URB: What could possibly be going on at six o’clock in the evening?
Amanda Blank: I’m trying to see if I can apply fake eyelashes with my ten inch nails.
Someone’s going to lose an eye, huh?
Yes. I really would love to lose an eye, I really need to stop. I have like one eyelash that’s falling off.
You’d need a pirate eye patch or something.
I’ve been wearing like masquerade masks, lately. It looks bad, I’m a fuckin’ mess.
So what’s with the masquerade mask? Are you getting ready for Mardi Gras with MF Doom?
You know what? I had the idea right before Halloween. We did all these festival shows, and I got all excited to get dressed up, and get costumey, and I found all these really cool masquerade masks, and since then, I’ve been really into wearing them onstage. It was really random how I decided to do it.
Everything seems to be a sparkly crisscross of spandex and things Kris Kross would wear.
I was joking around at first and said, “Make me look like a tranny!” So I put on makeup, eyelashes, nails, and, like, all that kind of crap. I’m going to be the craziest person ever if I ever really make some money. I just have this fantasy of my whole body and face airbrushed like a zebra or tiger. I’m obsessed with weird costumes and face paint and stuff. So one day, if I have the resources, I will look real ridiculous, even more ridiculous than I look now.
Do you get excited thinking about award shows and having someone on the red carpet ask you what you’re wearing?I don’t know… I’m going to pull a Bjork, and wear the worst dress ever and everyone’s going to moan. A swan dress. I dunno. That seems so far out to me, I can’t even imagine anything like that happening. Going to those kinds of things. I would be more excited to dress up for the stage and things like that. I’ve never been to any sort of red carpet event. Well, I went once with my friend and we were laughing because we went to some like fancy T-Mobile party with DJ AM spinning. We were cracking up because we were right behind Nick Cannon, and you have to walk the red carpet to get into the party, and I’ve never been to anything like this in my life. And all the cameras were flashing, and we get there and it’s like “crickets.”
Anytime I see paparazzi, I try to act like I don’t want to be photographed or recognized. So, I put my hat down and walk fast. It doesn’t work because they don’t know who anybody is, just have someone run up in front of you, and say, “Amanda Blank is coming!” And then people start snapping photos. You need somebody to play your assistant.
Well, we were walking, right in front of the cameras, we stopped and posed for two seconds, and no one was taking pics of us! It’s so hard to imagine that ever actually being a reality. It’s just so not like that on the East Coast. Even if someone is somebody, nobody gives a fuck. It’s a whole ‘nother world. It’s so bizarre to me. LA is so beautiful, everybody’s so attractive and everything’s super nice. Everything is just so different there.
You just said that award shows seem so far away, yet you’ve gotten your share of press. Is that weird for you at this point?
It is really… I was like, “Really?” I’m really excited about being on a good label, and working on my record, and putting that out. Hopefully, it will do well. But, I don’t see it being bigger than anything than big on an indie level. I would rather have a career on the scale of somebody like Karen O. She’s a good example. She makes really good music with her band, and they can walk down the street without anyone bugging them. They’re not in tabloids. When you think of big superstar, you think of tabloid stars. Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and all these people that papparazi follow. That seems like too much, you know? You want to be able to function as a normal human being, and make music, make art, do whatever you want to do without people getting in your way. I feel bad for those people who can’t really live a normal life, but then you see somebody like Peaches, who’s a great artist and has a real serious following. She’s able to make records, and make money, and go on tour and people like her, and come to her shows, and buy her shit. But she’s still just a normal dude. You don’t see her at the MTV Awards, but she’s huge in my mind. She’ so normal. She can go to the corner store without makeup on. People that go to red carpet events can’t do that. I don’t ever see myself being like that.
Would that make you form a decision in a certain way? Say Jive calls and wants to make your Britney remix official. Does that give you pause?
I don’t know. That would be weird. When you think about, “Will my video ever be on MTV?” We just shot this video, me and Naeem [of Spank Rock] for that song “Loose.” The video is so fucking wild. I swear to God, if my mom ever sees it she might not talk to me for a while. Both of my parents. It’s like straight porn. They called me up and were like, “Just so you know, it’s a porn set.” So I get over there and there literally are three porn stars going at it. And, I mean, it was really funny, overtly over the top concept. It was really raunchy and crazy. And all I could think when I saw the rough cut of it, “Oh my God! This isn’t ever going to be on MTV!” YouTube won’t even have it.
Right, it would just be on YouPorn, and that’s it. Do you like being in front of the camera?
I always want to play dress up and have people take my photo ’cause I’m a total ham. You get people at your shows who get really excited, and it gets packed in the club when you perform, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s like, “Wow, people actually like this? They’re into this? Okay, awesome.” I’m glad people are into it. But it’s always a little mind-boggling that people actually care. Because you’re never looking to see if anybody ever gives a fuck. Until they do, and it’s like wow!
I’ve only seen you perform live once, it was a show with Spank Rock out here in LA at Safari Sam’s. There was that little buzz in the audience where people were like, “Is Amanda Blank going to be here?” Do you ever sense any of that anticipation? When “Bump” is playing and everybody’s wondering whether you’re going to come out for the second half.
I do, definitely. It’s kind of nerve wracking. I always think right before I go on, “I hope they don’t boo me.” I think the people who know me will be into it, but the people who don’t really know who I am or about Spank Rock, they see me come out… I’ve had people say to me before, “We thought you were a dancer.” But the people that do know, it’s definitely a good feeling when they get all hyped. “Oh, is Naeem going to come out?” I know sometimes people want Naeem there [when I perform]. I don’t always do shows with Naeem. Those are actually few and far between. It’s a good feeling, and it’s just a high because you’re like “Wow, these people are stoked.” And the music, you get really into it. In the beginning, [when Spank Rock] would do “Bump” [and I wasn't on the bill], they would stop after Naeem’s verse and it’d all just kinda stop. Naeem would tell me, “Dammit, Amanda! You’re fucking me up girl!” A couple times, as a joke, he would kind of rap it, pretending to be me. Or give the mic to some girl in the crowd. It’s cool that they sense the anticipation. It’s so weird because it’s so hard to know what people really think.
Have you ever been booed? You say you have that fear…
No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. That would be so heartbreaking. No, definitely not. But I always just wonder, you know? I think the chances of that happening are slim just because if you do go to a Spank Rock show, it’s not fully unexpected. [The fans] know this music more and more, and they know both of us. But, I think a lot of people have that fear in their head when they first start out. I’ve done shows where people at the club will have no idea who I am or what I do. You’re always wondering what people’s reaction is going to be. Especially in places like LA. I never know because I’m so far removed from what’s going on out there. In Philly, New York, Baltimore, it’s easier to gauge because I know the crowds better. I know the kids, I know the people, I know the kind of dudes that are coming to the show. Rather than going to somewhere where you’re never really there, and you don’t know what they’re going to think. I just crossed my fingers. But so far so good, I’m just trying to go with it.
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