When bands lose a member, especially an iconic member and especially a vocalist, passions can run high with fans when that member is replaced. Think of AC/DC’s (second) vocalist Bon Scott and jis replacement Brian Johnson and the storm that caused in pre-social media days, then the outcry that a certain W Axl Rose created by stepping in for Brian a mere 36 years later. The Divinyls was always a band based around two figures – guitarist and writer Mark McEntee and firebrand singer Chrissie Amphlett.
In 2009 Amphlett announced that Divinyls were finished and she had a new band in New York, effectively closing the door on McEntee. She tragically died far to young in 2013 after a protracted battle with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. And whilst many are currently voicing their feelings about The Divinyls heading out again can you really begrudge an artist wanting to go out and play their own music again? As for Lauren Ruth Ward who will be supplying vocals Mark said: “Lauren isn’t trying to step into Chrissy’s shoes; no one could ever step into Chrissy’s shoes. She will do it her own way.” You can never replace a true original but surely the music has to go on?
We got the chance to talk to Lauren ahead of the Australian dates…
Mark: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today. I’ve spent the whole morning checking out your solo work, that I must admit I wasn’t familiar with it before, but when you read a description which says there’s a little Courtney Barnett and a little Janis Joplin in there it makes me sit up and take notice. I thought wow, we could be onto something here!
Lauren: (laughs)
Mark: Is it fair or is a comparison like that just something that piles on the pressure and sets up unreal expectations? I mean after all you are very much your own person.
Lauren: I mean it’s incredible, I’ll take it. When that first started to happen I wondered what they saw in me that made them compare me to them. I get some of it there’s some dry humour in my songs which I think is where they get the Courtney from, which is a great compliment as she’s a massive… I’m a huge fan of her and Jen Cloher. And Janis I mean come on! Who doesn’t want to be compared to Janis Joplin?
Mark: One of the all-time greats and such a unique voice. A voice that’s often imitated but never equaled. And that I think’s the interesting thing about voices while some can sound like others what we really crave is that individuality that resonates with us as a listener. And I guess that takes us in nicely to The Divinyls. Australians are very partisan when it comes to their music and have great sense of loyalty to their favourite bands to the point where sometimes we think that we are their spokespersons! Out of all the news articles we posted on the site last year there was one little article from December that really attracted a heap of comments and feedback and that was the news that Mark would be going back out again on the road with The Divinyls, and this was even before your name had been put out there.
Lauren: Wow
Mark: And the reaction was almost split down the middle, half were saying “How can you do this?”
Lauren: Totally, totally.
Mark: And half were saying “Thank you for doing this.” The world of Australia is therefore split. The question I’m dying to ask you is how did you become involved and were you anticipating this level of shall we say ‘controversy’ although I don’t think that’s the right word necessarily?
Lauren: Well there’s a gentleman called Billy Steinberg (Billy along with Tom Kelly wrote ‘I Touch Myself’ with Mark and Chrissy) I’m not sure if you’re familiar with his work, he’s an American song-writer and he wrote ‘True Colors’ (Cyndi Lauper), ‘Like a Virgin’ (Madonna) and ‘I Touch Myself’ he did a lot of work in the late eighties, early nineties, and still continues to and he’s a pal of mine in L.A. and he and Mark are still friends. And to cut a long story short I sang some of Billy’s songs, he gets asked all the time to sing at prestigious events like song-writer festivals and such, but he just likes to tell the stories and have someone else sing the songs. So I sang a heap of songs including ‘I Touch Myself’ and Billy kind of conjured up this vision after seeing me perform and in hearing my voice he heard some colours in there that he thought were in Chrissy’s and he vocalised that to me. My mum was a massive fan so I knew The Divinyls and I guess that’s rare because a lot of millennials don’t know the band. But hey my mum’s cool (laughs). So he put me onto some videos of them performing and I sort of saw it then, she has this kind of ‘Scorpio passion’ and anyhoo, I’m going off at a tangent but eventually that idea led to me recording ‘I Touch Myself’ and Mark and his wife Mel came to L.A. and we had a blast recording it. We’re going to put that out soon and that was the first time I met Mark, he’s keen to play the songs he and Chrissy wrote together again and together they (Mark and Billy) had this idea (Taking Lauren out on tour to sing those songs) and I was like “Oh my God you’re kidding.” It’s going to be so much fun!
Mark: It’s something you can’t pass up!
Lauren: Absolutely
Mark: People get so protective and precious with bands, it doesn’t matter who the band is, some think that the band has to be the original or nothing, some will accept anything but a new singer, but musicians have to do what drives them. I don’t of course know why Mark wants to get back out there, but does it matter? – he wrote the music and if he wants to go out and play his songs, the songs we know and love, it’s only natural that he’d want to play them live again, and who is anyone to stop him?
Lauren: I agree with you, I completely agree.
Mark: As far as I’m concerned Mark should be going out there and playing this music for the younger generation who never got the chance to see it live, and as he’s a Perth boy we’re right behind him. But at the same time I can see why people might not like it, and I can respect that, but some quite frankly have been rather disrespectful to him, and of course to you. I was just looking at the shows you’ll be playing and I know Mark is from The West, but we don’t get too many international visitors like yourself who get to come over and play Geraldton!
Lauren: (laughs) I like to nerd out to maps and I’ve been looking all over. And number one – Australia is massive! (laughs) I don’t know too much about Geraldton though! It’s kind of funny though as I sort of got that vibe, but I’m just excited to see all the different flavours of Australia, It’s going to be great.
Mark: Geraldton will love you or it.
Lauren: Geraldton needs to get a show too, everyone needs some art.
Mark: (laughs) they do. Western Australia you’ll love, one of my friends from L.A. came out a few years back and I asked him what he thought, and he looked at me and smiled and said “It’s cool, just like California without the people”!
Lauren: (laughs) That sounds kind of nice.
Mark: Have you sorted out a setlist yet? Are you at that stage?
Lauren: Oh yeah, I’m actually in Perth right now, we’re doing rehearsals. We’ve got like a 19 song setlist right now, but we may add some more, a lot of really good songs if you want to suggest one?
Mark: I couldn’t do that, there’s so many. What I will say though is that when I was running through the albums this week I was really impressed by the amount of music and the depth…
Lauren: It’s vast right?
Mark: It is and a lot of songs I’d not heard for years jumped right out and were so cool.
Lauren: It’s great.
Mark: Not only are we gonna get a lot of cool shows you’ve also got one of my guitar heroes coming out to play with you – Frank Infante! What a player! And I don’t know if you know this but even before Blondie he played in a band called Sniper with Joey Ramone.
Lauren: You know he and I, we went on a hike after I’d chatted with Mark and we’d agreed we were doing this tour. We were in L.A. so we got together and went on this hike, he actually lives really close to me. I was like, “Tell me the beginning” and he told me that.
Mark: The first album I ever bought was Plastic Letters by Blondie and his guitar was wonderful.
Lauren: You’re cool!
Mark: He played with all the greats – Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, even Joan Jett who’s in Australia at the moment. What a fantastic core of a band. And you have a new rhythm section too who we haven’t got to hear about yet.
Lauren: They’re incredible, I just met them this week. The drummer’s name is Malcolm (Clark) and the bassists name is Jay (Cortez), they’re great, rehearsals turn into jams, we’ve had so much fun.
Mark: The Divinyls were also known for choosing some great covers too – I loved their version of The Young Rascals ‘Ain’t Gonna eat Out My Heart Anymore’ that has been covered by so many, but their version was just great, then songs like ‘Wild Thing’, another great cover. Will you be playing any of those?
Lauren: Oh yeah, the ones that The Divinyls have done like ‘Hey Little Boy’ by Sound Syndicate then there’s also ‘I’ll Make You Happy’ by The Easybeats.
Mark: One of the all-time great Australian bands.
Lauren: Yeah! I’m learning so much about wonderful Australian music, I’ve got a 30 hour excursion back home and I’ve got some good brain food for it!
Mark: I guess when you look back at Australian Rock history it gets really interesting when you delve into the whole Vanda and Young thing, a Dutchman and a Scotsman who really molded the entire Australian scene.
Lauren: Totally.
Mark: So are there any further plans or as I suspect is this a case of let’s do the tour and see what happens?
Lauren: Most definitely, and I’m speaking for myself here personally but after this tour I think it would be so great to do this in the States, So many fans and friends have been reaching out asking if we’re doing anything in L.A. or in The States.
Mark: And it’s pretty partisan here too. I was just looking at some of the comments on social media, there’s a van driving the 5 hours from Perth to see that first Geraldton show, then Perth then following you down South when you play Dunsborough.
Lauren: That’s incredible. And I was excited that we get to play Tasmania too.
Mark: Yeah, it’s so great that you’re getting out to some of these ‘less traveled’ places too, few bands get to Launceston or Hobart either so I’m sure you’ll get a great reception there too.
Lauren: I have an Australia fan cub and they were messaging me telling me where they’re going to, they’ve been really sweet.
Mark: That was something I wanted to get to – how are your fans taking this?
Lauren: Oh they’re stoked! The beauty of fans is that they’re fans of you, and of your mind, so what I do they support. The downfall is that you can’t do any harm. I’m a kind of “devil’s advocate” person, when I’d have an issue when I was younger I’d talk to my Dad because my Mom would always be so supportive “You do no harm in my eyes” and I just wanted the other side of the argument. But it’s great – they just want to see what you do next, what you create and what you commit too, but they’re all on board. I think they’re just bummed that this is nowhere near them.
Mark: Well hopefully it will get over there for them and all the Divinyls fans in the US. Let’s get to know you a little bit better as a musician though: what started you on this path in the first place? What inspired you to become a performer?
Lauren: I asked for a guitar when I was ten, and my Mom got one for me, but I didn’t really start playing until I was 13, and then I played and wrote music from 13 to 17. It was very cathartic for me. I played a couple of talent shows at school but I was really into hair and sewing at school, so I was either going to go to ‘fashion technology school’ or ‘hair school’, and I ended up going to ‘hair school’ because the fashion schools were so far away, and I was afraid at that time to leave home. But there I kind of hit a wall, or rather the ceiling with my hair business in Maryland, so I did a few music things, I did something on YouTube, YouTube had just started to come around and I got a million views which was kind of big seven years ago, but now it’s nothing! But things like that for instance, and friends saying that they thought I’d “got something” made me think “OK it’s not just my Mom loving everything I do” and that support is why I’m able to do what I do. And one thing led to another and then when I was 26 four years ago I quit my career and came out to live in L.A. I found a manager and came out a few times to do some writing sessions with Lauren Christy and Linda Perry
Mark: Two ground-breaking producers and writers there!
Lauren: I was just trying to find my approach and it’s nerve-wracking. I’m someone who doesn’t like a lot of options, I like structure! I eventually realised I needed to form a band and find a guitarist because I’m not a lead guitarist and I’m really driven by guitar. That’s what makes me close my eyes and do what I do. And now it’s this! With Frankie and Mark on guitars all I have to do is close my eyes and have fun!
Mark: It sound perfect. Just a couple more questions before we let you go and these are the two we ask all our guests. If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any great album just to see how the magic happened what would it have been for you and why?
Lauren: Oohh that is a very tough question. I would have to say the ‘White Album’.
Mark: I think that would have been my pick from The Beatles, just for the breadth of it and the imagination involved. Great pick. And the last question is even easier – ‘What is the meaning of life?’
Lauren: (pauses) being content with yourself and accepting yourself, I think.
Mark: It’s as simple as that. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today Lauren. I for one can’t wait to see the show, I’ll get to one of those Perth dates for sure.
Lauren: Thank you Mark, I’ll meet you at the show!
Mark: Although I am quite tempted to get a lift in that van up to Geraldton to see the first one!
Lauren: Up to Geraldton! Do it! (laughs)
Mark: (laugh) It’s five hours but I just know it’s gonna be worth it!
Lauren: It’s a great road trip, that show will be so much fun! I’ve enjoyed it so much. Bye Mark.
