With Soundwave only months away, I chat with Rena Lovelis, one fourth of L.A. rock band Cherri Bomb. Though they may be newcomers to Australia, Lovelis and her girls have been attracting the attention of rock fans in the U.S. and European markets, as well as iconic musicians including Billy Corgan and Dave Grohl.

What have you girls been up to?

Lately… we’ve been recording the album, we just finished, and we’re rehearsing to come to Australia! We’re excited.

I’ve been doing some research on the band and it looks like you girls had quite a busy year last year? What was it like to be welcomed at some pretty major festivals in the UK in 2011?

It was pretty hectic just because there was a lot of running around; just going to the shows, gearing down and getting all our stuff to run to the next one. It was a lot of fun for us. The reception in Europe was really great; the people were having a lot of fun. I mean we were on pretty early for a lot of the shows, but a bunch of people still went there.

I would assume, especially if you were on one of the earlier slots in the day, just getting any sort of crowd is an excellent thing!

[Laughs] Yeah!

I love the fact that Cherri Bomb has achieved so much in such a relatively short amount of time. For an all-girl rock band as well, do you think that women in rock are beginning to get more and more attention swung their way?

I do, especially because we’re definitely becoming more popular with a few of the bands. I think they are becoming a bit more popular because there are so few of them right now and they’re kind of a bit of a rarity. There’s Valora, there’s the lead singer of Paramore, and I think it’s kind of a rarity but it’s also…there’s an interaction that the women get with the crowd that some boy bands might not, you know?

You girls are based in L.A. – when Cherri Bomb first started doing shows and getting music together and recorded, what was the climate like in terms of the rock scene and how you were all initially welcomed and received?

At first, we were searching for different styles of music that we wanted to play, but we definitely wanted to do rock and it’s kind of evolved to what we really wanted our sound to be.

What was it like to be signed to Hollywood Records?

When we first found out, we were definitely really excited and we were kind of like “Wait, are you kidding?”. But we announced it here at one of our shows in L.A. and the people were like “Oh that’s great!”.

I took a listen to the Stark EP last night, and really dug it. Can you tell me about the creative process for that record? Where did the influences come from?

Thank you. With the EP, a lot of what we did, we would work with our producers and the writers that we had and we would collaborate ideas and our songs were born!

Are there any local bands that you shared ideas with or that you’re close with? I know here there is a strong community vibe.

Yeah, well when we went on our first tour, we opened for Smashing Pumpkins. We actually collaborated with the singer Billy Corgan and he was really great, we got about five songs started.

I’ve read that the Foo Fighters are one of the band’s biggest inspirations – what was it like to open for such an iconic rock act? I can only say that as a music fan, they’re one of the best rock acts I’ve seen live.

We opened for them in Germany…actually there’s a story of how we met Dave Grohl! My sister and I were going to breakfast and it was on a Sunday morning, we were at breakfast with our family, and my mum… She’d always do this thing where she’d pretend there was a celebrity behind us and we’d look back and she’d laugh you know…we’re all big jokers in our family. So she points behind us and she goes “Look, there’s Dave Grohl!” and I’m like “Are you kidding me? You’re a frickin’ liar”. She’s like “Seriously, no, I’m not even kidding!”, so we look behind us and he’s standing right there, about to get a pot of coffee. So we go over and we’re talking about how we were actually going to play a festival [with the Foo Fighters], and he kind of had a realisation. Like, at first, he thought we were just fans in a little band or whatever, but when he realised that we were going to be playing with him at one of the festivals, he was like “Oh I know you guys! I know your manager”! They were a lot of fun!

The biography I was sent to read over says that the band are becoming rather respected in the U.S. rock community…I mean, Billy Corgan requested that you guys tour with the Smashing Pumpkins. That’s got to be an overwhelming feeling at times, to know that you’re getting out there and impressing not only the concert goers, but people who’ve been in the industry for years?

Yeah, I hope people love us over there in Australia, it’s going to be a lot of fun!

The band is coming out to Australia for Soundwave this year. Have any of you been out this way before?

No we haven’t, but we’ve researched a few things about it, just to know what we’re getting into! We know about Vegemite and koalas and all that good stuff!

Cherri Bomb is on one of the biggest rock line ups I think it’s safe to say, this country’s seen. It’s got to be a decent way to kick off your first tour of Australia?

Yeah, definitely.

Can fans be expecting the full-length Cherri Bomb record to be played during the set?

Definitely. I think we have one or two songs that are on our EP that are going to be on the album, so you’ll get a taste of the EP. Maybe some people haven’t heard it yet, but you’ll also get a few new songs that we wrote on. So that’s going to be a lot of fun.

As we’ve spoken about before, Cherri Bomb is no stranger to a festival scene – what do you enjoy most about doing these sorts of live shows?

I think my favourite thing is the audience feeding off of us and us feeding off the audience, off of each other. It’s a really great bonding experience for all of us because you know, we’re all sisters, basically. My sister and I actually are sisters so we really get each other onstage, the connection that we have comes out.

For the people out here who’ve never seen Cherri Bomb in action, how would you pitch your live show?

I would say our live show would be explosive, fun and has a lot of energy!

That’s a great way to start at least! I’m keen to catch you guys after having a listen to your stuff last night.

Yeah, maybe we’ll see you there!

Thanks for taking time out, best of luck and we’ll see you soon!

Thank you so much Sosefina!

--------------------------------

Cherri Bomb join Slipknot, System of a Down and so many more on the 2012 Soundwave Festival tour. Limited ticket releases for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are available from http://www.soundwavefestival.com/ on Jan 24, while Adelaide and Perth remain open now.