Reviews
&
Interviews

"I think, being women,
we get a lot of shit
from people, particularly because we didn't always
come across as rowdy and
boisterous, good-time girls.
We gave the audience
a harder time in terms of
coping with our music.
We took ourselves seriously."
-- GINA BIRCH
THE RAINCOATS

Previous Articles:

"Whore is so evil and dirty...
its amazing people's response to it..."

"WHORE is aimed to please…
in the same way
a whore pleases."

"everything I've been exposed to has influenced me."

Treat yourself to Whore!

An interview with Kap

by Denise Mauro

For the past three years, WHORE has been commandeering the Bay Area's rock scene with its heavy grind, groove, tribal rock. Started by Kap and hubby Jol Butler, WHORE recently added Nat Hawkes and Phil Cole to their line-up, with Darling Freekhead on keys and notorious guitarist Myles Boisen, who can be heard on Tom Waits two newest releases Alice and Blood Money and on the soundtrack for David Lynch's movie Wild at Heart. WHORE is a "musically collaborative effort" with Stuart Spencer, movie producer and multimedia artist lending an important hand to some lyrics.

WHORE are:
Katherine Copenhaver (Kap) vox, lyrics
left to right:
Myles Boisen guitar
Phil Cole drums
Jol Butler percussion
Nat Hawkes bass
Darling Freekhead keys

Where did the name WHORE come from?
Jol was using the name WHORE as a graffiti-like identity tag line for his sexual, edgy artwork.

Kap's band, KAP where Jol was the percussionist, flowered into WHORE (or rather de-flowered into WHORE) where they became a more collaborative effort. After some convincing by Kap, they lifted the name from Jol's artwork for their new project.

When did Jol begin using found objects?
He started playing industrial objects in the band KAP.

What are his "instruments"?
Aluminum ventilation tubing of different gauges and lengths, large recycled cardboard containers with stapled and stretched recycled rubber from inner tubes of large trucks, gas tanks, oil cans, sheet metal...

What does WHORE mean to you?
It's a lot of things. We are all whores, it's just a matter of where we choose to compromise - in terms of selling some aspect of ourselves. Whether it be ideas or labor or simply time or even our values or integrity. People are making compromises to make money, that's what we all do. The idea that whore is such a bad word and is so judged by our patriarchal puritanical society - that in and of itself is enough reason. Whore is the oldest occupation. The women who were whores in the beginning were really the only independent women.

How does that come out in your music? Are they synonymous?
Well, there's the independence and the choice of maintaining that integrity. There are a lot of socio-political statements happening that relate to the music. These women were powerful because of their independence and were not subservient to any man. That power was very intimidating to society and the patriarch. Whores and witches and all sorts of women of power were put down which made it into a dirty sleazy thing. Our society has done its best to dis-empower women and sexism is very predominant today and has always been - women perpetuate it just as much as men do.
WHORE makes you think…. It's a disturbing word. It's considered to be more disturbing than fuck or cunt. Although cunt is a good one... whore is so evil and dirty... its amazing people's response to it... the sociological significance of that immediate response. Even a male gigolo is perceived as a cooler job.

Do you find your music to be offensive or shocking or intimidating?
WHORE is aimed to please… in the same way a whore pleases. The music is very driving and grind groove oriented. The response I get from people is that it satisfies a part of them.. its like <<ughh>> just sink it in! People get really excited and inspired by it. I'm certainly not trying to shock or disturb people, but I do want people to think. I think that the music of WHORE can appeal to the wide range of tastes because we all have the same basic components and WHORE appeals to some very deep aspects of ourselves. It's rhythm, it's expression, it's emotion and the songs are meant to have more of a universal effect instead of being specifically about the song or the person singing the song, but to have a quality that can be interpreted by the viewer or listener so that they can identify with that and experience it. It's like a commonness of our life experience.

Have you converted the virgin listener? …someone just sitting there looking like they'd rather be listening to Eric Clapton and then look like they got into it?
Yeah! Those people always tend to be surprised by their own excitement.

Would you say that when Myles Boisen came on board that he has influenced your music in a different direction than when you started?
He adds a heightened quality. He's an excellent player. The style of the music has been a vision that I've worked hard to have continuity with. We play a lot of different style sounds but there's a basic continuity. I have to make sure we're following the sound of WHORE with everyone in the band. And the basic thing is that you've got to be able to grind… groove, it's rhythm.

What inspired you to get into music and perform?
It was the most WHORE-ifying thing I could do… <snicker> My background is in theatre. I was always in plays and doing improv theatre.

Was a parent a thespian?
No. I just got some… bug in me. I went to A.C.T. and studied acting.

How did it collide with music?
I grew tired of being in plays… started feeling like I wanted something different. I always wanted to sing, but it made me feel naked and scared. I wanted to explore that level of fear. It was fear that drove me to sing.

What happens to you when you get up on stage?
Ideally I loose my sense of self and I become immerced in the pure expression of the music and I am saturated by the sound of the band and singing is effortless... it's a transcendent type of experience. Sort of a shedding away of all sorts of ideas. To exist in pure expression is totally liberating.

Any particular bands/ people that you'd consider musical inspirations?
I am influenced by everything I've ever heard...absolutely everything has influenced me. I think that everything I've been exposed to has influenced me. I go for the emotional content and the rhythm.

Do you sometimes get the feeling like you're in the booth and they just put the quarter in? Are you on show or do you feel more of a connection with the audience?
I feel the audience more than I see them. It's an energetic exchange. I like to feel a connection with humanity at large as a performer… so the connection is not about the individuals there, its more of a universal connection.

How do you want to connect with the audience?
I want them to feel. I want them to be touched by the performance.. their own interpretation. Some people may look comatose but their having all sorts of internal things happening, some people are dancing and some people are getting off on the energy of it and they are talking with enthusiasm and drinking or maybe some people are fighting or fucking… or whatever they're doing to have some kind of connection. In our society we've worked so hard for our isolation and sense of loneliness - whatever it is - we spend so much to be separate from the rest. I'd like to think that music can be a cohesive art form.

Any interesting road stories?
I've had people want to fight me...
What? On stage or off stage?
Off stage mostly. When a person is performing, people tend to project their own stories on that person. If they need to praise somebody, then they'll put you up on a pedestal and praise you; if they need to trash you, then they'll trash you. It seems like the praise and the blame end up being the same thing. If I identify more with the praise than the blame or more with the blame than the praise then I think that's missing the point.
I remember once someone said that I supported the male paradigm of sexism in our society by being a sexual woman on stage, performing… I guess they thought I was sexy and therefore I was being sexist. That's really a sexist view of women and men... to look at other women as sexy and to criticize them as supporting this paradigm. I think that sex is very powerful and important and I'm sex positive. It's dis-empowering to squelch one's sexuality.

Do you subscribe to the notion that our society believe that women are both Madonna and whore and there's no middle ground?
At our last show at the Starry Plough, I used a Salvador Dali print of the "Madonna and Child" on our flyer. The idea there is that they are the same… there is no difference. I think that we're products of our society and we can't avoid our own sexism, racism and -isms. So, yes I agree. Some people have the capacity for deeper thought and introspection and can see that there is more to it than that. And even those people have the immediate response of one or the other.

What is the future of Whore?
To carry on… to experience larger venues… We would love to tour... Europe would be great! I haven't really been looking for fame of any sort - I can't afford to.

You're not whoring yourself to the big boys?
I'd be happy to… I'm pretty cynical about the industry though… and not particularly good at sales. What I'm interested in with WHORE is to continue doing it. I realized a while back that I have to sing and write. It's one of those things that I have to do. Expression is an art and all art can be therapeutic. Not particularly for the value of therapy, but it's expression... the value of art and the translation of experience into a presentation. It's the creative outlet that is gratifying.

WHORE is
"rhythm, it's expression
it's emotion...
you've got to be able to grind!" --KAP

Upcoming Shows:

March 8th
Stork Club, Oakland

CD Release:
August 2003

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email Whore
click here!

For Booking Info eMail:
Kate Smith
Triple Moon Productions
or
call: 650.814.9653

"Whore is the oldest occupation."

"I loose my sense of self and I become immerced
in the pure expression
of the music
and am saturated by the sound of the band."

"...some people are dancing and some people are getting off on the energy of it and they are talking with enthusiasm and drinking or maybe some people are fighting or fucking…"

"...sex is very powerful
and important."

"...some people are dancing and some people are getting off on the energy of it and they are talking with enthusiasm and drinking or maybe some people are fighting or fucking…"

"I want them
(the audience) to feel."