2008 Woodie Awards
A Minute With Lez Zeppelin
Brittney Serrioz
Issue date: 7/9/07 Section: On the Scene
Going in to the interview not really a Led Zeppelin fan, I interviewed the four women who make up Lez Zeppelin: Sarah McLennan, Steph Paynes, Lisa Brigantino and Helen Destroy. All are New Yorkers by heart and all musicians by destiny.
What's the background of this band?
Brigantino: In this group, yes we play the music of Led Zeppelin but I think all of us have a very diverse background."
Destroy: We are all into Jazz, Classical, Rock, Punk, ya know? Standards and Country - I love Johnny Cash - you can write that.
McLellan: I think Zeppelin, they had so many music influences too so their music isn't completely structured in one direction, so if all of us were very, kind of narrow minded in a way of what we liked musically, I don't think any of this would actually work.
Destroy: Ya, you have to really kinda get in to different styles, I mean there's Jazz influences, Blues, Rock, Celtic and Rockabilly.
How many gigs do you usually get?
McLellan: Last year we did about 85 cities on tour and this year we are only at 60, so you can tell it gets a lot more intense and were pretty much always out on the road, I'd say between 75-80 percent of the year.
Destroy: We go in spurts though. Were never really out longer than a month at a time so… A decent size tour is probably around 25-30 gigs a month.
Paynes: But we are touring a lot more now because we just got this record and so now this is when we are really in the trenches because we are doing the entire tour in three stages, then we are going back to Europe and then we may go in to some new places like Australia and Asia -- maybe Japan.
McLellan: We had about 20 gigs from the middle of January to the middle of February.
Brigantino: We have toured internationally. We have been around the United States, Canada, Europe and we have also done several festivals.
So does your band have a motto?
McLellan: Yeah we do - Don't ask don't tell.
What's the background of this band?
Brigantino: In this group, yes we play the music of Led Zeppelin but I think all of us have a very diverse background."
Destroy: We are all into Jazz, Classical, Rock, Punk, ya know? Standards and Country - I love Johnny Cash - you can write that.
McLellan: I think Zeppelin, they had so many music influences too so their music isn't completely structured in one direction, so if all of us were very, kind of narrow minded in a way of what we liked musically, I don't think any of this would actually work.
Destroy: Ya, you have to really kinda get in to different styles, I mean there's Jazz influences, Blues, Rock, Celtic and Rockabilly.
How many gigs do you usually get?
McLellan: Last year we did about 85 cities on tour and this year we are only at 60, so you can tell it gets a lot more intense and were pretty much always out on the road, I'd say between 75-80 percent of the year.
Destroy: We go in spurts though. Were never really out longer than a month at a time so… A decent size tour is probably around 25-30 gigs a month.
Paynes: But we are touring a lot more now because we just got this record and so now this is when we are really in the trenches because we are doing the entire tour in three stages, then we are going back to Europe and then we may go in to some new places like Australia and Asia -- maybe Japan.
McLellan: We had about 20 gigs from the middle of January to the middle of February.
Brigantino: We have toured internationally. We have been around the United States, Canada, Europe and we have also done several festivals.
So does your band have a motto?
McLellan: Yeah we do - Don't ask don't tell.
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