"I love it when the guitar doesn't sound like a guitar," says Roisin (pronounced raw-sheen) (note: it's actually prononced ROW-sheen! ) Dunne. Dunne's blunt barre-chord rhythms and twisted sonics are a crucial part of Seattle band 7 Year Bitch's lean, aggressive grunge, which hinges on singer Selene Vigil's venomous, take-no-prisoners passion and the muscular punk rhythm section of bassist Elizabeth Davis and drummer Valerie Agnew. Dunne speaks much the way she plays, punctuating her words and phrases with a hard but playful slug in the arm.
The Washington native first picked up the guitar in the mid '80s, but says she didn't get serious until inspired by Seattle's the Fastbacks five years ago. "I bought my first guitar from their lead guitarist Kurt Bloch. Their bassist Kim Warnick taught me my first chords, and singer Lulu Gargiulo supported me off and on by letting me live in her house, painting and doing errands to pay off my rent." These days, Dunne sings the praises of Neil Young, Frank Black and U2's Edge, "because they're all tastefully noisemakers." She gives Babes in Toyland's Cat Morrison (note: her correct name is Kat Bjelland! ) the "Best Chord Noise Maker Award" and admires Six Finger Satellite's John McLean, "because he throws that crazy shit out there and he's a very percussive player."
Dunne cut her teeth on a '68 Les Paul Jr., which was later stolen while the group was on tour with pot-rappers Cypress Hill, "who weren't anyone I could borrow another guitar from." She switched to a Gibson Studio Light for a spell but now favors Fender Strats and a Warmoth strat with a humbucker in the bridge position. "I bought it for a backup guitar, but now I really love it." Dunne plays it straight through a Marshall 50-watt half-stack with a small gaggle of fuzz and delay pedals. "They're fun to play around with, but I don't have the patience to be much of a pedalhead."
7 Year Bitch write songs as a collective, and keeping the group members on equal creative footing is important to Dunne, who joined the band in 1992, after original guitarist Stefanie Sargent died of a heroin overdose. "When I first started with 7 Year Bitch, we realized that we were on the same level musically. There were people who auditioned for them that were much more accurate players than me, but I was funnier. And that's important when you're riding around in a tin box for eight weeks at a time!"
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