Otep Interview by Jeff Woodward

Last month, I had the privelege of speaking with singer/poet and artist Otep, on the phone. She's a woman with something to say, and believe me, she knows how to say it. Otep is no minor leaguer, as she delved with well researched knowledge into religion, politics and history. And her music is pretty cool too . . .

Jeff Woodward: Hello Otep

Otep: Hi How are you?

JW: Thank you for taking some time to speak with us

O: No Problem, no problem

JW: You're a Doors fan, right?

O: Yes I am

JW: Say you get a call from the afterlife, you know, saying it's Jim Morrison, and you can ask him one question. What would you ask?

O: Well, I don't know, that's a good question. There's like ten thousand questions I would like to ask him, I don't know if I could ask him just one.

JW: He was a poet before he was a singer, and I think you both have that in common.

O: Actually I think he was an actor before he was a writer. He did a lot of school plays and such before he became a writer. He is definitely an inspiration for me. I would probably ask him if he's happy. If I could ask anything I would probably ask what happened the night he died, and then probably "what's it like"?(laughs)

JW: (laughs) You're a (Jack)Kerouac fan, right?

O: Indeed I am brother

JW: I was reading one time that he took a one inch strip of paper and taped it together and made a 125 foot long piece with it so he could just continuously keep going at it . . .

O: Yeah

JW: What do you do to help with the writing process?

O: I use anything that's available actually. I write on anything and everything I can get my hands on, if it's at a restaurant napkins, receipts; poetry books, the kind that were popular with Van Gogh, and several other people as well.

JW: Alright. Your newest album, Ascension, deviates from your previous albums Sevas Tra and House of Secrets..

O: Oh, you think it does, do you?

JW: In a positive way. There is much more melody and vocal range from you.

O: I don't like the word "deviate", I prefer evolution.

JW: Sorry, Otep

O: That's ok (laughs). Deviate sounds like we've gone off course, but I don't believe we've gone off course. We're ascending, hence the name (Ascension), exactly the way we're supposed to, and in the proper process we're supposed to, but I do understand your point and I agree with you. It was a conscious effort to try and bring something new to this record, as I tried to do to with House of Secrets from Sevas Tra, to bring more melody to it.

JW: Back to House of Secrets, every time I listen to it I hear something different . . . .

O: right

JW: a different sound, maybe a whisper in the background. "Sepsis" from House of Secrets is my favorite song on there..

O: Right on. That's a song that "J"(Evil "J" McGuire, bassist) and I wrote together. "J" wrote all the guitar parts, and we both wrote the composition and arrangement on it. We're thinking about bringing that to a live set. We've never, ever played that song live.

JW: Wow

O: I think we're about to bring it to the forefront for the audience.

JW: That's good. At the beginning of the song (Sepsis), is that Sumerian(language) that you're saying?

O: It is indeed

JW: When you say, "I will pull down the gates of Abaddon" and so on, I believe that is something relative to Judeo-Christian beliefs, or even Babylonian before that, is that right?

O: The song centers around ancient Babylonian beliefs, indeed, "Sha Nagba Immuru" is the opening line for the epic of Gilgamesh and it means, "the one who saw all". Tearing down the gates of Abaddon, Abaddon is the ancient name for hell, and it's probably one of the deepest and darkest, if you believe in this kind of thing. So the things that inhabit Abaddon tend to be extremely malevolent and chaotic.

JW: Do you like to read about different spiritual philosophies?

O: Yeah, you know, I do. I tend to read a bit about everything. I like filling my mind with wisdom.

JW: Do you ever find yourself comparing the similarities between them? You know, the different spiritual philosophies, if there was maybe at one time one common root that they sprang from?

O: I do, I mean everything pretty much started out as spiritualism, not necessarily religion . . . .

JW: Sure

O: But as religion progressed, you talk about the earliest tribes, it was all nature based, and indeed, the earliest representations of a creator was actually feminine. As people observed their surroundings, they saw life came from women, that babies are born out of woman. And that translated into how they were growing crops. They planted seeds into the earth, and out of the earth came life. So they calculated that; it seems to be apropos in my head, but I'm a feminist. Even in human biology all fetuses begin as female. So every human being that has ever existed once started out as woman.

JW: Like the Earth Mother

O: Yeah. Back to point; I believe religion borrows and is inspired and influenced by other religions, especially if you are a smaller religion in a land that has a predominant religion. Perhaps you may disagree with certain aspects of that religion, yet, you like this other part, so actually what you are trying to do is assimilate your new followers into the same holidays because they're accustomed to celebrating this time of year. Perhaps you take these holidays as your own, and proscribe your own thoughts and mythologies to them, and I think that's what happened along the way. If you look back, the first winged angels appeared in ancient Babylon. And even a lot of these stories in the Old Testament are from Babylon, which predates Judaism, which predates Christianity, and also Zoasterism. In ancient Babylonia, even the creation myth; two people, there was a serpent involved, they were in paradise and were exiled into the wilderness. Even Noah's Ark, that story, aside from the ancient Babylonian story, there was a man who saved his community by building a large boat, an ark if you will, because of a great flood. That story was passed down to the Greeks, and eventually became part of Judaic mythology, or religion, however you see it. In fact, most scholars agree now that Christ wasn't born in December, he was probably born sometime in August. But because it was such an important holiday, an important festival in Roman mythology, Saturnalia, which was a celebration of the god Saturn, and was very similar to what we do now for Christmas; exchanging gifts, and even the holly twigs and leaves. Those things stem from that Roman celebration. I believe it was Constantine who Christianized the Roman Empire, there were still so many people worshipping pagan gods, that in order to either demonize those gods, those ancient gods, and turn them in to monsters, like Pan, who we know now was a wilderness spirit. He was a friend to Dionysus and he was a satyr, hooves on his feet, the lower half of him was a goat. He had horns and he played a little flute and he really liked the ladies. Now we know our image of the devil comes from that, to get people away from worshipping the nature gods. Dionysus, who was the son of Zeus, who was killed, and ripped to pieces and brought back to life as a resurrection god, same as Osiris in Egyptian mythology, killed by his brother, ripped to pieces, brought back to life by his wife as a resurrection god, actually the first resurrection god if I'm not mistaken. So I think we see a common thread, and I think there are some really great stories and legends in there, as morality plays more than anything else; they teach you how to treat your neighbor, how to treat your family, how to live a decent, good life, without infringing on the rights of others.

JW: Aside from feminism, I saw you did and interview for PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). How long have you been involved in animal rights?

O: Well, I've been a vegetarian for just about a year, and I guess I started working with PETA back in August. I haven't studied everything about them, but I know quite a bit, and I may not agree with everything PETA does, but in fact, they're overall position for the ethical treatment of animals, that's what PETA stands for; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, I wholeheartedly stand with them 100%, and I enjoy their positions, and I believe that they're right on what they do. I'm proud to be with them, and I'm proud to work with them, spreading their message of treating animals with respect. You know, honestly, I love meat, I love eating it, I just don't like the way they torture and destroy these animals just so that we can eat them. I think that we, as a cerebral and intellectual society, we should treat these animals with respect, and in fact maybe treat them as royalty, because they are giving us life. They are sacrificing their lives so that we may eat. Because we don't have food shortages in this country, and because you can walk down the street and buy a hamburger for a dollar, I think we don't really look at it that way, because it's so plentiful here. If people could see those PETA videos, the undercover videos, the way that the people who procure the animals treat them, mistreat them, scare them, terrify them and injure them just so that they can kill them and strip the skin of their bones so we can fry them up and eat them is detestable and indefensible. I don't know how anybody could stand for it. And so many people that want to continue to eat meat, but may have something on their conscience about it, write to your local leaders just to tighten legislation on the way these animals are killed, the way they are kept, the way they are fed. California just passed Proposition 2, I believe, which makes sure the cages that birds are kept in(have enough room, so) they can spread their wings. And the same thing with animals; they can lay down without touching the walls; they are not kept in their own filth and checked for diseases, and they are actually able to get outside and have fresh air. You know, the difference is, you live in a world where you are part of the food chain. Say, you're stranded on a desert island, or you live in the rainforest, ok, you're part of the food chain, and you're going to kill an animal and you're going to eat it, and that's it. You're not raising this animal to be slaughtered, and if you do, you still treat it well, because that animal, it's flesh, is going to feed your family. We're raising them in these giant slaughterhouse conglomerates, where there's disease; they (the animals) are basically cannibals because they are fed ground up bits of unwanted meat, which is how we got mad-cow disease in the first place. And then beaten and tortured and prodded just so that they can have their lives stolen from them in terrible ways.

JW: Like that Kentucky Fried Chicken video that was smuggled out, yeah I saw that one and we stopped going there (KFC) a long time ago.

O: It's like I can't even imagine it. I mean I still miss, I still love the smell of it, my friends and family eat it, and I think, "I'll just have one bite", and it will immediately revert in my mind back to those images of those animals being tortured to death, and I just can't do it, I can't participate in that.

JW: Do you have any pets at home?

O: I do. I have dogs, and I love them, more than, probably I treat them better than humans (laughs)

JW: (laughs)

O: They provide me with so much joy, and emotional relief, that they deserve it.

JW: That unconditional love that they give you.

O: Yeah, that's just something that you can't manufacture, you can't replace with anybody else, you know?

JW: What kind of hopes do you have now for America now that we have a new leader taking office January 20^th?

O: I mean, you know as soon as election night came, and we saw that we were free finally of the Republican, you know, corruption, and their repressive regime, it felt like a million pounds of weight which was removed off our shoulders. Nothing really has changed in the world, we still all have the same problems, same bills, same economic crises, but it felt different. Because you finally felt like we have someone at the helm that knows what they're doing, and might just be a little smarter. In fact, I was speaking to my brother today about all this, and how we, we continue to second guess Barak Obama's decisions, because we are so accustomed to having a president that's not nearly as sharp as most of us tend to believe we are. And it really feels great, it feels different, I'm very pleased, and hopeful for the future. I just feel different; everything about this presidency seems remarkable. His cabinet members he's putting together seem like an all-star team. It's people that have been in the game a little while, and they seem to support the progressive positions that we all are hoping will bring this country back to a position of power and glory, and really represent the America we all are in love with, and that dream that we all think is still out there.

JW: I think a lot of people are hoping for that, and hopefully everything is going to take a turn for the better

O: Yeah

JW: I remember a few years ago there was a forum (message board) on your website, and there was a section on there where people could post problems that they were having, maybe at home or at school, kind of like a support group. Have you ever reached out personally to a fan who was asking for help?

O: Yeah, I do, I mean, we actually receive a lot of e-mails and messages to our Myspace, and I do, I do check the messages, we have other people that check them as well, but I do, in fact, read the ones that seem to be important, and I do reply . . . ..Some people, and I think it's unfortunate, but some people bait, and I used to answer a lot of the emails, but a lot of people were just baiting me with these made up fabrications of these tragedies in their lives, which weren't true. They were just trying to get me to reply to them. I found that so disingenuous and offensive actually, so now there's a little bit of research done before I would do that. One of the greatest things is reaching out to soldiers in Iraq. I get a lot of messages from them thanking us for standing up for them, for speaking out against the illegal and incompetent war in Iraq. They've done an amazing job. And just because we're anti-war, against this war, doesn't mean that we don't want justice, doesn't mean that we don't want (Osama)Bin Laden caught, doesn't mean that we don't want to put down the Taliban and all that. We just wanted, liberals like myself, justice for what happened, not to go in and end old grudges. You know?

JW: Right

O: Going into Iraq was wrong, and as soon as I saw it I knew. I was hoping they would level Afghanistan. I was actually hoping they would drop a couple of big bombs on them, and leave it just a glow in the horizon for the next hundred years, as a constant symbol that you don't, you don't do that to civilians. You have a military problem, you take it out on the military, or some other way. You don't attack American civilians. More often than not, the citizens of America, if they are privy to a tragedy, a genocide, or a holocaust or an attack, we tend to stand up to that. And even if it's people we may not necessarily agree with, we'll still help them. But you come in, and you hurt us, our natural response is to hurt you back. And unfortunately, we had an idiot president at the helm who sent troops to a war that made no sense, absolutely no sense.

JW: But you know they were looking for WMD's didn't you?

O: Right. WMD was . . . I'll tell you what WMD was, it was not in Iraq. I knew he was lying because he didn't want Iran to invade (Iraq). He was probably just trying to scare Iran with it. Iraq, by the time we went in there, was a defeated regime. It was done. It was a silly thing for us to do. We should have gone in and captured the people that hurt us, and that would send a much bigger signal, than to go in and attack another country, another Arab country, and cause more enemies. We should have went after the people, we knew where they were . . . I mean the Taliban left Afghanistan, they moved into Pakistan, and they've been there very comfortably for the last 8 years. What I hope to see, and even a lot of soldiers want to see, they want to fight, they just want to fight the right war. They want to fight the right enemy. I hope to see a military effort pushed into Afghanistan, and into Pakistan if necessary, I know that's taboo, because Pakistan is supposed to be a friend, but if they're not going to do the job, we're going to have to do it for them. Because we're the ones that were hurt. Once again I agree, we have such an amazingly smart president now, and he's building an incredibly gifted cabinet, that we're going to be able to get the people that hurt us, and hopefully set a standard in the world that we live by, and that hopefully influences other people that we're not going to make those stupid mistakes again, at least not for a very long time, I can't say (never)again, cause we did it in Viet Nam, Iraq, same thing. It's going to be a minute before we do something like this again, and that our response will be swift, and our response will be aggressive.

JW: Do you think with Obama in office America will focus on genocides like in Darfur?

O: I would hope so. I hope we can focus on Darfur, I hope we can focus on that entire region.

JW: Are you in between tour right now?

O: I'm driving home for the holidays.

JW: Your last tour date was at the end of November. You all starting again after the holidays?

O: Indeed. We're supposed to go to South America sometime early next year, and after that I believe another North American tour, and then possibly Europe sometime after that.

JW: Ok Otep, thank you for your time

O: No Problem

Otep’s current album, Ascension, is available nationwide, wherever music is sold. Check the band out at www.otep.com to catch the latest news on the tour, her music and the causes she is supporting.