– What do you think people should know about otep?
that what u see during a ritual, what u hear on our album, everything we do is REAL. nothing is fabricated. the music is the image, not the other way around …. wurdz are our war paint …. truth is our armor …. our live shows have been compared to a religious experience … something ancient and wild … a cleansing … of everything society and culture tell us to be … in those moments of ceremony, nothing else matters … nothing else exists … except the absolute perfection of who YOU really are … its a shedding of skin … a serpent dance leading to evolution … that’s what we are trying to do … and that’s what people should know.
– You just finished up ozzfest, How did that go?
it was an amazing experience …. at times, it felt as if we had traveled back to the ancient world, to a very primitive time, when people still sought ritual as means of healing and escape …. when the holy were sought after as enemies of the state … sometimes, it was if we could almost hear the sounds of the Pratorian Guard coming for us … and smell the bitter odor of herb and oil as the temple fires were prepared for a sacrifice … there were some amazing visions on this tour …
– A lot of bands do shows like Ozzfest for different reasons. What did you hope to accomplish by doing the tour?
Many things … the art of war teaches to destroy your enemy from within … but this was also a time to spread our message, our creative movement … to sacrifice ourselves and our art … to meet interesting & evolving people … to inspire … to learn
– Jihad came out recently, are you happy with the way the album turned out?
Considering we only had a week to record, yes, extremely proud of this ep … especially the song GERM … that song was recorded live without anything being written … we just sat in the studio and followed the Muse
-Judging by the links on your website, you seem to be a pretty politically minded band. What big issues are you for or against? I saw NORML was on there.
Well, basically, I think we support absolute equality … for everyone … and we oppose anything that dictates selective morality, is overtly corrupt, completely absurd, and fosters an atmosphere of hypocrisy …
– I heard that you aren’t touring more to support Jihad, why?
We are currently writing our opus magnum, “sevas tra” … in October, we begin recording the album with Terry Date … no time for touring right now … once the album is finished, we plan on hitting the road again … this time, a National tour … maybe as early as January of 2002 … but u never know, performing is a huge part of our creative lives … we might just sneak in to a club or 2 this fall .. unannounced ..
– When can we expect full length album?
the early part of 2002 … February maybe ..
– IF you could tour with any band who would you want to tour with?
Slipknot
– What was the last cd you bought?
Radiohead “amnesiac”
– Do you drink? what is your favorite Beer/hard alcohol?
This is so unimportant.
– Who do you think stole the show at ozzfest?
Drowning Pool, Nonpoint, Mudvayne, Slipknot, and Manson
– What do you hope to accomplish with this band in the next year and a half?
We hope to create something very dark, very dangerous, emotional, heavy as hell, but also intelligent, therapeutic, and poetic … something like the great Tragedies of Greece … but with a contemporary skin … full of scars, full of beauty … violent, and ecstatic
