Discorder Interview
By Steve and Mike
Having just finished their cross country tour with Alice Donut, they are currently recording a song for the 'Mad Love' movie soundtrack (they play live in the movie) and then it's back to the studio to write the new album.
We interviewed 7 Year Bitch's bassist Elizabeth Davis in October just before they played a grinding set at the Town Pump with Alice Donut.
Discorder: Where are you on your tour?
Elizabeth: I guess it's been about two and a half weeks, we're just over the
midway point right now. We have four more dates in Canada, and
then we go back to the midwest and the eastcoast. After that we
have to drive all the way back from NY to Seattle with no shows!
Discorder: How's the tour going so far?
Elizabeth: I think this is the best tour we've done. It's been the most fun.
Every tour it gets better and better.
Discorder: Do you get male groupies at your shows?
Elizabeth: Yeah, we get male and female groupies. 'Groupies' is such a
derogatory term though, I think of them as fans. If a guy is a
big fan and he wants to show his appreciation then usually
they'll do it by helping us load equipment, which is always
welcome! It"s not as overt as, like, 'I want to have sex with
the singer!!!', although in letter form it sometimes is!
Discorder: So you don"t get boxer shorts thrown on stage or anything?!
Elizabeth: No, we've had a couple of guys take their pants down, but that's
about it! That happens at L7 shows all the time.
Discorder: On to your new album, 'Viva Zapata'. Are you happy with it?
Elizabeth: I like all the songs a lot and I think it's musically advanced
from the first album. It's different because it's a different
guitar player — Roisin and Stefanie are really different in
style. I think it could've sounded better, but you could always
say that about a record.
Discorder: Who did you work with and where did you record it?
Elizabeth: We recorded it in Seattle with Jack Endino. We chose him because
the album that we liked the sound of most was the first Nirvana
album, 'Bleach', which he produced. He's also done some stuff
with Mudhoney and Soundgarden. We really liked his style and
he's a really nice guy,too.
Discorder: You titled the album 'Viva Zapata'. Obviously Mia's death had a
big impact on you?
Elizabeth: Yeah. I mean, she was one of our best friends. When we first
started we played all of our shows with Mia's band 'The Gits'.
Her death has changed all our lives irrevocably — not just
because she was one of our best friends, but because she was
raped and murdered. (On that night) we were all at this bar, the
Comet, hanging out together and talking about the tour we were
supposed to be doing together. Then we all went home from the
bar and Mia was picked up and killed. As a result of that it's
made us all a lot more afraid of familiar places. You never know
— I mean, you know that every few minutes someone is raped, but
when it happens to someone close to you that's when you realize
'this is a really dangerous place that I live in'. It's had a
big effect on the whole music community in Seattle. Mia was
beloved. A very talented and loved person. That's why we
dedicated the record to her.
Discorder: Are the fundraisers (in support of the case costs) still
happening?
Elizabeth: The investigation is still pending and the Seattle music community
has been supporting it completely. Nirvana was the first band to
do a benefit for it. Since then all kinds of bands in Seattle
have been supporting Mia's fund. Valerie, our drummer, started
Home Alive, which is a group dedicated to helping people defend
themselves and to making people aware that they need to take self
defense; that they need to take precautions in their lives so
that this doesn't happen to them.
Discorder: In the song, Hip Like Junk, you touch on the subject of drugs and
drug addiction. Is that something that concerns you?
Elizabeth: Yeah. I hate heroin. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of people doing
heroin who think its cool. I've had friends die and friends
who've ripped me off. It's stupid. I'm not against recreational
drug use because I support it — I smoke pot and I drink. But I
think that heroin is beyond recreational drug use.
Roisin: Selene likes to make the point that the song's not about
Stefanie, but about the drug itself.
Discorder: Was it a concious decision to be an all female band?
Elizabeth: We all knew each other from around and we all had never played
anything, so we figured that we'd just jam together. You hardly
ever meet a guy who just started playing. It seems like most
guys have been playing since they were twelve! When you meet
women (players), a lot of them have just started playing, and so
that was the main reason why we all started playing together, we
were all at the same level.
Discorder: Do you feel that the media microscope has lightened up any towards
female musicians?
Elizabeth: Sometimes. I think it lightens up and then sometimes there's a
media rash on women in rock. Like right now there's the Rolling
Stone issue and the thing in Playboy this month.
Discorder: Playboy!?!
Elizabeth: Yeah! This is how Playboy magazine describes 7 Year Bitch:
'Gothic Vampires riding on the flannel shirt tails of grunge.'!!!
It was a really poorly written article about all the musicians
and they didn't even say who wrote it!