Joanna: State your name, and what you do in Denali.

Maura: I�m Maura Davis and I play guitar and sing.

Cameron: I�m Cameron and I play guitar.

Joanna: How long have you guys been a band for?

Cameron: A little over three years.

Joanna: Are you a full-time band? Or do you still have to have other jobs?

Cameron: Well, I worked about six days last month.

Joanna: (laughs) That�s tough!

Cameron: Yeah� Well we�re lucky enough to have the band pay for itself while we�re on tour, and we�re on tour a lot so it works out.

Joanna: A lot of the shows you play are with bands who don�t really sound like you guys. This Jade Tree showcase we�re at has a lot of hardcore bands on it, and you guys are kind of mellow and trippy sounding. When you play a show like this, is the crowd usually weirded out or receptive?

Maura: I think we have a lot of different types of fans, and that we can basically play with any band. I remember one time in Pittsburgh we played with a hardcore band who wore potato sacks on their heads. They were like this crazy fast hardcore band, and I was like� �how did we get on this show?�

Joanna: Did you have to throw anything on your heads to compete with them?

Maura: (laughs) No, we didn�t. We just played the way we�d normally play, and ignored the obvious differences between us and the other band, and everything worked out. The hardcore kids were actually really into us, and it was pretty cool.

Joanna: That�s good you were able to just be yourselves. Some people get so caught up in genres. The whole �indie� scene is supposed to be open minded, but people often tend to be kind of closed minded when it comes to music.

Cameron: Yeah, we definitely noticed that once we accepted the Deftones tour. People started voicing their opinions, being like, �you shouldn�t demean yourselves to that�� or whatever. Those people don�t understand that we didn�t start this band to fall into any category, be it indie rock or trip-hop or whatever. We just wanted to play music together and this is how it came out like, and we just happened to get signed to an indie label with a prescribed sound. We really like to play music, and we would play with anyone.

Joanna: People tend to forget that this is a scene based on liking music, not based on classifying music.

Maura: Yeah, I think next tour we should open for Michael Bolton or something.

Joanna: (laughs) Yeah, I think you could do it. Perhaps he will sign to Jade Tree. Um� yeah, enough about your music�. So uh� do you guys ever go to strip clubs while you're on tour?

(silence)

Maura: I think you�re talking to the wrong band.

Cameron: Yeah, we�re pretty dorky. We�re like in our hotel by 1am and we get up early.

Joanna: Really?

Cameron: Yeah. Unfortunately, no strip club adventures for this band. Well, not yet at least�

Joanna: There is still time, you have a big tour ahead of you!

Cameron: Yeah there is definitely still time. I mean, I hear all these crazy stories from other bands, I�m actually kind of intimidated.

Joanna: Hmmm�. Well do you own any pornography?

Cameron: I don�t actually. When I was like 10 years old I found some magazines at my grandparents' house of all places, but then my mom found them and threw them all away.

Joanna: Maura, what about you?

Maura: I don�t own any. I just recently watched that Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson video.

Joanna: Yeah� I definitely downloaded that once. I feel so bad because I�ve read about how much they hate that it�s floating around the Internet, but you can�t help but watch it anyways.

Maura: I know! I just had to see it. Just once.

Joanna: When I first started the website I got a lot of weird sort of hate mail, particularly from girls who were offended that me, a woman, was contributing to something so degrading to other women. Do you think that�s true?

Maura: No, I�m not offended by you.

Joanna: (laughs) OK, good. Are you offended by pornography at all?

Maura: (silence) You know, I never really gave pornography much thought.

Joanna: Well, now is the time to do it.

Cameron: Wow. No one told us we were going to be asked these kinds of questions. I feel pretty unprepared.

Maura: The other night we met a dominatrix and I really had a lot of respect for her. She spoke about it so professionally and matter of factly and I thought that was really cool because I know that so many other people would think it�s so terrible and disgusting. I mean I wouldn�t want to do it myself�

Joanna: Are you sure? I think you would look quite nice in vinyl pants�

Maura: (laughs) Nah� but I really do have a lot of respect for anyone who has pride in what they do.

Cameron: I think there�s exploitation in any industry, no matter what it is.

Joanna: Speaking of exploitation, do you think you ever get objectified as the token girl in the band? I know the music scene is a fairly male-dominated scene.

Maura: Honestly, I haven�t really felt uncomfortable. If people are thinking anything weird, I guess I don�t really notice.

Cameron: We played with Fishbone this one time, and the drummer thought Maura was one of our girlfriends. He even made some snide comment about it as we were walking in. In any case, he definitely fell over himself apologizing after he saw her perform.

Joanna: That�s awesome. He probably felt so stupid.

Cameron: Yeah, I think he learned a lesson.

Joanna: So what are you guys working on now, as a band?

Cameron: We�re just touring a lot�

Joanna: Are you happy with being on Jade Tree?

Cameron: It�s bitter sweet. There�s a lot of advantages to being able to call our record label and being able to speak with the actual people who run it immediately, but there are also a lot of limitations in being on an indie label.

Joanna: Are you looking to sign to someone else?

Cameron: No, not right now. We just wanna go on tour and play to as many people as we can, and Jade Tree enables us to do that.

Joanna: OK, is there anything else you�d like to add?

Maura: You have inspired me to go out and buy some pornography!

Joanna: (laughs) Aww� thanks.