Ex-WHITE ZOMBIE Bassist: 'I Never Wanted To Be Recognized As A Girl, Just A Fellow Musician'

Jennifer Farmer of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with former WHITE ZOMBIE bassist Sean Yseult about Sean's new book, "I'm In The Band - Backstage Notes From The Chick In White Zombie". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Since you have a rare and early female perspective from the mostly male-dominated world of heavy metal, what advice would you give to other women looking to get into that scene? 

Sean: If you are doing what you truly want to do, not to prove something or for other reasons, and you work hard and do it well, then you will be respected for it. Your attitude, the way you behave, all of these things will chalk up your level of respect and being able to hang. I've been usually the only girl on the tour besides strippers and groupies backstage, and it's important to respect everyone but differentiate yourself. In situations like these, it helped that I was seen as one of the guys. 

Ultimate-Guitar.com: You were the sole female (not only in the band),but in the entire metal world, spanning from 1985-1996 — why do you think that was, and why do you think that's changed? 

Sean: This statement is actually untrue, although in my press release [promoting the book] for some reason. There were a few other women in metal, and much more feminine that me: Lita Ford and Doro Pesch, not to mention VIXEN and others. I mention in my book that when WHITE ZOMBIE entered the metal realm (around 1989),I was the only female in our world, which was the super-heavy thrash metal bands, etc. We toured with TESTAMENT, PANTERA, THE OBSESSED, MEGADETH, SLAYER, ANTHRAX, DANZIG — tell me where there is a female in this equation?! It was crazy. I'm sure Lita and Doro were touring at the time somewhere, but not that I heard of. They were also marketed as metal vixens, which was something I never was nor wanted to be — I was just a musician riffing, writing, and headbanging. I'm not saying it's better, it's just who I am — I never wanted to be recognized as a girl, just a fellow musician. Of course, my idols were Joan Jett and David Bowie, so I always liked the androgyny thing and having people interested in you beyond what your gender is. 

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Do you understand why people use the phrase "good for a girl?"

Sean: I think guys think, and I have witnessed this also, that sometimes girls don't play as intensely, aggressively, or diligently as guys sometimes. In my generation, there were plenty of nerdy guys that locked themselves in their bedroom and played guitar for hours, out of pent up aggression/hormones and/or for lack of a social life. I never know a girl to follow that obsessive behavior. I did, but with piano and violin, instruments that were ok for girls. One thing I will never forget is when we started the band, Rob [Zombie] telling me, "Keep your fretting elbow out, girls always let it down to their side and it looks like they're cradling a baby." Well, god knows I didn't want that! There are so many chauvinistic things that guys think about girls that we would never guess, the slightest gesture conjures up something matronly or naughty and we're supposed to figure it out before they judge us. I think there are so many amazing female musicians now that people don't say that phrase anymore, do they? It was almost as though guys were saying: well, they have no arm or hand strength, they have no cojones, but they are managing along pretty well I suppose, right? I was so glad to never hear that statement! 

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Did you do anything different than the average metal musician did at that time you won the respect of millions of metal world — do you think it really mattered that you were a girl? 

Sean: It didn't matter that I was a girl — and that is what made it stand out — that's what made it matter! I was maybe the first girl in metal not wearing her gender on her sleeve, instead just being another musician. I knew a few other girl musicians that I could relate to on this level — L7, and the LUNACHICKS — but they were not metal bands and were not on that circuit. Guys rarely use the fact that they're guys as a selling point — I guess maybe MANOWAR, or some glam metal dudes that wore cod pieces and chaps, haha! But in general, the fact they are male doesn't matter. That is what I wanted as a female, for it not to matter. 

Read the entire interview from Ultimate-Guitar.com.