SplatterTribe.TV Music : Interviews Lorraine Lewis

Lorraine Lewis - Hit On Chick

Femme Fatale - Falling In And Out Of Loves

Roktopuss - Naked 'LIVE'

When I interviewed Outlaw Country Badass Tonya Watts a while back, I noticed she was friends with Lorraine Lewis and had actually recorded some music with her.

For those who don't know who Lorraine Lewis is, I'll give you a little insight.. Way back when I was a little Tribe-boy, Lorraine was one of the first girls that I think I ever had posted on my wall. I remember Big Blonde Hair, short shirts, short-skirts and short-shorts. See, that was when I was knee deep into this music form called Heavy Metal. It's known as Hair Metal nowadays, but at the time it was just Heavy Metal. Lorraine was the singer for a band called Femme Fatale, which put out a self titled album on MCA Records in 1988. They never released another album, but Lorraine definitely left an impression on me.

So, after I followed a link on Tonya's MySpace page to Lorraine's page I discovered Lorraine is still involved with several different singer/songwriter projects. She's released an album entitled Snowball that mixes rock/pop/electronica to her own style. She's also released a self titled Country/Rock album. She's recorded and performed with another former 80's Metal veteran Roxy Petrucci of Vixen in a band called Roktopuss. All of this as well as projects with Grammy nominated Jan Buckingham, Tonya Watts and more than I'm probably even aware of.

Lorraine is a veteran who still carries her musical torch and that is why we now officially welcome her into the SplatterTribe. So, here's an email interview I recently conducted her. Time To Bring Lorraine!

Snowball-Lorraine Lewis

Lorraine Lewis

Lorraine Lewis

Interview with Lorraine Lewis

SplatterTribe: Introduce and compare yourself to some sort of party favor and tell us why.

Lorraine Lewis: My name is Lorraine Lewis, I'm a walking contradiction and I like to compare myself with a dirty martini...kind of classy meets gutter ..

SplatterTribe: Do you still own any of those short, shorts you wore back in your Femme Fatale days?

Lorraine Lewis: I still have the short shorts, but they don't really fit any more, did they shrink?...or did I just start eating a meal now and then ..ahhah?

(Tribe Note: Rule of Thumb-Anything over a year old that does not fit should be blamed on faulty fabric!)

SplatterTribe: Speaking of Femme Fatale, Have you ever thought about dusting off the old songs and performing at one of these rock festivals like Rocklahoma?

Lorraine Lewis: I'd love to do a show with Femme, but it would be tough since Bill D'angelo passed away 4 years ago, we miss him. Maybe we could do a tribute type thing using Jeff Young from Megadeth, they were good friends so I think Bill would look down from heaven and get a kick out of it...!

SplatterTribe: How do you define the following words?

Lorraine Lewis:

Music: anything that grabs my soul like Johnny Cash
Entertainment: PerezHilton.com
Art: big Bold Colorful Architecture like the real estate in Canada
Life: me, and my husband and my bulldogs..that's real life!

SplatterTribe: Why is Britney Spears 3rd on your MySpace friends list?

Lorraine Lewis: I love Britney Spears....she's an amazing dancer and since I missed that whole Mickey Mouse thing I'm so impressed with her journey ...plus I love the hooky shit she sings...!

SplatterTribe: So what come to mind when I name the following people?

Lorraine Lewis:

Tom Cruise: Scientology creeps me out

(Tribe Note: Lorraine, you're being Glib. Your being Glib Lorraine. Your being Glib.)

Lorraine in her

Femme Fatale days

Rascal Flatts: Great harmony, and Cody Sluder, an artist in Nashville that I've worked with, we had a great time when he came to LA and we drove around in my z-4 and he played me Rascal Flats all night long...good times, good times.

(Tribe Note: I'm gonna hate myself for this. So are you saying Life was a Highway and you rode it all night long? ha For the record, if someone played me Rascal Flatts all night long, I'd spend the next day water boarding myself for relief.)
Bret Michaels: Fun times back in the 80's, I met him when I was hanging out with Rikki (Rockett), in that crazy house in the hill, good memories, lots of makeup swapping and kissing.
Willie Nelson: cool dude, would love to have a beer or 3 and I'd like to write a kick ass song with him.
Tonya Watts: pure unadulterated rock meets heart meets sugar vocal and guts and friendship, I love this girl!

SplatterTribe: Speaking of Tonya Watts tell us a little about what Betty Sue on the Strip is and how it came about?

Lorraine Lewis: Betty Sue On The Strip is a fun little project with my girl...I wrote some songs with Jan Buckingham and Tonya and I decided to work on this together...she's brings the sugar, I bring the rough...we'll see what happens, I want to do some shows with her.

SplatterTribe: Your also the Lewis in BuckinghamLewis. Tell us what that is and how it came about.
eventually

Lorraine Lewis: Jan Buckingham is a great songwriter ..I was looking for someone to collaborate with and we jelled, she's completely nuts and that's part of her genius. She's got 7 bunnies that have their own bedroom in her house...I know some of our songs will hit at some point, just don't know how or when.

(Tribe Note: 7 bunnies that have their own bedroom in her house? Actually that sounds more like 'brothel' than a home! So Jan Buckingham runs a Bunny Ranch? I did not know that...)

SplatterTribe: Can you make a sentence out of the following words or phrases? (you can do it!)
Scribbled
Femme
Splatter
Flintstone Vitamin
Short shorts
cord

Lorraine Lewis: I scribbled some lyrics on my hand after I splattered some glitter and glue on my short shorts to spell Femme Fatale, thinking I would be some sort of costume designer but ended up running out of breath and reaching for my Flintstone vitamins which became my umbilical cord to sanity!

(Tribe Note: Flintstone Vitamins, your first choice in asthma relief.)

SplatterTribe: What did you do for New Years?

Lorraine Lewis: New Years was spent with husband, bulldogs and a bottle of champagne, I had big plans for seduction but we fell asleep at 11 ...hahhah

SplatterTribe: If you were gonna start your own Musicians Hall of Fame

Betty Sue On The Strip: Lorraine Lewis & Tonya Watts

featuring individual musicians and/or artists (no bands), Who would be your first five nominees?

Lorraine Lewis: Christina Amphlett from the Divinyls...alot of people don't know this, but she was a huge huge influence on me...I loved that woman and met her before I had my record deal. I think if you pay attention you can see alot of Christina in my performances.

(Tribe Note: Is it just me or does that answer make you want to touch yourself? haha, that's uh....joke......See the Divinyls had a song called uh.... 'I Touch Myself'.......)
AC/DC ...pure raunch loaded bass ballsy fun rock..love them
Don Henley and JD Souther, now that's songwriting my friends
Tom Petty, wow this is one of my heroes for sure, he was trying to prove his worth to his non caring father and ends up becoming a staple to our music industry and soul
the Supersuckers...they're one of my favorite bands in the world...Eddie (Spaghetti) performed at my 50th birthday party!

Right now I am only moved to mention those people for my hall of fame, I'm sure there are more!

SplatterTribe: If you had to write a song entitled The SplatterTribe, what do you think it would be about and what kind of tempo would it have?

Lorraine Lewis: Grungy tribal beat meets a sort of Everybody Wants Some by Van Halen.

SplatterTribe: Ok, 3 things you can't live without and 3 things that annoy you?

Lorraine Lewis: (without) My 2 English Bulldogs, My Mac and my man
(with) Traffic tickets, Ann Coulter, dirty feet.

(Tribe Note: Ann Coulter's stank ass, dirty feet annoy me too!)

SplatterTribe: Do you have a question I can ask the next person I interview?

Lorraine Lewis: What did you have for breakfast and what is your fav cocktail?

SplatterTribe: Songwriting time. I wrote 2 lines 2 a verse and then when I

interviewed A Promoter that goes by the name of Evil, she wrote 2 more lines, Then I interviewed Tonya Watts and she wrote 2 lines, what I need for you is to write 2 more

Me: As the storm started raging
I knew things would change

Evil: As I looked in his eyes and whispered my name
I knew things would change

T. Watts: we kissed we danced we screamed
he showed me what sex means

Lorraine Lewis:

You taste just like a Milky way

yeah it's okay the way you do.
Your mouth is just like vanilla ice cream

yeah you know what I mean the way you do.

SplatterTribe: Any closing comments concerning anything you want known or want to rant about?

Lorraine Lewis: Plugs and concerns...hmmmmm
www. myspace. com/bettysueonthestrip
www. myspace. com/femmefatalespace
www. myspace. com/buckinghamlewis
www. myspace. com/roktopuss
www.lorrainecafe.com

.....also to my friends and fans and former lovers...thanks for al your love and support through the years, thanks for the messages just give me about 72 hours to respond...I've got a lot on my plate sometimes and don't want you to think you're being dissed...ahhah Cheers and love , Lorraine x x

ps: If you're a true Femme Fatale Fan you will want to know that there is a recording of 15 songs from Femme Fatale that is going to be released this 2009 through Suncity Records in Australia. This cd rocks pretty hard and I can't wait for people to hear it. We recorded it as our 2nd LP that was never released, so keep you posted on that...pretty frenchin' cool!!! x

www.lorrainecafe.com

www.myspace.com/lorrainecafe

www.myspace.com/bettysueonthestrip
www.myspace.com/femmefatalespace
www.myspace.com/buckinghamlewis
www.myspace.com/roktopuss