Now about to embark on a major American tour — which will include a stint at New York City’s prestigious Lincoln Center on October 25 — we spoke with the mindbogglingly talented lead songstress Nina Diaz about working with Joan Jett, San Antonio’s burgeoning rock scene, and bringing old songs to the new generation.
How did this all get hooked up? Most importantly, did you get to meet James Franco?
I wish! No. Actually, I think they were just looking for a song to fit the commercial itself, and they just knew of our group and “Walkin’ After Midnight” and it seemed to fit.
You’ve done a smattering of promotional ventures, forever ago there was a Nylon ad with Mary Kate Olson. What’s it like as a non-commercial band to be hit up for stuff like that?
I mean it’s great because it’s some publicity, you know? Just getting it out there. When we were in a JC Penny ad we did a cover of “Heatwave” – even though it’s a cover it’s good publicity. It’s still fun, people get interested and wanna check it out and check out the original track.
What got you guys interested in covering more retro tracks?
Well we did our album of covers Adventures in Coverland because it was a break in between albums…It’s also something cool to bring to the generation of kids who don’t know about certain songs, for example “As The World Falls Down” from David Bowie, or they don’t know Labyrinth which is a huge movie. Patsy Cline — a lot of young teenagers haven’t heard of Patsy Cline, but now they’re getting to know her. Selena, Joy Division — that was our main reason for doing the covers: so nobody forgets about them.
How have young people been reacting to it?
They love it! Especially Patsy Cline. It reminded them of their grandmas and hearing it in their household. People got into Selena, Joy Division, it definitely resonates.
What did these names mean for you guys growing up?
Being the young sister I listened to a lot of what they my sisters were listening to growing up. They had a lot of new wave and punk, and of course Selena was played in the household. We grew up in that kind of environment with good music. “As The World Falls Down” is actually a song that — if I ever gotten married it would be to that song!
You guys are moving around a lot and going on a massive tour soon — what’s it like to spend time in San Antonio these days? How’s the music scene when you go home?
Well it’s actually getting better here. We’ve been in the scene for 10 years, and you see a lot of bands who are great and then they break up because they don’t sacrifice enough. But it’s getting better. There are some really great bands like Piñata Protest, The Offbeats, and Sugar Skulls….It’s rock, and also something that you can’t really put into a genre. It’s something new. Something that isn’t your usual guys in tight pants playing a song or a bunch of adorable girls doing whatever, it’s actually good stuff.
Lincoln center huh? That’s a pretty big deal.
Yeah! I don’t wanna think about it right now. [laughs]
Different on tour this time?
We played one show with Minus the Bear here in San Antonio, that’s how we got the tour with them. That’s gonna be different. You never know until you do it. It depends on the crowd.
Is Blackheart Records relatively hands off?
Yeah we have total creative freedom with Blackheart and that’s something that we’re grateful for. Blackheart is perfect for us. not to big not too small. We have Joan with us — it’s a perfect team. If we had gotten on another label they would have grabbed us and said ‘you have to sound like this, look like this.’ We haven’t worked with her directly since Trio B.C., but we still keep in touch. We talk about music, future projects — it’s close-knit.
Do you feel a kinship with her, being ladies in rock?
Yes. She has our back all the time. She gives us the best advice! One of the things she always tells us is to enjoy it. Because for her, so many things happened, she never got the time to enjoy it. She tells us to enjoy it has it’s happening.
Ever want to just give it up and get a desk job and stay stagnant?
Oh no! No way! I never had a desk job. The last job I had was working at a day care. I don’t wanna go back to doing anything like that again. Diapers, and kids I don’t know!
You must have a lot of suitors at this point. Anything exceptionally creepy?
Umm \, not really creepy. The only kind of ‘out there’ situation was when Dave Navarro got a tattoo of me on him! That was a little extreme considering I never dated or did anything with him. We were hanging out, we had an internet show for a bit, and he kinda had eyes for me. Afterwards we went to a show in Austin and we were hanging out backstage and we were talking bout the album and the album cover, he said I wanna get a tattoo of this! And the next time I saw him he had a tattoo of me. So don’t show him anything of yours or he’ll tattoo it on him.
When is your next album coming out?
We’re gonna start working soon so, 2014 possibly? We want to try to tour as much as we can before we release something again. We want to take our time with these newer songs, It’s gonna be a great album. We’re giving it all we got.