Janis Tanaka

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Janis Tanaka

Bass player from Pink, L7, Stone Fox, and Fireball Ministry. Seen her around for a decade . One of the coolest chicks in the San Francisco music scene. She's moving to Los Angeles soon, which is great, because we had a blast hanging. She's a wonderful human and a hell of a musician.

Web site: www.fireballministry.com

Interview with Janis Tanaka August 7, 2003, Michael Dean's front yard.

Michael Dean: Hey, Mama. What bands you been in?

Janis Tanaka: Pinkplay bass, sing backups; Fireball Ministrybass and backups ; Hammers of Misfortunesang, played bass; Our Lady of Napalmsing, play guitar.

MD: Stone Fox!

Figure 18.3. Janis Tanaka. Photo by Michael Dean .

I Love Los Angeles

I was in my front yard waiting for Janis Tanaka to show up, and this guy leaned over my gate and said, "Hey, wanna buy my poems?" and held up a hand-Xeroxed chapbook. I didn't have money, but gave some waterit was hot and he was walking door-to-door selling poems! I love this guy!

I recognized him from my favorite Soundgarden video and set him up for a photo. We talked a bit. He signed a release form. I always keep a pile in my room.

Janis showed up and bought his book as he was leaving.

I love Los Angeles. Even the guys selling poems door-to-door have had their 15 minutes of fame.

Figure 18.4. Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" video star RC Bates in my front yard. Photo by Michael Dean.

JT: Stone Fox

MD: Stone Fox!

JT: Auntie Christ, with Exene and DJ Bonebreak from X.

MD: Loved them.

JT: Let's see what else was I in .

MD: L7.

JT: L7. Oh my god ( laughter ).

MD: You have a fuckin' great laugh. You laugh a lot. Is that the secret to life or happiness?

JT: It's my family. The girls in my family, we laugh like crazy. We don't understand why everyone says we laugh a lot, but we all do. So, I think it was just how I was raised.

MD: Do you play a full- sized bass? You have tiny hands.

JT: I play a full-sized bass. I used to play a 3/4, but the tone on a full-size is better. It's easier to play faster but just as easy to play a full-scale as a 3/4, I think. And then there are dead spots on a _ that I get mad at.

MD: Would it be redundant to ask questions about being a woman in a rock band or being an Asian woman in a rock band ?

JT: No.

MD: Have you heard this all a million times?

JT: Yeah, I've heard it a million times, but it's important in a way.

MD: What's your ethnic derivation?

JT: Japanese. My grandparents are from Japan.

MD: Born here?

JT: Born here. I'm a Sansei, that means third generation.

MD: Sun?

JT: Sansei.

MD: How do you spell that?

JT: S.A.N.S.E.I.means my grandparents came over.

MD: I make everyone spell everything so I don't

JT: You're smart.

MD: Yeah. I am. ( Both laugh. )

JT: They came over around 1900. So, my family's been here about 100 years .

MD: Wow. I don't even know what questions to ask about that, but what's different about being a girl or an Asian girl as opposed to a guy in music?

JT: About being Asian, there are good things and bad things. It's all on stereotype, which is funny . But you just take it for what it is, I guess. You take what people give you and do what you can with it. So, being Asian in a band, the good thing is, it's not that common and people notice. It's interesting in a way.

MD: Does every review mention it?

JT: Almost every review mentions "chick" or something "chick," which is something about female and what that's like and if that's good or bad. In fact, I just did an interview, and she [the interviewer] said, "You're in a somewhat male-dominated music genre , playing metal. What's it like being female ?"

It's not somewhat dominant, it's definitely dominated by males. And it's from generations of that. It's just slowly being okay. It's a lot easier being a female in a band than it was.

MD: Who started that? Was it Tina Weyworth?

JT: Who started what?

MD: Being the chick bass player.

JT: I don't know.

MD: Motown. There was a Motown lady.

JT: There was the Duchess.

MD: There was a white lady Motown.

JT: That was Carol Kaye. She was a jazz guitar player before she became a bass player.

MD: She wrote the books.

JT: She wrote the books. She wrote every bass line practically that you've heard. She wrote a lot of the bass lines I grew up with.

MD: But there were guitar books too, right?

JT: She wrote guitar books and bass books.

MD: Did she write them or did they just use her name ?

JT: No, she wrote them because she's a theory lady.

MD: I learned guitar from one of her books.

JT: She's very theory. I actually went into one and I don't get theory so I couldn't follow it. ( Laughs. ) So, I was like, "I'll sit down with this some day." But I had another one that was just little licks you could learn from Carol Kaye.

Women play some in the smaller clubs, but the farther up you get in the money ranks of music .

MD: I've never thought of it that way, but yeah, it winnows out the women. I wonder if they just get weary of it quicker. One thing I've noticed that's weird in doing interviews for my film bookthere's a lot of women filmmakers, but they don't think they have as much of a right to have something to say. Men with nothing to say who I would never interview are like, "Interview me!" And women who have a lot to say are like, "I don't know ."

JT: I think it's a combination of that and if you get into the upper echelon of money-music making, the more old-school people the more they are into not having the chicks so much. Sometimes they say it's cool, but they're still not quite having it. Like Deanne Franklin was saying: It's the same with sound, doing sound and being female. It's almost harder for a tech than a musician.

MD: What bands did she tour doing sound for?

JT: Tom Waits, She did Pink with me. Sonic Youth; she did Gwar too. Natalie Merchant. Deanne did Kat, and Courtney Love and that's how I met herthrough Kat and Courtney. Way, way, way back.

MD: Kat from Babes in Toyland?

JT: Yeah.

Deanne was doing studio work in the early 80s. So she's been doing sound forever. She says it can be kind of hard being female. I asked this woman who was playing rock music in the 1970s, and she said, "Oh yeah. The guys, not all of them but a higher percentage of them than now, would come and yell, 'Get off the stage!' and spit and throw shit."

MD: What advice do you have for people starting off in music?

JT: If you want to play music, you have to practice because the more on top of your skills you are, the more fun you'll have. You either practice with your band or by yourself. It helps me because I don't have a memory.

And make sure you keep your life intact while you play music. And just make sure you're having fun as well. I don't know. If you want to make money at it, that's a whole other ball of worms. ( Laughter. )

MD: Are you making a living at music now?

JT: On occasion. Little spurts. Last year I paid off all my debts from the

MD: Previous decade? ( Both laugh. )

JT: Yeah, exactly. I paid that off and it was nice.

MD: What do you do between gigs?

JT: Silkscreen, bus tables, type letters , run errands for friends .

MD: What do you silkscreen?

JT: Textiles. Long tables on wall coverings .

MD: Didn't you work at _________?

JT: Yeah, I worked at __________. That's where I was a receptionist and executive assistant.

MD: How do I remember that?

JT: I probably gave you some shorts.

MD: Yeah, probably. Probably came by the bike messenger wall.

JT: I probably did. I still have some of those. Those were the best. That was a fun job.

MD: Okay, I'm taking that out. No product placement perks.

JT: Yeah, no worries.

MD: How did you get the gigs with Pink and L7? And tell me something about those tours .

JT: I got them both through friends.

MD: Word of mouth?

JT: The gig with Pink was through Linda, a friend of mine who knows what kind of bass

player I am.

MD: Linda Perry?

JT: Linda Perry. Pink needed a rock bass player and Linda said, "I know who you need. You need Janis." And they called me. And the L7 thing I got through a friend. They needed a bass player, and he says, "I know a bass player that'll fit. Janis." And called me. They'd seen me play with Stone Fox.

MD: Stone Fox! ( Both laugh. )

JT: They were completely different tours obviously. I went to the same cities touring with L7 and touring with Pink.

MD: Pink was stadiums?

JT: Pink was stadiumssheds.

MD: Sheds, is that what they call them?

JT: Yeah, shed means open air, I think.

MD: How many people?

JT: 5,000.

MD: 5,000? Wow. What's the biggest crowd you even played to?

JT: 15,000.

MD: At a festival?

JT: Yeah, at a festival. It was with L7, at the LeMans motorcycle race, which was awesome . I played the Rose Bowl with Pink at the Wango Tango. And then we played this crazy place in Mexico City that was even bigger than the Rose Bowl. It was a Lenny Kravitz concert. It was huge.

MD: After you played shows like that, did you ever play shows where there weren't many people, with other bands?

JT: Yeah.

MD: Because I'm wondering how you jive that in your mind. Does it still feel okay playing for a very few people after playing for a lot?

JT: It's still fun. It's not like I haven't played one of those shows in front of three people for decades, but I'll play for a small crowd and love it. The crowd is so fun, like at Mission Records or some place I can't even remember.

MD: Like 50 people packed in a bedroom-sized place .

JT: At the most 50. 30. Maybe 20. Oh, I know where it was. It was at Kimo's with Our Lady of Napalm. And it was so fun. You're on the ground, with the people.

MD: It doesn't take many excited people in a place like that to have the energy.

JT: Yeah, and they're my peers too. It's not like this crowd of adoring . It's a lot different. It's more my scene really. So I had a lot of fun, and then I'd come home and play with Fireball Ministry, which is not that small. We don't play small shows. Not like 50 people, but it's not like the humongous stadiums.

MD: What size places did you tour with L7?

JT: That was 500 to 700. And I think we had some smaller places here and there. And it was incredibly hot. It was a van and Motel 6 tour, which was having a hotel was nice.

MD: What time of year was that?

JT: Summer. It was like August.

MD: In a van? Where?

JT: Yeah, in a van. In Germany. Europe. Somehow I just dehydrated myself completely during L7.

MD: How much rehearsal did you do for those tours?

JT: With L7 I had two weeks before we actually had to play a show. And with Pink it was maybe one week, and then we had to go play a show.

MD: With Pink, did you have your own hotel room?

JT: I had my own hotel room in a nice hotel. But it took a month or so before I could actually afford room service. ( Both laugh. )

MD: Did you take lessons?

JT: I'd take a lesson here and a lesson there. But mostly, the best guy I had was just a friend who would show me songs for like three hours for like five bucks. He'd say, "Bring the music you like," and he'd show me how to play along with the records I had. Then I could go home and play along to things that I enjoyed. If you can't figure out the parts to a song on your own, you can just ask someone to help you learn the song. Like learning how to go through different parts , like going from verse to chorus. And what a bass line does. You learn it more by playing along with a song with another bass player then any formal lesson I've taken yet.

Another thing is to start playing with other people early on.

MD: There's a lot of people who are really good in their bedroom and can't fucking play three chords with a drummer and .

JT: Yeah, well, it's different from playing in your bedroom. You play in your bedroom and you play whatever you like. But if you have to follow if you're a bass player you follow a guitar player I've noticed that whoever writes the songs, sometimes when you bring a song in, it's difficult for them to write parts for you cause they're used to having a song and having other people put the parts into it. I'm used to putting parts to a song that's already there, so it's hard for me to write a song and say, "Hey can you help me out with this thing?"

MD: Mike Watt has a really good take on that. He says he likes being the leader sometimes and being the side guy sometimes. He calls it being a "side mouse." He says it's really good for both aspects. Each one helps the other. Being a leader helps you to be a side mouse and being a side mouse helps you be a better leader.

JT: Yeah.

MD: It's weird 'cause bass players function as we both know, the guy in the back that you don't really see that fills in the space. But it doesn't just have to be that, and it's hard to front a band as a bass player. It's weird. You've done that?

JT: I don't think so. I don't think I've really fronted a band as a bass player.

MD: But you sang in a band, right?

JT: I sang in Hammers, but there were two other singers too.

MD: So you shared lead vocals?

JT: Yeah, it was like split screen. There were all sorts of cookie monster vocals. There were male vocals, female vocals.

MD: Split screen?

JT: Yeah, we had this split screen thing going on.

MD: What do you mean?

JT: It was a concept thing.

MD: Wow.

JT: There was a whole story. I imagine it as if you're watching a movie of us, our music, and there was a split screen with the two vocals. ( Laughs. )

MD: That's funny. I like it.

JT: So, I've never really fronted a band ever .

MD: I was going to say something about your advice .

JT: From my first band to my last band the first band we'd kick people out, we'd get really mad at each other and .I don't like kicking people out. Because a band to me is a unit, and I think one of the worst things is all the ego clashes . That's just part of growing up, in a lot of ways. The hard part of being in a band is learning how to deal with other people and not just throwing your ego around.

MD: That's something I've noticed with people who get the cool session gigs, like you do. It's musical ability, but it's also the ability to get along with people.

JT: Well, yeah. You have to know how to get along with people, but not just that. If I take a paid gig with someone, if it's not my band, and someone says, "Come and play bass," I'm not gonna say, "I think you should change this, this, and this." Whereas in Stone Fox, we did the set list together and figured everything out together.

In session work there's a definite hierarchy, and you just take your place. It's not my band, so I'll step back and I'm the bass player for this band. I'm helping do what they need to do, but it's not about me. That's an important part of taking a gig with a band that's established. But you still want to put out enough of yourself so you can add to it. So you're not just being a wet noodle. But you can't start taking over someone who has a vision and they've been doing their thing for while.

MD: 'Cause you won't last long in the band.

JT: Yeah. You need to find a balance.

MD: Do you have a manager?

JT: No, I don't personally have a manager. Fireball Ministry just recently got a manager for the band, but I haven't had a manager myself.

MD: So, when you get an offer for a paying gig, do you go into negotiation on what you're going to get?

JT: I go, "What's going on?" They say, "Oh, we're doing this." I'm like, "I need to hear the songs. Can you send me something?" and they say, "We'll send you some CDs. When can you make it down?" I'll tell them, and I get there and hope I get paid but whatever. If I don't get paid, I have to figure out how I'm going to pay my bills. That's how I feel. I'm really bad about it. Everyone gets on my case about getting what I'm worth. I don't really care.

MD: You will when you move to LA.

JT: I don't give a shit.

MD: Dog walkers have managers here. ( Both laugh.)

JT: If I really want it, I'll go and ask. But I like to work for people who will give me a raise when they feel I need a raise. If they don't give me a raise when they feel I need a raise, then I'll quit. I like to work for people who are nice.

I really didn't negotiate, but I do know about entertainment law somewhat. I took a couple of classes on entertainment law that a friend of mine let me take pro bono. I can read a contract. I know what I'm getting into, and if I don't like it, I could talk to them if I wanted to.

I feel the most comfortable when I'm talking to someone who's honest. I can tell if they're honest and if they're not I've only had one person that was weird and shady. Most of the time if someone's honest and I can trust that, then I feel safe.

MD: I think more contracts should be work-for-hire and less like indentured servitude.

When you go on tour with a rock band, you probably sign a contract that says you'll play the gigs, you'll get paid, and you won't flake out. You sign contracts on tour, right?

JT: We sign them pretty late into the tour.

MD: But they weren't like .

JT: I'm probably not supposed to talk about it.

MD: Okay, that's fine. We don't have to say specific bands either.

JT: Yeah, yeah.

MD: When one goes on tour with a band. Not when you go on tour .

JT: Only yeah, occasionally, not always. It depends. Sometimes you sign .

MD: Well, it's probably to someone's advantage not to have you sign. Then it's easier .

JT: Right, right.

MD: Dot, dot, dot.

JT: Yeah, exactly.

MD: But the major label contract that I signed, it was indentured servitude. It was like, if they want to own you, they own you for seven years. If they don't, they can drop you at any time.

JT: And they can charge you money!

MD: If you were a cat, what kind of cat would you be and why?

JT: (Laughs. ) I'd be a Siamese cat because they are chatty to the point of being obnoxious and really needy and more like a dog, but they're still a cat. And they'll swipe at you if they feel like it at any moment for no apparent reason. That's unfortunate, but that's what I'm like.

MD: Thank you, thank you. You rock, Janis.

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