Just when we thought all the great angst anthems of the late ‘90s by femme fatales bands like Hole, Veruca Salt, Garbage and the Cranberries were knocked out of the mainstream by pop charters like Wrecking Ball and Last Friday Night, Toronto’s Magneta Lane offers a fresh EP full of that classic alternative fire.

Title track Burn offers an estrogen power video reminiscent of Volcano Girls in which a school aged girl burns not only a Barbie doll and a stack of Maxim-like magazines plastered with skinny-almost-nude covers, but also takes a bat to a TV screen projecting the all too common image of a size 0 woman’s grinding midriff in daisy dukes.

The wholly female trio’s point is simple: be who you are, not who you’re told to be.

"I want young people to know there are options," says lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter for the band Lexi Valentine. "We want them to make decisions based on what they feel comfortable with, not what society shoves down their throat."

Valentine is not a staunch feminist; she loves pop and lives by the mantra ‘live and let live’. She simply does not believe women need to be super sexual in order to sell something or to get their message across.

"In all honesty if a person or artist is comfortable with doing that...then who am I to tell them not to do it?" she says. "Just don’t do it because some older guy in a suit is telling you to do it."

Lexi’s sister/drummer Nadia King, and bassist French have lived through that managerial pressure. The three women started playing shows when they were just 15 to 17 years old. They lied about their age not only to get into clubs, but also to be taken seriously. Regardless of their youth they never did what they didn’t want to do.

"We always did the opposite of what we were told," Valentine says, reminiscing of a show wherein she wore something different, something out of character, because she felt like it.

"It was fun," she says. "They said, you looked different last night," but the artist didn’t care.

That said, being young, naïve about the industry, and exclusively female did carry its other tolls. The trio quickly signed to a contract without knowing much about the industry. Though they were savvy enough to seek legal extrication, they found it difficult to be taken seriously by any management team. While hunting a good deal with their second LP Gambling With God, Valentine grew tired of being talked to as though she had ‘just put her big-girl shoes on’ and stated, "I’m out of here".

The band took a break, and with clear heads and some added years of life experience the current EP Witchcraft began brewing in a basement with some "awful recording program...a guitar and a base", and Valentine seeking to put into music the inner frustration she was contending with.

That’s when the opportunity to work with Finger Eleven’s Rick Jackett and James Black came around – and a mutual respect and friendship was determined.

"[Jackett and Black] are super supportive of the band that we are," Valentine states. She says her new managers never say we don’t like that, change it, but instead say that song’s great. Let’s make it better. They work through encouragement rather than trying to mould the musicians into something they’re not.

Valentine heard them say we’re not into dressing girls up as dolls and she loved it. But if dressing like a doll happened to be something she woke up one day and felt like doing, you can bet she’d be in doll garb on stage the next night anyway.

Witchrock, while reminiscent of the Magneta Lane of the past, introduces a band more rhythmic, more confident, and more resonating. The band chose the name for the EP when trying to peg their own genre and realizing that none exactly fit. Are they witches? Unfortunately not. But Valentine’s husky, strong voice is indeed spell binding.

Asked what has kept the band together and motivated for so many years (since 2003 to be exact) Valentine is quick to answer it is the fact they like each other – and they know when to take breaks.

"It’s so great to be in a band with two other people that I love," she says. "One thing that we’ve been really good at is adjusting to whatever’s going on in people’s lives."

Following the current tour Magneta Lane is on, French will be going back to school for her Masters.

"Nadia and I are starting a side project this year as well," Valentine informs. "We’re constantly supporting one another’s dreams – not just as a band but as individuals as well."

"There’s never any resentment."

The band is adamant on staying dedicated to their fan base and continuing to record quality music, much like their preceding musical inspirations.

"If I had to pick one woman that I really look up to I’d have to say Patti Smyth," Valentine says. "I love something that’s just raw energy and saying what you mean and not sugar coating it. She’s definitely one of the artists [who] does that."

One might say Valentine is too. She has never felt pressure to lose weight or look a certain way, nor has she felt it necessary to date a fellow musician. Her five-year-strong relationship is with a man out of the industry, and Valentine says that difference keeps things interesting. The time away on tour is hard, but it keeps them working at it.

"It’s important to maintain that connection with the people who support what you do," she says. "And the people who have supported us the last decade."