It’s time for another Band Chat! This time I have for you a very awesome female bass player who’s stage performances are one to be amazed by! Alice Atkinson of The Black Bullets!
The Black Bullets are a rock ‘n’ roll punk band from Basingstoke/London. The Black Bullets stage energy is something to be fascinated by. The band have already played many Hard Rock Hell shows, with more set for the future. Definitely a great addition to any line-up, that is for sure. I had the pleasure of booking a show with them about 2 years ago, and thought they were fantastic rock ‘n’ rollers going from strength to strength. Definitely a band to keep your eyes out for!
I’ve known of Alice for quite a while now, and I’ve always been fascinated by her stage performances! Not only does she take being a female in a hard rock band to a whole new level, but she makes bass players look like the coolest members of the band (which in all fairness, they usually are). If I was an aspiring young musician, Alice would fast become one of my idols for sure.
What bands/musicians got you into rock ‘n’ roll and music?
I was raised on Queen and The Beatles but hilariously enough, it was actually McFly that made me realise I wanted to be in a band. I’d already been playing guitar since I was 6 but I’d never really considered it anything beyond a hobby. McFly came along, I saw them onstage and on tour and I thought “I want to do that.” Through McFly talking about their influences, I got into other bands like The Who and Bruce Springsteen, and it was also around that time that the noughties emo movement was taking off, so bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco were constants on my CD player.
I have a huge respect for the “classic rock and roll” bands because they were such huge influences on so many of mine but yeah, I can’t deny that the bands that really shaped me as a musician are about as far from the traditional definition of “rock and roll” as possible!
Have you always wanted to be a bass player?
Hilariously, no! As I said, I’ve been playing guitar since I was 6 and when I first started playing in bands, I was actually playing lead guitar. Unfortunately, I hit a point between bands where no matter how hard I looked, I just could not find anyone who wanted a female guitarist – literally, I had bands flat out telling me they didn’t want a girl. Apparently, you need a penis to play guitar. Who knew?!
However, one night, I saw an advert for a band who wanted a female bassist. I listened to their stuff and immediately knew I wanted to be part of it so I basically lied about EVERYTHING and said I was an expert bass player… and then in about the space of a week, desperately learnt the root notes for all of their songs. I figured that I definitely wasn’t going to get in on skill but I might be able to get in on enthusiasm. Much to my surprise, it worked and suddenly I found myself as the bassist for The Featherz and with a VERY sharp learning curve on how to actually play bass! I had arrogantly assumed that bass would be virtually the same as lead guitar minus 2 strings but it turned out to be an entirely different instrument and way of playing (shocker… I know…). Since then though, I’ve come to love playing bass and although I still do pick up my guitar occasionally, I definitely prefer the ol’ 4-strings!
How do you find being the only female in the band?
It doesn’t happen as much as it used to but when I first joined up with The Black Bullets, the first question I was normally asked was which member of the band was I dating. Me and Mr Billy Tee, my lead singer, have a running joke that I’m his band wife because of how many times that was assumed! I also had an incident where security of a venue almost didn’t let me in for soundcheck because they thought I was just hanging around with the band…
However, there is also a lovely side to being the only girl in the band (and often also the only girl on the entire line up), which is when after a show, women come up to me and say it’s inspiring to see a girl up there onstage, rocking out just as hard as the guys. It’s awesome to hear that I’m having a similar effect for other women as my own hero Lyn-Z Way (bassist for Mindless Self Indulgence) had on me.
In your opinion, do you think it’s harder for a female bassist to get recognised?
Yes and no. There’s lots of girls out there doing their damned hardest and they’re getting attention and recognised… but it’s not always because they’re actually damn good at what they do. It’s recognition but for the wrong reasons. There are definitely steps being taken in the right direction towards remedying this (there’s more and more women out there getting their voices and instruments heard) but we’re still a way from having a girl in the band immediately just being seen as “fellow musician” as opposed to “the token chick,” or even, god forbid, the worst of all – classifying “female-fronted band” as a whole genre by itself.
Do you have any advice for other female bass players looking to join a band?
Don’t take no for an answer! Get out there and show everyone what you’re made of! I’m pretty much the living proof that doing something is more important than how good you are at it – and hey, if you don’t know how to do something, you can always learn.
Also – and I cannot stress this one enough – do not tear down other female musicians just because you might perceive them as a “threat.” This scene is big enough for all of us so find your sisters and cheer them on! I’ve known a few girls with that bitchy, two-faced attitude and for every single one of them, they got exactly what they deserved – everyone eventually saw through their shit and all the lies they told were found out, and now, no one wants anything to do with them.
Your stage performance is very impressive! Do you ever rehearse/practice your moves?
Hoo boy, yeah, learning how to do backbends certainly took a fair few instances of Head-Meet–Floor before I got the hang of it!
If I see something that looks climeable, I will test it out before the gig. I learnt the hard way to do that – when I was in The Featherz, we were playing a gig at the old 12 Bar and there was a giant beam by the side of the stage that I thought would look really cool to climb up on. The last song of the set arrives, I chuck my bass to the side and take a running leap off the stage towards the beam where I landed and…
And it was then that I realised the flaw in my plan; my skirt was too tight for me to swing my leg up over it and I didn’t have the upper body-strength to pull myself up. The result was that I was kinda just left awkwardly hanging over this beam, all flailing legs and going “WHOOO YEAH ROCK AND ROLL THIS IS TOTALLY WHAT I MEANT TO DO!!!!”
Is there any upcoming/gig announcements for the Black Bullets coming up that we should look out for?
Yeah, we’ve got some pretty cool gigs coming up! We’re pretty much touring solidly for most of May. We’re also playing at Mammapalloza at The Unicorn in Camden on 12th May and also Alice’s Wicked Tea Party on 2nd June in Dorset, both of which have some really rad bands playing on the line up. You can check out the events page on our facebook for all our latest shows (https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackBulletsUK/ )
You were also bass player for The Featherz. How do the Black Bullets differ from your previous band?
Well, there’s a lot less glitter involved which my mum is thankful for! Have you ever accidentally put a red sock in with a white shirt in the washing? Glitter’s like that but worse. Oh, the amount of times that I’d accidentally mix my gig-clothes up with the normal laundry…
If you could play in any band, who would you choose?
Oooo, that’s a good question! I think it’d have to be My Chemical Romance (at least, in the happy hypothetical world where they didn’t break up… I don’t think my poor broken emo heart will ever get over that). I saw them live a few times and each time, there was something undeniably magical about the atmosphere. I would love to have been able to see what it was like from their side of the stage.
What is your favourite song to perform live and why?
I like Riding Shotgun because it’s the one where me and Billy jump out into the audience and have a bit of fun. We played one show where the security had given us very strict instructions that we WERE NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TO GO IN THE AUDIENCE… so naturally, when the song started, off we went. I spotted the security hoisting Billy’s microphone cable above the audience, which I thought was a surprisingly helpful thing to do until I realised they were using it to literally reel him back in!
What has been your favourite show to date? With any band you have been in.
It’s gotta be Octoberfest in Basingstoke last year. It was in this giant tent that was completely packed out, the sound was great and the audience were completely welcoming. I had a lot of fun at that show!
Do you think image is important in a performance? If so, what do you love most about your own image?
I definitely do think that image is important. The one thing that pisses me off the most is when I see bands onstage who look like they haven’t made the slightest bit of effort and can’t really be bothered to be there. It always made me so mad because I’d be like “I would give ANYTHING to be standing where you are right now and you look like you’re dying of boredom.”
My belief is that you need an image to make people want to stare at the stage. I’m a total, unashamed geek and I like to sometimes sneak in costumes to what I wear on stage… I’ve got a Wizard of Oz look and Eleven from Stranger Things’ pink dress to name a few. I’ve got a pair of light-up unicorn trainers as well which get more attention than me! I like to dress up and have fun with what I wear on stage, and at the end of the day, I’m on stage to perform. It’s why I’m up there. I want to entertain the audience. I don’t think I could stand still even if I wanted to!
Name 3 bands you feel other people should also check out.
Screech Bats , Yur Mum and Vanity
When on stage, do you ever feel like you have to be sexualised because you are a female? If so, how do you deal with this?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in the sense that most people I encounter are incredibly respectful towards me and there’s never been any pressure in the Bullets that I have to play up to any specific expectations. I don’t think what I’m doing can be particularly sexualised either because I’m basically hyped up on Red Bull, flailing around and getting all gross and sweaty and out of breath because I’m the unfittest motherfucker on the planet. I don’t like wearing anything particularly revealing and I always wear shorts under my skirts because I don’t want to flash the audience! That said, although I personally don’t chose to, if a woman wants to use her sexuality to market herself, then fair-fucking-play to her. It’s her choice to do so and all the more respect to her for doing it on her own terms. For me though, it’s just not who I am and I’m much happier staying true to myself than trying to fit into someone’s idea of what I should be.
Please do check out The Black Bullets, Myself and Alice out on our social media platforms:
INSTAGRAM – JODIEBOWIE
INSTAGRAM – ALICE
INSTAGRAM – THE BLACK BULLETS
FACEBOOK – JODIEBOWIE
FACEBOOK – THE BLACK BULLETS
Also you can click here to ready my previous band chat with Marco Mendoza of The Dead Daisies!
See you on the next one!
Jodie x ❤ x
JodieBowie 