Ten Foot Dolls Interview

(Left to right - James, Jake, Nicci and Izzy)

What happens when you throw together four friends in a band who’ve got a wide variety of music tastes and the same ideas when it comes to general debauchery and carnage? Meet the Ten Foot Dolls. They’re a fresh package of sleazy swagger mixed with a love for creating music that people can remember. The vocals of Miss Nicci are delightful and give a tired and abused genre a bit of a kick (along with good production on all of their recordings).

Playing alongside the mighty Robin Black in April and featuring on Pure Rawk’s “Unleashed and Loaded” CD this year, Ten Foot Dolls seem to be going from strength to strength - especially commendable as they’ve not yet been going for one whole year.

In a slightly relaxed interview with a few beers, Nicci (vocals), James (guitar), Izzy (bass) and Jake (drums) sit down on the floor in a slightly trampy manner (in none-other than outside the trampiest venue in the whole of Yorkshire, Disarm’s venue - The Mexborough Civic in Sheffield) with Nix to discuss everything from how they came to be, through to female fronted bands, last minute lift scrounging and Will Smith ...

Nix: How did all of you guys get together?
Jake: It was us two - me and Nicci. We went to college together, we decided to drop out together (Nicci laughs a lot) to form a band and then move to London. We didn’t get any luck at all! We were there for nine months.
Nicci: There were a lot of sexist people in London.
Izzy: I’m all for the minge I must say!
Nicci: With all of the influences that we have got from say the 80's genre of music where it was more about the lifestyle rather than the music. They didn’t think a girl could keep up with it and that’s what came across. So when they found out that ‘Nicci’ .. As it can be both male and female .. When they came to meet us and saw I was a girl, they were like (shrugs shoulders).
Jake: They didn’t get back in touch with us. We moved back home, up to lovely South Yorkshire. I moved in with Nicci’s parents because they’re lovely. Izzy just got in touch with us after we’d moved back.
Nicci: While we were in London we’d left loads of adverts on the internet advertising for a band. Izzy got in touch with us after we’d moved back. We did have another guitarist before James but -
Jake: He got a job! He basically got a job and didn’t have time for us so we kicked him out.
Nicci: We always kind of pride ourselves on playing everywhere and anywhere whenever we get asked to. If we get asked one morning to do a gig the same evening, we’ll go wherever just for the sake of turning one person around. So that’s why we got this door stop here (points at James).
Izzy: Maeven found him for us!
James: I sent emails out to everyone in Sheffield I could think of in a band. Maeven got back to me and said that Ten Foot Dolls had just got rid of their guitarist. I’ve not been here too long!
Nicci: We’ve only practised a few times! It’s been about three or four months with us lot as a line up. The Ten Foot Dolls have been a band since last November so it’s not been that long.

Nix: The thing with being female in a band like this ...
Jake: Izzy is a bit feminine!
Nicci: I don’t think that the music industry is that open. I do think that it’s become a trend since the whole Evanescence thing and then theres bands like Juliet and the Licks. It’s not been so bad because the only other two bands that I know of is Maeven that are all girls and ther’s also Patchwork Grace (Tori) that have a female as their lead singer. Locally it’s not bad.
Izzy: Big up the boobies!

Nix: How did you come up with the band name?
Jake: Nicci’s dad had a dream that he came to one of our concerts and me and Nicci, before we met these guys we’d been trying to think of band names for f***ing ages!
Nicci: We were trying to think of a name to put on the adverts that would attract people so we were trying to think of a name that would cover all the influences and sound like something you might’ve heard of before. Then people would hear it and go “I think I’ve already heard of them” and it is because there are so many bands out there like that. The New York Dolls, like Four Foot Fingers and stuff and numbers in the name. So its subliminal!
Jake: Yeah, so back to the dream! Nicci’s dad dreamed he came to one of our concerts and it said ‘Ten Foot Dolls’ on the poster outside the venue! So then it stuck with us.

Nix: A little bit about each of you for the curiosity of those reading!
Izzy: I play bass. Actually I don’t play bass, I just hold the bass and try and blend in as much as possible! I like drink and girls. Drink and girls basically!
Nicci: My dad is a lead guitarist and he owns his own recording studio so I’ve been doing music for as long as I can remember. I’m not very good with instruments, I’ve tried with everything. The only thing I can do coherently (laughs)
Jake: Give blow jobs
Nicci: Is sing! I can hold a note. I love being on stage!
Jake: Jake! Jake the Snake as everyone seems to call me! If I want to be going personal, I didn’t used to be called Jake. I changed it for certain reasons.
Nicci: Legally! I paid for it!
Jake: I haven’t seen my sisters in ages. I’d fallen out with my dad because of the band. He cut me off from my sisters and stuff and I’ve only recently just started talking to them. I’ve been playing drums for eight years ... not that you can tell because sometimes its s***e! I started because my cousin was a drummer. Richard, the name of his band - RSJ - they’re a hard core metal band and they play around York and stuff. That’s about it really with me. Oh, and I like blow jobs.
James: I’m James the new guy. I’m just trying to make everything heavier because I f***ing hate Motley Crue! (Everyone laughs loudly)
Nix: Why do you hate Motley Crue?
James: Because they’re not very good .. There’s lots of bands around that think they’re Motley Crue or try and be Motley Crue. I just want to slide away from that stuff and say lets get this stuff a bit heavier. (Laughs) It’s like when Christ went and sat down with the unbelievers! (Laughs)

Nix: On that note then! What would you say is your main influences?
Izzy: I’d still say Motley Crue. It’s quite varied, probably still those like Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi - right down to Rob Zombie and Black Label Society ... and Will Smith! Me and Jake listen to Will Smith! We’re not bothered about genres - we like a bit of everything really. One day we want to write a song about Motley Crue, the next day we might want to write a song like Rob Zombie.
Jake: Ironically, we don’t like being pigeon-holed. We don’t like being put into stuff like ‘an 80's style metal band’ or some mad hairspray band.
Nicci: There’s a lot of bands at the minute that are getting (Jake says ‘hairspray’ repeatedly) on the Sunset Strip band wagon - but they need to realise - they’re in f***ing Yorkshire!
Jake: I saw a poster for a band, not mentioning any names!
Izzy: I saw a f***ing poster and it said “straight from the Sunset Strip”! And this band were from York! I thought ‘dude, you’re from f***ing York’!
Nicci: We’re not trying to be like our influences, we just like listening to them. We don’t sound like anyone, we’re just trying to be ourselves.
Jake: James listens to other stuff that we don’t listen to as well!
James: (Pauses) I’m weird! (Laughs) when I’m playing I like to play heavy and take a lot of stuff from heavy metal. When I’m at home listening to music, I’d rather listen to Alanis Morisette and Pink Floyd - just chilled out stuff!

Nix: Ten Foot Dolls fans in a nutshell?
Izzy: Strange! We attract the strangest people! No, I attract the strangest people (laughs)
Nicci: But we love them!
Izzy: Yeah, we like them but we never attract average people! We attract the strange and obscure people!
Nicci: They’d come to the ends of the earth to see us and they do so much for us! They’ve made random DVDs from our gigs and everything.
Izzy: If we ever got famous or exceptionally big we’d have to do something for em, especially Stephen and Pilchard!.

Nix: In the position you are at the moment, trying to break into the music scene - what do you think of the state of it at the moment?
Jake: State? It is in a state! (Nicci laughs) I’m not naming any bands because if we cross paths with them it’s not going to be good!
Izzy: There’s not many local bands that I particularly like! There’s too much cliche and I don’t like bands that aren’t original. There are a lot of bands that see a certain genre and copy the clothes, copy the music and everything and anything. We take Zakk Wilde and Rob Zombie and mix it with Def Leppard and even Will Smith and the Crue! There’s so many bands that just stick to Zakk Wilde or Motley Crue and don’t dare ever venture into any other sort of genre. There are very few local bands or even Yorkshire bands that I think are any good.
Nicci: Not only mentioning bands but also the industry. The whole state that gigs are in, there’s not many that many people coming out to see gigs anymore. It’s all internet. Record deals are b***ocks now! They’re all going out of business and everyone is doing it themselves over the internet.
Jake: I don’t want a record deal.
Izzy: There are so many people on the Internet that see us or give us an add on Myspace and say ‘you guys rule’ and they’ll never show up to a gig because the scene, the rock has just kind of gone down. It’s like a boom and bust kind of thing. So many people can’t be arsed anymore. They may like us and add us and talk about us and admit that they are a genuine fan of the band but a lot don’t come down. Even if it’s a local gig or even if its free entry - they just don’t bother.
Nicci: They’d rather just add the song to their profile on MySpace!
Izzy: Just to be seen or to be cool. MySpace is basically everything nowadays.

Nix: Major, major gigs in the pipeline?
Izzy: There’s always tons of gigs because as we said we’ll gig anywhere and everywhere. We’ve got them splashed here, there and everywhere. We’ve got them booked up all the way until December from now like! Maybe one day we’ll be in London and the next day maybe in Scotland or something like that!
Jake: Who’s the driver?
Izzy: (laughs) We don’t even have a driver for that yet!
Jake: (To Nix) Can you drive?
Nix: Nope!
Izzy: We scrounge! The day before the gig we’ll go like “S***!, we’ve not got a lift!”
Nicci: It’s really good though, we do manage it. We always usually leave it til the last minute but we do it!

Nix: Off on a bit of a silly one, do you have any vices?
Jake: Ooh, like Miami Vice!? (laughs) Ooh! Vice Versa’s, do you remember those? They were dead cool, they were like big smarties!
James: That’s quite an easy question there, Izzy is sex ... Nicci is c*ck (gasp of horror from Nicci), Jake is drugs and I’m drink!

Nix: It’s a scary, scary thing is MySpace. So have you got anything in the pipeline at the moment?
Izzy: We are gradually doing an album. We’re not going in the studio like everyday for four weeks or something. We’re just going in a studio every month or so and doing another song bit by bit. Maybe in about six months time we’ll have an album and then we’ll publish it.
Nix: Self published?
Izzy: Yeah, because of Nicci’s dad being such a know-how on the music business he’s got connections with publishing companies and stuff we’ll do it all on our own.

Check out their stuff on MySpace www.myspace.com/tenfootdolls and they’re playing alongside Trashlight Vision in December (4th) with many more gigs in the pipeline so keep an eye on them.

Words and interview by Nix - images from the Ten Foot Dolls' Myspace.

© Pure Rawk 2006