Debbi Peterson

Rock the House
Michael Holloway, Australia

Born: Deborah Mary Peterson
August 22, 1961
Birthplace: Northridge, Calif.

Debbi Peterson may be shyer than the other members of iconic all-girl band The Bangles, but she knows how to rock the house. Blessed with beauty, intelligence, the uncanny ability to sing and drum simultaneously, and a sweet, sensitive nature; the youngest Bangle is a lion in lamb’s clothing. For when she rocks, she really rocks.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Peterson’s musical experience started in adolescence when her older sister, Vicki Peterson, had formed a band and needed a drummer. The younger Peterson started drumming professionally at the age of fifteen when Vicki bought her first drum kit. She was more than happy to play either bass or drums, the blonde bomber as she came to be known to fans, auditioned as the drummer and was accepted.

The Peterson sisters have always been close, though they admit they sometimes fight like any other siblings. But, they know when to give each other space and when to offer a sisterly hug to clear the air.

During her high school years, Debbi took odd jobs and clerical positions to pay Vicki back for the drum set, which was purely at Debbi’s insistence. It was during this time the sisters became serious about forming a real band. During their college years, they met with Susanna Hoffs after she replied to their advertisement in The Recycler. They were looking for another band member and Hoffs was looking for a band.

A Love is Shared

The Petersons and Hoffs also shared a love of 60’s music, and after the murder of John Lennon in 1980, they needed solace for the loss they felt for one of their idols, and they found it in each other. Later, after bass player Annette Zalinskas left the band, Michael Steele was interviewed and quickly snatched up by Vicki. She was impressed by Steele’s ideal band sounding like The Yardbirds with Fairport Convention vocals. They became known as The Bangles.

During The Bangles heyday, Debbi Peterson’s funky drumming and creamy vocals added an interesting contrast to Hoffs’ wistful breathiness, Steele’s profound melancholy, and Vicki’s salty booming. Though she and Steele did not contribute as many individual vocals in The Bangles extensive catalogue of songs as Vicki and Hoffs, Debbi brought elegance and bounce to popular songs such as Live, Going Down To Liverpool, What I Meant To Say, I’m In Line, Standing In The Hallway, and Not Like You.

Manipulation and Tyranny

During the production of the second album, Different Light,  The Bangles came under the management of tyrannical David Kahne. His intrusive personality harkened back to Kim Fowley and his treatment of Steele while she had a brief stint with The Runaways.

However, this time, Debbi was the scapegoat of Kahne. Because of her sensitive nature, it was easier for him to manipulate her than the others. Kahne insisted on bringing more outside material into the band as he felt The Bangles were not strong enough songwriters and instrumentalists on their own.

This led to many fights between band and producer, whose interference saw Vicki’s backwards guitar solo in September Gurls (sung by Steele) replaced by a session musician. Kahne also ignored Steele who fought to get her own composition Following on the album. Kahne fawned over Hoffs whom he built up as the “lead singer”, ravaging the band’s reputation as a four member band who shared vocals evenly (their original aim). It was Hoffs whose songs became singles and music videos, and before long it was she who basically marketed the band, through no fault of her own.

As for Debbi, she got the short end of the stick. Kahne insisted on adding his name to the songwriting credits of songs (which he had no actual part in writing), such as, Standing In The Hallway which Debbi, Vicki and Hoffs wrote.

Debbi’s excitement at being in a band began to wane under the harsh studio politics, but the conflict worsened after Liam Steinberg submitted a song which The Bangles recorded. It became their most popular anthem and one which brought the most heartache.

Debbi was originally slated to perform Walk Like An Egyptian as a solo, but after her fights with Kahne over songwriting credits, he dismissed her from the recording, splitting the song into thirds, giving one verse to Vicki, one verse to Steele, and two verses to Hoffs who closed the song in the grand finale.

To rub salt into Debbi’s wounds, Kahne had her drumming replaced with a drum machine and hired someone else to dub her whistling bridge in between Steele’s verse and Hoffs’ first verse. He then forced her to shoot the music video with the other girls, miming to someone else’s whistling. Debbi was hurt by this treatment.

She said in an interview,”Walk Like An Egyptian to me is a nice little novelty song, but I don’t feel like it’s us.” Peterson added, “I feel very detached from the record in a lot of ways.”

It Gets Better

During the production of their third album, Everything, Kahne was replaced as with Davitt Sigerson. He was a much more lenient and open-minded producer. The Bangles still had occasional outside help, every song on this new album was written by one or more of the band members whose creative control had been reinstated.

However, the tension from the horrific recording of Different Light took its toll and cracks began to appear in the band’s solidarity. Peterson’s two solo offerings for this release included the high energy rocker Be With You and the hauntingly idyllic Some Dreams Come True. Be With You even gave Debbi a chance to shine in her own music video, one of the best videos The Bangles ever filmed, and whatever strain she had been under was nowhere in sight during Debbi’s performance.

Perched atop her drum kit, looking out over the audience as well as the other band members below her, Debbi looks, sounds, and bears the glitter and dignity of a regal queen. For once she was not in the background, she was the focus of the video.

Love Mail

During this time, Peterson had an amusing episode where she found herself the target of tabloid gossip. An English newspaper told a heartbreaking story of how a break-up with boyfriend Joe Johanssen left her dispirited and depressed. That she was looking for an English lover to ease her pain. Soon, fan mail flooded in with all manner of offers of solace–and even some marriage proposals–from men across the country, even prison inmates.

Debbi wryly recalls, “I got tons of mail from these big mean-looking guys with scars and tattoos. I even got some from prisoners–they’d write “Oh, don’t be sad, Debbi, as soon as I get out I will come rescue you and be your boyfriend” and I was like, “Umm… Well, THANKS, but maybe you should just stay right where you are…”

She also goes on to say, “I’ve never met much less dated anyone by the name of Joe Johannson!”

That’s right, the newspaper had not only got their facts wrong, they fabricated the whole story. It is a measure of Debbi’s good nature that she was not more angry than amused by all this. Far from being offended or hurt, Debbi had a good laugh out of the whole thing, though she was quick to assert that she wished to receive no more letters from prisons.

In more recent tabloid news, Debbi’s fans were shocked to hear of an accident which left her with a scorched eye, most likely leading to blindness. She was even reported to be screaming with agony and helped into a waiting ambulance. However, in true tabloid fashion, the story was proven to be another fabrication. The tabloids must be having a field day with Debbi, and again, she must have the patience of a saint. Don’t worry, Debbi’s eyes are just as perfect as ever and she’s not going blind.

Debbi: “I’ve never been in an ambulance in my life. And it’s also funny that the article says it was waiting for me. Do ambulances often just wait in front of theaters for people to get their eye scorched?”

Like Banana Splits

After recording Everything, The Bangles decided a break would be best for all of them and they split. Debbi married their current sound engineer, Steve Botting and tried her hand at working with new partners.

She teamed with fellow drummer Gina Schock from The Go-Go’s to form Smashbox. They wrote some good material together, but the union was not to last. The creative differences between Peterson and Schock proved too great, and that was the end of Smashbox.

Peterson then remembered a talented musician she had known a few years before in England, Siobhan Maher (now Siobhan Maher-Kennedy), to whom she had lent her equipment for a demo Maher and her band, The River City People, were working on.

Maher’s band had a small measure of success but also found it difficult to market themselves and stay afloat. When Peterson learned Maher was without a band, she contacted her and sent material; including some of the tunes she had done with Schock. Maher loved the new music and was eager to reunite with her benefactor and friend, so Kindred Spirit was formed.

Before they hit the recording studio, they were sued by Schock for copyright over the songs they planned to use. Although Schock won the suit, she agreed to settle the matter out of court if she were given her due. Peterson accepted on the condition that she retained the right to record Here In My Eyes, which had already begun production as Kindred Spirit’s debut single. Peterson and Maher began writing songs together and their record was released in 1995.

IRS Bankruptcy

Unfortunately, IRS Records went bankrupt the same year, Kindred Spirit were lost their contract. The album remains loved by fans of The Bangles and The River City People because of the talented two front-women. The critics ignored it sadly and it is now a rare collector’s piece.

Kindred Spirit recorded one more song together, A Christmas Son, for a compilation of holiday tunes by new mothers, Mother And Child: A Christmas Celebration Of Motherhood.

Peterson and Maher joined the ranks of popular artists like Belinda Carlisle, Amy Grant, Martina McBride, Suzy Bogguss, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Vesta Williams, Shanice & Crystal Wilson, CeCe Winans, Viola & Wendy Moten, and Olivia Newton-John. The album was very well received.

Peterson’s Thoughts

Peterson (equally adept on guitar as she is on drums) muses that attitudes toward women musicians, both then and today may be a reason why bands like Kindred Spirit seem to fall by the wayside.

“I think that’s partly because even after all this time there are hardly any all-girl bands out there. I mean, there are female groups that sing, but very few that play their own instruments. That’s really still in the minority. I’ve never really understood why that is. I know that a lot of men in the industry don’t take women bands seriously, and I wish it wasn’t true. They should be treated equally, like any boy band out there. I hope that the way we’re doing this can help, yeah. I mean, we’re doing this the right way–funding it ourselves, and doing it for artistic reasons, not trying to be commercial. And the way the songs are sounding reflects this. We hope that people will also take it seriously – and I’d love if that helped to change things out there even a little bit,” said Peterson.

Reunited

When The Bangles reunited in 2000, her work ethic of “sisters doing it for themselves” was equally and eagerly shared with Vicki, as well as Hoffs and Steele. Doll Revolution, while artistically superlative, also struggled to find a market, indicating attitudes toward women’s solidarity in music have a long way to go before the blatant sexism in the music industry is abolished completely.

At least Peterson’s fans were given a precious gift in three more solos, Ask Me No Questions, which she brought from Kindred Spirit’s catalogue. The achingly beautiful Lost At Sea, and her newest solo hit Here Right Now. It is of her most requested songs at shows.

With both Steele and her temporary replacement, Abby Travis, having left The Bangles, Peterson is now content to focus on the band as a trio with Hoffs and Vicki Peterson. Though considered one of the most potent and iconic quartets in music history, the trio shows much promise and fans eagerly await new material from the newly revived Bangles.

Tagged Amy Grant, Belinda Carlisle, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Debbi Peterson, Gina Schock, Kindred Spirit, Martina McBride, Michael Steele, music, Shockwave, Siobahn Maher Kennedy, Susanna Hoffs, Suzy Bogguss, The Bangles, The Go Go's, Vicki Peterson