Covering Their Bases: Lez Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin
Lez Zeppelin from left: Jessica Fagre [Touring Bassist/Keyboards] - Kris Bradley - [Vox] - Steph Paynes - [Creator/Guitarist] - Leesa the Squyre
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Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, Decider asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding the reason for their existence. In this edition, Steph Paynes of Led Zeppelin cover band Lez Zeppelin (an all-female version) explains the terms “she-incarnation” and “'Stairway' denied,” and demystifies the fickle music press. Lez Zeppelin plays the Double Door tomorrow, April 4.
Decider: How do you categorize Lez Zeppelin?
Steph Paynes: You know, we’ve been trying to think of the right word for it, but the closest we could come up with was "she-incarnation."
D: What does that mean?
SP: It means a rebirth of the music by, I guess, "she" rather than a tribute band, [which] is something I think of as an impersonation. Most tribute bands try to give you the illusion that they are that band. That’s not at all our intention. We sort of approach the music as if it were, I don’t know, a symphony by Beethoven. And we’re classical musicians trying to interpret it and to give it our all.
D: Have you seen Led Zeppelin tribute bands or cover bands before?
SP: No. Never. And I never even knew of such a thing as a tribute band before I started this one. It was completely and utterly naïve, because I just thought, "I wanna play this music." I had no idea that people really did this in any serious way. I just thought, “Oh, I’ll just play Led Zeppelin cause it’s following my bliss.”
D: How does the audience react when you perform your own original songs live?
SP: Wonderfully. You know, the first time we did that, it was a little scary. There’s one song in particular that we’ve played a lot called “Winter Sun,” which is an acoustic piece with mandolin, and that has never failed to go over well. People embrace it completely—it’s quite stunning. Actually, funnily, a lot of people assumed it was a lost Zeppelin track.
D: Do they get angry that you’re not exclusively playing Led Zeppelin songs?
SP: No. Never had that response. The angriest response we have sometimes is when we don’t play “Stairway.” And then people get wrung out, you know?
D: Why don't you play it?
SP: Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it’s just like, “ 'Stairway' denied.” It’s that sign in the guitar shop: “No ‘Stairway to Heaven.’” It’s so iconic that it’s often better left alone.
D: Are you afraid you'll tarnish the song by playing it? Or is it because it's too predictable?
SP: Both of those things. I think it is beloved for sure, but, on the other hand, because it’s so classic, it has become a cliché. So it’s a bit like Hamlet’s soliloquy. If you’re really, really into Shakespeare, you probably try to cover King Lear or something else. You really wanna get into Coriolanus or something. [Laughs.] I’m talking to you like I’m an English professor! But of course, that doesn’t take away from the genius, the sheer genius of “to be or not to be.”
D: Led Zeppelin created symbols to rebel against the music press, yet Lez Zeppelin has a more press-friendly outlook.
SP: I joke sometimes that we get all the good press Led Zeppelin never got. When Led Zeppelin were playing, they were not lauded by the press. The press didn’t get it—it was ahead of its time. There was a strange feeling about the band that they were just out to get money, and that they were loud, and they were this crass sort of music. And I think after a while they got very frustrated and they thought, “Forget it. We’re not even going to talk to them.” But what’s happened is, in the 30 years since they disbanded, the music has withstood the test of time. Hindsight is 20/20. Suddenly you realize, “My God, this stuff is brilliant! And listen to how fresh it sounds now.” And now all the press writers talk about the greatest band in the world, and that’s Led Zeppelin. So I think that when they come to see us, and we play this music in this very authentically passionate and committed way, with attention to detail, and give 'em the experience, they just can’t wait to write about it because they love Led Zeppelin now.
D: It’s so ironic.
SP: It’s very ironic. But you know, so much of art and music is like this. Go back and read some of the early Rolling Stone reviews of—even records like Jimi Hendrix’s records. They’re mediocre reviews. And then of course now…
D: They wind up on these "Greatest Records of All Time" lists.
SP: Exactly. And on Rolling Stone’s lists of great guitar players, you know, Jimi Hendrix is No. 1 pretty much every time. But you go read the reviews from the time—I’ve got this book of reviews and it’s fascinating to see. You could probably read reviews of novels and paintings and all that sort of stuff, and it’s all the same. Van Gogh, you know he’s the most classic example. Zeppelin is music’s Van Gogh. There’s your headline.
"Whole Lotta Love" by Lez Zeppelin
