AfterEllen.com: How did you get involved with Audio Fiction?
Mimi Ferraro: I’d been doing musical theater but that’s very different from doing rock music and I saw an ad in Backstage looking for a lead singer so I went and auditioned for them.

AE: Were you looking to do that?
MF: I was at that point because I was getting a little fed up with getting small roles in rock musicals. I wanted to do something where I had a more creative input and control and also something that would allow me to perform more often. With the band, I get to sing 14-song sets and we usually perform at least twice a month.

All of our musical styles are very different so what we come up with is a mixture of all of that. Some songs I write by myself and bring in to them, like “Impenetrable” and “Easy,” which is not on the CD, but most of the songs we write collaboratively.

AE: Is your music political?
MF: My own work is usually either very political or it’s about messed up romantic relationships or both. The rest of the band is not as political as I am, but the song “Tick Tock” is.

AE: Do you see your music and acting as separate things, or are they entwined?
MF: I’ve always wanted to do musicals and Broadway and where I seem to fit best within that is rock musicals, so I don’t see them as entirely separate. The band experience helps me with the rock musical stuff.

AE: What exactly is your role in the touring version of Rent?
MF: I was hired as a swing which means I’m offstage most of the time. I’m understudying five roles. The one that I’m most excited about is Maureen, who’s the slightly out there lesbian or bisexual performance artist activist. I’m also understudying Mimi, who’s pretty much the female lead although it’s an ensemble show. It’s challenging to keep the material fresh for myself but I’m also really enjoying getting to know a show this well and getting to know so many roles and aspects of it over time.

AE: Do you see yourself as an activist?
MF: I’m much less active in a big loud out there way than I used to be, it’s more that I’m living my life consistent with my ideals. In terms of Rent, it’s not an overtly political show but it has a lot of gay characters. It’s about artists living in the East Village in the late 80s/early 90s, dealing with HIV and gentrification and trying not to sell out and to be open about their sexuality.

When we see some of the kids after the show, we can tell that they’ve been deeply affected by it. There are a lot of gay kids who come to the stage door and want to talk to us. There are Rentheads who travel around and follow the show; they’re very deeply affected by it because they don’t get a lot of opportunities to see work like this so that to me is political in a very personal way.

In terms of my music, all my songs about messed up relationships are about girls. I certainly don’t hide it when I’m writing songs. It’s not a non-issue. It’s important to me to be out and how that comes across in my work varies. In terms of my acting, I think it’s affected the kind of work that I want to do, I’m sure that I was drawn to Rent in part because of that.

AE: Do you think that even though Rent is set in a very specific time and place that it’s universal to some extent?
MF: It is very specific in but it’s amazing to me how much is still relevant. There’s a song toward the end of the show called “What You Own” and the chorus goes “We’re living in America at the end of the millennium/you’re what you own” and obviously it’s not the end of the millennium anymore but everything else that song is about, such as commodification of emotions and materialism, is still very relevant. In fact, it’s just gotten worse.

AE: Is there anything you wish you’d known when you were starting out?
MF: I wish I’d known that what I perceive as my talent is not enough; you also have to come across s likeable and energetic. You have to put you whole personality in to whatever you’re doing. I’m very reserved as a person generally and I had to learn to bring forth the more “out there” parts of me when I go on auditions.

AE: Do you care if some of your audience knows that you’re a lesbian and some doesn’t?
MF: Not really. The people who know me will know; random people off the street may not know, I’m not gonna go up and introduce myself and tell them that, but it’s not anything I’m ever gonna hide.

Visit audiofictionband.com and rentthetour.com for more information