L7 'blown away' by comeback success

L7 are too caught up in the joy of their long-awaited reunion to consider writing new material – but they expect that to change as the comeback gathers pace.

The all-girl grunge icons play the Encore Stage at Download today, just nine days into their first run of dates since 2001. A Kickstarter campaign to fund a planned documentary about the band was launched last year and the live return came on the back of that.

Singer/guitarist Donita Sparks tells TeamRock Radio: “The shows have been amazing. A lot of beautiful young people. We thought it would be a bunch of geezers, people who saw us 20 years ago. And it’s this whole new thing.

“We were pretty blown away by the Kickstarter campaign because you don’t know if it’s gonna go over well or not. It’s covered the cost of the film thus far. People are contributing generously. Those were older people with money and now we see younger people at the shows.”

Bassist Jennifer Finch adds: “We didn’t know what was gonna happen, we had no idea. We were sitting in Los Angeles and having our lives. We were like, ‘Do people want this?’”

Joking that the L7 tour bus is a hotbed of sexual harassment, Sparks says the antics on the road could inspire new songs when they start writing again.

She says: “On this tour we’re playing a song that we’ve never played live. It’s called One More Thing from Bricks Are Heavy. We’re so busy just doing this tour and the preparation for it. Maybe over time we’ll start writing… songs about sexually harassing each other… and then we may put out that record.”

L7 were close friends of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, but they’ve avoided seeing Brett Morgen’s Montage Of Heck film. Sparks says: “I haven’t seen it because I have my own specific memories of Kurt Cobain and I don’t want them tainted by shit that I see.”

Finch adds: “I haven’t seen it for the same reasons as Donita. It feels odd and weird.”

L7 TOUR DATES

Jun 15: Glasgow Garage, UK

Jun 16: London Electric Ballroom, UK

Jun 17: Paris Bataclan, France

Jun 19: Vitoria Azkena Festival, Spain

Jun 20: Clisson Hellfest, France

Jul 16: Los Angeles The Fonda, CA, US

Jul 17: Los Angeles The Fonda, CA, US

Sep 06: Toronto Danforth Music Hall, Canada

Sep 08: New York City Irving Plaza, NY, US

Sep 09: Brooklyn Warsaw, NY, US

Sep 11: Philadelphia Trocadero Theater, PA, US

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.