10 Questions with Rondonna
An Introspective Interview
10/05/2004

1) Tell us a little bit about you and your music.
My name is Ron Rondonna Dinkens.  My mother was a jazz singer who made a record back in the day.  She raised me and my brother Ray.  I started playing guitar when I was 10.  I knew I could not sing.  So later after being a singer for a long time I took voice classes at the community college.  I have been into punk rock since I heard the Ramones and the Sex Pistols in 1977.  I liked the energy and tried to play like that.  Some of the older folks put me down for playing that 'crap' but I knew good music when I heard it so I continued.

2) How many shows do you play a month - are they all in town/how far do you travel?
I just go down to the corner bar in Hermosa and play the open mic; just me and a guitar.

3) What is your songwriting style...how do you go about writing your lyrics?
I usually write the lyrics first.  Without a melody or just a groove in my head.  Then I later mix and match the grooves I come up with on my computer with the various sets of lyrics.

4) Who would you say your major influences are/who do your fans think you sound like?
I am influenced by the prog rock bands and old school punk.  Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes as well as the Dickies and Black Flag, Ramones, and Sex Pistols - early King Crimson.

5) We've heard you like doing cover songs. How did you get into that?
Well ha ha.  I didn't do many covers for a long while.  When I started as a kid all the bands were cover bands (back in the 70's) and if you wanted a gig you had to play the show organizers's fave song.  During the 80's I wrote songs and felt like a true artist.  And during the 90's, I ran into Watt and that was back to doing covers, in this case Madonna.

6) What is your favorite place to play a show at?
I would like to do a festival but have not yet.

7) How did you first get into music?
When I got a plastic guitar for Christmas I was just 9.

8) Fill us in on some new bands that we should check out that we might not have heard of yet.
The STD's here in Hermosa are pretty cool.  Sean, the guitarist, came up to me while I was drinking a milkshake on the pier and said he liked my Black Flag tattoo.

9) Do you have any releases or big shows coming up for the rest of this year or early 2005?
Just the XROXX compilation...lol.

10) What else should we know about Rondonna and Rondonna music?
Just point your browser to http://www.madeinmusic.com/groups/Rondonna/

Peace, Ron

Scott Hanson
scott.hanson@XROXX.com