Interview with DRIVE LIKE MARIA
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Drive Like Maria is a trio of indie rocker from Belgium. What’s cool in this band, is the presence of a female guitarist, Nitzan Hoffmann.
We’re not talking about another stupid girl trapped in mini dresses and high stiletto heels just for selling out more records, heading for the form, ignoring substance: Nitzan really believes in Rock. ‘Cause for going on stage and playing guitar all you need is a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and sneakers… only if you’re damned talented, of course!!!
Here’s the interview to the 24 years old girl who’s opened gigs for AC/DC, ZZ Top and Motorhead. Enjoy!
Nitzan, what’s the origin and the meaning of your band’s name?
It’s an American saying that refers to Mario Andretti’s (the Nascar driver) sister Maria Andretti, one of the first female Nascar drivers. It’s said that she wasn’t someone you’d want to run in to on the road because of her fast and reckless driving. That saying is : If you want to get there in time, you’d better drive like Maria Andretti”.
Tell us about “Elmwood”, your debut album!
We produced and recorded our debut album “Elmwood” ourselves in our studio in Belgium. It was a long process because we were doing shows in the meantime and trying to figure out how Drive like Maria should sound on an album. There are two songs on the album with Janis Ian (who you might know from songs like “At Seventeen”, “Stars”, “Fly too High”) on vocals an also backing vocals. We really wanted to have a typical 70’s voice for “Die a Little More”, and Bjorn thought of Janis Ian right away! We sent her an e-mail to ask if she might be interested, which she was, and she ended up singing on another song “Sure Enough” as well. For the mixing of “Elmwood” we flew to Dallas to work with John Congleton (Black Mountain, The Polyphonic Spree, The Thermals, The Paper Chase). The first time we heard about John was when we were listening to the album “In the Future” by Black Mountain, it sounded so good that we immediately looked up who mixed it and sent him an e-mail to ask if he wanted to mix our album as well, which he did, and he lifted the sound of our album beyond anything we might have hoped for! All the songs on our debut album “Elmwood” were written by singer/drummer/guitarist Bjorn Awouters.
How did DLM form?
Drive like Maria was formed in a backwards way: where most bands first decide on who’s in the band, then start writing songs maybe record a demo/EP or album en then sometimes compete in competitions to try to get a little bit of attention for themselves…. We pretty much did everything the other way around. I was in the studio with Bjorn working on his solo album, when we heard about this band competition which was to take place in a very nice venue in Amsterdam. So we signed up, asked a friend of Bjorn’s to join in on bass, rehearsed twice and headed to Amsterdam for what would be our first live show under the name of Drive like Maria. And we won! The following week we were flown out to London for the world final of the competition where we reached second place, the prize we won was a show in Mexico City a few months later… the rest is history..
What people can see at your live shows, is an explosive mixture among you and your band mates, Bjorn and Robin
For us every live show is different. We try to not only interact between the three, sometimes four of us. But also with the audience. I think being on stage is for all three of us one of the things that we love doing most and we give energy to each other by reflecting that and energy to the audience as well. And the energy from the audience reflects back to us… Like a spiral.
Do you remember the first time you’ve realized that the guitar would be your “girlfriend”? How your love for rock and roll was born?
Well I was always into music. I started playing a little bit of keys when I was younger and moved on to play the drums when I was 14 or so. My brother played guitar in a band at that time and I just thought that was really cool so I started to play a bit of guitar myself and started to play in bands at school. Around the time that I finished high school I met Bjorn and that’s when I really started to love playing guitar. I guess it was something in the way that he plays drums (and guitar) that made it easy and fun for me to try out new stuff and jam out together.
As a female guitarist in a guy’s band, you’re definitely a rare pearl! You’ve got a good stage’s command, and it’s obvious that many male guitarist envy your style! But, if you were a boy, which male guitarist (contemporary or legendary) would you like to be and why?
Well… I guess I wouldn’t want to actually be any male guitarist … hahaha!!! But I would definitely love to have a bit more of Jimmy Pages skills… when he plays it just sounds so good! He has such an amazing sound and great riffs!
Drive Like Maria supported AC/DC, ZZ Top and Motorhead… can you tell us the about the most magical, freaky, sick moments of such a great experience? Did you meet Angus or Lemmy?
Well those days were all just a bit blurry I guess.. and all of them where very special! Though I personally enjoyed opening for ZZ Top most. When we started our show the venue (Forest National in Bruxelles) was full and dark and after our first song the crowd just exploded, it was very magical! We didn’t get to meet any of the guys of either three bands before or after the show. But we were at a party in Austin during SXSW a few months ago and somehow we ended up hanging out and talking to Lemmy and Mikkey Dee. Supporting AC/DC was just unreal, such a big crowd! I’d never seen AC/DC live, I’ve seen and heard a lot of live dvd’s and cd’s and they really still are an amazing live band!
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Keep rockin’!
Link:
VIDEO:
“I’m On A Train” from the album “Elmwood”
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