Interview: Helena Torstensson - Dragoncat
Photo: Martina Tornemyr - Ravenheart

The Donnas are an American all-female hard rock band from Palo Alto, California. All band members were born in 1979 and as best friends they formed the band in eighth grade. First they called themselves Ragady Anne and played mostly covers by REM, Shonen Knife and The Muffs. After a while they changed their name to The Electrocutes and later they took the name The Donnas. Since the debut 1998 they have released 6 albums on 3 different record labels (Super*teem, Lookout! Records and Atlantic Records). 2007 they started their own record company - Purple Feather Records and released their 7th album "Bitchin´" on their own label. The band members are Brett Anderson on vocals, Allison Roberts on guitar, Maya Ford on bass and Torry Castellano on drums. I had a good time doing this interview with a cool and laid back Maya Ford. 

Venia: How would you like to introduce your band to the Croatian audience?
Maya Ford: Well we have been together for 15 years so I think we are seasoned war rockers, we are loud and fun and when we play live we like to be really crazy and get really sweaty - we don't hold back!

Venia: What is the story behind your name?
Maya Ford: Well actually it's a silly story, when I was really young I got/found a the McDonalds happy meal and I really liked the logo and like arranged the letters and kind of got up with Donna we use that cause we had another band going at the time called The Electrocutes so we kind of felt like yeah Donna is kind of dorky but we kind of played dorky music so we have that name or whatever. It was just a joke but then it stuck. 

Venia: What or whom inspires you when you write/create music?
Maya Ford: I really like Elton John, Kiss and Cinderella I just love a lot of bands and listen to allot of music when I try to write. I also like and get inspired by being on tour with other bands, playing shows. When we write songs we want them to be fun to play live so we try and write a song that has really good hocks that the audience can sing along to. We also get inspired by boys that broke our hearts and stuff like that.

Venia: Do you have to be on a special mood?
Maya Ford: Yeah you can't just say like "I'm going to write a song" and then like write a song it comes to you in strange ways. Like when you are stuck at the traffic light after working a long day and it is like suddenly something is on your mind. It will pop up in your head and you write it down. A lot of times after late nights out drinking heavily and when I wake up in the morning with the hangover and you are still drunk and you can be really creative and have some ideas. And allot of times when we get together in Allison's house and just sit there for hours doing snacks and just talking about what the lyrics should be about. We have an idea but we really like to form a song with the music that we have already written and then trying to fit other words and make it perfectly, we all help with
creating the music.

Venia: What drives you and makes you keep working with music?
Maya Ford: It's really exciting to go to different countries all the time for free. If I were not in this band I would never have been to Brazil, Australia or New Zeeland so that is really exciting. We kind of feel like pirates! I would never want to have a normal job and work at the coffee shop and be a waitress. I don't know how I ever could do that! When you get up on the stage live and you play a really good show and the crowd is all cheering with their arms waving up in the air. That is why you keep going because you want to like have another great show. 

Venia: What can you tell me about your latest record Bitchin´?
Maya Ford: It's my favorite record that we have made this far and has a really cool album cover. We were trying to make something that sounded like it should be played in the stadiums. We went back to listen to the things we listened to when we were younger like Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol and Def Leppard. Music that is awesome and timeless.

Venia: How is it different form your other records?
Maya Ford: I think with Bitchin we finally got all instruments to sound a little more like we wanted, like we have gotten better we have found a really good producer that knew how to make it sound how we wanted. The backing vocals sounded like we are in a real band and we have gotten better at writing songs. We wrote allot more songs for this record so we weeded out all the bad ones. The record is different, it's more like a masterpiece and we put allot of more time into it. We were not rushed to make it, to be recorded it was still on our own time.

Venia: What is different now that you have your own record company?
Maya Ford: Now we have like lots of more decisions to make and more power.So we can do exactly what we want. Now that we don't have a record label or anyone that gives us the money we have to find other ways to make money. That means that we are playing crazy shows all over the place. In the future we might be able to put out another band on our record company.We also keep talking about putting out something by us but under another name, like a weird side project or something. And it's just nice now that we don't have to go to meetings with a bunch of people that work for a label that you don't really like or know. When we were changing all the time and we had to talk to all these people and they did not get you and now it's like we got ourselves and we know how and what we want to get marked in and stuff like that. 

Venia: Which song/songs move you most on that record?
Maya Ford: I really like "What do I have to do to make you want me" I think that was one of the first songs that I wrote and It's about this guy that I was obsessed with, he was my friend but nothing ever happened I was never his girlfriend and it was really annoying and frustrating. That song means something to me and it is funny when that guy comes to our shows now that we are playing and he is like sorry and I was like haha I wrote an evil song about you! *laugh*

Venia: Which song/ songs do you look forward to play live?
Maya Ford: "Better of dancing" we just started playing it a couple of months ago and it's really fast and has this drive going. It's fun and it does not slow down or anything. Also "Save Me" it's really good it's kind of a little slower but it's like really powerful and "Smoke you our" it's really fun to play.

Venia: How do you warm up before a show?
Maya Ford: Well usually we have our ipods and speakers and have like a little dance party backstage, make some vodka drinks. We also say like a little motivational prayer every night just before we go on stage we do a cheer and Allison says something in Hebrew.

Venia: How do you choose the songs for your set list?
Maya Ford: Usually when we are on tour we have like two set lists and we alternate them every night. We just play the ones that we like the best and the ones that the crowd likes. We like playing the newer ones much more than the older songs you know looking back 10 years ago sometimes we are like how did we ever do that? They are a little sillier than the newer stuff and we have been playing them for so many times. We have allot more new material in our set but we also like space it out and put some older songs in between the newer songs. Its not all just new songs. we make shore that we have some slower songs in the middle so we don't get too tired.

Venia: What is music to you, what does music mean?
Maya Ford: It's like my best friend, to where I can escape from all my problems. If you are having a really bad day you can always turn on your favorite album and like forget about things and it can like bring you up.It relaxes me because it takes me away.

Venia: How early did you realize that you wanted to be a musician?
Maya Ford: I don't know I think I was 4 probably. I had this book called "All about me" and it was questions in it about what you want to be when you grow up. I filled it in on pop star. I loved to dress up and I loved Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. I also listened to Elvis allot and the first time I heard music I was like this is what I like and I want to know how to do that.

Venia: Was it obvious that you should play bas?
Maya Ford: No not really, first wanted to sing. When I meet Allison and we were really into REM and so my cousin gave me a guitar. I tried to play but I was really bad at it and it was like a crappy acoustic guitar. I got a book about how to play guitar but I was not good and then I was like "Allison why don't you play it since your dad plays guitar and I play bas" I was thinking bas is cool, it has less strings and it will be easier. So I am the bass player and I always have a cool vibe to them. *laugh*

Venia: Which artist or band have had the most inspiration on creative work in the beginning of you career and which are now?
Maya Ford: Well I think R.E.M. really inspired me and us to even start at band and then we really liked All 7 and Join the knife. We did covers on their songs on our first shows because we did not know how to write yet. So I think they really inspired us and we also Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe and George Michael. All the stuff that was on Mtv when we were kids.

Venia: What do you listen to now?
Maya Ford: We still listen to the same stuff we just like have a wider knowledge about music Rolling stones, Beatles, Pulp, Blur and I really like AMI

Venia: Any music that you hate and cant stand?
Maya Ford: Yeah it's like allot of music that I can't stand mainly everything that is played on the radio I don't like it, it sounds really bad.

Venia: If you could change one thing about your career this far what would you choose?
Maya Ford: I would make it so that we made bigger singles, that we were allot richer, sold allot more albums.

Venia: If you were hit by a car and lie dying on the ground - but you got to sing one song that people would remember you for, a song that would sum up you which song would that be?
Maya Ford: "I am still standing" with Elton John I really like that song and sometime when I wake up I start singing it really loud!

Venia: Do you have any message to your fans?
Maya Ford: Just hi I can't wait to come to Croatia! Thanks for buying our albums! Come to our show if we ever go there!

Venia: Thank you so much for your time!

For more information about The Donnas please visit: www.thedonnas.com