Photo by Snapcult
Von Iva
Issue #23
Featuring former members of 7 Year Bitch and Clone, the quartet ranks as one of the most soulful bands in San Francisco
By MacKenzie Wilson
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 11:59am
When Von Iva frontwoman Jillian Iva was just a young miss, she had the hots for the gussied-up glam rock of Poison and the like. She desperately wanted to see Poison in concert. Her mother wouldn’t let her. Instead, she and her friend staged a mini revolt in the living room.
“During my kid phase, I was obsessed with Guns N’ Roses, Poison, and stuff like that,” Iva said. “My mom wouldn’t let me go to the Poison concert because I was too young, so I made posters, put them up in my living room, and blasted their music with my friend as a little protest.”
Iva is still staging a little protest, but this time it’s with a band. The San Francisco band is comprised of Iva, drummer Kelly Harris (a.k.a. Lay Lay von Guthier, formerly of Clone), keyboardist Becky Kupersmith (a.k.a. Bex), and bassist Elizabeth Davis-Simpson. The quartet pulls from Davis-Simpson’s days in the aggressive punk band 7 Year Bitch while adding a sufficient bit of Iva’s own Motown influences. Their self-titled debut EP boats a lethal combination of Iva’s raw and snarky vocal delivery and Davis-Simpson’s pulsating bass lines, surrounded by the dual-assault rhythms of Harris’ drums and Bex’s keyboards.
“We’re confident and fun loving [with each other],” Iva said. “We formed an instant bond when I was brought into the scenario. We’re good girlfriends, and there’s a genuine love for musicianship. We give each other so much support. We joke that we should have called the band the Support Group because we’re really supportive of one another.”
Iva says such support was crucial when she first joined the band. She had been unsure of her strength as a singer, but she knew somehow she’d end up a performer. From her childhood obsession of being in the Mickey Mouse Club to singing her heart out along to her first tape, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, Iva just had the desire to belt it out.
“I’ve always had a good singing voice, but I haven’t always been confident about it. My mom and dad were big Motown fans. I remember listening to the Supremes, and I was fascinated with Aretha Franklin,” Iva said. “Even as a little girl I tried to emulate them. It’s fun being a skinny white girl with no ass and singing like those ladies, like Tina Turner.”
Von Iva is pure swagger and bold soul. They’re a gang, a sisterhood. Their focus is simply on playing good soul-punk music and actually knowing how it feels to feel rocknroll. From the synth-driven uppercut of “Feel It!” to the sultry bravado of “Soulshaker” and the rough-hewn sashay of “Solid Gold,” Von Iva immerses themselves in white-hot rock.
“We don’t focus on gender. It’s about making good music we believe in,” Iva said. “It’s an oxymoron to guys, you know? We love the feminine side of the band — we love to get dressed up. We’re sexy and we know it. It’s definitely another thing we love about being in a band, but it’s not important in reference to the music. Really, girls are so much easier to work with as far as picking out the male ego.”
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