement that was skyrocketing at the time, and even did a stint with the legendary Sub Pop records, opening shows for fellow Sub Pop act, Nirvana.
But it was their 1992 album, “Bricks Are Heavy,” produced by the legendary Butch Vig, that spawned their mega hit “Pretend We’re Dead.” L7 then gained fame via alternative rock radio stations and found a place in the top 10 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart.
The band would release more albums, play the quintessential ‘90s gig of Lollapalooza, and tour the world, but took a hiatus in 2001. Lucky for us, they regrouped in 2014 and have been back at it ever since. With Donita Sparks on lead vocals and guitar, Suzi Gardner also on guitar, Jennifer Finch on bass, and Demetra Plakas bashing the drums, they are in top form, and continuing to be the badass women who are neither shy nor quiet about their music or their beliefs.
As for what’s up with L7 lately, they dropped “Scatter the Rats” in 2019, their first album in 20 years. They are still celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Bricks Are Heavy.” What else do they have in the works? Some big stuff! (Concert! Singles!) Fortunately, the one and only Donita Sparks had some time to chat before L7 heads out on tour.
Traci: What are you up to today?
Donita: I’ve been doing some interviews for the upcoming touring and et cetera, et cetera. Just screwing around, mostly.
Traci: I know that’s not exactly fun, so hopefully this will be painless.
Donita: That’s a big promise! (laughing) I actually don’t mind it very much, talking to people. It’s not bad. It could be worse!
Traci: Excellent then! First off, happy belated birthday! (Sparks’ birthday was April 8, the day of the eclipse)
Donita: Thank you!
Traci: I’m glad we could move the sun and moon for you.
Donita: Yeah, right!
Traci: Last year, you guys toured a bunch. Australia and US In Your Space tour. Now you’re getting ready to do it again. You’ve got your tour, some cool festivals, like Sonic Temple and Welcome to Rockville, plus you have a Foo Fighters date in there.
Donita: Yes. Last year we also did South America, which was great. That was in November and then Australia in December. So, yeah, this year we’re going to hit the East Coast and as you said, do some festivals, including the ones you just mentioned, and No Values in Pomona. After that, we go to Europe for just a few dates and come back.
Traci: No Values, on June 8th, I really wanted to talk to you about that one because that’s an amazing lineup. All those punk bands, like Misfits, and Social D, and Iggy Pop. There’s just so many! Is there anybody that you’re looking forward to seeing?
Donita: Well, I always love seeing Iggy. He’s one of the best front-people ever, and so I would say Iggy. I’m looking forward to seeing the Viagra Boys. I like them a lot. And of course, Social Distortion never disappoint because their songs are so damn good. And Mike Ness is still easy on the eyes, in my opinion.
Traci: Agreed! And he sounds great since his recovery!
Donita: Yeah, and he sounds good. Yeah, I like those guys. There will be a lot of new bands. There’s a newish band called Scowl I’m looking forward to seeing, and just a whole bunch.
Traci: When you guys started, it was a bit more sexist in the music industry. When you play these festivals – and you don’t have to name names – but are there any bands that back then were jerks to you, and now you can be like, “Ha suck it!”
Donita: Well, we never really got the gruff from the guys in other bands. That’s not where the problem was. The problem was with the guys wearing the suits and the guys calling the shots and the gatekeepers, some radio programmers. Those were the problem. Guys in bands, most of them really liked L7.
She continued, I think a lot of them just thought that we were fresh on the scene, and we were different. I think a lot of bands appreciate something unique in a new act, which is what we had. So, yeah, I never felt a negative creep vibe from… I mean, if I did, it was so fleeting that it didn’t really affect me much from another band. But usually, I feel like we got a lot of support from other bands, at least in the punk scene and the grunge scene. Now, and quite frankly, the metal guys I knew, too, were into L7. It’s cool because we’re still welcome into those tribes, which are very loyal, loyal tribes, especially the punk and metal ones. So we play a lot of festivals within those genre scenes.
Traci: Well, that’s awesome to hear, then. I’m glad there are no bands that I have to suddenly hate.
Donita: I really can’t. And normally I remember! I really can’t think of anything coming from any specific dude or band with dudes in it.
Traci: Plus, you guys can actually play your instruments, write songs and perform them. You were not just girls putting on a show; you have the talent.
Donita: Well, I think maybe we were refreshing because we weren’t really performing for the male gaze. And I think that maybe was done a lot in some of those scenes back in the day, especially the metal scene. But I think that we were just something different.
Traci: I know we can’t label a whole generation totally, but as a Gen X, I feel a lot of women my age had to tolerate a lot of stuff that guys do. I feel the younger generations of women are just so badass and won’t take it. I have noticed the crowd at L7 shows last year included a lot of young women. All this to ask, or, I am basically asking you to confirm for me and give me hope that, yes, these young women today are indeed badass.
Donita: Yeah, I would say the young people in general. We also have a lot of trans fans, which is wild, and something that I’m particularly proud of, actually. I think people feel it’s pretty comfortable at our shows that other L7 fans are going to have their backs if anything weird goes down. And it has occasionally, and it’s taken care of swiftly, sometimes by security, but most of the time by other fans. So that is cool. And we have a lot of young fans. We also have a lot of older fans. So everybody that knows where we stand on some political and cultural things. There’s just an understanding of what is acceptable at an L7 show or not.
Traci: You released “Scatter the Rats” in 2019, and that was the first new album in 20 years. In the fall you dropped the single, “Cooler Than Mars.” Do you have other new music that you are sitting on or you want to work on, or are you guys not in that mindset of, “We’ve got to do new stuff?”
Donita: Traci, I have so many unfinished masterpieces. (laughing) I mean, it’s just ridiculous, like bits and pieces and unfinished stuff. And of course, I’m being facetious when I say masterpieces, but I have a lot of unfinished material. And sometimes I just hit a wall and it’s like, fuck, I don’t know how to move forward with this track or with this song. But I’ll get back to it.
Donita continued, We’re going to put out a single or two this autumn because that is going to help us kick off our very own festival that we are putting together in LA for December. We’re going to start a “Fast and Frightening” festival curated by us. We feel there’s a niche that is not really being… There’s room for it, and I think it’ll be very cool. As I said, how L7 blurs the lines between metal and punk and grunge and art punk, that’s what we’re hoping This is going to be a blurred lines, genre-wise festival.
Traci: I think most true music lovers enjoy multiple genres.
Donita: I think what this festival will be is underground bands who are good or who are unique. And that’s what it’s going to be. It’s not going to be… Anyway, I’ll speak to you later on that, Traci, when it gets closer! (Note: OC Music News will share all the details when they are allowed to be released!)
Traci: Your last single, “Cooler Than Mars,” was inspired by climate change and billionaires. When you say you have all these bits of masterpieces in process, what inspired them?
Donita: Sometimes I’m inspired by anger. I think L7 have some anger anthems. We do it pretty well. We have quite a few of them, and we are known for them, like “Shitless” and “Shove” and “Fast and Frightening” and “Fuel My Fire.” So that inspires me.
She continued, Sometimes I’ll come up with a turn of a phrase or be commenting on something. It’s like, “Oh, that was pretty good, what just came out of my mouth,” and I’ll write it down. Then sometimes I’ll come back to that as a lyrics or a theme for a song. But most of the time, the way that I write, I write the music first, and then something will come to me to be the lyrical content of that music. I think a lot of people write the other way around, but that’s the way I write. I get inspired by the music to fit or write lyrics to it.
Traci: Creating music is so phenomenal to me, especially with computers. You have unlimited access to noise, and you could make anything! How do you just pick?
Donita: Hence the reason why I have so many unfinished masterpieces! Too many fucking options, really. And yet with all the options, I am still a terrible, terrible procrastinator. And it’s a weird, interesting thing about art, because writing a good song makes me very, very happy and very jazz. And when I’m dancing around the room to it, I love it. And yet I’ll do anything to avoid picking up a guitar or sitting down at my computer and firing up my Pro tools. And I’ve always been that way. It’s always been like, I need a deadline. It’s like in high school and in junior high. The term paper was looming for weeks, and the night before I’d be cramming it out. So that’s the way I work,
Traci: You work well under pressure.
Donita: Yeah. I think that I’ve got… Sometimes I work really hard, and sometimes I’ve got a not so good lazy streak. So, I need those deadlines. And that’s why sometimes when you don’t have a label anymore or you don’t have a management company anymore or a manager breathing down your neck for content and deadlines, time can go by. So that can happen.
Traci: My last question for you is super hard, and you got to think really hard about it.
Donita: Okay.
Traci: When you’re on the road and you’re touring, what is your go-to snack?
Donita: Well, let’s see. A go-to snack. It’s hummus with pretzels included, and it’s travel size. I take it on an airplane. It soothes the chimp-like necessity of hand to mouth, hand to mouth, dip it in, put it in your mouth. So it satisfies that primal thing. And, yes, so that is my go-to snack. I also like a banana and coconut water.
Traci: Oh, that’s so healthy.
Donita: You said snacks. So we’re not talking about alcohol or any of that stuff!
Traci: No, you’re like a real grown up! (laughing)
Donita: It did not used to be that way! It used to be microwave burritos from the mini mart, like when we’d be on the road, the van would stop, we’d get out of the van, I’d get a burrito. But now you got to keep it together!
We are so glad Donita and the rest of L7 are keeping it together and heading out on the road. If you are in SoCal, catch L7 in person at Pappy & Harriet’s on June 7th, or the epically cool No Values Fest on June 8th in Pomona.
They will be alongside Misfits, Social Distortion, Iggy Pop, Bad Religion, Sublime, Vandals, Fishbone, Turnstile, The Damned and more. Plus, new music in the fall and coming in December… L7’s Fast and Frightening Festival!
