You want to make music because you don't what to get insane? Is that what pops in your mind when you're waking up early?

KB: Yeah. Basically, we have totally different drives to make music. I am kind of an over-achiever. I can never get enough. I wanna keep doing things. And once I reached a goal, I want to reach a higher level. I am not satisfied, I want more, more, more... Keep doing stuff, keep going to places and keep trying to get stuff. I don't know why, but it's just like an addiction. And if I don't get what I want, I'll get very depressed. I think I suck; I think I am ugly and stupid. I hit myself in the head, I have bad dreams and when I wake up, I am really upset. So that's why I have to keep getting things. To feel that I am a real person doing real things. Because I am terribly empty inside myself.
BB: Is getting things, making music?
KB: Making music is some kind of distress-reliever. I kinda feel like that the whole music industry is just support for the mentally ill. 'Public service Announcement: you're a rock star, you must have a horrific life! Let's give you a lot of attention and maybe we can make you feel better!' I don't know if that's true, but anyway...
BB: I don't think about it very much at all. I just make it because I feel I want to make it! I don't really like attention that much.
KB: Yes, you love it! (laughing) I am more directly in wanting to get things. You're more kind of: "This is cool, I like this".
BB: There's the fact that I need to do it, so I do it. And whatever comes because of doing it, it's like beside the point. But sometimes it's fun.
KB: But when you make your music, you're not strategizing how to get more? You are not playing the game?
BB: No.
KB: And I am.
BB: You are?
KB: Yeah. The game to get more. Which include plastic surgery. (laughing). Or sleeping with our producer. But you don't do that. It's gonna come between us. All the money, drugs and sluts... (laughing).

You don't need to sleep with your producer anyway, because you produce your music by yourself.

KB: Ah, I forget that! He's masturbating... That's true. But we need record-label-owners and distributors. We need politicians and drug dealers...
BB: Fashion designers and journalists.
KB: That's one way to get more. Works for other girls. (laughing)

What do you think about the fact that everyone can do and produce music by himself? Almost everyone can buy a laptop and produce beats on it nowadays.

BB: I think it's good. The more accessibility to whatever kind of music-making people wanna do is always a good thing. And if there's more crap, then there's also more good stuff. Everybody should have a chance to do it if they wanna do it - especially girls.
KB: People couldn't afford a laptop for awhile, many people can't still afford it. But tons of people can because the computers are coming down on price. That's good ´cause more people can learn how to make music and produce if they want to do it. More people can try and do their thing - that's awesome! Everyone should do his thing.

Don't you think that there will be a lot of ego-trips?

KB: It's just the same situation as owning an electric guitar. Lots of people have electric guitars and they are sitting in their bedroom and that's fine. Lots of people have this awesome distortion pedal, the coolest drum kit, the hottest double-headed bass...
BB: And the Dr. Sampler.
KB: And their cool clothes, perfect bodies, good drugs (laughter)... It doesn't matter. There will be more ego-trips as there will always be ego-trips. When it comes down to us, it's what you have not at all. The best musician can make really good music on shitty gear.

Let's talk about Kevin Blectum's future projects.

KB: I have a solo record coming out on Chicks On Speed Records which includes pop songs only. And there's a solo EP of pop songs coming out on Tigerbeat6 Records. In the future I wanna do more with lots of artists. I worked on some songs with Wobbly - he's on Tigerbeat6 now. Wobbly is one guy from San Francisco and he does lots of different stuff. But that record which is coming out is stuffy samples from mainstream-hip hop-radio in America, really cut-up and tight. He's changing between 200 different songs in two measures. He messes up all the words like 'fuck', 'shit', so all these rap songs say different things than they use to say. I am working with Anticon on their tour, more with Blevin and other collaborations...

You have a lot of records coming out soon...

KB: I guess so, it doesn't feel like it.
BB: I just talked to somebody home today and he said that he fined up my solo thing that's coming out on Deluxe Records - That's been in works for a long time. That will be out April 30th. And we have the live thing that will be coming out in April, Kristin's solo stuff on Tigerbeat6 and Chicks On Speed. What about those other two new albums?
KB: We have a new Blectum From Blechdom-album that we're not done with yet.
BB: Maybe at the end of the summer.
KB: We use a lot of the live stuff from this tour to make the next record.
BB: We try to record the shows, take that home, add it and make a record out of it. We loaded it down to little pieces.

Do you think you will perform songs with Anticon on the tour?

KB: Maybe. We have talked about all singing together but it hasn't happened yet. So we'll see. I don't know if they have ever sung with a girl, but that's a dumb thing to say... I can't force it to happen, so we'll see if it happens.

Are there any comparisons or differences between the audience in America and Europe?

BB: Yeah, I guess so. Playing in San Francisco is now like performing in front of people we know. People come out and they sort of know what to expect. Sometimes we still open for different bands and it has a different kind of audience. It's still confusing sometimes. We get really confused audiences. But most of the time when we play in San Francisco, people know what to expect. People are there and wanna hear what we're doing. We haven't played in other cities in the states for awhile. I guess we played in Portland and Seattle with Electric Birds and Lesser. That was good but it seems that there's more interest and knowledgeableness in Europe and this is the first time that we've played clubs rather than festivals. It's more enthusiastic, with better sound.
KB: The audience is definitely more knowledgeable in Europe. They're used to electronic music. Audience here have seen electronic shows for years. In America we can still go to a town and people would still be like: 'I didn't know you could play a computer on stage'. It's not uncommon. There's lots of rock'n'roll in America. If you look at a town in Europe, more of these kids are interested in finding new stuff. And in general, the government supports art more. It seems like people can get money to do projects if they have ideas. And in the States it's not even an option. You can go to college and get into lot of debt and have time to work on your art. But otherwise you're screwed. I think a lot of kids are not even looking for new music in America. They settle for whatever they hear on MTV or the radio. It's not even an issue. I think there's more curiosity about weirder, more different stuff in Europe.

So it is really hard for you to live off music. Can you live off music?

BB: We know some people who are managing to do it now. It takes some effort and it's a little bit expensive in the Bay Area, too. But if you have debt, then it's hard. I try to get rid of that and then I can try to just do music. Most of us work 9-to-5 most of the time. Getting grants and stuff like that is not just really peaceable. I don't think we are that interested in going the path of getting grants. We would have to write a lot about our music and would have to justify what we are doing. In some way I'd rather work 9-to-5 than have to justify what I am doing musically all the time. The working 9-to-5 is separate from making music: I am doing this because I need money and then I am doing music because I like doing music. Like that, not all the pressure is on music, like if it would b when it's you job. I hope that some day I have more time to spend just doing music.
KB: You are killing yourself, you're working two jobs!
BB: I am working two jobs and I am still alive!

The language you use (see also the Blectionary on blectum.com) reminds me of "Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. You also often talk about toys and animals.

KB: I hadn't thought about that. Actually, I was really into that book when I was in the 8th grade and I totally forgot that. He has a glossary in the back with the new words that he made up. Totally, that's cool! Yeah, I like that book a lot and the movie's great, too!
BB: The characters are like our friendship. Musically we have ideas that go back and forth. The art and the characters - the Snauses and Mallards, Mary Kate and Ashley - are another extension of our friendship. It's like 'I have this idea about this Snaus, you have the idea about the Mallard' and we put them together. And then they perpetuate themselves which is like a discussion. I think that's the main difference between Blectum and the solo-projects. We're both doing pretty much the same thing but the difference is that Blectum From Blechdom is the dialogue between two people instead of one person, sort of looking at themselves. It's like the world's colliding instead of just turning by itself.

Bands like Chicks On Speed, Peaches or you are dealing with a lot of feminism by using anti-feminism (playing with words like sex, tits, etc.).

BB: It's different from the Riot Grrrls-movement. I don't think we are over-politically, we don't have a slogan in our song like 'Come on girls, you do this!' We're just doing our personal world. I guess that's feminism by default because it's girls that are doing something.
KB: Yeah, I don't think we are fighting for something. We're just struggling as people and that just comes out in the music. We're faced with this feminist issues so we deal with them. But we're not thinking: 'Oh, we're gonna have a band and it's gonna be a movement that inspire this girls to destroy these boys.' We're just on a daily basis dealing with sexist assholes. So therefore you can hear a little bit of anger in our music because it's not always the most pleasant working environment.
BB: Yeah, that's true.
KB: But we like to think for ourselves as very independent from Chicks On Speed and Peaches for our own sanity. I think there' s a lot of differences to be drawn between those bands and what we are doing.
BB: You don't really want your genre to be 'all-girl' or 'girl-bands'.

I don't want to put you in that genre.

KB: It's also protective of our space. There's only a certain amount of space for female artists in this world. So I think it makes us more defensive about protecting our little 'girl-territory' because there are only three spaces for 'girl-bands' and we got one of them for a little bit. There's a lot 'girl-against-girl-cat-fighting'. Not really, but even between us it's like that. When I see girls on stage, I wanna put 'em to the test. I want them to do a good fucking job or they're out of the fucking window. Because they what they do reflects on you. If you're gonna be a girl and get on stage, don't fucking be like 'Oh, I am a little girl, oh'. That's not gonna happen and it's really annoying. I guess guys don't have to worry about that as much when they see other guys.