SYLVIA: Well, I have to put a band back together for the tour to Europe. The band that I'm playing with now is Tom Shannon on bass and Chuck Arjavac, but he is going to be permanent because he's new. The players on the album were Shannon and Dave Childs on drums but by the time the album came out I had Don Nedino playing drums. So now I'm replacing Tom and getting a new bassist.
HIP: Are they in any other bands besides this one?
SYLVIA: Tom's in a band called Death & Taxes. They're very active but they've just started out so nobody's heard of them yet. Chuck used to play with Pat Ruthensmear(ex-Germs) but now he's permanent in my band.
HIP: Tell us about your tour and where you plan to go in Europe.
SYLVIA: We're going to Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy. We'll be touring in mid-December through January. Although we're not headlining status we're going to open up for bands that are on SST. The reason we're touring Europe is because I've been planning this for months and I believe I can work better with a European audience,...and also the tour came together sooner than planned bcause of the record doing so well in Europe.
HIP: Do you think you'll attract a bigger audience in Europe?
SYLVIA: Yeah, I think so because a lot of the alternative bands do distinctly better over there. They're not even thought of as being underground. A lot of bands that are not that big over here like The Leaving Trains or The Unclaimed are big in Europe and I hope the same will happen to me.
HIP: Why did you leave ToDamascus to go solo? SYLVIA: Well I had so many band members quit. Not because of personal differences but because of problems that they were having which made it virtually impossible for them to participate in the band. We had some members ended up going to jail or others had breakdowns. I formed ToDamascus and it was a 3-piece band. I did all the writing and after so many changes in the band I felt it was a farce calling the band ToDamascus. It's not like say, Guns and Roses for example, where one of them might leave the band and be replaced by somebody else but pretty much they have this common theme where all the guys look like they are in a band together and I never had that situation with ToDamascus. I really never found people that I was quite cued in with. It was always "Sylvia and her band" and it kind of happened that way. It might appear on the surface to you that I'm on an ego trip but it's actually the opposite. Since I've been solo I think the other members get more attention than they would otherwise. The personalities of the band members will always come through in the music. It was more of a dictatorship when it was called ToDamascus ironically. With this band I have my identity and the rest of the band has theirs. I give them credit for whatever it is that they're doing.
HIP: Do you find it hard being a female musician? SYLVIA: Not anymore, but when I first started guys would say "Oh, you're a girl...", and they wouldn't want to play with me because they thought that their friends might think that they were wimps or something because they were playing with a girl. Now I have no problems. Before it used to work against me and now it works for me.
HIP: Can you give your music a name?
SYLVIA: Well if you needed an easy phrase I guess it would be psychedelic hard rock. Kind of like power trio thrash overdrive. I put a lot of time into lyrics, I like to write about personal feelings, and some of the other songs are socially conscious...but I try to have some definite meaning in the lyrics and I don't have any "Ooh baby, yeah" in.
HIP: Do you play anything else besides giutar?
SYLVIA: Yes, I play the piano and drums but not well enough to record tracks. I played with The Leaving Trains which was the first band I was in, forming it with Falling James, the lead singer.
along with Courtney Love's ex-husband, Falling James!
Sylvia was also in
Opal/Clay Allison, which turned into Mazzy Star.
She also played with Jill Emery, who went on to start Hole, with Courtney Love.
A bit of Sylvia Juncosa "herstory".