You better watch out guys, the Cleopatra’s are going to knock you out with there frenzied garage punk fervor and wild show with plenty to keep you shaking as these queens from the garage have been lighting up audiences since 1998 and have a new dish of tunes to feast on.  The all-female garage band hail from Firenze, Italy.  With influences such as the Cramps, Sonics, Ramones, Link Wray, Oblivions, New York Dolls and female garage bands from the 50s & 60s, The Cleopatra’s fuel high charged energy in their music and live performances that equally are as electric featuring the incredible pole surf circus featuring pole dancer the Rocket Queen.   The band feature original members Camilla on drums (and screaming) and Rossana on guitar with Alice on bass, Marla on guitar, and Darleen on vocals and tambourine.  In addition to a new release the band have a new video Apple Pie.  They also took part in the big Rebellion Festival this past summer that included legendary bands such as the Damned, Buzzcocks, Adicts, Misfits, Avengers, Gang of Four, Rezillos, Sweet and many more.  They have been tearing up the European music scene with there energetic music and addiction to fun since 1998 and are ready to deliver more.

 

“The Cleopatras are total “outsiders” in the music world (as we are not punk, garage, beat or pop enough to perfectly fit a genre) and among stereotypes (we have a very strong female identity but we ain’t no angry girls nor pin-up girls) these are maybe the main traits of our band. Unfortunately, sometimes people are not prepared, or smart, or open-minded enough to get them...”

 

 “Camilla and Rossana (the only two original members left in the band) started back in the 90s, as there was a big garage-revival scene going on in Tuscany...during those years bands like The Trashwoman, The Headcoatees were having their time and were for sure a good inspiration. But to be honest, the whole scene was.  Alice, Darleen and Marla joined the band years later, in 2008-2009, bringing their own background as well...Alice comes from the post-rock school, Darleen from the big Firenze wave scene of the 90s, and Marla from the punk77 world.  At that point, we mixed everything together to form

The Cleopatras you can hear today.”

 

When it comes to keeping the band going for so long they point to the bottom line, not just the music, but also the fun that goes with doing what they love most.

“Well, we could say a lot about this...passion, energy, strong will, love for the magic of rock’n’roll...but the real thing is: we have fun!  Yes of course it is tough, tiring, and sometimes disappointing when you have to deal with the difficulties of life and music scene. But it is always worth as we are very close, intimate and conspiratorial.”

 

The Cleopatras released La maledizione del Faraone. “Our new album “La maledizione del Faraone” (that was released on CD for the Italian label Ammonia Record and on cassette for the US label Winer Records) features 11 tracks (4 of which in Italian) in our classic garage-punk style, with maybe some more catchy tunes and a more mature sound. It also contains an Old Italian popular song that talks about women’s hard work in the rice fields, which we are really proud to use as a manifesto. The record was titled like this because of all the adventures and misadventures we went through during the last 3 years, that made the realization of this project so long. But we are stronger than curses, and we hope people could feel this in the new album!” 

 

“Our sound is mostly influenced by garage, surf and 77 punk: Sonics, Ramones, Cramps, The Trashwomen, New York Dolls, The Fuzztones ecc... , not to talk about all the 50s and 60s female garage and beat bands. But as we mentioned above our background is wide as we are 5 different individual how bring our personal influence in songwriting.  We try to avoid being stuck in clichés... If a good riff comes up, and a nice melody fits, then it’s ok!”

 

“Our attitude is strongly based on irony; so being misunderstood (or not understood at all!) is really easy. Most of the time our music “its only rock’n’roll”, meant to have fun, but sometimes we try to say something about gender stereotypes or other issue we care of, but we always do it our way so you have to be sensitive enough to get the message properly. Musically speaking, we really think that “girls make it different”, doesn’t matter if it is garage punk, hardcore, or whatever. And this can be tricky, as the world of rock’n’roll, in any of its connotation, has its own male-predominant attitude and symbols,

and female bands have to struggle between being a part of it without losing their female identity....a very hard-to-get balance!”

 

As for facing the typical stereotypes, the Cleopatras have it covered and have overcome all the barriers facing them.  “Most stereotypes concern two main issues: on the one hand, how professional and technical a band is; on the other hand, the band’s image and attitude. People tend to think about all-female band (or female musician in general) either as cute sugar dolls, or angry feminist, or suffering penis envy, which is of course absolute bullshit. Besides, sometimes you are kind of justified ...like, “they’re not bad especially if you consider the fact that they are girls” or “wow, they really know something about amps and stuff!”. Do you know what we mean? It is not unusual, when a girl declares to be a musician, to be asked, “Oh, are you a singer?” This is unfortunately particularly strong in Italy, where the catholic mentality is still way too strong and girls still have to fight twice than boys in order to be respected and see their job appreciated. This is very true in any aspect of woman society here in Italy: work, family and social situation, as well as in music.  As a female band we experience this quite often, but we always follow our path...we must say that among the niche of garage-punk a certain dose of irony in a band is often well perceived, and these are in fact the situation that we enjoy the most.”  “But outside that contest, at least in Italy and among some music press as well, male bands who’s members are masked or fancy-dressed (let’s take bands like The Mummies or Phantom Surfers as an example) are considered “party bands”, while if girls do it...well they are perceived only as a knitting circle with a weird hobby.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, at that time there were not so many all-female bands in the garage scene in Italy, so paradoxically, it was easier back then.  But of course, as years passed, we came to realize that being an all-female band it is not enough in itself: you need to demonstrate that you are a good female band in order to be respected and to avoid being engaged for a show just because you’re five girls (which is way more frustrating than people may think).  As a result, we always try to improve and to do something always new and different, and this is of course the toughest road...sometimes we have the feeling that people tend to consider us not good enough to be taken serious, or not professional/technical enough to be respected...but it’s a prejudice...these people should listen to our records more carefully and come see us live.”

 

“Now let’s focus on what’s important: we consider our female identity fundamental. It is a strong message in itself and helps us to find solutions, looking ahead and being sympathetic. Besides, it allows us to be more frank to each other, thus overcoming a lot of difficulties that would have caused distress to others. The flipside of this is that sometimes “democracy” leads to longer time in decision.”

 

You had better get your head wrapped around the Cleopatras and prepare to enjoy the ride with their sound blazing and your heart pounding as they fire up your musical soul on sure fire sounds that will have you hooked for life.

 

You can find them on the major platforms (Spotify, Itunes, Amazon, Google play...).  Cds are

available throughout mail order (either from Ammonia Records website or writing to us directly) and, most important, by coming to our shows!!!”

 

If you want to contact and/or follow us we have an official website www.thecleopatras.com) and a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thecleopatras)