Robin August’s world was rocked when she saw Joan Jett perform at Ascend Amphitheater in September 2016.
The then-12-year-old had been in a group homeschool program and felt sheltered. She’d performed in local theater productions and even appeared on a few episodes of ABC’s Nashville, but she didn’t know how to play guitar and had never tried to write a song. Still, Robin August was captivated by Jett’s presence and attitude.
“I went home that night and watched every single Runaways documentary, I watched the Runaways movie — I became obsessed,” she says, sitting on the floor of her dad’s home recording studio in East Nashville. “I was listening to all their music, and I thought that I would want to be The Runaways for Halloween.”
Her mom had a better idea: Why not form a Runaways tribute band? Robin August reached out to a couple of friends she knew through homeschool programs, who then in turn reached out to a couple of their friends. Soon, Queens of Noise was born: Zoe Dominguez on vocals, Robin August and Gwen Holley on guitars, Kyra Cannon on bass, and Lola Petillo on drums.
They covered songs by The Runaways, of course, but also Bikini Kill and Those Darlins, among others. Within a couple of months, they wrote their first original song as a way to channel the frustration and anger they felt the day after the 2016 presidential election.
They all burst into riotous laughter while explaining just how bad the song “2016” was.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” singer Zoe Dominguez cries out. “Our first song was so bad.”
Robin August looks down at the floor, feigning deep shame, before she admits, “We rapped.”
“The chorus was so bad,” she continues. Then she belts out, “So freakin’ tired!” in a bratty, nasally tone, mocking her past work. They all start laughing again.
But more and better originals followed, and Queens of Noise have since shared the stage with Tristen, Lola Montez and Butthole, among other topflight local bands. Their live shows drip with all the confidence and swagger you’d expect from young women inspired by performers who don’t give a damn ’bout their reputations. Dominguez falls to her knees and crawls across the stage like Iggy Pop, while Holley whips her head of massive curls around like Dave Mustaine.
But this isn’t a story about teen girls who are — gasp! — breaking rock’s masculine molds. The band collectively groans when I ask about how most of the press they’ve received so far is fixated on their youth, with onlookers seemingly trapped in some kind of “Who knew teen girls could rock?” trance.
Teen girls have been rocking for decades. And Queens of Noise know they’re in very good company as we start listing all the young women who came before them. Joan Jett and Sandy West were 15 when they formed The Runaways. Stevie Nicks was a senior in high school when she first performed with Lindsay Buckingham’s band Fritz. Tina “The Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” Turner was a teen when she started singing in St. Louis nightclubs. Need I remind you that 18-year-old Billie Eilish just swept the Grammys?
Still, America has a complicated, at times troubling fascination with teen girls doing ... well, almost anything. That isn’t lost on the band.
“A problem I have a lot with myself, and just in general, [is] I think, ‘How far would we have gotten if I didn’t act that way onstage?’ ” says Dominguez. “We did a show and somebody came up to my mom and they were talking about our performance and he was like, ‘They’re so good! They’re talented, they have that other thing.’ And my mom was like, ‘What’s the other thing, hmm?’ ”
He didn’t clarify, though it’s hard to assume he was referring to anything other than what he interpreted as sex appeal. Would he come to the same conclusion if it were young men of the same age wearing leather pants and rocking out? Probably not. But he wasn’t wrong about the girls’ talent. Even creeps are capable of recognizing good songwriting, sometimes.
“On My Own,” from Queens of Noise’s 2019 EP Loretta, is a soulful, soaring rock song with beefy bass and drums. It’s about Robin August’s journey out of homeschool, an environment she describes as “toxic,” into a more welcoming public school. One of the song’s cathartic highlights: All the girls cry out in unison, “Can’t you go fuck yourself instead?!” Opening track “Victimized” is a thrashing, pissed-off nod to the punk and riot-grrrl bands that have inspired the group. It’s a song about people who hide behind performative activism to avoid recognizing their own faults or privilege. Their newest song “Up Against the Wall,” from the 7-inch set to be released on Valentine’s Day via Cass Records (an imprint operated by Third Man Records co-owner Ben Blackwell), boasts brighter harmonies than anything the band has done before, reminiscent of early Go-Gos.
Even with a growing catalog of originals, Queens of Noise still make time to play their covers of the songs that started it all. It’s the group’s way of ensuring the next generation doesn’t forget all the women who’ve personally or musically inspired them.
“Covering ‘Ain’t Afraid’ has definitely brought a lot to me,” says Petillo. She was friends with the writer of that song, Those Darlins’ Jessi Zazu, who died of cervical cancer in 2017. “It’s a really powerful song. It’s powerful for a lot of the young girls who are listening, and keeping that alive is an amazing thing that I’m so glad we can do.”
