Switchblade Kittens

By Alex Teitz

Punk is about breaking the rules. If that axiom stands The Switchblade Kittens are why it was written. This LA band has two bassists, attitude and a demo that has received more attention than many others complete CDs. The Switchblade Kittens have also received tremendous college airplay through incredible work. FEMMUSIC was lucky to have a few e-mail minutes with Drama, the lead cat. The name of the demo is Hey Punk Try Heroines. The website is switchbladekittens.com

FEMMUSIC:  Describe your songwriting technique? How does a song form with the band?

D: Either Pep or I will bring in a basic song idea, and then flush it out (or down the toilet).  Then we bring it to band rehearsal and Raina and Bliss will ad bass and drum parts.  Then Drama the control freak goes back and re-arranges the song. Finally, the band members threaten to beat up Drama if she changes the song one more time. Wa-la song is finished.

FEMMUSIC: Switchblade Kittens is a two bass band. What benefits does that bring to the band?

D: We don’t have to deal with an egomaniac lead guitarist.

FEMMUSIC:  I saw in the band bio that you once paid for radio airplay. Would you do that again, and was it worth it?

D: Ummmmm…nope.  What we did was, we decided to pool our money together which was $500 and make the “Titanic song” a CD single.  So we sent the CD single out to college stations and they played it.  When a major label sends out a song they send them in CD single form, we knew it would be a dead giveaway if we sent our whole CD, so we took the extra time and money to look professional.  It worked we are played on over 300 stations. We never payed a DJ to play us, we just called and begged a lot.

FEMMUSIC:  What was the best experience making HEY PUNK TRY HEROINES?

D: We made a CD!  We did it! WE MADE A CD! Yaaaaaaaaaaayyy!

FEMMUSIC:  What was the biggest challenge making HEY PUNK TRY HEROINES?

D: As a pop/punk band we are DIY, we had never had to deal with a click track before, but my drummer did amazingly well, thank the goddess she had natural sense of timing. She rehearses with a metronome now. Also having to record on my birthday. That sucked. And it set in this annoying karma where for the past three years whether it is a soundtrack or just Switchblade Kittens I have had to spend EVERY SECOND of my birthday in the studio. August 16th should be declared a Drama-free studio day.  

FEMMUSIC:  What one thing would you like to change about the music industry itself?

D: We need more women in the behind the scenes jobs, more female A&Rs, label honchos, producers and sound engineers. When Maverick was primarily female, they really got behind Alanis Morisette and women almost took over the industry during that time. Viva la revolution. Viva la vagina.

FEMMUSIC:  As a woman in the music industry have you been discriminated against?

D: I actually had one male A&R say, “I have to see you live to make sure you girls are really playing your instruments.”  Not “I want to see if you have a good live show,” but we need to make sure you are REALLY playing.  I would like to point out that Milli Vanilli was two GUYS!  It never fails, as soon as someone important in the industry is interested in us the first thing we get asked is “How old are you girls?” and “How much do you weigh?”  Never fails.  No one would ask me that if I had a penis.

FEMMUSIC:  What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

D: If you are in it for the money, leave. Never give up, no matter what; in this business the meanest survivor wins NOT the most talented. Have something like an image or shtick that makes you stick out, there are a million jeans and black t-shirt bands out there.  (My Irish Catholic mum told me this) Don’t get pregnant and go to college.