Tairrie B Interview on Manhole & Tura Satana
My Ruin Singer Tairrie B on Former Rap Metal Band Manhole
Suite 101: How did the formation of Manhole come about?
Tairrie: "Things were getting crazy and after the record (Tairrie's solo rap album Power Of A Woman) came out I wasn't in love with a lot of what I was doing. It wasn't really a place I wanted to be and one day I went to a thing in LA called the Foundation Forum. I was with my boyfriend of the time who played in a rock band and all of a sudden Ice T got up with Body Count. I knew Ice from the rap world but he got up with Body Count and I could not even believe it. I was like: 'what the hell is this?' and I sat there just mesmerised, watching the whole thing and thinking, this is what I need to be doing. I loved rap but I loved rock 'n' roll as well and I thought this Body Count thing was scarier than Ice T. I loved it and the next day or soon after that I dyed my blonde hair black, it was literally an overnight thing. I had recorded my second record, I wan't happy with that, I wasn't really feeling a lot of things."
The Formation of Manhole
Tairrie: "Everybody said I was out of my ****ing mind . They said 'you don't know anything about being in a band' and my boyfriend and all my friends were like: 'what, you're gonna be in a metal band now?'. And I did it. I found the band, I put it together, I had no clue what I was doing. I started writing a lot of lyrics about political issues and women's issues and that's how Manhole was born. I wanted a name which would be kind of scary and make people wonder about the connotation of it. People thought it was a sexual thing but it wasn't. It was about Manhole: what's underneath there, what's beneath? Look into the depths, look beyond the cover and find out what's really going on under there.”
From Manhole to Tura Satana
Suite 101: It must have been hard when you had to change the name..?
Tairrie: “It was horrible. It was one of the most tragic days of my life when we were forced to change our name because some band from Texas owned the rights to that name. We actually offered them a lot of money to keep the name because we were known with that name all over the world. We'd toured all over the world, played with tons of bands, played all the festivals. We had videos out and everybody knew that. I felt Manhole was a groundbreaking band and I felt that, while I wasn't one of the first women in rock, I was definitely one of the first women to be doing what I was doing at that time. I thought the name was very important and I tried to fight for it. And the funny thing is, after we were forced to change the name, the other band broke up. It was heartbreaking and horrible.”
Manhole/Tura Satana Album All Is Not Well
Suite 101: How do you think All Is Not Well stands up today?
Tairrie: “I think it stands up great. I listened to it a few weeks ago – I played it to somebody and they said how it reminded them of bands that are out there right now, trying to copy that style. I think it's an interesting record because for me I've grown so much as a vocalist and a lyricist. I was aggressive and my style was a little more rap-metal I would say, along the lines of bands like Downset and Snot. One of the greatest things about the Manhole record for me personally was the fact that there's this duet on there with (former Snot vocalist) Lynn Strait, who is no longer still alive."
The Politics of Manhole
Tairrie: "At that point in my life I was working for Rock For Choice, working for a lot of women's rights issues and I was talking about domestic violence and rape and so many things that were really important in my life that I wanted to get out there. I'd been through an abusive relationship and these things were relevant to my own life because I'd been through this very long, crazy relationship that started when I was a rapper. I love that record still.”
Click here for more from Tairrie on the new My Ruin live album or here for an interview on spoken word project The LVRS.
All Is Not Well album cover
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Tairrie B with My Ruin
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