I am going to be honest here, I have a few biases the main one being is getting a charge out of seeing talented female musicians on stage. Let’s face it, it is not often that I can truly relate to someone who looks like me pummeling the drums or laying down a powerful riff. Taking nothing from the guys out there working the scene every weekend, but I like to see the ladies laying down their talents. We don’t see enough of it. I am not talking about Brittany or Christina. I am talking about women who get the job done. AC/DShe gets the job done. The band is the brainchild of bassist Riff and vocalist Bonny Scott. The original idea came together in the mid 90’s, by 1999 the original line up was in place and they hit the road performing songs from the Bon Scott era of AC/DC. The band is comprised of vocalist Bonny Scott, bassist Riff, rhythm guitarist Mallory Young, drummer Phyllis Rudd and lead guitarist Agnes Young. AC/DShe was kind enough to sit down with us before their show at Slim’s in January to give CA Bands the low down on how the band formed and future plans.

AMS: So how did this all come together ladies? This is a very unique project.

Bonny: It has been quite a while. Riff and I started the band and just had the idea. Riff, you are better at this story than I am.

Riff: Neither one of us had been in a band, but most of friends were in bands. We started talking about it one day. We wanted to start a band and thought it would be easier to do cover tunes. AC/DC is one of our favorite bands. We started talking about doing an all-female AC/DC band. The band was originally called “AShe/DShe”. It took a while to get things started because I had to learn how to play the bass. We had a friend that was a drummer. We started playing out in '99. We have gone through a few line up changes, the current line up has been together almost 2 years.


AMS: Tonight you are playing with two original bands. Is that normally the case or do you book with other tribute bands?

Riff: It is all kinds of music tonight! We prefer to play with original bands. We don't like to play with cover bands because there are some really cheesy cover bands scenes that we don't want to associate ourselves with. We are pretty strong about that.

Bonny: We think it’s pretty cool to turn people on, who just go see tribute bands, to the local scene. There are original bands out there doing really cool stuff. I mean if we are going to be a tribute band, we might as well turn our fans onto some great live music.

Riff: It seems that one of the biggest things, well in the San Francisco Bay Area that we get a lot of sh*t for on chat boards and that sort of thing, are people dogging out tribute bands.

Bonny: Saying, "What the F*** is going on? Why are there so many tribute bands?" And like the only bands that can get shows now are tribute bands. First of all that is totally not true. It was really hard for us to get shows in the beginning, we had to prove ourselves and earn our dues. But now that we have a decent following, we like to play with original bands so they have an opportunity to play a club that they might not get a gig at on their own. It is just an opportunity to get good music heard by people that don't go to rock shows. I think that is the main thing with the tribute band crowd. Some of these people never go to shows at all. They will go, "Yeah I will go see a tribute band and I know what I am going to hear those AC/DC tunes no problem." They don’t want to bother trying something they have never heard.

AMS: We have less of the tribute band thing going on in Sacramento, but a high concentration on harder rock. When I have come to the Bay Area I have seen quite a few.

Riff: Nothing is nearly as crazy as L.A., where there is a whole world of tribute bands. It’s like all these rock'osaurs people you know? All these old rockers that are kind of washed up that are continuing on the band circuit. But, there are some good ones. We have played with the Van Halen tribute band called the Atomic Punks. Michael Anthony played bass with them with at the House of Blues. It was awesome! We are Van Halen fans too, so it was cool to meet Michael Anthony.

AMS: What was auditioning musicians like?

Bonny: We had a lot of auditions. When we were auditioning for lead guitarist, we had this woman come over. She told me over the phone that could play every lead and that she was such a good guitar player and had been playing a really long time. I asked her what music she was into. "I like metal and I like rock, whatever." It was just insane and she ended up getting drunk at the audition. We could not get rid of her. She couldn't even play a chord. Completely insane.

AMS: How hard is it to find female musicians that (a) that you can get along with and (b) that can play well?

Bonny: It is really hard. I think the dedication is something that's hard to find. A lot of people will say like yeah you know I would be into doing that but when it comes down to it there is really a big time commitment. We practice a lot and play a ton. It’s not JUST a tribute band. I think that a lot of people get the idea that a tribute band is something that is not going to take as much time or effort as another band. But I think in a lot of respects it takes. I mean, for Agnes to learn leads note for note takes work. If she were in an original band, she could just make up the leads herself. But in this band, if she's not playing the leads note for note, you got guys out there in the audience going "Dude, I know this lead, I can sing it to you and you're not playing right." And they're pissed.

Riff: Plus all the stage antics on top of playing the leads. I mean it is huge shoes to fill. Especially when you are used to just standing on stage and playing what you want. The key thing is to try and find 5 girls that can get along and go on long road trips. We have to be able to focus on the music and not have any drama. We can do that, which is great.

AMS: Well it is good to see an all female band; you just don’t see that any more.

Bonny: The Donnas are like the only all-girl band that I can think of that has any following at all. I think it is so sad.

Riff: We were just talking about them before you came in. They're really good friends and have been together since they were really young. That's amazing and I think that's great that they were able to take it that far.

Bonny: These boy bands or bands like The Strokes and Rooney seem so pre-fab to me, even if they’re writing their own tunes. There's never a chick in any of those bands, it's all about these little boys with shaggy haircuts playing songs that are not interesting that are really run of the mill and they are getting all this press. And there are no girls in any band of this age group or that age group getting anywhere. Are there just no girls playing. I kind of believe that might be true. It is kind of depressing. Maybe that may be the case; it's just there are none. Well in the 80s n' stuff there were all chick rock bands that were totally kick ass that you could look up to. Now, I feel like there is nothing for girls. It is actually really great when we play here. One thing that I really like about Slim's is that it is all ages. And so we do get kids here. We've had a couple of girls that have come time and time again who are like 13 that are local and their dads brings them out. They want to meet all of us. One of them wants to be a drummer. She's getting sticks from Phyllis and all that kind of stuff that is inspiring. It's really cool to see young girls actually interested in music.

Riff: … at an impressionable age. When we played in L.A. there was a 10-year-old girl with a Highway to Hell shirt on and knew every single word.

Bonny: I just gave her the mic and let her sing. She was in heaven. She had the biggest eyes. She would just stare at me when I was singing and stare at Agnes when she was playing her leads. She was back and forth and so into it.

Agnes: She wanted a pick from me.

Riff: Unfortunately there aren't too many clubs in L.A. were you get that opportunity. My 11-year-old niece saw us in Indiana this summer. Now she plays drums and completely in it. She is taking percussion in school. I like to think that we had something to do with that. She would probably never admit it though because she is way too cool.

AMS: So you learned to play an instrument to play in this band?

Riff: Pretty much.

AMS: Okay that was short and sweet. I am going to go around the room to everyone to get a little background on the members and how they came to be in the band. Let’s start with Mallory, what is your formal training?

Mallory: Oddly enough I started playing guitar because I wanted to be Angus Young. I am happy to be Malcolm, don't get me wrong. That is how I started. I played in another band about five or six years ago. It was pretty old school.

Riff: Yeah this band called Spider C**ts.

Bonny: Better watch it, you will make Mallory's mom mad.

Mallory: Giving her an apoplexy. She doesn't want to hear that word again.

Riff: We put an ad out for a lead guitarist. Mallory called and left a message.

Mallory: Yeah it was basically, I am not a lead guitar player, but I can play rhythm. So if you are looking for rhythm give me a call.

Bonny: We were not looking for a rhythm guitar player right, but I can’t say no. I kept her number and it totally worked out.

Riff: She came over and had Malcolm's hair so she had one foot in the door. She had a shirt on that was the same one that I had, which is a really old Harley tank. So I was like, cool hair and I have that shirt.

Bonny: Yeah we did her audition in Riff's kitchen. She was hanging out outside when I arrived. She was already there but she didn't want to show up early.

Riff: We had to meet people first so we could be sure that they were cool.

AMS: Agnes how did you get into playing rock n' roll music?

Agnes: I started playing guitar because I love rock n' roll music. That's why I picked up the guitar. This is the first rock band I got to be in. It is hard to find rock bands now. I think there are fewer gigs for rock bands unless you are like huge. There are fewer than there used to be. I had been playing classical guitar. The first band I was ever in was like jazz standards. I actually responded to the ad for a lead guitar player really only because I got it in to my head, I studied some music. I got in my head after school if you couldn't sight read like a page absolutely note for note, that you would be laughed out of any audition. So I was really, really nervous about going too any auditions. I thought that I would be this total rookie guitar player who ever body would kick out. The only reason I even responded to the ad because it said "All female band looking for a lead guitar player." I know there are not many girls that who play lead guitar, so probably I am up against less competition. So maybe they won’t laugh as hard. My audition with AC/DShe was my first. So I auditioned and they never called me back.

Bonny: That's not true.

Agnes: Well like a year later.

Riff: I called you. We had some internal issue to work out at the time.

Agnes: So a year later…

Riff: I was so nervous too call Agnes so late. .

Agnes: It was perfect actually because I had seen the ad, you guys had run it again. I and was going, "Oh they are still looking for a guitar player." Yeah like I am going to call groveling for the gig. And I was like wondering how they were doing. Another band I was playing in was coming to an end. I got the call right as I was going to my last or second to last rehearsal. I was in 3 bands at that time. This one definitely materialized quickest.

Riff: Lucky for us.

Bonny: I know. We thought we were going to be on a couple year hiatus for while. We have prevailed. This is a really great band.

AMS: You wear the schoolgirl uniform and do you have the horns?

Agnes: On Halloween I wore the horns. I don't wear the skirt. I just wear shorts. The costume is pretty much straight up Angus. We used to do this sort of female counterpart and we stopped doing it for various reasons.

AMS: Phyllis, how long have you been playing drums?

Phyllis: I have been playing for about 11 years. I started playing drums because I thought what I really want to do for a career is I want to be able to travel but actually make money while I travel, so maybe I'll be a musician and there were drums in the house and I thought, well I have never played those before, let me try to do that. So that is how I started.

AMS: How did you come to be in this band? Everyone has a story.

Phyllis: I answered an ad. I'm in an original band and they were taking a break. I wanted people to play with and I saw the ad and I thought that would be a good band because when the original band got busy again, then it would be a lot better than me being in another original band and leaving them in a lurch. The tribute band made sense at the time. You know, I never learned music note for note what somebody else had played. So I figured I would learn while I earned.

AMS: Where do you ladies see this going?

Bonny: To the top. It's a long road to the top!

Riff: We are definitely going to Europe this year. AC/DC's Big Ball. It is an AC/DC convention. We are going all over Europe. We are going on tour with Dave Evans.

Bonny: The original singer of AC/DC when they were kind of glam. His band will be playing. Hayseed Dixie, which is the band that did a whole tribute album to AC/DC in blue grass.

Riff: They are really cool dudes so we may do a little tour with them.

AMS: Are you going for the one festival or do you have other dates plans.

Riff: We are working on it. We have a lot of fans in Europe. I mean AC/DC was huge in Europe. We get emails all the time. We have a lot of fans in Brazil. It's funny. People are writing us from Spain and France. We want to meet AC/DC to be honest.

AMS: You haven't met them yet?

Bonny: Nope. Mallory met Angus.

Mallory: Yeah. I met Angus. I probably scared the hell out of him.

AMS: Tell me that story.

Mallory: It was pretty cool. I used to live in New York City and all my friends knew I was a huge AC/DC fan. Unbelievably, AC/DC was filming their Stiff Upper Lip video around the park where I was working at the time. When I got into work that day, I received a phone call. To this day, I don’t know who called me. I have no idea what they said, but all I heard was "AC/DC is playing on Kent Street" and I said "Right Now?" and this person said "Yes." I hung up the phone and ran out of the building. I went over and got to see them play. Cliff was up on a balcony and Angus was playing in the back of a flat bed.

AMS: So why do you think you scared Angus?

Mallory: I was petrified. Magically I had a sharpie in my pocket and a napkin and I thought this was my chance. I'm going to go and talk with Angus, get his autograph and frame it forever. I walked up to him and became completely speechless. I stood about where you and I are standing, like 5 feet. I looked at him and said, "So.. how.. are.. how you doing?" I could just kick myself. He said, "Oh all right" and smoked his cigarette. Then somebody came along, grabbed me by the shoulders and told me I had to go