Page 16 - the NOISE July 2015

the pOetry Of aggressiOn
interview By MiKe wiLLiaMs
Otep Shamaya, lead singer of iconic nu-metal outfit Otep, is an artist who defies convention. Having sold over 2 million albums worldwide, she is a regular contributor to Blurt Magazine, has penned articles on the genocide in Darfur for Revolver, been recognized as one of Ellen DeGeneres’ top 50 lesbian singers in the world, performed one of the most gut-wrenching poems in Def Poetry Jam’s history, spoken at the Democratic National Conference in 2008, and was voted one of CNN’s People To Know in 2007. The Noise caught up with her as Otep prepares to annihilate The Orpheum Theater on July 16 to discuss art, music, sexuality, a recent assault that has rocked the world of mainstream metal, and the future of the band.
What other artistic mediums are you working in lately?
I finished my first group of short stories and am really proud. This is the first time I’ve worked in the genre of short fiction. It’s called Movies In My Head and there’s also an audio book of the first story in the works. I’m a voice-over actor and have been doing a lot of that the last few years. I did six different creatures in the last Hobbit movie, The Battle of Five Armies, and a PS3 game called The Last of Us. As for visual art, it’s back and forth. Touring, it’s Sharpies because that’s all I have, but at home, it’s a lot of mixed mediums — Acrylics, marker, pencil, and pretty much whatever else is around.
You’re also interested in L.A.’s street art movement. What about it appealed to you and are you actively participating in that as well?
I used to. I hung out with a tagger crew as a teenager and we’d go around doing little bits of art. Nothing as exceptional as what people are doing now. People have gone and mastered the medium, I think it’s nice to see, especially in a town like Los Angeles. They’re hiring street artists now — instead of having them do illegal graffiti — for wall murals, painting over electrical boxes, and whatever to make things look a little more incredible. It illuminates the city with a sense of art and that’s what we need.
Can you tell us about the incident involving Terror Universal?
Basically, the guy violated me publicly. He was extremely drunk and I didn’t have much time to do anything. It was during a meet and greet and he put his hand between my legs. All I did was push the guy away, security took him away, and I kicked him off the tour. They begged me not to, they were going to get a new singer, and so on and so on, but it was too late. He caused trouble before by grabbing my male musicians’ junk while they’re carrying stuff in. They told me they were going to fire him. So, we were going to co-headline a tour with Ill Nino and I said we’d do it as long as Terror Universal is out. They said, ‘What if we get a new singer?’ Fine. Then there’s a call from my agent asking if I’d heard that Terror Universal is on the tour and I said,
‘Yes, it’s okay, there’s a new singer.’ He told me, ‘Same singer,’ so I contacted the creator of the tour and asked what they were doing, that I’d been promised ... They said that their agent had promised me. Now, they’re under pressure from outside people. ‘We’ve got to keep this band.’
‘Well, it’s either them or us.’ ‘Well, we can’t not have them with the tour.’ ‘So, okay, f&$k you.’ Then people started hearing we weren’t doing the tour, ticket sales started to drop, and they were asking ‘Why?’ There were wildly false statements that I was trying to extort money, which is completely ridiculous. When I heard that, I put out my own statement. ‘This guy touched me very inappropriately and we kicked him off our tour together. We were going to pursue another together as long as he wasn’t the singer, he still is so we’re not doing it.’ The fallout was a lot of people blamed me. They called me a liar, said I deserve to be raped because I’m a lesbian, I deserve to be raped because I’m a liar. Why did I make such a big deal out of it? Women get touched all the time, what’s the problem? I’m not saying all men are like this. But there’s just this certain breed of men that believe women deserve to be in a certain place. It was further victimization of the victim and this is why most women who are molested, raped, or touched inappropriately refuse to speak out. They’re afraid of being made fun of and being told it was
146 • JULNYE2015 •• ththeeNOIISEarrtts&news •• thenoiise..us
INTERVIEW BY MIKE WILLIAMS
PHOTOS BY DjOSEFIN MAURER
their fault. I’m made of iron when it comes to that. You can say whatever you want. He’s been fired from the group from what I understand, so I don’t know if that helps validate to the people that doubt me.
Being an “out” performer has to have been difficult. Have things gotten better over the years as an openly gay artist? Are we moving forward?
Absolutely. Massively forward. In the beginning, there were people who thought calling me a feminist, a dyke, or a lesbian was an insult. I’m proud to be who I am. I’m proud I’m right- handed, have green eyes, have freckles, write music, and the sound of my voice. I’m attracted to ladies, that’s it. Early on, we’d have gay people come up and whisper about,‘We all knew you were gay and thanks for coming out,’ but now, guys are coming up saying they’re sorry their husband couldn’t make it, ‘But could you sign this for him?’ Gay couples are coming, women come in drag, men come in drag, and no one says anything. It’s an inclusively exclusive club that keeps getting better. People come to me with tears in their eyes saying, “Thank you for giving me the courage to come out, my family isn’t happy about it, but I’m happy about not having to hide.’ That means everything to me. Nobody should have to hide who they are. It’s been a wonderful experience to see how open the aggressive music community has been to everybody, not just gays and lesbians.
Hydra was your reputed final album and you left Victory Records; however, there’s a new one in the works. What happened with the departure and what can we expect coming up from Otep?
At the time, I was pretty fed up with music industry. I’ve written some songs that were very important to both me and our fans, “Perfectly Flawed,” for example. A beautiful piano ballad about loving and accepting yourself for who you are and not letting anyone define you ( ... ) I played it for the label, so proudly, and they were like, ‘Whoa, this is not an Otep song.’ What does that mean? ‘Well, there’s no screams, no guitars, no double bass.’ How can you say this isn’t an Otep song? I’m Otep ... I wrote it ... It makes no sense, right? They ended up not doing anything with it. No video for it. No push, no licensing, and no exposure for the song. Now that song is the most tattooed phrase on our fan’s bodies. It’s a favorite and this is purely organic. Another was “You’re A Woman Now,” about the three mythologies about what makes a woman. The first verse is about losing your virginity, yet what if she’s raped? Does that still make her a woman? The second is about taboos and rituals, such as female circumcision, which still happens a lot in Northern Africa. Does that make her a woman because she’s been mutilated? And the third verse is about me and my mother standing in the welfare line. ( ... ) But, neither (song) got any support and I was done. After The Hobbit movie, the book, and the audio book — then I started feeling the words coming back to me. Something kept telling me it was time to do a new record. I started working with my partner in crime Aristotle, who is a wonderful songwriter and producer in his own right. We sat down and started to write some songs and they’re amazing. Some of the best work we’ve done. As soon as word got out we were working on a new record, labels started knocking on our door and now it’s whether or not to go back out into the label-world and release it independently. People are fighting it though. I’m in a place where I have to pick my battles as far as distribution. Just hopefully I can find a place I can trust, where they believe in us, and understand what the fans want from us. Not what they think the genre wants. This is one of the best and most exciting albums we’ve ever done and I want to launch this into the stratosphere like a comet, just burning through the sky.
This has been unbelievably cool talking to you, thank you so much!
| Mike Williams likes his metal precious. mike@thenoise.us iInNtTeErRvViIeEwW