Its release day for New York City’s Jane Lee Hooker, launching an album that The Rockpit have been enjoying immensely these last three or four weeks since it landed in our inbox. ‘Rollin’ is a nine-track collection of blues/rock bangers, with a dusting of gospel, a hint of smoulder and a bucket full of soul. Factor in that the album was created during the global pandemic with writing sessions occurring in a backyard and you begin to appreciate this incredible body of work even more.
The Rockpit’s Sean Bennett managed to catch some talk time with vocalist Dana Athens, while she was sat on her porch during a pleasant New York evening, to discuss ‘Rollin’ and its creation as well as the excitement of getting back out to play to live audiences across the US & Europe after two years…
Sean: Hey how are you doing Dana?
Dana: Hi, I’m doing great actually. How are you?
Sean: All good here in Western Australia. Its great to finally get to speak to you. I’ve loved the music you’ve already recorded and released from the first two albums…but where do we start with your new album, ‘Rollin’? Its fantastic!
Dana: Thank you so much. We are so proud.
Sean: And to think this has been created during such a challenging time makes it even more special, I’m sure.
Dana: Its certainly a long time coming. We were starting to work on the record before lockdown and luckily I had a back yard [laughs] so luckily we were able to write most of that record outside.
Sean: Even that would have thrown up its own challenges with social distancing but just having to kind of “wing it” and pick up what you could find to help create the songs would have been pretty cool to see.
Dana: Exactly. Our drummer, Ron Salvo was even playing my recycling bins for a while [laughs]. We weren’t allowed in our rehearsal space for so long so this is what we had to do to keep our sanity.
Sean: There’s been quite a gap since the release of ‘Spiritus’ which was back in 2017, so you must have all been chomping at the bit to get new material out there.
Dana: Oh, I was dying for it! I one point I was thinking I would never get to sing these songs again [laughs] but now of course, we get to integrate all three records so its really exciting to have that much material to pull from. One thing that the sessions in the back yard gave us was the chance to listen to each other play which changed everything compared to being closed in a room together. Also we realised that we would normally test drive songs to crowds before they even made it into the studio and on to a record.
Sean: You just touched on another challenge – you now have three albums to pick your set list from. Surely some former favourites will get left out?
Dana: Well, that’s why we are excited to go over to play Europe in May because on any given night we can change it up and nothing will be left behind… and I’m excited to be playing things from ‘No B!’ again now. We can weave it all together. It’s going to be really exciting.
Sean: We’ve had three singles already from the new album ‘Rollin’ and they are all very different. We were blessed with ‘Jericho’, which was my first introduction to that band – we played it on our podcast and I loved it from the moment I heard it. The next single was ‘Drive’ which was very different but again such a good song and then ‘All Good Things’ which just showed the diversity of this band and the eclectic collection of songs you have all written. It makes ‘Rollin’ an album that near enough anyone can enjoy.
Dana: ‘Drive’ was actually the first of the songs we wrote in my backyard and I wasn’t trying to make it about covid or that. I was focusing on making it about my friend who lived far away but that song just came out. I had my battery-powered Yamaha keyboard… I was sat in the armchair with my keyboard [laughs] and it just poured right out. With ‘All Good Things’ I normally do the lyric writing then the melodies and all that but Tracy (Hightop) sent me a voice memo of her strumming what was the bones of what has now become ‘All Good Things’ and I wrote that one so easily based on continuing what she had sent me to build on. Its funny finding out what songs “make it” because we do this back and forth all the time and not all songs make it to the rehearsal studio – you just know when it clicks.
Sean: Anyone who gets hold of this album have to negotiate there way past the opening track because that really kicks things off in the best possible way; bluesy, smoky, groovy. ‘Lucky’ is an incredible track. Your vocal on that track alone just hit the core of my soul – it really is breath taking – literally. That one note you hold about a third of the way in? Oh wow. Spellbinding Dana.
Dana: Thank you so much. I honestly sometimes can’t believe myself that I can do that [laughs]. Now we are readying to get back out on the road we are back in training. I need to get back to training just so I can hit those notes.
Sean: That will be a challenge for the live shows.
Dana: Yeah, but it will be a good challenge though.
Sean: You kick things off with two shows in the US, firstly at home in New York before jetting over to LA to play the infamous Viper Room.
Dana: Yeah, that’s going to be super exciting too but to be honest I’m just excited to be having these conversations. Its felt like a really long time coming so just to talk about the record finally coming out is amazing and the fact that we have these shows and the tour in sight is just so relieving and I’m just so excited, especially as my birthday in on the 30th April, the same day as my birthday!
Sean: Taking the album to Europe is another amazing stepping stone for the band as things get back to a sense of normality in the world of entertainment. When was the last time you ventured over there?
Dana: Thinking back it was Summer of 2019. We were in Berlin, I went off to a wedding in Greece, came home by August, we were trying to take new pictures that fall and then the pandemic struck.
Sean: The burning question for me is when are you coming to visit us here in Australia?
Dana: Oh my god! I am so ready. I told our Manager to tell me when and I’ll book the flights [laughs]
Sean: Taking you back to the early days when and how did you find out you had this incredible vocal range and power? Did you grow up in a musical household you grew up in?
Dana: I grew up in a very musical house. My mother was a trained opera singer, Manhattan School of Music and she was singing from birth as well and my dad is a piano player so they did the music in the church I grew up with so I started really singing in church and I did a lot of musical theatre growing up and in high school and then rock n’ roll found me and then the blues found me. Blues found me first – I was obsessed with Billie Holiday as a young kid. And then I just kept getting hired to do rock stuff – I replaced a couple of guys in their rock bands so I was singing stuff like Freddie as a teenager. I guess I’ve always been a loud mouth [laughs].
Sean: The vocal power is one thing, and its funny you mention the church because there are certainly gospel elements running through some of the tracks especially ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’. They really help to ground the listener before taking them back off to more blues-rock vibes.
Dana: Its very different for us but as long as the band is cool with playing these… I mean I was not rejecting my church upbringing but was never incorporating it except sometimes with blues you can’t avoid that spiritual side of it but we just kind of went for it and I really leaned into it. It was just happening and that band loved what was happening so we just had to trust it.
Sean: Its funny because when I was listening to the lyric I was thinking to myself, “Where have I heard that before?” Then it dawned on me it was the prayer lines from ‘Enter Sandman’.
Dana: Yeah, the “Now I lay me down to sleep” bit. Its originally an old children’s prayer. I was googling just to make sure it was ok to use because of licencing and stuff like that. I mean other musical artists have incorporated that lyric before so its not that bad. When I came up with this little mash-up it was like 3.30am and I was like, “Siri, play me music” and that’s the song that came on and I’d never heard that song before. I was like some weird insomniac. I was already asleep, woke up out of a deep sleep and that was the first song that came and then I started singing it and then I told the band and they were like, “What the hell is this?” [laughs] And we just did it!
Sean: And its come out so well. Another track that sums your band up so well is ‘Mean Town Blues’. For anyone who hasn’t seen you live, its a track that captures that energy that Jane Lee Hooker ooze out on stage. You can feel the chemistry of the band.
Dana: Oh yeah, that’s a real fun one. We are all friends. I hate to say this but we play for us and your welcome to join us at our party and there are times we just turn to each other and that’s it. Sometimes I have my back to the audience completely if I need to focus. You know, they are my family, its been a wild ride. This is now nine years that I have been in the band. March of 2013 was my very first show with them.
Sean: So that two year hiatus means you guys are like coiled springs ready to explode out of the box.
Dana: I am ready to go, believe you me.
Sean: Here’s a really unfair question because I know many songwriters look at their songs as their children but if you could pick a favourite from the album, what would it be?
Dana: What is my favourite? I don’t know. ‘All Good Things’ is great but I do love what we’ve done with ‘Weary Bones’. That’s a crazy song and we are actually going to be having live back-ups so that’s going to be interesting. But my favourite? ‘Lucky’…oh, I’m just going to list them all [laughs] Oh, ‘White Gold’
Sean: They are all great.
Dana: That’s so good to hear because I’m listening back and think to myself, “This is good, right?” Then I give myself a few weeks break then listen again and I’m like, “Its good. Its ok!” So I do that every week just to confirm that I’m not crazy [laughs].
Sean: So, the album comprises of nine tracks but how many did you take into the studio to select from?
Dana: I think we had a couple of extra tracks tucked away but they never panned out. There were songs that were going to be on the album before covid that got pushed to the wayside because they didn’t come together as good as some of the newer stuff. Saying that we have started talking about a song we were previously working on and that we may start working on it again. I think you just have to go with it. You can’t force it because its just not great to do that.
Sean: I know ‘Rollin’ has yet to be released but has there been any creative work on a follow-up?
Dana: Honestly, that’s a good question because funnily enough just recently songs started pouring out of me again. I released and relaxed and things started coming. I’ve already been send tracks to the band and to Tracy so there is new stuff on the way already.
Sean: That’s me being greedy for more having listened to ‘Rollin’ for three or four weeks now.
Dana: I’m the same. I actually keep forgetting it’s not even being released yet [laughs].
Sean: Well, I just like to wrap up with a couple of regular questions. If you could invite three guests from the music world, dead or alive, to join you for dinner for the evening, who would you choose?
Dana: Prince, Billie Holiday keeps poking at me but that may be because we spoke about her earlier. Honestly? I’d love to sit with Ozzy Osborne. So, Prince, Ozzy and… this is a hard question! I would like to be at a steakhouse with a bourbon please. I am just drawing a blank for ther third one. I’ll go Billie.
Sean: What was the last album you listened to?
Dana: For some reason I’ve had ‘Gimme Back My Bullets’ by Lynyard Skynyard on my record player this last week, like on repeat. And I was going through my collection and found James Bond movie themes and so I’ve been listening to that too. Its actually a really nice record to start your day to [laughs]
Sean: Saving the easiest till last. If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you chose?
Dana: ‘Under Pressure’ by Queen & David Bowie. David Bowie… he could be my number three at the table.
Sean: Bowie is in! We’ll pullup an extra chair for Billie so I’ll allow you four as I’m friends with your Manager [laughs].
Dana: ahhh… Aretha Franklin! [laughs]
Sean: Now your pushing it [laughs]. We may as well book out the restaurant.
Dana: I love it!
Sean: Dana thank you so much for taking the time to chat to us at The Rockpit. It’s been wonderful to talk to you and I’m so excited for the world to hear ‘Rollin’ because it really is a superb album. We wish you and the rest of the band all the best for the album launch, US shows and the tour to Europe and do hope we get to see & hear you live down here in Australia.
Dana: I really appreciate that – I really do. Thank you so much Sean.