Bradley Meinz
Donita Sparks
Issue #35
The former L7 frontwoman puts her tough-girl image to rest
By Amy Westervelt
Published: March 1st, 2008 | 12:27pm
A massive L7 fan in my youth, I was nervous to meet Donita Sparks, the band’s founder and frontwoman, who just released her first solo album, Transmiticate. But the nerves weren’t necessary. A few minutes late to meet at Amoeba in Hollywood, Sparks apologizes profusely, gold tooth gleaming, then pulls out a list of albums she wants to buy. “I had to come prepared; otherwise, I get totally overwhelmed in this place,” she says, then turns to ask the Amoeba info desk for someone with some World Music knowledge.
World Music? “I heard this really great song on Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW yesterday, and I want to find it.” With a little help we figure out that the song is “Cabral” by Orchestra Baobab off their Made in Dakar album. Amoeba only has a $28 import of the album but Sparks hangs on to it for now.
Next up, the Real Tuesday Weld, which Sparks also heard on KCRW. “I love that station and that show; and I am a subscriber, too. I want to support what they’re doing.”
Walking from World Music to Rock, I ask about her solo album. “I’ve been working on it for about three years,” she says. “I learned Pro Tools and I recorded a lot at my rehearsal studio and at home. By last year I had a ton of songs and I just needed to finish 11 or 12 of them and finish the album.”
Sparks found producer Ethan Allen, who helped her “plow through and get it finished in a way that tells the story that I wanted to tell with this album.”
Which is? “I don’t think I want to tell you, you know? It’s just totally personal and there are some things I think you have to keep for yourself. It’s a very spiritual album for me; that sounds pretentious,” Sparks says. “I guess I mean it was meaningful, the road to this album.”
We find the Real Tuesday Weld album Sparks is looking for — The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid, with the song “I Love the Rain” — in Amoeba’s “Used” section. “Do artists get royalties from these Used sales? How does that whole thing work?” she asks. “I mean, I want to support the artists. Especially these guys, ‘cause they’re alive. I could go rip this off the Internet if I didn’t want to support the artists.”
It’s a good question. I ask the surlier of the two Amoeba info guys, and he says that he’ll have to check with management for the official answer, but he’s 99.9% certain artists see no cut of the store’s secondhand-releases sales.
By this point, I find Sparks in the Pop Vocal section, with a Mills Brothers album in hand. “I love the song ‘Cab Driver’,” she says.
Last on the list is Beck’s Mutations. “I love every song on that album and I have it on vinyl, but I want it on CD,” she says. Beck is definitely still alive, Sparks points out, and he is one of her favorites, so she says she must buy the real deal, brand-new Mutations to support him. For The Real Tuesday Weld she says, “I feel bad, but I will come back and I will buy the real one of one of their other albums.”
And the import? “It’s a luxury spend, $28 for 11 tracks, but I’m gonna do it.” The four together pushes Sparks just a tad more than our $50 budget, but she manages to get everything on her list.
On our way out, we pause to take some Polaroids of Sparks outside the store and she chats about a recent contest she did on tour where she took Polaroids with fans, signed them, and then randomly selected one to win her guitar. As the photo shoot ends, Sparks becomes uncharacteristically anxious. “It’s just that I had this photo shoot recently, and the photographer sort of egged me on to grimace, you know, so I did, and that’s the photo they used,” she says. “I know they probably thought it was cool, but it just makes me look scary, and I’m not really going for tough chick now. I’ve been there and done that.”
Shopping List
Made in Dakar, Orchestra Baobab $28
The Return of the Clerkenwell Kid, The Real Tuesday Weld, $5.95
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Mills Brothers, $9.95
Mutations, Beck, $12.95
Total with tax: $59.50
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