Fingernails Are Pretty is not just another cover band. The group takes the music of the world’s biggest dad-rock band, Foo Fighters, and brings it new life with an all-femme band. What’s more rock ’n’ roll than that?
Fingernails Are Pretty debuted at last year’s Tomato Fest and have quickly taken the Nashville music scene by storm. The group, which takes its name from a nonsensical lyric in the Foos’ debut single, is led by drummer Angela Lese and features a rotating cast of rockers from around Music City. FAP plays Eastside Bowl on Friday with support from White Stripes tribute Gonna Be Friends, with singers including Kalie Shorr, India Ramey, Aria Fowler and many more.
The band includes bassist Alyson Dellinger of Flummox, as well as guitarist Rachel Brandsness who also plays in the duo Flarelight and is a go-to touring guitarist. Mariah Schneider, who’s in bands like Slider and is also a first-call touring guitarist, usually also plays guitar for FAP. Schneider is unavailable this time, so Brandsness’ Flarelight counterpart Tyler Warren — who also plays percussion and sings with Queen + Adam Lambert — will pinch hit. Per Lese, that makes FAP “the feminist Foo Fighters tribute” for this go-round.
The Scene sat down with Lese, who formerly worked as a meteorologist at the National Weather Service branch in Nashville, to learn more about the group and its mission. As a side gig, she drummed in rock and punk bands like The Dead Deads — the rise of that band led her to leave the NWS in 2016, she says — and Taco Mouth. These days, she’s a hired-gun drummer who plays with folks like Shorr and Raelynn Nelson. Even before Lese took the plunge into drumming professionally, the idea for a Foo Fighters tribute was in the back of her mind.
How did Fingernails Are Pretty come about?
I had always wanted to start a female Foo Fighters tribute band, because Taylor Hawkins is my favorite drummer. I play more like Dave Grohl, probably — just heavy, straightforward stuff — but I've always been a fan. … This band really developed last year because Taylor Hawkins died in March.
I talked to Grimey over at The Basement East and I was like, “Hey man, how about I put together this Foo Fighters tribute show, and I want it to be all female or nonbinary — like femme, you know?” … I've come from a career that is male-dominated, so I was like, “Absolutely anyone's welcome except for a cis man.” So I approached him about that. I was like, “Let's do three shows.” And he was like, “No.” So I'm like, “Yeah, that's fair.” … And then he called me in July, late June maybe, and he was like, “Hey, about your Foo Fighters tribute band — why don’t you try it out at Tomato Art Fest?” I was like, “OK, that would be amazing.” And I'm like, “Crap, I don't have a band. I don't have a set list. I don't know anything.”
So the way I spun it was I found a great band. I have Aly Dellinger, who's a transgender girl and she's in a band called Flummox. And she’s so freaking good on bass … so it was really cool to be able to finally play with her. … And then I found a lead guitarist, Rachel Brandsness, who's in a band called Flarelight, a synth-rock duo with Tyler Warren of Queen. So it's, like, a badass band, you know — she rips. She's such a good guitarist, and they're both so good at their craft and so humble. They're just lovely, lovely humans. And, and then the other guitarist who was playing with me — she's going to on-and-off — is Mariah Schneider.
She plays with Julien Baker!
That's Mo, yeah. And she also fronts her own band called Slider. … And so that's the core band, those three and me. But I'll use, once in a while, Tyler from Flarelight as a backup. … When he plays, I call it “the feminist Foo Fighters tribute band.” He just knows all their songs and he's as big of a Taylor Hawkins fan as I am … plus he's a feminist and he really supports the cause.
[Everyone in the band but Warren] is queer. … It's really cool to be able to have that creative outlet, and to feel like we're in a safe environment, because it doesn't feel that way all the time. And even if you can straight-pass or whatever … if I have a girlfriend or wife, I wanna be able to safely hold their hand in public, and that's not always the case. And it's 10 times worse for transgender folks.
[Editor’s note: Lese reached out after our interview to voice her support for the grassroots group Protect Trans Health TN.]
You’ve already touched on this, but what is your goal with Fingernails Are Pretty?
It's kind of twofold. One, there's a lot of talented female artists, nonbinary artists, trans artists, queer artists, Black and brown artists in town [and] they don’t have the same opportunities, especially in Nashville. And so my first goal is to just make it a safe environment for those people to be able to perform. Like, not only are we having fun, it's safe. … It’s just, like, a safe friend hang, you know?
Music was supposed to be fun. I've been in a lot of bands that weren't freaking fun and it was stressful … I hated it. It shouldn't be about that. So I think that’s kind of the second reason — to kind of capitalize on the first one about taking a stance and making sure that we're standing up for the right things and being inclusive.
That goes for anything. If anyone in the band had an issue they wanted to bring up — for instance, Kalie Shorr came to me about the work she's doing on fentanyl test strips and clubs. I think that's great, ’cause I've lost a friend to fentanyl overdose. She's lost a couple people, and I've lost others to [other kinds of overdoses] … Especially in the music community, I think that's really good to shed some light on some kind of protection for those people. People are gonna do what they want to do, but if we can save a life — like, hey, check your cocaine before you snort it, please. Just so we can stop losing friends that we don't need to. ’Cause it's already hard being a musician, you know? I think that's another great thing about this band is that you can shed light on issues that perpetuate.
Tell me about your show at the Eastside Bowl! Who’s going to be there? Is there anything we can expect?
This is the first time [for Fingernails Are Pretty] playing Eastside Bowl, which I'm very excited about. I've known Jamie [Rubin] who books there for a long time. … We have a White Stripes tribute band opening, which is gonna be really fun. They're called Gonna Be Friends and they look the part and everything. Female drummer. I'm super psyched … We're gonna play a banger of a set, about two hours long … Kalie Shorr is performing a couple songs and because of her work on these fentanyl test strips, The Wall Street Journal's actually coming and they’re gonna video part of it. So that's awesome. …
It's just gonna be a lot of fun. When the state's passing laws against humanity and the world feels like it's going to shit, here's a place where we can come and congregate, and you can be yourself. It's safe. Like, that's what it should be about, you know? … I hope a lot of people come and share that feeling of feeling included in something, or at least not excluded. … “Inclusion” feels like I have control over something and I don't, it's more — I want everyone to be validated.
What do you hope for the future of Fingernails Are Pretty? What would you like to see it evolve into?
It feels weird to play in a tribute band for a band that's still playing. I know it's different ’cause it's not men, but … I really think it could turn into something pretty magical. Like, I love the energy behind it and I think I love that more than actually [playing]. You know, if it gives people a platform and a path to something greater, then I would love that. So if it continues on and gives people that opportunity, then yeah, I'll keep it going.
