Issue #2

by Rijn Collins

Could you describe the members of Lady!Die and your relationship to each other?
Mandy and I became friends when we were about 16 years old. I guess we have been best friends ever since, and we’ve been trying to get a band started ever since too. Besides that, juicy detail, Mandy happens to be my boyfriend’s (for over 6 years) sister, so we’re kinda like sisters-in-law too. Not long after we met Ruth, somewhere in ‘99, Mandy asked her to come play in the band. Until then, the two of us had been struggling with a drum-computer, but having a real drummer was even better.

The three of us clicked, there was electricity going on between us, and by now, I may call Ruth one of my closest friends too. We all have people around us, friends and lovers and family, but my two girls have a very special place in my heart. I know they feel the same way about me, cause we tell each other over & over!

Did you intend to form an all female band, or did it just happen that way?
It just happened that way. Just like it happens to bands with boys that they’re all boys. I’m extremely feminist in my thinking, but I would never intentionally pick and choose girls for my band. I’d take the ones with heart and soul for music, no matter who or what they are.

When did you first learn to play your instrument? Do you remember how it felt?
I started playing an instrument when I was 5 years old, I started playing piano. I loved making music from a very young age, and lots of people told me I had a talent going on too. When I was 11, I got myself a Spanish guitar, just like that. Not long after I started taking lessons and again people told me I absolutely had talent. This felt so wonderful. At school, I was awful at math and chemistry and especially gymnastics, but finally I found something I was good at after all!! I loved it. I know that Mandy started playing at the age of 12 or something. She’s damn lucky cause she has a dad who plays professionally in bands and all, so technically, she’s a lot better than me. It wasn’t necessarily on those grounds, but we did decide it would be better if I was to play bass in the band. And by now, the bass-guitar has grown on me, it’s a wonderful instrument, you’re kind of like the glue between the drums and the guitar. The bass goes along with the melody of the guitar, but also carries the rhythm of the drums. It took me a while to find that out, but I sure appreciated my instrument more after that. Ruth also used to play from a very young age, the flute. She started playing in bands as a drummer around the age of 17 and like me, has a classical background. Her dad professionally played piano.

Do you regard this band as basically a fun past-time, or do you plan to make a living this way?
I only WISH we could make a living out of it. Hell yeah, if we could get ourselves a good and fair record-deal, we’d all drop school and work and go for it, definitely. Rock n roll baby!

What is the reaction of many men who come to see you perform?
They are stunned. The three of us are fragile little girls to see, but when we get onstage, we’ll go crazy and your ears will ring for hours afterwards, hehe. Many men are scared away, but the cool ones come talk to us and express their feelings about it, they don’t even have to like our music.

Do you view the band as punk, metal, or a mix of the two?
A mix. Our first c.d. is very very punky, but we’re totally going into a different direction. I guess we’re a mixture of some punk, mainly metal and some hardcore now. Also some noise influences, cause Mandy used to listen to Sonic Youth a lot and together we drool over the wonderful riffs Sleater-Kinney writes.

Why the name?
My boyfriend made it up. We loved it and used it right away. We started giving meaning to our name later on, like “death to how society views women and their role within that society”, stuff like that.

Who writes the songs?
We all do. It used to be like, one had a riff and one person had lyrics and we’d put that together. But nowadays, the songs magically appear when we are jamming in our rehearsal space. I guess 2 1/2 years of playing together made that we’re totally leveled now. Now, when we have a song ready, I usually ask them what they are feeling when playing this song: is it angry, melodramatic, happy or sad? Are there any topics we wish to write about at this particular moment? And sometimes, someone just wrote an entire lyric in an angry or depressed or happy mood, and we’ll use that.

Who are your musical inspirations?
Too much to mention. I listen to riot grrrl and metal, hardcore and crust. I listen to Bob Marley and I listen to Nina Simone. Both my girls have a very wide interest for music too. Ruth and Mandy both listen to drum n bass a lot. A good musician with heart and soul for his/her music, inspires me anyway, no matter what s/he makes. But if I want to get inspired for some good riffs, I love listening to Soulfly, Sepultura, Machine Head, Slayer, Kittie and My Ruin, and oh so many more. I guess you wanted names, so here you have them

Can you remember a favourite gig? A least favourite?
Favorite, Ladyfest Scotland. Absolutely. There was magick going on there, and we prepared it for months. Least favorite, I guess the gig we played on Poland. Not because of the setting and the people, but because we were dead tired after a 22 hour bus-ride, and we just wanted to get some sleep.

You’ve recorded a CD (”Time for change”, 2001) but are no longer happy with it. Could you tell us why? Do you have plans for more recording?
Cause it doesn’t sound like who we are anymore. We don’t make and play all those punky songs. We’re louder and groovier now, so that’s why I’m not happy about the c.d. It doesn’t really represent us anymore, though we still send it around. Right now we’re doing some recordings, three songs, they’ll mainly be for promotion, I don’t think we’ll make a c.d. out of it. We do have plans for recording a 12″ though!

You’ve had supporting slots with Bratmobile, had your music on compilations with Brazilian and Japanese bands, and have just returned from doing gigs in Poland. What do you hope for the future of Lady!Die?
To make a new website, to record new songs and most important, to write new songs!!

Discography
October 2000: demo “Time for Change”. Contains 8 songs.
2002: split 7″ with two Brazilian and one Japanese band. One song.

All questions above are answered by me, Hilde, bassist of Lady!Die. My opinions may not necessarily reflect those of the other bandmembers, I’m not a representation of the whole band. Lady!Die consists out of three individuals, and all our opinions are valid and important. Our three personalities is what the band is about.