OTEP (Eng.)
– Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. How is everything doing right now into the band’s camp?
Hello. Thank you for having me. Everything is wild and wonderful.
– You have just released your first live album. Why did you think it was the right moment to do so?
We’ve wanted to do this for a long time and when the opportunity came up and we pounced on it.
– This record is entitled «Sounds Like Armageddon»; why did you pick such title? I think in some way can be associated to the raw energy, passion and power on this opus.
It is indeed based on the raw emotion of the album and the music but it’s also homage to my first album. It’s from a lyric in Jonestown Tea from Sevas Tra.
– The CD was recorded at several shows of your Destroy to Create Tour. What are some of your best memories from those shows?
The passion from the fans in the crowd is something that stays with me. How beautifully powerful and creative they are.
– I think you have always provided a really honest, passionate and energetic music, it’s obvious you truly feel what you do and what you are singing about, due to this and the final result on the album, it feels to me like the best place for Otep is on stage, isn’t it? Do you prefer being on stage performing for your tribe or to work on the studio?
They are both very powerful experiences. Performing on stage is undeniably one of the most amazing experiences anyone can ever have.
– On «Sounds Like Armageddon» we can also find a cover for NIRVANA’s «Breed» which, if I’m not mistaken, you use to play on your shows but, why did you start playing this song live?
I love Nirvana and the fans do too. It’s an opportunity to share a moment of music with fans as fans.
– Now that you have unleashed your very first live album, have you considered releasing a DVD too?
We don’t make those decisions but we would very much like to do so.
– Anyway your next album, «Hydra», is already done (set to release on January 22nd if I’m not mistaken) so, what are we going to find on it?
Hydra is a very strong story about a woman defying a corrupted world. The music is heavy, poetic, and powerful.
– You are a really artistic girl and it seems like you feel attracted by different artistic disciplines. You are a songwriter, singer, but you also draw, write…Do you recall how and why did you get interested in art?
The urge to create art is an urge similar to hunger or thirst.
– It also seems like art is an important part of your life so, what does provide you? And what could you say has art taught you?
It helps me understand the world and understand myself.
– You are also an activist and are supporting groups as PETA so, hailing from Spain, I can’t actually help asking you about what your thoughts on bullfighting are which, unfortunately, is considered by some part of the Spanish «culture» (in fact have been banned in different cities, but a lot of people is still fighting against this atrocity). And talking about such, what are your feelings on the people’s education toward animal rights? I mean, I personally everything starts as a child, from the education you are given so, do you think things like this need to start changing in order to change society?
I find bullfighting absolutely appalling. I don’t understand how people can sit and enjoy watching an animal being stabbed and slowly bleed to death. An animal that is so beautiful and majestic, so powerful, that has existed and grown to its zenith only to be destroyed for a demented, degenerate form of cruel entertainment. Animals deserve dignity and respect. In some ways they have a better morality than we do. Have you ever seen a bull kill a human child for its pleasure? Have you ever seen a rabbit cook a man and eat him? A deer shoot a woman and hang her head on a wall? Or a fox skin a girl alive and wear her flesh as a coat? We spend so much time killing animals and for what? So they can live a tortured life inside a dark, filthy warehouse, then be terrorized as they are killed, then eaten by someone who will only shit them out a few hours later? That’s our value of sentient life? We should be better than that.
– From Queens of Steel we have always brought special support and promotion to women into the Metal scene, we try to let people see music and art does not make differences between genders and fight for normalization overall so, if you don’t mind, I would like to ask you a couple of things in concern. First of all, could you say there’s discrimination into the Metal world? In any way, as I don’t just mean giving women into this music a wrong role or undervaluing their work, but also making differences just because the gender.
Yes, I believe women have a tougher time being taken seriously, getting gigs, and getting the notoriety that male bands get. Many people will dismiss a band simply because it has a female singer without ever hearing the music. We’ve come a long way and I am grateful for that but there’s much left to do.
– I would also like to know your view on the role society use to give women into this scene, as it seems to be harder for ladies to be noticed at first because of their skills and not because of the «physical skills», moreover somehow it seems to be lack of normalization.
Every society has a set of rules and cultural costumes we are supposed to wear. Economic status, gender, sexuality, race, religion, creed, the kind of music we listen to or create, the movies we see, the books we read. It is up to us to reject those stereotypes and do whatever makes us happy. Be you. There’s no one else like you.
– That has been everything from our side, thanks once more for taking your time. If you now want to add some final words; last lines are all yours.
My love and appreciation to the fans and supporters in Spain. We are hopeful we will someday play in your beautiful country and bring a beautifully savage RIOT to your city.
