Hellcats
Interview conducted on November 26, 2021
By Dan Locke
Hellcats is an all girl rock metal band from Slovenia and the first all girl metal band from that part of Europe.
The band was formed in 2003 in Ljubljana by the sisters Sasha and Sonja Zagorc, who started to perform together in their childhood, while they were still at music school. Sasha was studying classical guitar and Sonja flute. Later on Sonja switched to drums and they formed a band. Due to the small size of Slovenian music space it wasn’t easy to find many female musicians. After numerous resounding concerts on big stages they twice performed at Metal Camp festival, in front of a full auditorium, Viva la Pola festival in Croatia, Metal Franconia festival in Dettelbach near Würzburgh and many more. In 2012 the all-female quartet was invited to tour Russia. In one week they played a series of gigs, including the biggest rock festival in Kaluga titled “Zheleznye devy” or “Iron Girls” and travelled from Moscow to Kaluga, Ryazan to Tula and Tambov City. In the summer of 2012 they were chosen among more than 400 groups and performed at the bigest music festival Jelen Demofest in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina). On the competition they achieved 4th place and thus became the highest placed foreign band at the festival. In 2013 they released their debut album Divja pot in Slovenian language and in 2014, the english version Warrior Princess was released in Milano at the beginning of their Italian tour. In 2015 they went on a German tour for the first time, played 2 festivals (Metal Franconia& Mühlen rock festival) and at few clubs. They have released four videos, »Steelrider«, »Now is my time«, »Demon Dreams« and »I am«. They are recording a new album at the moment.
Sasha Zagorc – bass guitar, backing vocals Sonja Zagorc – drums, backing vocals Alexandra Lioness – guitar Karmen Klinc – vocals
You were the first all female metal band from Slovenia. What is your upbringing?
Sonja: It is not easy to form a female band, especially in the country of 2mio inhabitants. There is only a few of us girls who play instruments such as drums, electrical guitar and bass. We are the first and still the only all-female metal band in our country and it was not always easy. We have a lot of supporters around the world but in the past, there were some skeptics among metal people in our country who thought that women can’t be as good as men. Rockers were more supportive. But as we can see, the things are getting better in Europe, there is many more female musicians and our supporters, especially in the northern countries.
How did you discover music?
Sasha and Sonja: Music was an important part of our lives since we were born. We are from the music family. Our grandpa was a well-known accordion musician, who played every weekend in Slovenia and abroad. Our mother also played accordion and guitar and our father clarinet. Our father also had a band when he was a student. We were both going to music school since we were small kids.
How did you start to write music?
Sasha: Sonja and I started to write music soon after we formed our band. We knew that we will not be just one of the cover bands. We had bigger plans. We wanted to show people who we are, what’s inside of us. We sat down and wrote our first song, an anthem song Hellcats. I remember being in our parents’ house in my room, I was playing my old guitar from childhood and we both were singing:”Hellcats, here we come, Hellcats we are all for one.” 🙂
Sonja-How did you get your first drums, and do you still have them?
Sonja: The drums that I first played on were an old Italian drums Amati and they were renovated specially for me.
Sonja- What are your drums of choice now?
Sonja: My drums are DW drums and I have them for more then ten years now.
Sasha- How did you get your first bass?
Sasha: I actually borrowed my first bass guitar from a friend. It was the Ibanez custom RG 1989 special edition. I still have it though I bought it with my first salary later.
How did your band form?
Sasha: The band Hellcats was formed by Sonja and me, we are also the authors of the lyrics and music, while I also manage the band. Due to the small size of Slovenian music space, it took us a while to find female musicians willing to play music in such a genre. The thing that motivated us and still does is love and dedication to the music in general. Sonja and I started to perform together early in our childhood when we were still in music school. I played classical guitar and Sonja flute. Later on, she switched to drums and me to bass guitar. We started searching for the other band members in 2003, and we needed some time to realize it, and in 2006 we had our first gig and that is the real start for us.
How did you get your bands name?
Sasha: We were looking for the name for quite a long time, for about two years. Then the name came out by our good friend Bico who is a guy who knows an awful lot about airplanes. He named us after The Grumman F6F Hellcat, a carrier-based fighter aircraft. But for us the name means much more than just an airplane.
Describe your music.
Sonja: Our music is a combination of femininity, women power, passion, and heavy metal. And we believe that is a great combination. In our songs we talk about good things in life such as love, desire, passion, and strength. Our songs are filled with optimism and energy. We have a lot to tell, and we want people to feel good when they listen to our music. The main concept of the band is to show the world the idea of heavy metal music from our point of view. We are extremely proud when people say they are inspired by us.
Your first performance was on June 6, 2006. What was that show like?
Sonja: We were performing at the opening of one music studio. Our audience was mostly just musicians who came to an opening. We were told it will be a jam session. At that time, we only knew 5 songs to play. We wanted to play just two. But people were so excited that they screamed ‘’We want More!’’, so we played all of them. That was a real beginning of Hellcats band.
It has been 10 years since the making of the video Steelrider. Can you tell me about that day you started to make the video?
Sasha: Steellrider video was directed by Simon Podgorsek. He is a very talented photographer, who also made several photo sessions with us. We were making the video for few days, because so many scenes were there. One scene was really special, when we were playing in a quarry and Simon put actual fire all around us. There were no special effects. It was all the real fire. He also burnt a vocal microphone and the stand, so the fire was coming out, when the singer was singing. It was really a great experience to make that video.
Since Sasha rides a motorcycle we made few scenes with the bike also.
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve. Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
Sasha: SAZAS Society k.o. is a collective management organization for the protection and promotion of musical authors’ rights in Slovenia and they take care of our royalties.
What makes a good songwriter?
Sonja: A good songwriter is the one who writes the song people can relate to and can’t get enough of it while they listen to it many times.
Sasha: A good songwriter needs to have a good understanding of music, composition, poetry, lyrics. A good songwriter has that inner drive to create a song that will impact people, the passion. The very important thing is also that you know your band well and their musical abilities to help them advise and play your melody so it can sound the way you wrote and imagine.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Sasha: Our first song that me and Sonja wrote was our anthem song Hellcats and yes, we did record it. It is on our album Warrior Princess. All of our songs were recorded and arranged by us. Sonja and I were the part of the production also.
What is the process of writing your music?
Sonja: The thing that always motivated Sasha and me in writing the songs and still does is love and dedication to the music in general. But the main thing is that Sasha and me besides that we are sisters; we are also the best friends. We are motivating each other’s from the childhood when we started to perform together, when we were still in music school. We always listen to each other’s and talk about everything what we wanted to do. Everything starts with the lyrics and the classical guitar actually. We both, Sasha and I have classical education in music and that really helps in the composing process. So we sing and play till we like it both. We work by the feeling and inspiration. A lot of songs were written at the seaside where we like to go as often as we can. We need peaceful environment, where we can create without interruptions.
How was it to tour Russia in 2012?
Sasha: In the year 2012 we were invited to tour Russia and play five concerts there. In one week, we played and traveled from Moscow to Tambov City, which is far away from Moscow. As main performers we played at the biggest female bands rock festival in Kaluga titled “Zheleznye devy” or “Iron Girls”. Russians are great organizers, and they took good care of everything. We really had a great time there. It was experience that we will remember forever.
Tell me about your last album Warrior Princess?
Sasha: We released Warrior Princess in November 2013 in Milan (Italy), when we were on a tour. Our album was very well accepted. Both versions, Slovenian (Divja pot) and English one (Warrior Princess) were well critically acclaimed here and in other countries. We received great reviews from all over the world. Since then, a lot of things happened. We were touring Italy, Russia, Germany, Croatia. We had some successful performances, played many rock and metal festivals and other shows, for example at our National Television and the biggest performance in 2017 in front of a 15 thousand people. The main thing is that we proved to ourselves that what we believe in is the right thing, and that is giving us the motivation to never give up.
What is your favorite track on your album?
Sonja: Each song on the album represents a moment in our life, a thought, a feeling. It took us quite some time and effort to make them and because of that all of them mean a lot to us. We really enjoy playing our songs. Each day another one is the favorite one. One day it might be “The Master of the Night”, another day “Warrior princess”, or “Now is My Time”, when we feel emotional, we like “Stillness in Time”. It’s all about how we feel.
Any new music coming out soon?
Sonja: We are working on the new album at the moment, first we are going to release the single and video. We would love to go on the tour after the release but guess we’ll have to wait and see because of the Covid pandemic.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Sasha: Streaming services can be good and sometimes bad to the artists.
When we released our first album our music appeared on many Russian and other streaming pages and those pages were actually selling our songs worldwide without contacting or paying us. When I heard that I immediately contacted our Slovenian organization who takes care of our royalties and at that time they told me they cannot help us with that. Since our music was selling on those pages for weeks at that time and me and Sonja as only authors didn’t get any of that money I had to solve the problem myself so I contacted the American organizations and they helped me and the problem was soon solved. But not everywhere. There are still some “pirate “pages stealing artists music and selling it.
But there is of course also many benefits of streaming. The streaming is way more important than physical sales these times, although we also sell many physical CD’s. It grows the audience of the band as streaming services provide an excellent opportunity for the artists to get in front of millions of listeners.
With each song streamed, artists make some money for their work.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag. Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
Sasha & Sonja: Some people might but we are never forgetting the symbol in music Sharp “higher in pitch” (since it was the first time, we learned it at age 5 and 7 in when hashtag was unknown for us).
Digital vs. vinyl?
Sonja: Vinyl definitely.
Sasha: both
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Sasha: Covid -19 affected musicians and everybody in the music industry. All the events are being canceled again, so there is no live performances in which we enjoy the most. We just hope all this will end asap, so it will not affect music industry too much in a long term.
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
Sonja: Covid is a big minus for any artist whose main thing was performing in front of a crowd of people. It is a plus for those who are only artist online. But is a plus to become more recognizable all over the world, since all the people are spending so much time on the internet.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Sasha: I actually moved to Croatia to the seaside a year ago where I enjoy the most. It is easier to spend lockdowns, since you can walk outside in the beautiful nature, spend the time by the beautiful Adriatic Sea, have peace to write new music. Anyway, Hellcats stayed active even through these hard times. Sonja and I made some new songs for one project, but we can’t talk about it yet.
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Sonja: I am a dancer and a dance teacher. Even if I couldn’t teach anymore, I never really stopped dancing. I was dancing through all the lockdowns either in dancing hall alone or at home. Dancing makes me happy and if I am happy, I am healthy.
Sasha: I swim in the Adriatic Sea almost every day till December and start again in April. It boosts my immune system.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Sasha: I started to walk every day for 15km per day and really felt great doing that.
How was it to be a part of Kickstart TV from Argentina?
Sasha & Sonja: We were glad that they invited us to take part of the special edition of Female Rock bands, on the KickStart TV. We have many fans there, so it was a good response.
How was it to perform on a Morning TV show (RTVSlo1)?
Sasha & Sonja: We always love to perform on our national Tv. We had to wake up very early and at 8AM we were already headbanging and rocking the stage in the biggest studio there.
Recently the virus has come back with the Delta outbreak, which as because many people in the industry to worry about the future of live music. You are planning to do a tour next year. “Hotter Than Hell Tour”, How are you going to keep you and your fans safe?
Sasha: As we said before, we are not sure when we will start touring. When the things calm down with the virus and when it will be completely safe for the band and the audience, we will pack our instruments and hit the road but until then we will stay in our studio and finish the album.
Sonja: We need to make plans for the future, we won’t give up. But if it will still be dangerous to perform, we will postpone the tour. We all wish to have normal lives again; we will wait and take care of ourselves and our loved ones and hope that the good times will come back soon.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
We never paid to play. We played for free few times at the beginning of our career because it was good opportunity for the band, but we never actually gave money to be on the stage.
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants… If you can’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
Sasha & Sonja: We already have a career beside music. I’m an architect and Sonja is an electro engineer. If you would like to live good in these times with playing in an all-female metal band it is pretty impossible.
What is your happy place?
Our rehearsal space is always our happy place.
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million. In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million), Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young song 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1,180-song catalogue to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited. Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative then the mechanical royalties paid to artist based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial. The lump sums being offered by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning. Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. And it was not a easy thing for him to do. But by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off of his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. And now he doesn’t have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands which hurts his ability to play guitar. Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is willing to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
Sasha: We will think about that when we’ll come to that.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Sasha & Sonja: We would like to thank our fans who are supporting us all these years: Thank you all, we really appreciate this! Stay as you are, believe in what you do, don’t listen to people who want to change you too much and enjoy every minute of it!
