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: âLauren isnât trying to step into Chrissyâs shoes; no one could ever step into Chrissyâs shoes. She will do it her own way.â 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:Â Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today. Iâve spent the whole morning checking out your solo work, that I must admit I wasnât familiar with it before, but when you read a description which says thereâs 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 itâs incredible, Iâll 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 thereâs some dry humour in my songs which I think is where they get the Courtney from, which is a great compliment as sheâs a massive⊠Iâm a huge fan of her and Jen Cloher. And Janis I mean come on! Who doesnât want to be compared to Janis Joplin?
Mark: One of the all-time greats and such a unique voice. A voice thatâs often imitated but never equaled. And that I thinkâs 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 âHow can you do this?â
Lauren: Totally, totally.
Mark: And half were saying âThank you for doing this.â The world of Australia is therefore split. The question Iâm dying to ask you is how did you become involved and were you anticipating this level of shall we say âcontroversyâ although I donât think thatâs the right word necessarily?
Lauren: Well thereâs a gentleman called Billy Steinberg (Billy along with Tom Kelly wrote âI Touch Myselfâ with Mark and Chrissy) Iâm not sure if youâre familiar with his work, heâs an American song-writer and he wrote âTrue Colorsâ (Cyndi Lauper), âLike a Virginâ (Madonna) and âI Touch Myselfâ he did a lot of work in the late eighties, early nineties, Â and still continues to and heâs 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 Billyâs 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 âI Touch Myselfâ 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 Chrissyâs and he vocalised that to me. My mum was a massive fan so I knew The Divinyls and I guess thatâs rare because a lot of millennials donât 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 âScorpio passionâ and anyhoo, Iâm going off at a tangent but eventually that idea led to me recording âI Touch Myselfâ and Mark and his wife Mel came to L.A. and we had a blast recording it. Weâre going to put that out soon and that was the first time I met Mark, heâs 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 âOh my God youâre kidding.â Itâs going to be so much fun!
Mark: Itâs something you canât pass up!
Lauren: Absolutely
Mark: People get so protective and precious with bands, it doesnât 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 donât of course know why Mark wants to get back out there, but does it matter? â he wrote the music and if he wants to go out and play his songs, the songs we know and love, itâs only natural that heâd 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 Iâm 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 heâs a Perth boy weâre 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 youâll be playing and I know Mark is from The West, but we donât 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 Iâve been looking all over. And number one â Australia is massive! (laughs) I donât know too much about Geraldton though! Itâs kind of funny though as I sort of got that vibe, but Iâm just excited to see all the different flavours of Australia, Itâs 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 youâll 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 âItâs cool, just like California without the peopleâ!
Lauren: (laughs) That sounds kind of nice.
Mark: Have you sorted out a setlist yet? Are you at that stage?
Lauren: Oh yeah, Iâm actually in Perth right now, weâre doing rehearsals. Weâve 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 couldnât do that, thereâs 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 depthâŠ
Lauren: Itâs vast right?
Mark: It is and a lot of songs Iâd not heard for years jumped right out and were so cool.
Lauren: Itâs great.
Mark: Not only are we gonna get a lot of cool shows youâve also got one of my guitar heroes coming out to play with you – Frank Infante! What a player! And I donât 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 Iâd chatted with Mark and weâd 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, âTell me the beginningâ and he told me that.
Mark: The first album I ever bought was Plastic Letters by Blondie and his guitar was wonderful.
Lauren: Youâre cool!
Mark: He played with all the greats â Iggy Pop, New York Dolls, even Joan Jett whoâs in Australia at the moment. What a fantastic core of a band. And you have a new rhythm section too who we havenât got to hear about yet.
Lauren: Theyâre incredible, I just met them this week. The drummerâs name is Malcolm (Clark) and the bassists name is Jay (Cortez), theyâre great, rehearsals turn into jams, weâve had so much fun.
Mark: The Divinyls were also known for choosing some great covers too â I loved their version of The Young Rascals âAinât Gonna eat Out My Heart Anymoreâ that has been covered by so many, but their version was just great, then songs like âWild Thingâ, another great cover. Will you be playing any of those?
Lauren: Oh yeah, the ones that The Divinyls have done like âHey Little Boyâ by Sound Syndicate then thereâs also âIâll Make You Happyâ by The Easybeats.
Mark: One of the all-time great Australian bands.
Lauren: Yeah! Iâm learning so much about wonderful Australian music, Iâve got a 30 hour excursion back home and Iâve 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 letâs do the tour and see what happens?
Lauren: Most definitely, and Iâm 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 weâre doing anything in L.A. or in The States.
Mark: And itâs pretty partisan here too. I was just looking at some of the comments on social media, thereâs 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: Thatâs incredible. And I was excited that we get to play Tasmania too.
Mark: Yeah, itâs so great that youâre getting out to some of these âless traveledâ places too, few bands get to Launceston or Hobart either so Iâm sure youâll get a great reception there too.
Lauren: I have an Australia fan cub and they were messaging me telling me where theyâre going to, theyâve been really sweet.
Mark: That was something I wanted to get to â how are your fans taking this?
Lauren: Oh theyâre stoked! The beauty of fans is that theyâre fans of you, and of your mind, so what I do they support. The downfall is that you canât do any harm. Iâm a kind of âdevilâs advocateâ person, when Iâd have an issue when I was younger Iâd talk to my Dad because my Mom would always be so supportive âYou do no harm in my eyesâ and I just wanted the other side of the argument. But itâs great – they just want to see what you do next, what you create and what you commit too, but theyâre all on board. I think theyâre 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. Letâs 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 didnât 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, Â so I was either going to go to âfashion technology schoolâ or âhair schoolâ, and I ended up going to âhair schoolâ 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 itâs nothing! But things like that for instance, and friends saying that they thought Iâd âgot somethingâ made me think âOK itâs not just my Mom loving everything I doâ and that support is why Iâm 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 itâs nerve-wracking. Iâm someone who doesnât like a lot of options, I like structure! I eventually realised I needed to form a band and find a guitarist because Iâm not a lead guitarist and Iâm really driven by guitar. Thatâs what makes me close my eyes and do what I do. And now itâs 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 âfly on the wallâ 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 âWhite Albumâ.
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 â âWhat is the meaning of life?â
Lauren: (pauses) being content with yourself and accepting yourself, I think.
Mark: Itâs as simple as that. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today Lauren. I for one canât wait to see the show, Iâll get to one of those Perth dates for sure.
Lauren: Thank you Mark, Iâll 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) Itâs five hours but I just know itâs gonna be worth it!
Lauren: Itâs a great road trip, that show will be so much fun! Iâve enjoyed it so much. Bye Mark.
