Donna Dresch

Who is Donna Dresch?

Donna Dresch is an American punk rock musician, perhaps best known as founder, guitarist and bass guitarist of Team Dresch.

Dresch has been actively involved in the queercore scene since the 1980s, as the creator of the fanzine Chainsaw and contributor to several other seminal zines such as Outpunk and J.D.s, as well as contributing and being featured on the front cover of issue five of Deke Nihilson and Tom Jennings' zine Homocore. Additionally, she was a contributor to Tobi Vail's influential proto-Riot Grrrl fanzine, Jigsaw and Tammy Rae Carland's zine I Amy Carter. In 1992, she appeared in the cult film The Yo-Yo Gang, by G.B. Jones.

She founded the queercore independent record label Chainsaw Records in the early 1990s. Shortly after, she joined forces with Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson to form Team Dresch. Once drummer Marci Martinez was added to the line-up, the group began recording. The first single was released in 1994 on Kill Rock Stars. Their debut album in 1994, Personal Best and its follow-up, Captain My Captain, were released jointly by Chainsaw Records and Jody Bleyle's label Candy Ass Records.