vLES

ModRocket are:
a) an all-girl band made up of b) teenagers who make c) really tight, spiky rock songs that sound like they could have come out in any year from about 1971 to the present. Now try to guess which of the three preceding points never comes up in any of their press blurbs. Wouldn’t you think that after more than 30 years of Heart and Waitresses and the entire fucking genre known as riot grrrl, people would be ready to deal with the fact that both sexes and most age groups can learn how to put their hands different places on a guitar or hit things with a stick?

Anyway, whatever. ModRocket cranks out excellent tunes and stands alongside other young ’uns like the Virgins as one of our favorite local groups right now. They also just won the vLES’s inaugural edition of Kickstart—an online competition between bands to see who can get the most audience votes. As the winners of this contest are subject to all sorts of fame-engendering rewards like being put on TV, we thought it’d be prudent to try and get a quick chat in with them before they’re too famous to look at us.

Low Life: How did you guys start your band?

Alice Blythe: Well, me and Alex [Niemetz, guitar] live half a block away from each other and one day she just stopped me on the street and said, “I’m starting this band. You wanna sing in it?” I knew her but we never really hung out, and I was like, “Um, OK?!?” We had similar taste in music, which can be rare when you’re 15 and into Bowie and stuff like that. Sandra [Nazz] was best friends with Alex and had just picked up the drums, and I went to school with Alanna [Higgins], who plays bass. It just kind of all fell into place. We didn’t really know how to play anything, but we learned.

Is it difficult to deal with school and the band at the same time?

It’s hard, but you just have to know how to manage your schedule. It doesn’t leave us that much time to hang out with other people, but we do get to spend a lot of time together. It’s worth it.

Do you try to keep it quiet from your classmates that you’re in a band or have they all found out?

They know. It was kind of cool, ’cause they were all, “You’re in a band? Oh.” It’s kind of like when you live in New York, nobody is that surprised. There were kids in my school who were already professional models, actors, and stuff, so it wasn’t such a big deal. But they did all come down to see us play and support us.

How about your parents? Are they fine with it or do they just not understand?

As long as we’re not failing in school, they’re pretty supportive. My dad’s a musician too, so he knows a lot about the business.

You guys haven’t toured yet at all. Is that just because you’re content playing around the city or that it’s too much of a hassle?

We really want to tour. That’s our biggest goal. We just need to figure out how we’re going to pay for it. We’re not signed or anything, so the plan is to try and record a new demo really soon and then start shopping it around and stuff.

Do you think folks who come to see you write you off on account of your all-girl-ness?

I think if people see you’re an all-girl band they’re going to automatically think that you’re playing either really poppy stuff or that you’re not very good at your instruments. Alex beat all these guys in a Lower East Side guitar-shredding competition. I thought that was really funny.
Is it true the guitarist from No Doubt produced your first few songs?
The company that we’re sponsored by [RVCA] is apparently friends with Tom Dumont and paid for us to go out to California to work with him. That was really cool, because I was a big No Doubt fan in like seventh grade. He recorded our first demo, and it was our first time in an actual studio with an engineer and a producer.

How do you feel about the music scene in the city right now?

I think it’s growing. A few years ago there was very little, but now there’s a bunch of really cool bands and they all know each other. It’s a little scene of its own.

Are you guys wary of the music industry trying to dupe you out of all your money and sell you down the river as a teen group or something?

We’ve heard that a lot: “You’re going to be called a novelty band because you’re all girls and you’re all teenagers,” but I think you have to keep making music and if people like it they’ll see past that. It’s really hard to get signed now anyway. Everyone is doing it themselves and labels don’t have as much money as they used to. I think you just have to be careful before you start signing any papers. We’re smart about that kind of thing and we’re not going to stoop to anything just because someone will put us on TV.

INTERVIEW BY FREDRICK MARTIN