What’s new with Diva Bleach?

Gina-Marie Lobaito

Pop Culture Correspondent

Meet Diva Bleach, a new alternative band taking the scene by storm. The duo consists of Sydney Roten (bass, vocals) and Brie Ritter (guitar) who started their band in Phoenix, Arizona. The two have been friends, coworkers, and are now bandmates—Diva Bleach has reached their third year together as a group. With their unique glitter-rock style, Diva Bleach is on the rise and not backing down. I spent 30 minutes with Sydney Roten and Brie Ritter on Zoom to discuss everything Diva Bleach including their musical inspirations, their upcoming tour, and what’s next for the band. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Sydney Roten (left) and Brie Ritter (right) of Diva Bleach. Photo source: BandCamp.

Where did the name Diva Bleach come from?

SYDNEY ROTEN: This is a fun story! Brie and I used to work at School of Rock together; this was before COVID actually. I was working at the front desk and one of our co-workers, James, [came] in and he was like, “Yo! I just thought of this band name last night, I was up late and it sounds like a band you would be in.” So I was like, “What is it?” and he was like, “Diva Bleach!” I held onto it for a couple years before we started the band.

Who inspired you to make music and when did you know that was your passion?

BRIE RITTER: For both of us it started pretty young. For me, I watched the Josie and the Pussycats movie from the 2000s until I had it memorized. I watched them, and was like “I want to do that!” even though it was a movie. That sparked it for me. But of course, finding Paramore and all these other cool bands really helped.

S: Similar for me, growing up watching Hannah Montana and things like that, I knew I wanted to do that. Like Brie said, too, Paramore and all the new artists coming out during that era. Like Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, and [artists] like that.

We see you talk a lot about being positive female figures in the genre. What is it like being women in such a male-dominated industry? Specifically the pop-rock genre.

S: It’s crazy. Luckily we are surrounded, for the most part, by good men. So we [feel] accepted with most of the people in our scene. It’s really cool to be welcomed. Occasionally at a show you’ll get weird guys that’ll come up to you afterwards and try to hit on you, and that sucks, but I think the positive outweighs the negative.

B: Yeah. Going to shows and playing, people face-to-face are very kind, but I think it’s on the internet where people are like, “Oh they’re girls, blah blah blah…”

S: There [are] a lot of weird internet comments for sure.

What advice would you give younger girls who wanted to be a part of the music industry?

B: Just absolutely reach out to a friend first. At least for me, you can create music on your own, but it’s so much more fun when you have someone to bounce ideas off of. It also helps you feel less alone. Even when we were playing our first shows, it was this little girl band, but Syd was there with me the whole time. I am never just standing alone.

S: I agree. For the longest time, I was just scared to put myself out there because I was afraid of the judgment. But you just have to try it. 

How has being in a band and touring together affected your friendship?

S: It’s cool! You hear stories of people going on tour and then the band breaking up but we all like each other. We are touring in a little truck right now, so we are packed in there.

B: Like sardines.

S: I can’t complain. We all have such a close bond, and it’s cool because we help do each other’s makeup, we share clothes, and it just feels like a sleepover every night. We play Nintendo and stuff.

B: I feel like that’s one of the most important things while starting up a band. Just making sure that it’s people that you vibe with and you can be around for extended periods of time.

What’s a secret of touring that your fans would be surprised to know?

B: You sleep on floors! [Laughs.] That’s probably a part that doesn’t get talked about a lot.

S: You meet a lot of people’s pets which I think is one of the most fun parts. Like there’s a dog in Albuquerque we always visit. Same with Utah.

B: We know whose pets we can visit on the route!

S: That’s really fun. When you’re at our level, we try not to stay in hotels, so every night is different. You get to meet a lot of different people and create new friendships. You don’t expect to make a lot of friendships out there.

B: Yeah! Especially the times where we’ll be like, “Hey, can anyone in Albuquerque host us?” and we end up crashing with a stranger and they’re just the sweetest person we’ve ever met.

What can we expect from your setlist at Sad Summer Fest?

B: We can say we are working on some new music now that we will hopefully have out by then, so a little bit of new stuff! We recently started doing our live shows with tracks—there was a point where we hadn’t done that—so I feel like our live shows have elevated a little more [from] what they used to be. The sound is a bit fuller and the energy is coming out more.

S: There’s a couple tracks where I was singing and playing bass for every song but now there’s a few songs where I’m just singing and front-manning, so yeah, it’ll be cool!

What type of music can we expect from Diva Bleach in the future?

S: I think we like to experiment a bit with the sound we like to make and I think the future is really open-ended.

B: It’s always been a goal for us to make songs that sound different from each other. That’s one of my favorite things with bands, when they sound completely different, but it still sounds like the band. I hope we can achieve that. Dabbling in a few different things, but you still know that’s Diva Bleach.

S: Exactly. There’s a couple songs we are working on for the future. We have a slower, more ballad-y one, and then we have a more angsty one, and things like that.

Is there a specific creative process that goes into your merchandise design? 

S: It really depends. We’ve hired artists in the past (for our fairy design), but a lot of the time we create our own.

B: It’s either one of us who draw it up ourselves or we reach out to an artist that we are a fan of.

S: We have these beanies that are gonna be on tour that Brie designed, and we have a tee shirt in the death metal font that I drew up. We kinda helped together, but I think we are starting to lean more towards that.

If you could create a megaband with other artists in the industry, dead or alive, who would you play with?

B: That’s so hard! My first thought instinctively is to put all of the members of boygenius in there. It wouldn’t make sense with the boygenius mix, but throw David Bowie in there too. 

S: Oh man. Gerard Way. I love My Chemical Romance. All the music he’s created is so across the board so I think it would be chaotic. Definitely Phoebe Bridgers, for sure. There [are] so many musicians!

B: In my head now, I’m creating the most chaotic group I can. I got boygenius and David Bowie and now I’m gonna put John Bohnam on drums. It’s perfect. It would be the most weird, indie-emo [band] you’ve ever heard.

S: It would have to work.

Finally, what song would currently be on your MySpace profile?

S: I wish I got to use MySpace when that was a thing, but we just missed it! 

B: We did, but I would be someone who changes it all the time. I’m gonna say “GIRL$” by Stand Atlantic, PVRIS, and Bruses. It’s been stuck in my head for the 2 days it’s been out.

S: I think right now I would choose “Coma” by Taylor Acorn and Cassadee Pope but it would change all the time.

Diva Bleach’s new single, “Torn in Two,  is streaming on all platforms. You can keep up with the girls on Tiktok @divableach and everywhere else @divableachband. Check out their upcoming spring tour with Young Rising Sons, as well as their shows with Sad Summer Fest this July & August.

Us girls at FemiNICHE are so excited to see what Diva Bleach has in store. Thank you Sydney and Brie!