Who is Dr T?
Dr T, essentially, is the performer side of myself who got involved with the Faderhead project.
Is there a big difference between your performer side and your personal side?
Not really, no. Although, I think my “performer side” is a lot more open about her body than my “personal side” is. You wouldn't
catch me running around in hot pants in the supermarket, for instance! But the Dr T or the performing artist that people see onstage
is not so different from the Tryste you'd catch on a dancefloor or at a bar in a nightclub. Although the focus of my activity changes
and I might present myself a little different, the core of my person – my tastes, values and ideas about the world – stays the same,
and ultimately I don't pretend to be someone else.
You moved from the USA to Germany, why did you do it and was it hard to leave everything behind?
I didn't move directly from the States to Germany, my path took me to the UK first. I left the US in 1998 to study at a university in the
UK. It wasn't hard to leave at all since I wasn't terribly attached to my family at the time and I was eager to get out and see the world.
I took my first trip to Germany in the winter of 1999 to visit a good friend of mine from high school, but it was my graduate studies that
eventually led me to live in Hamburg.
What do you miss most of the USA?
My family, close friends and the mountains and forests of my home state. Also real customer service, good Mexican food and
economy-sized bottles of hair conditioner!
You are multi-talented, a dancer, model, musician and dj? When did you discover you had all these qualities?
I started making music fairly early on, learning piano and clarinet when I was a child. Later I started singing for a “garage band” when I
was in high school. I didn't learn to DJ until I was in my first year of university, and didn't start dancing on a professional basis until 2002,
when I began working as a cage dancer at the Return of the Living Dead party here in Hamburg. I started modelling at a photographer friend's request after moving back to Hamburg in 2005
What of the above do you like to do the most?
Dancing, by far. It's my favourite way to both explore and express myself and my love of music.
At what point did dancing really become a passion, why did you get so passionate about dancing?
Dancing has always been a passion of mine, actually. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to get into dance performance.
I was one of these little girls who wanted to be a ballerina. Or a figure-skater. Or Madonna, since those were the Material Girl days
and she always wore that tutu, like a ballerina. I used to go to JC Penney's with my mother and linger around the tutus while she was
shopping for lingerie. As a child I desperately wanted to take dance lessons but my mother couldn't afford them, and every year I asked
my grandfather to pay for me to learn to dance. He wanted me to learn piano, but each year I stubbornly refused to take piano lessons
because I was dead-set on learning dance. But apart from 8 weeks of beginner ballet lessons as a child (which my mother was
miraculously able to arrange at one point), I had no dance training. Incidentally, I never properly learned piano either. What I know of piano
I simply picked up from living with three piano players and having a piano in the house. In any case, I only really began dancing once I was
an adult and began going out to goth and rock clubs in Europe. Back in the States, as a teenager, there was very little opportunity to go out
dancing. You had to be over 21 to get into the venues.
Once I did start dancing in clubs, I knew I'd found my calling. One of my greatest pleasures in life now is truly being able to give myself over
to my body and a song on a dancefloor, punctuating rhythms and tracing melodies or lyrics with hand, foot, hips, shoulders and spine. To
me, there's something inexpressibly satisfying about synchronising my body's movements with a song that is meaningful to me.
You joined Faderhead on keyboards, how did this happen?
Faderhead and I met a few years ago here in Hamburg and gradually became quite good friends. When he first asked me to join the band,
I wasn't able to due to my studies and other commitments. Fortunately I got a second chance, after things didn't work out with his first
keyboard player.
How did the first concerts go, where you nervous?
I was actually extremely nervous, yes! The fact that we had to rush so much before the first show in Leiden was especially nerve-wracking – minutes before showtime I was still styling Sami's hair backstage, juggling hairspray and straightening irons with Kit-Kats and vodka
(because we'd not had time for dinner and I had to eat something before going onstage!)
Is Faderhead singing about you in the track Dirtygrrls/Dirtybois?
No.
What do you do to calm the nerves?
Either before a performance or just in general, I find that the best thing to do is distract myself by doing something physical. If I need to
calm myself down before a show, I'll jump around backstage to some music. If I'm just generally on edge, I'll hit the gym, go to a park with
my poi and a stereo or hop on my bike and cycle around town.
You also joined The Cyberchrist Project. What is your role in this project?
At the moment I am involved to a certain extent in music production, but my main role in the project will be live performance. I'll be playing
keys and performing parts of the choreography.
Has The Cyberchrist Project already performed live? What can we expect from a live show?
No, TCCP has yet to perform live, since at the moment we're still focused on getting more music recorded. We've got a few tracks
committed to disc already – one has been released recently on Extreme Sündenfall Vol. 5 – but obviously we need more before we hit
the stage! Without wanting to give anything away about the planned performance, suffice it to say it should be extraordinary! The band
is in collaboration with several designers and artists to make sure that we put together a show to remember.
Do you have any time for yourself? How do you like to spend this rare time?
I'm an extremely social person, so most of the free time I have I share with other people. I love my friends dearly so I try to make as much
time for them as possible! I'm also an extremely active person, so when I'm not working on my studies or performing, I'm generally out
dancing, playing with poi and firetoys, working out at the gym (where I am the skipping rope demoness!), or cycling around Hamburg. I also
enjoy doing boxing, kick-boxing and yoga whenever I can. In my downtime I like to read, watch films or some of my favourite TV series, or
check out stand-up comedy. I'm a huge fan of Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Dylan Moran, Chris Rock, and recently Russell Peters. Their jokes
and philosophies have quite literally become part of me - the quoting never ends! And then there's the “born-again” domestic side of me that
has a growing obsession with hand-crafts. No further details or I'll lose all my credibility in the scene. ;-)
What is your favourite quote today?
Although I don't agree with the sentiment contained in it, I love this joke from Dylan Moran (from the Like, Totally DVD):
“But this idea of the good life being elsewhere does possess people – and I suppose a lot of people now because Europe is freed up and
everything – people move within Germany, er, within Europe rather. I mean, I said Germany, but I meant Europe. I don't know why I said
Germany, but loads of people did go to Germany, actually. Recently, for the World Cup. Lot of English people went over to make uninformed, prejudicial remarks about German people and Germany. Totally ignorant and bigoted. Know nothing about it, but they feel free to insult it.
Because they're English and they're bigoted. And because Germany is a toilet. A truly dreadful place! Nobody ever has any reason to go there,
it is a totally dreadful place. And that's just the way it is because if you're talking to a, you know, a modern ... I went there! On the same
weekend I went to Australia and California and it's a, you see, the thing is, you're talking to a modern, nice, affable German person, and
they're saying to you something like, 'You know, vell, it's a critical time now for Germany within Europe, also globally. Economically we're
pretty good, we have been better, but, ah, we're very vibrant in the theatre and arts and so on.' All the time you're listening to this, you're
thinking, 'Mmm! Mm! Mm-hmm! Yeah, yeah – Hitler, Hitler, Hitler, Hitler, Hitler ... There was a Hitler when you did that Hitler thing with Hitler!
Hmm, yeah ... Hitler Hitler boom! Hitler Hitler Hitler Hitler Hitler!' And the people look like pork, you can't get away from that, they do. They look
like pork scratchings on a towel, and you can't eat the food because you would have to complain about it and that would mean speaking German.
It's a disgusting language, nobody should ever speak it. Even Hitler was vegetarian, that's how bad the food is. And you couldn't speak German because it's a horrible sound, it sounds like typewriters eating tinfoil being kicked down a stairs. Somebody is talking to you in German, they're
saying 'HackaliekielahachaloHAAAAch' and you're thinking 'What is happening to you from behind and how can we make it stop? Please go
away.' Now that's not prejudice, that's just observation.”
Surprisingly enough, my German friends love the joke too!
If you could organise a festival who would playing there?
I'm assuming you also mean that the budget would also not be an issue! Top of the list would definitely have to be Tool. They never cease to
amaze me and I simply have not seen them live often enough! If we could get Tori Amos to headline as well and somehow convince her and Maynard to do “Muhammed My Friend” together again, that'd be brilliant. I'd love to get The Killers in there because I adore them and still have
not managed to see them live! I'd have to get IAmX, Lamb and The Faint on the bill too. To cover the dark electronic range, I'd need Gridlock, Noisuf-X, Dismantled, Skinny Puppy (and/or ohGr), Soman and Die Form, plus VNV Nation, Northborne, Iszoloscope, XP8, Agonoize, Tactical
Sekt, Zombie Girl, Aesthetic Perfection, Grendel, Reaper, Kloq, XPQ-21, Nerve Filter, KiEw and/or 13th Monkey, Modulate, Diorama, Frozen
Plasma, klangstabil, Caustic, the Genitorturers and The Gothsicles because they're great musicians as well as friends of mine and I wouldn't
want to party without them! And of course I also couldn't put together a festival without Andy LaPlegua and the gang for the same reason, so
either Combichrist or Panzer AG would have to play. And just as a special treat for Andy, Johnny Cash should be there too!
I would also want to arrange some top DJs, dancers, fire- and burlesque performers for the after-concert parties at the end of the night.
As a DJ, what are your top 10 tracks to play to make a crowd go wild?
The DJing career has been put on hold for the moment so that I have more time to devote to other things. But since you ask, some of my
personal favourite ten tracks at the moment though are:
Klangstabil: Push Yourself
Combichrist: In the Pit
Skinny Puppy: daL
Noisuf-X: Geh zur Hölle
Zombie Girl: Go Zombie
IAmX: The Negative Sex
Kloq: Push It
Northborne: I'd Fuck Me
Scandy: Crush on a Robot
Client: Drive (Radio Edit by Thomas Gold)
What are your dreams for the future?
I've got several. I think it would be very cool to go on a US tour with Combichrist, for instance.
If you could ask one thing from a fortune teller, what would you ask?
Darn, only one question? Hmm ... how about: will Faderhead ever go on a US tour with Combichrist?
What is your strangest addiction?
It all depends on your definition of strange, I suppose! But I think most people would agree that I'm completely yarn-dependent and that I
need help and should probably join a support group. Is there a Knitter's Anonymous?
Any last words for the readers?
Of course - support Faderhead! :-)