BONNIE DOON Happy 2017! For our first post of the year, we spoke with Bonnie Doon (BD) band members Lesley and Gina. We reflected back on the huge year that 2016 was for the band, and looked forward to an equally successful start to 2017. Catch them playing the Megaphono Festival in February and read on to learn more about the band.
VITALS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BonnieDoon666/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/148295885
YouTube: http://bit.ly/2ibp5cT
BandCamp: https://bonniedoon.bandcamp.com/
Latest release: Pants and a Face (Single, Mar 2016)
Upcoming shows: Megaphono Festival, February 1-3, 2017. Ottawa, ON.
SA: How did Bonnie Doon start as a band? BD: Lesley and Gina kinda joked about starting a band when they met back in 2012. We had virtually no experience (Lesley had a short-lived Pixies cover band project in university, does that count?) and a handful of random instruments including a bass guitar, a 16mm film projector with a mic input, a set of coconuts and a wheezy 2 octave organ that takes 30 minutes to warm up. Along with some mutual encouragement somehow this was enough to start scrapping together ideas. We recruited Lesley’s long-time pal Madison to join and she ditched her acoustic guitar for an electric one. Then we discovered a unicorn aka a drummer without a band, her name was The Drummer aka Keltie Duncan.
SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? Gina: I listen to a lot of Velvet Underground and the Slits are pretty influential to me, Cate le Bon is a more current artist that I admire greatly. Lesley: Flipper.
SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? BD: We got to play Bluesfest this summer which was pretty rad! Last year we toured to the east coast and also to Detroit which was amazing.
SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? BD: This is the first band we've played in (for the most part). So in a sense everything has kind of been a challenge; from learning to play instruments, figuring out how to get the sound we want, writing songs, recording, caring for gear and equipment, booking shows, playing shows, stage fright, booking tours, making merch - pretty much every aspect of being in a band has brought some kind of new challenge. We're lucky to have great pals and mentors to guide us and we've figured out a thing or two on our own, too. Now that we have a few years under our belts we're happy to impart whatever wisdoms we possess onto musicians who are just starting out. We've been heavily involved in the Ottawa branch of the Rock Camp for Girls initiative over the last couple of years and it's been really great. Being a part of a larger group of self-taught rocker woman has been just as empowering for us as it is for the campers. So inspiring!
SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process? BD: It's a very collaborative process, we jam every week and sometimes a song comes out of it and sometimes it's just a lot of noise/experimentation. Our songs are meant to be fun/not too serious and that kind of explains our approach, too.
SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? Gina: Some of my favorite bands are from Ottawa! But this city needs more (small and mid-size) venues. Lesley: Also it's always changing which is siiiiick.
SA: Does Pizza Shark (the company) like Pizza Shark (the song)? How did you guys arrange for that video in their shop? And I don't mean to go off track completely here, but what IS the best pizza in Ottawa? Gina: I don't think Pizza Shark (the company) gives a fuck about anything, pizza included, much less our video/song. We called them up and asked if we could film our music vid in their shop and they agreed but only if they didn't have to close for the shoot. So we ended up filming on a Sunday afternoon while they remained open and there were definitely random people showing up to get their large pepperonis or whatever. If you look closely in the video, you can see the Pizza Shark dudes making dough in the back. As for best pizza in town, depends who you ask. I'm pretty loyal to Lorenzo's. Lesley: Best pizzzza in Ottawa: Bronson > mushroom pineapple ;).
SA: You guys graced the stages of many high-profile Ottawa festivals this past summer. The 2016 Ottawa Bluesfest, the 2016 Arboretum Festival and the 2016 Ottawa Explosion Weekend - how did those festival shows go? Gina: This summer was great for us! Ottawa Explosion is like punk rock summer camp and Arboretum is a great addition to the roster of festivals in Ottawa. As for Bluesfest, it was a bit of a trip, I mean we could never actually afford to attend Bluesfest as patrons so to get to play on a huge stage and experience a festival on that scale was cool. Lesley: Arboretum was shockingly amazing. The fest is pretty great but that night at Babylon there were some crazy fans there and crazy new fans especially after we tried to wing "Eye of the Tiger" in an effort to do our own impromptu I Cant Believe Its Not tribute.
SA: On Halloween, you guys released a video for Pants and a Face. When can fans expect a new release from you guys? BD: We're working on it! We're hoping to get our record on the shelves (and in the hands of fans) in early 2017. Shout out to wizard Phil Osborne for making the raddest music vid for us - you nailed it!
SA: Finally, what comes next for Bonnie Doon as we move forward in 2017 and into the future? Good luck and thank you for doing this! BD: Coming up right away in 2017 you can catch us playing Megaphono which is shaping up to be super rad based on the line-up that was released in December. We'd like to do a bit more touring in the new year (need to sell that album!) but mostly we just wanna keep making weird art punk music.
