eMusic Selects: Blackblack
Featured Album
Diva Dompe is busy. Very busy.
The singer, songwriter, bassist (and currently sole full-time member) of L.A.’s Blackblack also majors in Biology at Cal State and co-runs a raw-food catering service. Somehow, she also found time to participate in the West Coast 88 Boadrum performance alongside her father Kevin, former drummer for proto-Goth legends Bauhaus, and to embark on two separate one-week tours of Japan.
A hectic schedule, sure, but Dompe clearly feeds off of the hustle n ‘bustle: the lo-fi guitar pop on Blackblack bursts and swells with a childlike enthusiasm. Even the track titles (“The Most! The Best! The Greatest!,” “The Energy Song,” “I Wish I Were a Scientist”) betray the songs ‘sugar-high rambunctiousness: ogres, bears, demons and emerald forests are just a small part of the fantastic Blackblack universe.
Taking some time out from her many activities — including auditioning new band members (her sister, and Blackblack’s drummer, Lola recently left to start college in San Francisco) — Dompe spoke to eMusic about being inspired by L.A., scary-story parties and black metal.
On getting into music:
When I was younger, it was being around my parents and hearing music they played. When I got into playing music with other people I was around 12. My dad took me to see The Filth and the Fury, the Sex Pistols movie and it just totally blew me away. I bought Never Mind the Bullocks that night and listened to it non-stop for a month. Then I got really into punk music, and I was friends with a lot of punk-rock kids in L.A. One of my first bands that played a live show — I was 13 — was called the Vulgarities [laughs]. It was funny — I played bass and sang in that band. It was all political, they were all about the World Trade Organization [laughs]. It’s funny to think back about it. I still love punk music, but it was also very constraining.
On being in a band with your sister:
When I started writing songs — some of the songs for Blackblack — I was 16, in high school. I played drums in a different band then, but was also writing songs on my own, on bass. My sister was 13 and I just told her to play drums in my band. She didn’t know how to play drums at all. She was into it. I kind of…told her to do it [laughs]. She wanted to, as well. I would always try to get my friends to learn instruments to be in a band with me, since I already got along with them. It doesn’t usually work out, but I guess it worked out in this case.
On having fun:
I don’t like going to bars; I find that kind of boring. I try to do different things. I really like going to the observatory with my friend — I like to go up there and draw, it’s just a really nice view of the city. It’s nice to be inspired by space.
A couple of weeks ago I had a scary-story party. We went up this canyon called Firemen Canyon at two in the morning and walked up this trail for half an hour until we couldn’t see the city anymore. It was the night that there were meteor showers, there were shooting stars everywhere. We went up really late and just told scary stories. We were scared that we were gonna get attacked by mountain lions [laughs]. Every time there was a rustling in the bushes, we’d shine our flashlights on it.
On being an artist in L.A.:
It might just be because I grew up here and I’m comfortable with it, but when I leave, I’m always happy to come back. There are so many different things going on. Whatever you’re into, you can find that. The weirdest things, you can find people who are into that and find avenues for going further with it. With local music, there are so many different things set up, all these different bands that are doing things that are creative and interesting and supporting each other. There are places like The Smell where you can play. There are some really good stores, like Family Bookstore and Ooga Booga which provide an outlet for people to sell things. Dean from No Age has a record label. Everyone can work together and help each other out.
On catering:
This year I started a catering company [Crops & Rawbers] with my friend Amanda, who’s in another band called Pocahaunted and also runs a label called Not Not Fun — and it’s all raw food. She actually asked me about it because she’s a raw foodist. I’m not — I’m vegan, but I’m trying to be more raw. I actually just bought a dehydrator. I’m getting more into it. At first we were just gonna do desserts, I guess that seemed easier. But very soon we expanded and started doing everything.
We’ve done pop-up restaurants at local galleries; we’ve served food at shows. I think it’s different, because a lot of the raw restaurants in Los Angeles, they’re on the west side and they’re very expensive — just a little unapproachable. So we’re trying to make it very accessible and fun and incorporate it into other events, since we’re both really into music as well. We’ve sold food at [popular all-ages venue] The Smell a few times. It’s fun.
On making a video:
We made all the sets and costumes for that. It was really hard work, but it was really fun. The setting of the video is that there’s this tribe in the forest, and they worship a butterfly. I was the tribe chief, and I had these big butterfly wings on, and we painted a big backdrop to make trees and used lots of fluorescent paint and blacklight stuff. There’s an evil butterfly catcher, and he captures the butterfly that we worship, so we all get sick. Lola is the tribe warrior, so she goes out and shoots poison darts at the catcher and frees the butterfly, then he starts hallucinating. So we all dressed up as mummies and did a choreographed dance. Then he gets fed to a giant spider. It was really fun! It was so low budget.
On recent listening:
One of my favorite bands is Os Mutantes. They’re a Brazilian band from the ’60s and their music is so interesting to me. It’s so experimental but very honest and heartfelt. I really want to get more into world music, which I think is such a funny term — “for all the music not made in the United States and England.” [Laughs] My teacher for molecular neurobiology is really interested in music too — he burned me some CDs of Indian drumming. It’s just, like, twenty minutes of Indian drumming and it blew my mind.
Also I’ve been listening to this band Marine Girls; they’re from England. I actually lived there for a month — I was gonna go to school there, but I didn’t like it so I came home. I’ve been listening to Young Marble Giants. Oh, and black metal. Like Emperor and Burzum.
