AE: You don't see too many groups like you in the magazines...
Kaia: You look through any music magazine and there are all these dude rockers and they all pretty much look like the same, and if there’s girls, they’re pretty much femmey looking. And there’s a few people that don’t quite fit the norm, and then there’s us that really don’t fucking fit anywhere. We’re an anomaly and it’s rough. It makes for a really rough road. So what I’m trying to say is I really have no idea. This new label has been great to us; YepRoc has been wonderful to work with. And I don’t think that it’s had much of an effect on the sales of our record. I think it’s just tough for us, period. That’s the honest truth. It’s tough. We’ve all got our day jobs and we work hard at this.
Melissa: But I think there’s a way you can go about to use the internet to make money. For a band, I was just thinking, we were talking about getting people to go out and voting. It’s hard for people to go out and go to a rock show. It's like, people are just really apathetic. They want everything to be delivered to them. There’s NetFlix, there’s the internet, there’s TV, they don’t have to leave their house. Food can be delivered.

AE: Load their iPod up and download music.
Melissa: Exactly. And I think, let’s film our shows and let them watch them on the internet for free.
Kaia: And we’re thinking about getting naked too.

AE: Oh yeah, that would definitely do it. How do you guys feel about butch representation in the media?
All: What butch representation in the media? (laughs)
Kaia: I’m sorry, not on The L Word certainly.
Melissa: What do you mean?

AE: The lack thereof, the L Word situation.
Kaia: The media lets me down on so many levels, I don’t really hold it to any expectations of portraying anything as accurate or…I mean, it’s not really there. Other than k.d. lang slipping in there occasionally. Other than that, butches are portrayed as scary and sad and lonely…
Melissa: And ugly.
Kaia: …mean and ugly.
Melissa: And not fashionable. Unlike Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which are very fashionable men, but yet lesbians are seen as fanny packs and tie-dyed T-shirts, you know what I mean?
Kaia: Flannel.
Melissa: But you know there are a lot of butches out there that are pretty dapper. And they could definitely have their Queer Eye for the Straight Lady.
Kaia: Or whatever. Butch is totally sexy and it’s completely overlooked and misrepresented in the media. Everybody thinks that butches are men.
Melissa: And of course gay men have the fanny packs and tie dyes, but that’s not the stereotype as it is for lesbians.
Kaia: For men it's like, you hear this quote in so many movies or whatever where the women go, “All the good men are already taken or gay.” But you sure don’t hear that about the ladies! You don’t hear men saying “Oh god, all the good women are taken or lesbians.”
Melissa: They might be thinking it but not saying it. Or they’re like “Oooh lesbians, when can I have some?”
Kaia: How I feel about it is it's crappy or it’s not there.

AE: There is this parody show, it’s called Straight Eye for the Gay Guy, and I saw an episode on Comedy Central. It looked pretty funny. They basically took this gay guy and rehabbed him into this straight-acting guy that could go out and pick up women. So the gay guy goes into a store and it’s full of flannels and the loose-fitting jeans and stuff like that and he’s like, “Oh, I’m gonna dress like a lesbian?” And the straight guy says “Oh yeah, that’s one step closer.” And at first it was funny…
Melissa: That’s one step closer to being a straight guy, that’s hysterical!

AE: Yeah, that’s funny but it’s also really fucked up.
Kaia: Yeah, because it’s also saying it’s one step closer to…

AE: Bad taste.
Kaia: ...and objectifying women. Dumpy, ugly, yeah. I like my dumpy ugly self. I think flannel rules, flannels warm. Fuck them all. (laughs)
Melissa: Well yeah, but it’s the whole thing to that butches need to be misogynist.

AE: Or are guys, basically guys with tits.
Melissa: There are dykes that want to have that role and it’s depressing. It’s not nice to the ladies.

AE: But that’s not you guys.
Melissa: No.
Kaia: God no, we’re the Butch-ies, emphasis on the ees!
Melissa: That’s not all butches, not even most butches. That’s not the criteria to be a butch, to be misogynist as well.
Kaia: Butches are incredibly sexy and glamorous. They are underestimated and an under-acknowledged category of sex appeal. It’s time to let us in as a category of sex appeal. It would be really nice.

The Butchies of Durham, North Carolina are cruising the blue states of the West Coast. Go see their show or check out their website at thebutchies.com

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