MK Magazine Interviews

My Ruin

My Ruin has been one of this publication’s favorite bands since their inception. SPEAK & DESTROY, the band’s debut wasn't released in the USA until a year after it hit the UK, where the band has since been darlings of the music press. Until this day, it is an album of material which is played regularly in the MK ULTRA office and at outings. Full of emotion, energy and in your face tunes. Yet, the powers that be in the music business in our free countryhave not been able to book any shows for the band here in the States until the recent tour opening for Kittie. For MK ULTRA the day finally came when the tour stopped in Chicago at the HOUSE OF BLUES. All previous commitments were broken in order to take in a short set of My Ruin energy and emotion. The set was followed by an interview in one of the Prayer Rooms at the HOB Foundation Room. (See the initial interview w/ Tairrie B on our website www.mkultramag.com)

Tairrie B, or Miss B. as she is often referred to has previously worked as a solo artist (a white protégé of rap producer/svengali Eazy-E) and her first album, 'Power Of A Woman' is now highly collectable. In 1990 her solo debut stalled and she elected to concentrate on music with a similar thematic ethos but a more aggressive bent: Manhole, a hard rock group from Los Angeles, California. (Who changed their name to Tura Satana for legal reasons) With Scott Ueda (guitar), Rico Villasenor (bass) and Marcelo Palomino (drums), Manhole worked in territory widely analogized as 'post-hardcore metal.” Tairrie B continued to rap as well as sing over the backdrop, which also contained trace elements of hip-hop rhythms. But it is doubtful whether those unacquainted with the singer's past confused Manhole with anything other than a ferocious hard rock group. The group split-up in late 1998, allowing Tairrie B to concentrate on a solo career recording as My Ruin. With My Ruin, Miss B remains one of the more influential members of the female metal scene. Tairrie B will be bringing out a book soon, where she will document her life amd her experiences together with new photos, titled "God Wants a Piece of My Ass".

Upon the long awaited US release of A PRAYER UNDER PRESSURE OF VIOLENT ANGUISH were permitted to witness the second chapter of My Ruin.

In her own words - A PRAYER UNDER PRESSURE OF VIOLENT ANGUISH is 14 songs strong with two short spoken words segments, which appear at both the beginning and end of the album. SELECTED PRAYERS include BEAUTY FIEND, STICK IT TO ME, LETTER TO THE EDITOR and POST NOISE REVELATION which confronts the critics and media head on and straight up. Speaking of which, we have recorded our own tribute song called ROCKSTAR (dedicated to the late LYNN STRAIT of the band SNOT). There are tracks that deal with my own love / hate dichotomy of religion and relationships such as HEARTSICK, SANCTUARY, HEMORRHAGE, LET IT RAIN and MASOCHRIST (which will be released on the single only). It also boasts a long overdue duet featuring JESSICKA from JACK OFF JILL appropriately titled MISS ANN THROPE as well as covers of DO YOU LOVE ME? by NICK CAVE and the classic BLACK FLAG song MY WAR (which features Mick on duet vocals). We decide on these particular songs to cover because they were very inspirational to us while writing the album. -Tairrie B from the website www.myruin.com

Also available from My Ruin is the live recording "To Britain with Love and Bruises.” Which includes 11 songs from both albums of material.

Be it the Old Testament, the Live Testament or the New Testament. Tairrie B remains a true testament of one thing about the entertainment industry in the United States. She says, “We're no longer trendsetters; the masses buying the music that is being promoted by the labels here are sheep being spoon-fed bullshit. That's right Middle America is eating shit.” What they should be eating are her words. Bitter as they can be, Miss B speaks the truth. She's an amazing singer, messenger, poet, a fun interview and excuse me for saying, is pretty easy on the eyes.

The band is MICK MURPHY guitar, MEGHAN MATTOX on bass, YAEL drums, and Tairrie B out front with pipes that rival any band on the circuit. They all joined in for the following interview that offers quotes that pull no punches. It is straight from the heart, simply put, the truth. Something a lot of people in the industry can't seem to handle in the age of using pop music as a way to sell sneakers, Playstations and zit cream.

Alex Zander: So what took so long to get here to Chicago for My Ruin to play?

Tairrie B: A band needed to invite us out. We needed to be invited on a real tour so we were unable to play. So we were unable to do it. It's hard when you have no label.

AZ: So no support from Spitfire now?

TB: “Shitfire!” is not our label. They never were. They licensed a record without our permission from a U.K. label called Snapper, both records, behind our backs. When we tried to make it cool with them we said, "well we're on your label let's do something." We got offered Tattoo the Earth, we got offered a lot of stuff. They were like "nope, we're not gonna support you. We're just going to put your record out there and whatever copies we feel like putting out and see what happens." They didn't give a shit about us. So that's why we wrote a song called "Spitfire" about it which will be on our next record.

AZ: As far as a new record, other than the live My Ruin record, when is that gonna happen?

TB: When we find a label. We have the record written. We have about 18 songs written. We're planning on doing a couple of real cool covers and Morgan may appear on the record, from Kittie. We got the whole concept down, we know what we're calling it. We know what we're doing, we're ready to go! It's called The Horror of Beauty. It's just a lot of things we've been going through the past couple of years.

Mick Murphy: It's going to be a killer rock album, too. Rock, not "nu-metal." It's super-heavy rock.

TB: True metal, that's what it's going to be. See, we have a guitar player in our band that doesn't sound like the same five guitar players in the same other five bands that copied the same five guitar players (laughs). He can do solos.

MM: Actually, this is music before 1990, you know what I mean? So I think that makes us a little different.

AZ: When we did an interview with you a year and a half ago that was on Speak and Destroy, which was new domestically but it had been around in Europe before on Snapper?

TB: Yeah, and actually this band did not do that. A lot of people don't understand, they're like "well you change your name every other year, what's going on?" So I'll just give a quick recap. I used to be a rapper back in the day on Eazy-E's label, Ruthless, like 12 years ago. I put together a band called Manhole, which was a rap/rock, kind of like Body Count, Downset, Rage. But a female front. We did a record called "All is Not Well." We did a second record after we toured the world off that and did great, but we got sued for our name by a band out of Texas called Manhole, a punk rock band. They wouldn't let us buy it from them so we had to change our name as our new record was coming out. So we released Relief the Release under the name Tura Satana. So a lot of people got confused like what the hell? What is this? Then we ended up touring the world off of that and I ended up wanting to do something completely different. I was a little bit tired of the rap/rock thing. I wanted to branch out and do something a little bit different. The guys in my band were really not up to it, but we were on the same wavelength, though, on a lot of things. So I left the band and I did this solo record called Speak and Destroy. I named the project My Ruin because I didn't want to call it Tairrie B. I worked with a lot of different artists and producers and put together a touring band. That's where I met Meghan. She came out with me and toured with me first in Europe and England. I came back and decided it might be fun to put a new band together again. Everybody's like, “every other year she has a new band name," it's crazy! It kind of became a joke, but now it's pretty serious. We met Mick, Mick stepped in and he used to front his own band. Mick actually plays drums, sings, plays guitar. He pretty much does it all. He's the frontman for his band called Movement. He played me all the stuff he had written and I was just blown away. It was amazing so it was like maybe we should do some work together.

MM: Yeah, I was looking for something to do. My band had broken up and I had songs. I played her my songs and she was interested. It sparked up a romance and band all at the same time.

AZ: Did you play on Speak and Destroy?

MM: I played on the remix of "Tainted Love" on the American release.

AZ: Which was why he was on the promo shots.

TB: See, Spitfire was just a joke. Spitfire really jacked our band up. They waited a year to release one, then we were going to have a video for "Tainted Love" and then they pulled that. We were going to do Tattoo the Earth and then they pulled that. Spitfire Records just really tried to sabotage our career, big time. They wouldn't let us do any press in the States. They were afraid we were going to tell what was really going on, which we were.

MM: When we questioned them at all they got totally offended.

TB: We're a real band. We're not some fake garage band that's like "take our record and fuck us." They didn't give a shit and we were working really hard. "Speak" was a good record and "Prayer" was a fucking great record, and I can say that it's a great record.

MM: And our next record is going to be even better.

TB: Yeah, we really worked hard. We've been writing this record for a couple of years. There's a lot of subjects that I think our band relates to kids on a completely different level because it's more of an emotion. We're like an emo-metal band. Kids come to our shows and we have kids in the front row crying. It's like a completely different thing, girls throwing themselves onstage. It's very dramatic, they really relate to the lyrics and they really feel the music. It's something really cool, I think it's really different. It makes me really proud to be in a band that can set a standard for something new instead of following a trend. I don't think there's anyone that My Ruin can be compared to and I love that fact. It's what makes original bands.

AZ: So do you blame the lack of press in the United States on Spitfire?

TB: Oh fuck yeah. With our press kit in Europe you'd think we were Marilyn Manson. You'd think this band is huge.

AZ: If you look on your Web Site, (www.myruin.com) all the press that's there is amazing.

TB: Yeah, Spitfire was just "own up, cut them off. Cut them off from everything. Can't do this, can't do that." Finally we got out of all the contracts and legalities.

MM: They were afraid the truth might come out about how lame they are.

TB: Really, just lame, shady dealing. Really, I thought "oh it's a baby label." We were like ok, they think we want a break. Let's get this band out there, get them on Ozzfest, Tattoo the Earth, get out there and get their name out. Have something to break besides the old shit their still pumping. The guy's a dinosaur. He's just an idiot. I hate badmouthing someone like that, but this guy's a real fucker.

AZ: What's on the live album, who's on it, what's it called, who put it out and when was it done?

MM: We did it on our tour of the U.K. the first thing we did when we got to England was went to this barhouse in the middle of nowhere.

AZ: That tour was on the new record, right? Because I don't have that.

MM: It was a mixture between the two records. It gave this lineup a chance to do our versions of the songs off Speak and Destroy. We kind of changed them a little bit, made them more of what we do. And to do live versions of the songs off "Prayer" with Yael, because Yael didn't play on the "Prayer" record. She got into the band after we made that record.

TB: I really love that record. I think it's very raw and like they said, they did the record before Yael came into the band. They did the record at 4 in the morning and we had just gotten off a ten-hour flight. I got up at 9am and did all the vocals in and hour and a half-two hours.

MM: It's like a live studio album.
TB: It' crazy. It was awesome and I think it's great because it's really raw and it's everything from the music to the vocals to the artwork on it is pictures from the tour. It's really us. It really represents what My Ruin is. I think kids love that. They felt like we called it To Britain with Love and Bruises, because it was our little gift to Britain. For all the kids being so kind to us it really meant a lot to us to do it.

AZ: So the best way for somebody to find your music is?...

TB: Amazon.com, Hot Topic, they're now carrying it. They just took us in to the family. It's a shame, I feel really sad that we come out here every night and we play for all these kids and we go to our merch booth and our merch girl says "200 kids came up tonight asking for your album." We're like "what?!" We sell out. I mean we're doing more merch than any other tour. We're selling out, we're doing great. That's how we're surviving. But we have no record out here and we can't get them out here. So we're like we just need a label. We need a label to get behind this band and say I get it, I'm not afraid of it. Let's get you guys on the road, let's get you guys out there, let's make this fucking record and let's do it! That's all we need. We're not looking for a million dollars. We're looking for some real people who aren't liars.

MM: Who don't want to change us into some formulated band.

TB: Yeah! Who don't want to turn us into something we're not. I'm not that little, melodic singer girl. I'm not going to be Linkin Park. That's not gonna happen. But what I am is what I am and I can relate to a lot of people. This band can relate to a lot of people. People tell us that every night, we loved you, you're not that typical thing out there. It's different. Someone's gotta take a chance. Someone will believe in us and that person will step up when the time is right, and we know that. Until then we're gonna bust our ass and do what we gotta do. We'll play for everybody as long as people will bring us out, like Kittie.

AZ: Are you still writing your book?

TB: Been working on it for years, for a few years now. It's insane.

YAEL: It's a novel.

TB: It's not really a novel anymore, it's like a...

MEGHAN MATTOX: Encyclopedia.

TB: (laughs) It's like 1,000 pages now. I took it to a book publisher and he's like "oh my god, there's like 8 books here." It's insane. So I may have to break it down.

AZ: Tell us about it. What's it about and what are you putting into it?

TB: Well, basically it's about one girl's life in music. It's going through my rap days, Manhole, Tura Satana, to My Ruin. It's road stories, it's tour journals, it's diary entries, poetry, song lyrics, private pictures, letters from kids, letters to magazines I've written that were published and not published, letters from people, all sorts of crazy shit. Someone who didn't even like us or like the band could pick up the book, say oh my god and read it for days. It's insane, it's really crazy and when it gets published it'll be the same as the record, it finds it's home with the right person.

AZ: The Web Site's extremely detailed as well, there's a whole lot in there. Does it address some of the same themes? Is some of the artwork the same? It's of the best sites I've ever seen.

TB: Some of it. It mean it would be getting ahead of me for the book and then I started thinking about it and I said hmm, you know that's kind of what it really all is, like the artist screaming. In one way or another that's all I've been doing for the past how many years, I've been screaming. Add this to this, with this, for this in all these different ways. From the early days when I was involved in the "Rock for Choice" pro-choice movement, helping battered women and working in all those causes, all the way to screaming for women, standing on stage and saying get up here! You can come up; you don't have to be the girlfriend. You can be the girl onstage. I think a lot of girls relate to that. That's why I go in the audience and put my mic down and say sing with me. The show is with me. I love that. I love it that a lot of times we do shows, we don't have the giant reaction but we have people just looking at us in this intense way.

MEGHAN: More of a connection.

AZ: That was obvious from watching tonight. Do you get that everywhere?

MEGHAN: I think you get it more when it's a smaller venue and you're right there with everybody.

TB: Personally I've played festivals for 120,000 people and be like 25 feet away from stage with photographers below and I just sit up there thinking, I'm freaking out. I can't relate to that. So I have to jump down and go through them to get to the kids. Everyone's like "you can't jump down there, you're not allowed." I'm like I can't do a show up here. I have to be touching someone.

YAEL: You may as well be in your rehearsal room. You're not connected with anything because you're so far from everybody. Some of the shows on this tour have been like you walk off, take off your shirt and drench the water right the hell out of it because it gets amazing. It's energy, that's all. They give it, you give it and you can feel it just building and building and building. It's really dynamic. Like mellow stuff where she's just talking to a crowd and enticing everybody and they're like "what the fuck is she saying?" Then it's like well this is what I'm saying! So you can feel that. You can see them moving in a certain way, at least I can, because I'm in the middle. So I can just see the whole thing happening whether it's up here or down there and just work with everybody.
TB: We did a little documentary, we filmed it. We have a lot of home videos and we're going to put them all available on our site pretty soon. But we document everything we do and we have a lot of crazy, crazy stuff on tape. But it's awesome. Every night kids say to us you should have been higher on the bill, and we're like, our time will come, we'll get there.

MM: The coolest part is the kids that have never heard of the band before, they come up to us and say. "oh my god, where have you been?! You guys are amazing!" It just feels really good. Of course the kids who sing every lyric and have the records, that's awesome. But to turn some new heads, that's what it's all about, as many people as possible.

TB: To turn the disbeliever into a believer. You see the guys and girls who stand there when we walk out like "you can't impress me." They have that look like "I'm not here for you." I'll walk right up to those people and grab their faces, you know, right in their faces look at them, hold their hand…

MM: And they're converted.

TB: It's crazy! They'll come up to you after the show and say I heard shit about you, you know, everybody has a story afterwards.

MM: Yeah, there have been people who will say "I heard really bad things about you guys, but you guys are really cool." So hopefully that's what this tour is going to do and that's open some eyes.

TB: We're not fucking rock stars. People think because you're on the cover of a magazine or other shit that you live in mansions, you're rock stars, and we're like come on now! We're in a van, we're ghetto fabulous!

MM: In a van down by the river.

TB: Exactly! We're out here Black Flaggin' it. For real. When we do "My War," I really feel like I relate to this. I understand this shit. The people that I respect in the business, the people that I think are amazing are not the people on MTV. They are not the people that are all over MTV. I don't want to be this big -for me, I'm speaking for me only- I don't want to be Gwen Stefani and I don't want to be Madonna. But I want to be what I am, whatever that's going to be. I want to live my life, be happy, do my music, tour and have kids get it and sell records. I actually have records available. We're playing for how many kids tonight? How many of these kids are actually going to be able to find our fucking record? That's what scares me.

AZ: You had that same problem with Noise Records.

TB: Yeah, exactly!

AZ: I remember seeing you for the first time opening for Type O and one of your band members gave me a sampler and for months I couldn't get Noise to send me any. They sent me 8x10's but no records.

TB: Nope. We would get out there and play for 2,000 kids a night. There'd be an ad in Tower Records and I'd go in the store that day and say "I wanna invite the staff to the show," because we didn't know anybody and they'd say "well we have one record." I'm like "what?!" We had to start getting our records on the road and selling them. But we sold them all out. At least Noise gave us records to sell on the road.

MEGHAN: You got 8x10's because it goes with the territory of being a woman in this business. They're selling a hot face to you and they're not looking at the substance behind it.

TB: This is not a hot face, this band is not a hot face. That's why we do songs like "Beauty Fiend" and "Get Pretty." We have lyrics so please forgive me for not being pretty or sexy. That's not what I'm here for. I'm not here to be your little doll up on stage with my fake tits and fakeness. I'm up here just to give it to you, if you don't like it get the fuck out. You know what? Someone else is here that will. If you want some bimbo up on stage yeah I can get one in this band. But that's not coming to this band. That's not what we're about. If that's what we've gotta be to be on MTV then fuck it. I don't need it, we don't need it.

AZ: Now Eazy-E's label...How did you get into rap and then involved with that label.

TB: I was a street dancer, I was really into graffiti art and breakdancing way back in the day. I know KoRn made it really cool to wear Adidas and track suits. Well back when I was wearing it, it wasn't cool for a white girl to be wearing that shit. I was just really into it and I met Eazy-E's manager at a N.W.A. concert with a friend of mine and he's (manager) like, "oh you're a rapper?" I was like "oh yeah." He asked if I had anything and I said "well Quincy Jones's son had did a song with me, Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady,"" on a little demo. So I went down to N.W.A.'s studio all by myself, with nobody. I walked in and played them all my shit and they're all sitting there, Ice Cube and everybody. So he handed it back to me and was like, "oh cool." So I said thanks and went to walk out and he said "do you want a record deal?" As quick as that. It just kinda steamrolled, but then it got really crazy. It got a little much. I was in love with rap music, I loved graffiti, I loved DJ'ing, breakdancing, everything about the culture. And all my friends were into punk. But something was really alluring to me about this culture. It was really straight and really scary. I think it prepared me. I think being down with N.W.A. in those days prepared me to be in this world. They were like the Slayer of rap. I think that a little white girl walking around going "fuck you" to these people was like "what? Wait a minute!" It got to the point where you were told to carry a gun with you to your own record company for protection, there's something wrong there, you gotta go. I'm into music because I love music. The day I don't love what I'm doing is the day I'm going to leave it. I left that world. I wasn't jumping on the bandwagon, I just wanted to do something harder. I knew my voice was something different.

AZ: You told me before something that's just amazing and honest, is that you got paid before he passed away. He took care of you.

TB: Yeah, he paid me all the money he owed me. Eazy kept me under contract for a long time. He wouldn't let me go when I was in Manhole, the early days. Everybody knows he died of AIDS. You live a lifestyle and whatever that lifestyle is you talk about it, you brag about it, just like 2Pac. You live a lifestyle and you sometimes die that lifestyle. Kurt Cobain died a lifestyle and so did Layne Staley. Certain people die the lifestyle they live. It's sad.

MM: He let you out of your contract.

TB: He let me go before he died. He said "I want you to go." Two days later I heard on the radio someone reading a letter. It was like I looked at him, I sat right next to him, I had no idea! He did not look sick at all. He died less than a week after that. I was sent a letter saying "do you want to sue Ruthless?" Along with a list of people I knew for money. But he took care of me. He gave me money. I was free to go, he let me out. Thank god, or I might still be under contract to this day as some gangster mafia shit. I'm pretty happy about that. So I have nothing bad to say.

AZ: Then you were sued over the name Manhole...

TB: But we really didn't get sued, though. Noise Records got sued and they changed their name to F.A.D. and we were just told change your name. They wanted like $300,000. We're like we'll give you $40,000 for the name and they wouldn't take it. Then after we changed our name, two months later that band broke up. It was like oh my god! It was ridiculous. Put us through drama for nothing. Noise changed their name because they didn't want to get sued and they had to re-issue all the All is Not Well records and call them Tura Satana.

AZ: So Tura Satana didn't have a copyright on her name?

TB: No, and the funny thing was, she started getting letters addressed to us. I ended up getting in touch with her through the Internet. I said, this is who I am, this is why we named our band this, because one night before we had to name our record we went through 30 million names, I was watching Faster Pussycat and watching her I just thought, wow! She's just everything that I want to embody on this record, and who I want to embody as a persona. I thought, that's a great fucking name. It sounds kind of Spanish and scary, kind of evil. I brought it to the band and they were like "that's killer!" There was no copyright on it. Later, I started talking to her, and another part in my book is with her as well. I'm interviewing her because of why we took the name and who she is and why she inspired. I think that's really cool.

AZ: We've talked to her before.

TB: Yeah, she's hot. She was very flattered that we did that, so I thought that was really cool.
AZ: Do your videos get played in Europe at all?

TB: Yeah, the old videos for Tura Satana did, there's a My Ruin video for "Terror." We haven't done the video.

MM: This band isn't represented in a video yet. We have tons of tour videos at home.

AZ: That stuff is great, just seeing (the show) tonight.

TB: I gotta send you some home videos.

MM: It's very punk rock-style videos, but there's a lot of heart and it's very honest.

YAEL: And we have the two VCR editing.

MEGHAN: I think we're staying ghetto though. Regardless of whatever happens. It's the flavor of the band. I wouldn't mind having a driver…
MM: Yeah, it would be cool to have somebody drive the van.

YAEL: Yeah, we'd be a little less tired.

AZ: Who's driving?

MM: Me and Yael do most of the driving.

TB: A lot of people want to see us fail out here. A lot of people are very "oh fuck My Ruin. They'll never make it. They're trouble, they're a nightmare." But everybody's been happy with us. Everybody's been kind. It's cool.

AZ: What about at home? I know you did a Whiskey show. It was talked about a lot on the Internet.

TB: We did a couple. Our shows in LA are crazy. We're doing one when we get back. We're actually up for an award right now. LA Weekly, which is like the village voice, they're doing a big award show. They do their yearly awards and we're up for best rock band. Chili Peppers have won it before us, and System of a Down. We're up for it. We just got asked to perform with Tenacious D and Concrete Blonde. Somebody we really respect is gonna be on the show. A few people, very underground and very cool. I mean it's very cool for us to do things like that. I'd rather play with Concrete Blonde than fucking Coal Chamber any day. That shit doesn't mean shit.
AZ: So you don't have a problem getting a chance to come back out by yourselves and playing a couple of smaller clubs, then?

TB: We're gonna make it happen. After we do all this, we're gonna make it happen. People are telling us, "you know if you guys don't get signed off this then something's wrong." If we don't get signed, we're just gonna come back out and do it again.

MEGHAN: We could do this again, that's not a problem. There were bands on this tour that have asked us to go out with them.

TB: American Head Charge rocks.

MM: They're really good (rest of band agrees). I'm not going to lump them in with the bands with a shtick. I think Slipknot's cool but too many bands have ripped them off. But Head Charge is really good. They've got great songs and a great singer, too.

TB: They're actually talented and nice guys. I wanna say one thing about American Head Charge, they are the stinkiest band. They know that, I say this to them. I spray them all with vanilla. They put dead pig heads backstage with us and we were spraying them with vanilla.

AZ: You're a happier crew than I expected to meet because the music is so emotional. Is the new album that you already recorded as emotional?

MM: When we play a show it's a whole different story. After we play we're a lot happier.

AZ: I love that emotion, it provokes a feeling. Music should be like that.

TB: I think it should be. You gotta have tension in order to also have release. There's gotta be some pain to have something. I gotta be honest, with me, I'm in a relationship and a lot of my records have been relationships. What's your religion Tairrie? You talk about the religious aesthetic of everything, and I'm like, my religion is relationships. That's what I address on every record. Most of the time it's painful stories. Right now I'm in a happy relationship so you gotta dig deeper into other subjects besides just this. We have to go through a lot of the other things. We have a song called "Weightless," that's gonna be out on our next record that to me, is going to be the next Beauty Fiend. It's a really important song to me personally, because it deals with when we showcased for a record label in New York City a few months back. The funniest was - and I'm not gonna say who it was - big label, big person, called me up and was really into us and we sent him a package. He called me up and said, "I'm blown away. The music is incredible, the lyrics are incredible, the The band is incredible, your photo, Tairrie, you're beautiful, you can be on magazine covers, but do you have a weight problem? I need to be honest with you, are you a little heavy there? Because rock stars have to be thin, I'm afraid." And those are the lines that just violated me. I was like what a fucking thing to say to me. Who is gonna say that to like Pantera?! Know what I mean? Go tell Phil that! That was such a disgusting, derogatory, misogynistic comment towards me, gimmie a break. He said this shit and we showcased for him anyway. It was worthless, it was not worth our time. Idiot.

MM: It's getting really bad in the music industry.

TB: Are you going to appeal to the Britney Spears girls? NO! We're not!

AZ: Universal dropped the ball on Garbage. They didn't do 100,000 in the States.

TB: That's sad. That's really sad.

MEGHAN: That's ridiculous.

YAEL: That's a joke.

MM: Who?

Rest of band in unison: Garbage!!

TB: Shirley Manson, I'll tell you what I think about her. I think Shirley Manson is kind of like me in the way that - it might sound weird - she's a singer and all that, but she writes really dark, creepy lyrics about subjects that are very intensive. People don't really hear that because it's so poppy. But if you really listen to those lyrics she's got some shit going on! I love that.

AZ: The first record is dark and the new one is dark.

TB: She's awesome. She is not afraid to talk shit. I love her. So, she's bad. But I think the new album deals with a lot of topics that are really important. It needs to be brought out to the forefront. Girls need someone to tell them it's ok to look like this, to do that. You don't have to look like this to be that. You don't have to do this. Get pretty in here, don't get pretty out here.

MM: But as a guy in the band, it's not just about chicks. This band appeals to guys, too. It's not a riot grrl band. It's not a riot grrl band that excludes guys. And this isn't just the chicks with some side guy. This is the four of us in a band together.

TB: I hate it that we're a great chick band. We're not a chick band, because without Mick Murphy there is no My Ruin, straight up. People might go "oh, Tairrie B is leader of this band." I put the band together, yes. I'm the frontwoman. But if this man was gone, there'd be no fucking music. We're all partners in this band, but this is my soulmate partner as far as music. He brought what I really needed to do to the forefront . I've never had a musical partner like that.

MM: Thank you very much.

TB: You're welcome, baby.

Posted by Alex Zander at March 11, 2004 10:59 PM