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Joan Jett
8 Followers · 74 Items
Joan Jett
Saved 7/24/09 to Joan Jett

Great Joan Jett Interview

2

What inspired you to start Blackheart Records?
Really, the whole label thing was out of necessity — the fact that I couldn’t get signed by any of the majors or the minors at the time. Nobody wanted anything to do with me. Some of the best ideas and best-laid plans aren't really plans at all; you do it just to survive and just to try to do what you love. I was lucky enough to have a friend, Kenny Laguna, who was my songwriting partner, my producer, and actually had connections in the music business. To have somebody who believes in you helps a lot. It gives you strength and a belief that there are other people like you that care about the same things, and you're able to get momentum. Blackheart Records was an absolute necessity, and that's what it sprung from, in the trunk of a car.

What made you decide to sign Girl in a Coma?
Girl in a Coma was involved in a TV show and was going to have a rehearsal, and one of the people they looked up to was supposed to show up at the rehearsal as a surprise — I was that person. I was just supposed to meet them, watch them rehearse, say hi, and all that stuff, but I thought they sounded great, and I wanted to see the gig. So I went down to the show and was very impressed with them. I thought they'd be great to have on Blackheart, because we'll sign anybody, but we really want Blackheart to be a place where girls feel comfortable to come play their music, because it was so hard for me.

Why aren't there more girls playing rock?
I can’t really quite put my finger on why there aren't more girls playing rocknroll. They are out there. There are girl bands in every city, but I'm not really sure why there aren't a higher percentage of bands having some form of success. I don't know if it boils down to people just don't care enough.

I'm trying to figure out why people have such issues with girls in rock bands. You see girls singing pop music all over the place, in the press — you're saturated with that image of women in music. That’s what you think of when you think of wom

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Joan Jett

Joan Jett Joan Jett
Do the young women in Girl in a Coma remind you of yourself when you were a teenager in the Runaways? I say this in the best way, because I wish I had some of those aspects — the newness and the naiveté of it all, of knowing that you have the world at your feet, thinking that you can change things, thinking you can have an impact. I'm not saying that's an illusion. I'm saying there's a great beauty in that, before all the realities of the business start hitting you upside the head over and over again. "It's us against the world and we can change things." It's a beautiful optimism that I see in them, and they have every reason to have it, too. I believe that they're really talented and they could really do something.
Joan Jett Joan Jett
That’s what you think of when you think of women in music; it’s pretty much a girl with a microphone singing some pop songs. Rocknroll is very sexual. To me, the whole "roll" thing implies the sexuality, so a girl playing guitar and drums — certainly playing aggressive guitar and drums or sweaty rocknroll — is out of the norm and what girls are expected to do in the role that they play. Initially, they're looked at as kind of cute — "Wow, isn't that different?" Then after that initial thing wears off, then it's like, "What are you really going to do with your life? You can't be serious." When you are serious, it can threaten some people, and it can annoy other people. I can't really quite put my finger on it. I can't figure out why there would be such resistance to girls playing rocknroll all these years later. It's just surprising to me that it's not more of a mainstream thing of girls playing instruments. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Do the young women in Girl