This question is for the guys. If you were gay, would you be more of a top or a bottom?

BRIAN: I am more into “doing” than being “done” I’m more of a pitcher than a receiver (laughter)

NICK: I like pain. I have a weird fantasy about it. I’ll take the pain. I’d be the submissive.

ROD: I like the woman to take control in my heterosexual lifestyle, so I’d probably be the taker.

CHRIS: I’d be a ” reach arounder” (Laughter)

How did THROAT CULTURE begin?

ROD: In ’96 was the actual formation of THROAT CULTURE. Cassie, Chris and I pretty much started it out. We got a couple of different guitarists. But then, in ’99, after a couple of member changes, we got Nick on guitar and then August of ’99 we got Brian on keyboards and that’s where we’ve been since.

Was the name of the band always THROAT CULTURE?

CHRIS: No, it was initially, “Dominion” (laughs) Before that, in the very beginning we called ourselves “Amber Waves”. (More laughter) From that, THROAT CULTURE was spawned.

“Dominion” is kind of cool. Why change it?

CHRIS: We thought it was too much of a heavy metal (type of) name. We wanted to be more original. I came up with THROAT CULTURE as a joke, but it stuck. And we all ended up just using it as the band name.

Aside from just saying, “Heavy Metal”, how would you describe your music?

BRIAN: I see us becoming more like a lot the stuff you saw in the 60’s and 70’s. It had, like a vibe that only got picked up recently. Groups like Boston, Zeppelin, Sabbath had this whole environment behind their music. A lot of bands have tried to tap into that recently. But most of them can’t do it because they are trying too hard to have pop hooks and get on the radio. Whereas groups like Tool or Deftones-their music has an everlasting quality. You will be able to listen to it 10 years from now and still catch that vibe. That’s where I see us going. Becoming more brutal but more emotional at the same time. Creating our own vibe. Pushing the limits of what the fucks going on.

CASSIE: The emotional part is very important. It helps any band. Whether it’s metal or rap or whatever. I do see Throat Culture going into that emotional, brutal side. A lot of our songs have come up on their own, by mistakes, through emotion and us just fucking around. Our music has taken on a life of it’s own. It’s become it’s own thing.

Are you afraid that emotional element might alienate metal heads who like purity?

CASSIE: I think that right now the scene is more open-minded. A lot of the metal crowd like a whole lot more shit than you’d think. Five or six years ago it might have been different. I really like the fact that our music appeals to all kinds of people.

NICK: We played with Cephalic Carnage, a brutal, fucking, grindcore kind of band. And then we can play with Blister 66. We go over well on both sides. We play what we play, and that’s what is cool about us.

CHRIS: When we played with Cephalic’ we didn’t know at first if we should play “Missing”. But we realized that is who we are. We don’t want to hold back who we are.

Speaking of the song “Missing”, Chris you use your voice in a different way on that song. How has your voice evolved since the beginning of the band?

CHRIS: This is the first band I’ve ever sung in. I didn’t even know how to sing (when I joined). I didn’t know how to yell or how to growl. It came out really weird. But I had in my mind how I wanted to sound. It just took about a year of practicing. And I am still growing. I’ve always wanted to sing, but our music never had the parts to do it in. We just kind of fell into writing the song, “Missing”-a kind of heavy melodic song. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried to do some sort of soft, harmony singing.

Do you think THROAT CULTURE will do somber, soft songs in the future?

BRIAN: If that fits the mood of what we are all going for. In any band, you’re gonna kind of have to get the OK from everybody. If that’s the mood we want to feel and if it still feels true to us, then great.

NICK: I think all of us have a total brutal edge. So I don’t think we will ever come out with a song that’s totally clean. I’m sure we’ll come close. “Orchid” has soft parts but we always have that hard edge. That’s what makes us…us.

THROAT CULTURE seems to have a Goth vibe.

NICK: Well, it’s funny because we started out thinking we were going more in a Goth direction because of the keyboard. It kind of adds in an element of a Goth style. But if you really listen to us, we’re not Gothic. We’re still heavy as hell. I think it’s one of the labels we’ve thought about. We like the dark element of everything.

CHRIS: I don’t think we’re Gothic enough for the Gothic people. Our crowds might be more into like, metal-goth. We went over very well with Type O Negatives audience. Gothic people are very picky. They don’t go to shows. They go to their club. I like the vibe of Goth though. I like the emotional and sexual element of it.

What initially influenced all of you musically?

ROD: At first it was old school thrash. Testament, Slayer. Now it’s everything. Everything from new school metal to Journey.. To…anything. When metal started to get popular again with Coroner, I started to become more diverse. I’ve always had an open mind. But I’ve always wanted to make heavy, thrash music. Even to this day.

NICK: Metallica, Megadeth, King Diamond. He’s always had great musicians. With new stuff, I like Korn, Even the old Limp Biskit album, I was way into it. I’m always into newer type of stuff.

CHRIS: As a kid it was Kiss. As a teenager, it was thrash metal. Testament, Slayer. Then it branched off into other things. I got into Industrial and hard Alternative bands. I listen to so many things now. It comes from everywhere.

BRIAN: When I was a kid, it was probably like 60’s music. The Beatles and even the Munkees. I also liked the psychedelic stuff. I liked all the thrash stuff, like Metallica and Slayer. I was getting into more evil shit and it turned into Death metal. It eventually turned into electronic music because that was the dark direction that was kind of hip again. I was probably mostly into Jazz before I joined this band.

CASSIE: When I was very young, I grew up on an Indian reservation. All we had was the radio. There was a lot of Country music and songs that were popular in the 80’s. I’d also have to attribute my influences to my dad. He listens to a lot of music and he’s very diverse. As far as groups that made me want to play, well first off, there had to be a girl in the band (laughs). One of them was Jo Bench, from Boltthrower. Also, Sean Yseult from White Zombie. After awhile, it didn’t matter anymore. I got into bands like Carcass, Godflesh and Fear Factory. Especially Fear Factory. I really like them. They grew into something that I admire so much.

What would be your dream band to tour with?

CHRIS: To be honest, I would have to say Testament.

NICK: Slipknot!

BRIAN: Ultimately, Black Sabbath or Mr. Bungle

CASSIE: Fear Factory

Let’s talk about your first CD, What was the idea of putting remixes on it?

CHRIS: I always liked remixes of songs. That’s what we wanted to do. Something different, like have a dance version of “Walk in the park”. Even though that’s not on the CD, we just wanted to see someone else’s interpretation of our music. The idea of not us remixing it, but giving it to someone else to remix appealed to us.

NICK: As far as the remixes on the album, it’s obviously showing the direction we wanted to go at the time. We wanted a techno-y type of sound. At least we tried to. (Laughs)

BRIAN: Right before I came into the band, I went down and saw like the first time that they played with Nick. Nick and I lived together. We both kind of knew what we each liked in music. Nick told me that they might want a techno type of thing going on. He was into a lot of Static X and a lot of sequence stuff. Nine Inch Nails. He heard some of the stuff I was into and had played. We were both in Twitch before they became Twitch. But he thought THROAT CULTURE was evolving into a techno direction. Still heavy, but having an element of the whole Rave thing. The whole DJ thing. So I think the CD was an earlier attempt at going into that direction.

The THROAT CULTURE babes seem to be as an integral part of the band as the music. How did that come about?

ROD: Honestly, I’ve always wanted to take pictures of naked women for a magazine.

Who was the first THROAT CULTURE BABE and how did you approach her to be photographed?

ROD: The first THROAT CULTURE BABE was a friend of Keith (Silencer) Spargo. Her fiancée and son came down with her, so it wasn’t that great. But the next babes were Latifa and Christina. Talk about a wet dream come true taking those photos.

How many babes are there and where do they come from?

ROD: There are probably ten in all. I am always looking for beautiful women to grace the cover of THROAT CULTURE MAG. Contact me at THROATCULTURE@aol.com or call me at 303-559-8141. One of my best friends and main THROAT CULTURE babe, Latifa, usually finds them for me at fine local strip clubs.

If you could choose on a national celebrity level for a THROAT CULTURE BABE, whom would you choose?

ROD: Brittany Spears, Pamela Anderson, Jeanna Jameson and Savanaah just to name a few.

Have you ever masturbated to any of the pictures you’ve taken?

ROD: Not actually looking at the pictures, but more the mental image afterwards. Sure.

Tell me about the THROAT CULTURE BABE VIDEO.

ROD: It sucks. But there are a lot of naked women in it. I’m not that great of an editor. But I’m gonna keep on putting them out and they are gonna get better and sicker. Contact me at the info above for details.

Cassie, do you feel it’s demeaning to women?

CASSIE: Absolutely not. I love the female body. All women should be proud of their body. As far as the images on the website…sex sells! (laughs) At the same time, I don’t think it’s tasteless. I think the pictures on our website are romantic.

Being you’re bi-sexual, do you want to get it on with any of the THROAT CULTURE BABES?

CASSIE: No, but maybe if I was single…(laughs)

BRIAN: I think as far as having sex as an image, it’s kind of in a cartoony way. We love women so…to us it’s with the utmost respect. Having a naked guy as part of your logo doesn’t really work.

Cassie do you feel you are viewed differently by the metal audience because you are a woman?

CASSIE: I don’t really give a shit. I don’t give a fuck because I’m down with the personalities of everyone in the band. They are awesome people. They are good friends. The whole “female” thing used to mean a lot to me but now I don’t really care. I love music so much. It comes from my heart. Especially heavy music, I always loved heavy music. I’ve always loved bass. If people are like, “wow they have a female bassist” I’m like, “fine, whatever tickles your ass” (laughter) But personally, I don’t give a shit.

BRIAN: It’s really cool. People sometimes come up to me and say “You play that sick-ass kind of music, and there’s a girl in the band?”(Laughter) They’re like, “she must think you all are sick fucking freaks” and I’m like, “she’s the worst one of all of us!” (Laughter around the room)

CHRIS: I think people emphasize on that whole issue because there aren’t a lot of female musicians. So they always have to point out the female. But it’s just how it is. We don’t see her as separate from the rest of us. We wouldn’t be us without her.

Do you think women are increasing their presence in metal?

CASSIE: I’m very disappointed at the number of girl musicians that are not out there. They go to Hardcore shows and they’re all getting into it or whatever, and they say, “Oh I love this, I wish I could play”. Well, fuck wishing, you know? Just fucking do it.

I have another question about THROAT CULTURE BABES. If you were to have male babes, and only had local metal bands to choose from, who do you think would make the grade?

BRIAN: Dave from Serberus, Chris from our band, Bill Terrell (laughs) Andy from Tread (more laughter))

CHRIS: Fucking, Gene from Bitter. Rod, he’s the John Holmes of the THROAT CULTURE babes (laugh) Realistically, as far as good looking guys, Chris from Blister 66 or Roman from Junker Jorg.

NICK: Dan from Anomy (everybody laughs)

ROD: Let me ask you the same question, What guy would you most like to see as a THROAT CULTURE babe?

Murray, from Drudgery.

(More laughter)

How did the THROAT CULTURE MAG come into being?

ROD: The truth is, ironically, I think I got the idea from Drudgery’s newsletter. I thought it would be cool to have a newsletter but what if we turned it into more of a magazine? The first THROAT CULTURE magazine was a piece of paper folded over, with an interview with Colemesis. We made like, 40 copies. Now we are up to 5000 copies with 68 pages.

Where would you like to see THROAT CULTURE mag go?

ROD: Worldwide. PIT magazine started out the same way. She’s almost all color. All glossy. 50,000 worldwide. I’d love to be PIT magazine someday.

What can you tell me about the new CD?

NICK: The name of the CD is “Le Fin Du Monde”. It means “The end of the world”.

Are you French?

NICK: No

I thought I heard an accent in your voice

NICK: I just talk weird (laughter) We’ve been working on the new CD forever. Most bands rush into the studio, they pay mass amounts of money, and they do it in 3 or 4 days. That’s the normal way to do your CD. We have spread it out. The guys at…. Studios are really cool guys. Very laid back. We’ve been laid back about this thing, which can be a bad thing. But we wanted to take our time. The new CD is almost 180 degrees different than the first CD. People can expect way different stuff. I think it’s gonna blow people away.

BRIAN: We really decided to make this CD a solid art kind of project. I think everyone was kind of disappointed with the last one. It didn’t come out the way we wanted. We decided we were really gonna try and go up to the next level with this one. Even some of the new songs that people have heard us play live are gonna be different on this. The reason we’ve taken so long is that none of us want to regret anything. We didn’t want money or time to be a constraint.

ROD: Just listening to one of songs (On the new CD) is better than the entire first CD. The first CD was an experience for us since none of us have ever been in the studio before. Except for Nick. He had been in a studio before. With this one, we are a little more relaxed. We have a little more time to do it. I wasn’t as stressed out as I was on the first one.

CHRIS: Basically I think it captures us. The first CD was a little more scrambled. There were parts where Nick wasn’t even on it. Brian wasn’t in the band. We recorded it in two different places. This one is a whole lot more cohesive and complete.

CASSIE: I really want this CD to be the best it can be. I was very disappointed in the first one. I know it could have been 20 times better.

BRIAN: We want to blow the pants off everyone with this CD. Even our friends that have seen us a million times. And also showcase a lot of people that really deserve some accolades that don’t really get ‘em. Like Eye Studios. Matt and Todd are great guys. We want to show the local scene that there really is something here if they just give it a chance.

Speaking of the local scene, what do you think of it?

CASSIE: The whole Hardcore and Metal scene bashing each other really pisses me off. I remember this guy who was posting in the Colorado Heavy Metal e-group. He was bashing everybody and in return, everybody was bashing him. I respect everybody’s opinion but it’s such bullshit to me. You’re always gonna have an asshole in every kind of group. No matter what kind of music, you’re always gonna have some piece of shit, or someone who’s trying to upset someone for the fun of it. I love Hardcore music. I go to a lot of Hardcore shows, as many as possible. And it’s sad that there is still this kind of division here. In the East Coast there is much more unity. There is the kind of camaraderie that we don’t have here. People getting all ugly because of one kind of music being better than another, fuck that. That just gets me upset.

BRIAN: I hear a lot of people say, “Denver Sucks”. That is why it’s gonna suck. If nobody has any faith in it. If nobody wants to work for anything. Some people decide it’s not L.A. and they can’t do anything. So why even try? I think that’s kind of bullshit.

NICK: As you move up the ladder you discover who your true friends are. Russ, formerly of NIPP, is awesome. He has helped us so much. He is just a really cool guy and we consider him a true friend.

ROD: I’ve lived past my expectations of this band. Now I have greater expectations. I want to thank all the people on the local scene that have supported us. Bill from Rogue. And Russ. NIPP, definitely. They’ve helped us out the most.

CHRIS: We’re real appreciative of all the fans that come to our shows, that have given us killer compliments and made us feel as if we are doing something worthwhile. Russ is incredible. He helped us bring the local scene to the level it’s at. All the bands that have been with us since the beginning. You know who you are. We never thought we would be where we are right now. We never thought we would have a glossy magazine. We never thought we would be playing at the Ogden. Having Played with Type O Negative and Anthrax just blows are minds. We just got to keep going, living the dream, and hopefully make a living at it.

Final question for the guys. Is it a compliment when a girl gags because your wee wee is too big?

BRIAN: Well, I suppose if they gag. I think I’ve had that. It’s kind of a compliment. They’re going for it! (Laughs) And If they gag and keep going…they’re are a trooper (laughs)

CHRIS: Sometimes (when it’s happened to me) I thought it was like a sex blooper. Like, “did I shove too hard”? (Laughs).

ROD: A girl never gagged on me before, so I don’t know.

NICK: When they gag…it rocks! (Laughter)