Vixen Proves the Metal : Business Isn’t Just for Men

“I’d hit (the drums) so hard my hands would bleed,” said Roxy Petrucci, drummer in the all-female hard-rock band Vixen, recalling the painful period when she was making the transition from the relatively gentle art of jazz drumming to the crunching and pounding of rock. “I don’t have a problem now because my hands have gotten tough--callouses developed on my palms.

“But my hands weren’t all that needed callouses. In this business, if you’re in an all-girl band, your attitude needs to develop callouses, so does your ego. They take a real beating. Record companies don’t want to sign an all-girl band. Metal is a man’s world.”

A former classical clarinetist from the Detroit area, Petrucci was referring to the struggles of the old days--before the band’s 1988 debut album, “Vixen,” sold nearly 900,000. Indications are that the band’s new album, “Rev It Up”--written mostly by band members and more accomplished than the first one--may jack up Vixen’s status several more notches.

Formed in Los Angeles 10 years ago, Vixen ranks, in musical ability at least, with the better bands in pop-metal. They are the first all-female hard-rock band to rise to prominence since the Runaways in the ‘70s. (The big ‘80s all-female bands, the Go-Go’s and the Bangles, worked more in the pop-rock vein.)

Trying to break through the male bastion, Petrucci insisted, was a horribly frustrating experience. “Record companies didn’t want to take a chance on us. We constantly had to deal with incredibly close-minded males. When EMI signed us, we had trouble finding a spot on a tour. Most bands didn’t want to work with an all-girl band.”

But the problem wasn’t only sexism. “Musically we may not have been ready at first,” admitted lead singer Jan Gardner in a separate interview. “But record companies were signing male bands who were on our level.”

The lineup of Vixen, including Share Pedersen (bass) and Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar), has been stable the last few years, In the early ‘80s, though, Vixen had a revolving-door membership.

Gardner recalled: “Eight or nine women went through the band. One got married. Some were fired because they didn’t want to practice.”

The biggest difference between now and then?

“The audiences used to be just about all male,” Gardner said. “But now it’s 50-50 male and female. More females have gotten into hard rock in the last few years because the music has changed. It’s more accessible to general audiences--much more song-oriented.”

Another difference, Gardner noted, is that, in the early years, there wasn’t a great pool of talented, serious, female hard-rock musicians to choose from. “The caliber of female musician is much higher now,” she said.

So why, when they were looking for a keyboard player, did they select Michael Alemania, who has sideman status, playing on the tours and doing backup work on the album?

“He was the best person for the job,” Petrucci explained. “Nobody can accuse us of being sexist.”