L7’s Hard Knocks Lead Way to Owning Wax Tadpole Label

Donita Sparks and her bandmates in L7 are no strangers to the hands-on approach to rock ‘n’ roll. Ever since the Los Angeles quartet formed in 1985, Sparks & Co. have been doing things their way--from the genre-busting amalgam of metal, garage rock and punk they hammer out to the acerbic, no-nonsense attitude with which they play it.

Over the years, L7--singer-guitarist Sparks, guitarist Suzi Gardner, bassist Gail Greenwood and drummer Dee Plakas--worked its way from independent labels such as Epitaph and Sub Pop to Slash, which issued L7’s last two albums in conjunction with Reprise, and it’s a general disappointment with labels that has inspired the group to take the next logical step in its career. With its next album, due in September, L7 will launch its own label, Wax Tadpole Records.

“We’ve been on indies, we’ve been on a major. Now we feel it’s about time to rip ourselves off,” quips Sparks, 35. “Wax Tadpole’s going to be for L7 projects and side projects. We’re not really looking to sign bands right now, but in the future it’s a definite possibility.”

With a new L7 video released to stores this week--”The Beauty Process,” a documentary about the band made by former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic--L7 plays the Whisky tonight and the Foothill on Saturday, then heads back to the studio to resume recording and dealing with the nitty-gritty of getting Wax Tadpole off the ground--a process rooted in the lessons L7 learned in the school of hard knocks.

“We found ourselves always being the last ones paid,” Sparks says, reflecting on her band’s bumpy trek through the music business.

“I mean, I’m at a point where I can’t even look back because if I look back it’s just too mind-blowing--the money that flew away from us. Not that we ever had a lot of money, but it’s just amazing. All the [expletive] you think your people are taking care of for you and it’s actually really poor business decisions. I can almost laugh at it--I’ve got to laugh to keep from crying about it. So a valuable lesson is to get paid first.

“Another valuable lesson, I would say, is to not listen to the dullards in the music industry. We’ve never compromised our music, but after a while dullards’ opinions start to [expletive] with your head a little bit. Even though we reject those opinions, they still creep in. Not artistically but [in terms of] not making you feel very good about what you’re doing. Like it’s our fault we’re not selling records. I’m not saying our past has been all bad experiences. There have been a lot of great experiences. It’s just time for us to do this now.”

In keeping with the times, L7 is making the Internet part of its business agenda. The band has not only found the online world a more immediate way of communicating with its fans (via its Web site, https://www.smellL7.com), but also an effective way to prime the pump for its first Wax Tadpole album.

This month L7 released a single through Atomic Pop, the new Web platform established by former MCA/CBS/Alliance executive Al Teller. “Freeway” is available as a download from the site (https://www.atomicpop.com) or through Atomic Pop mail order, as an old-fashioned slab of 7-inch vinyl. L7 hopes to license future Wax Tadpole releases to online entities such as Atomic Pop.

“I think it’s very interesting,” Sparks says with a characteristic dose of optimistic skepticism. “It’s kind of in a guinea pig stage right now, and we’re keeping an eye on it. I’m not saying it’s the way of the future, because I don’t really know. It could be the Edsel of the future, or it could be the Cadillac of the future.”

* L7, tonight at the Whisky, 8901 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. Sold out. (310) 652-4202. Also Saturday at the Foothill, 1922 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill, 9 p.m. $12. (562) 984-8349.