Black Alt Magazine

Are they hot...or are they hot? ~ Special Edition Post ~ In her interview with Moi , bassist Urith Myree (the chocolate one to the far right) foretold the coming of Dormitory Effect's next album (December 4th, 2010), and its inevitable awesomeness. Ladies and gents...she wasn't kidding. "Being women and scene veterans, we are all too familiar with the lack of faith in and little regard for all-female Metal acts and females in hard music in general. There are people that will never believe we write and play our instruments at the level we do. We're not, 'good for a bunch of chicks' - we're good, period. We can hold our own with anyone. So with this recording, we wanted to get great sounds, but we didn't want it to sound 'slick' or artificial. We wanted to keep it as 'live' as possible in order to try and capture the punch of our live performances.

Big Phony is the stage name of singer-songwriter & actor Bobby Choy ( Ktown Cowboys ). I completed this interview with him on August 3rd, 2010. I first saw you on Ktown Cowboys . How did you get involved with that project? The writer of Ktown Cowboys and comedian Danny Cho is a good friend of mine. One time we were at a cafe in Ktown and he told me he was writing something with me and some of our other friends in mind. I read it, laughed a lot. He asked me to be in it. I said "No! Get an Actor." He said, "You'll pretty much be playing yourself so it won't be too difficult." I said the character he wrote for me was "kind of a pussy." He said "Exactly!" There was no budget and since I wasn't working at the time I had no excuses to say no to a friend. Voila! A "pussy"? You? Nuh-uh! But hilarious acting aside, music is actually your main medium. You made the commitment young. How did your family co...

Skye Edwards is the lead vocalist of recently reunited Morcheeba , a British band which fuses electronica, trip-hop, and alternative rock. I completed this mini-interview with her on July 28th, 2010.  It's brief, as she answered the questions while still on tour. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How are you enjoying being back with Morcheeba, and what made you decide to reunite? It was a tough decision to return to the band but after meeting with Paul and Ross and then hearing some of the ideas they were working on I decided to give it a go. It's been great to play Morcheeba shows. What was it like spending all those years apart from your band mates? It is cool being a solo artist. I learnt a lot about song writing and enjoyed collaborating with other songwriters and music producers. I will continue with my solo career. What's it like being part of a band again? How does it work (for you)? It's okay, it's working out fine.

South African-born, Canada-based Fallon Bowman is the former guitarist for and founding member of Kittie .  She has since helmed Amphibious Assault and now Fallon & The Grace Dynasty .  I completed this interview with her on May 24, 2010. At the risk of making us both sound old, I first fell in awe of you when I was in the 11th grade. A friend showed me the "Spit" album and my eyes immediately went to you. I remember gasping over and over again, "There's a brown girl in Kittie? Really?"  We both thought you were black, at first; later, of course, I learned you're of Indonesian descent.  Among others! My heritage is closely tied to my birth country's dubious relationship with colonialist aspirations - and clearly - desires as well. Now, to be very, VERY honest with you, you were the reason I KEPT listening to Kittie. I bought your album, watched your videos, bought your VHS - you name it. I was waiting for more "you time", I guess...

Stux Daemon is the incredibly sexy lead singer and guitarist for Botswana-based metal band WRUST .  I completed this interview with him on May 20, 2010. What drew you to metal, and what’s the metal scene like in Gaborone?  Do you have many shows and a decent following? Well I started listening to rock music when I was about 13 or 14, but even then songs from black Sabbath, Hendrix sounded familiar, so my guess someone was playing rock/heavy metal in the hood before I was 13. At one point in my life I lived in the army barracks so I suppose most of the rock/metal came from there. By the time I was 18 I was listening to more heavy stuff - Metallica, Megadeth, Iron maiden, the progressed to Slayer, Machine head, Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse and so on. I have always been looking for faster heavier riffs, blast beats, double bass drumming and so for forth. To answer the next question I think I need to point out a few things, Botswana has a population of less than 2 million,...

Urith Myree is the bassist for the all-female metal band Dormitory Effect. I conducted this interview with her on May 17, 2010 . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What drew you to metal? I started off listening to Classic Rock. I was in grammar school and a classmate had a boom box that  was playing "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin. I had never heard that before but I totally loved it, and it just got heavier from there. Later on, I feel in love with Thrash  Metal when a classmate in high school gave me a cassette tape (ha - dating myself here) that had early Metallica, Slayer, Venom and other Thrash bands. I was hooked by the raw power and speed. And how did your family react to your decision to involve yourself in metal? It ended up being a family meeting one afternoon! I didn't understand what the big deal was, especially since my family listened to everything inclusive of rock and fusion, but there is a big leap from Santana to Hendrix to Slayer and it was a bit ...