At the end of this week, in mere days, the Bay Area will be hosting the inaugural Doll Fest. The two day festival will take place at the Cornerstone in Berkeley, CA and is “a celebration of the feminine energy, friendship, and community gathering together in support of one another.”
The lineup is a jaw dropping list of rad bands all with a femme energy to them along with multi-genre artists. Doll Fest will feature artists such as The Iron Roses, The Darts, Tsunami Bomb, Dog Party, Tess & The Details and many more on March 1st and 2nd along with a pre-show party on February 28th.
We wanted to get in on the action, so we’ve asked the amazing bands a handful of questions about the festival including who they’re stoked to be playing with and what they think a festival of this caliber means to our scene.
We spoke with Debra Long, the lead singer of Ohio’s Slutbomb. The four-piece pens songs that contain a base mixture of fastcore and metal, with a level of technicality that puts their contemporaries to shame. Long matches the energy of the rest of the band, delivering cadences as busy as the rest of her ensemble’s parts. Check out our interview below and grab your tickets to Doll Fest now via their website here!
Interview
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’re excited to play Doll Fest.
My name is Debra and I do vocals in SlutBomb from Cincinnati, Ohio. I’m stoked to play Doll Fest as a chance to leave the Midwest in winter! We’re playing Rust Belt Ripper Fest in Cleveland the day before we play Doll Fest, so I’m very excited for our jam packed weekend.
Which bands are you most stoked to see or play alongside?
Elephant Walk!
How has the Oakland music scene or Bay Area culture influenced your sound/creative process?
As we’re from the Midwest, I don’t have a ton of Oakland influences off of the top of my head but I guess my personal biggest Oakland influences would be Kreayshawn and our very dear friends Choke. If you take anything from this interview, listen to Choke.
How do you see events like Doll Fest contributing to greater representation and empowerment of women in the music industry?
Honestly, it’s just nice to play any sort of big fest where we’re not just playing with a bunch of straight dudes.
What unique challenges have you or your bandmates faced as female musician, and how have you overcome them?
There have been a couple of times men have tried to grab me while on stage. Once when I took my shirt off and I had on only a bra and once in a dark basement. Both times I threw the men on the ground really hard. If you hit a guy straight in the chest hard enough, he will probably fall down. If a man is drunk, it is even easier to make him fall down. If you try to grab me while my band is playing, I will throw you on the ground real hard.
What message do you hope to convey to your audience through your performance at Doll Fest?
With how chaotic our country is right now, I’m hoping this set can be cathartic more than anything. Cathartic for other women, queer folks, and anyone outside of the American conservative norm. Everything is very scary and chaotic right now, and that’s meant to confuse us into inaction. As an anarchist punk band this is the message we’re always trying to get through to folks. We need to be angry and be hopeful and use that anger and hope to spur us into direct action in our communities, because I have a feeling things are going to get worse, and we need each other. All that being said, we still need to find moments of joy, like awesome feminist punk fests!
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