San Diego Reader

Diana Death: Bass guitar, Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Keyboards

Genre: Punk, Rock

RIYL: Johnny Thunders

Upcoming Local Shows

• Musician Interview: "The Female Johnny Thunders" · May 4, 2011

Synoposis

Influences: Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls, the Zeroes, Patti Smith

Background:

“My very first pop idol was Mozart,” says singer/guitarist'bassist/keyboardist Diana Death. Despite that somewhat highbrow start, she ended up gravitating toward punk music.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, ‘You’re like a female Johnny Thunders,’” says Death. “If I have to be compared to somebody, it may as well be him. His talent and badassery are undeniable.” Last month marked 20 years since Thunders’s death on April 23, 1991, officially ascribed to drug abuse.

Last year, Death’s adoration of the late punk guitarist inspired her to cofound Chinese Rocks. “To my knowledge, we’re the world’s only Johnny Thunders tribute band. Our setlist spans his whole career, from the first songs he wrote with the New York Dolls to the Heartbreakers and his later solo material.”

34 years old in 2011, the multi-instrumentalist is also the bassist for nu-wave quartet the Very (whose debut CD was released this month) and plays a Casio keyboard in the minimalist electro-duo Erleen Nada. “I manage to maintain a pretty consistent practice schedule with each band, and I avoid gig conflicts by always keeping a calendar in my purse.... I recently played my one-thousandth gig.”

“On the rare occasion that I have a gig-free Saturday, I do runway modeling for local designers at events put on by MayStar’s Fashion Whore.”

So what does Diana Death think really killed Johnny Thunders?

“There’s a lot of mystery around Johnny’s death, and unfortunately, circumstantial evidence points to foul play, although his leukemia would have likely killed him before his 40th birthday. But the romantic weirdo in me thinks it’s also a sort of a cosmic death-wish fulfillment. He did, after all, tattoo his body with the motto ‘Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die.’”

In late 2011, Death toured with Billy Rath of the Heartbreakers. Shortly after that, she announced “I’ll be working with Greg Ginn [Black Flag] on a brand-new project.”