Mad At the World Non-Conformist

It takes nerve to just have a conversation with Otep. Her personality doesn't quite fit her pretty face. She's the type of seen-it-all, lived-it-all kind of woman you would expect to find at the end of a bar demanding another shot.

Her band, also named Otep, plays tonight at the Continental with contemporaries Kittie and Crisis, who are also known for being female-fronted groups in a male-dominated genre.

"I grew up in Rainbow and Sunshine Town. Yea, it's right outside of Lollipop Land," she said sarcastically.

She's had a rough life.

"I was homeless for a while," she said, hesitant to delve into the matter.

She grew up with violence and solitude and has given testament to this in her confessional recordings. On the first track of her second album, "Servas Tra," a spoken word track, she says, "I turned over/ And there he was/ Holding a pillow/ He smelled of sweat and regret/ And he said 'shhh.'"

Otep has used her struggles to create, pulling from her experiences with abuse and periods in life without a permanent residence. Her performance is based on primitive religious experience pieced together with lucid allusions to violence.

These rather "unladylike" activities have somewhat confused her family, she says.

"They appreciate what I'm doing, but they don't fully understand it."

The band's first big break came when Sharon Osbourne offered them a third-stage spot at Ozzfest. Capital Records subsequently signed the band based solely on their live performance, since they did not even have a demo to offer.

It must be stressed that Otep is not a typical mad-at-the-world non-conformist. She's well-read and insists that she is happy and appreciative of her success. This seems contrary to her sentiments in the song "Buried Alive," in which she sings, "I'll forfeit resurrection to escape the pain/ I hate my life."

"If you want to hear songs about puppies and sunshine you can go listen to the 30,000 bands that keep producing songs that sound like other songs," she said. "But if you want to open your mind you should give us a shot."

With her new album, Otep has branched out from her recurring themes of depression and anger, though they are still quite present. She has added political vehemence to her repertoire and adamantly expresses her political outlook in songs like "Warhead" in which she screams, "He lied/ They died/ Keep the peasants terrified."

"The Bush administration is perpetuating the propaganda that everything is perfect in America," said Otep. "He's probably one of the worst presidents we have ever had. He's actually losing jobs the longer he's in office."

But Otep isn't here to preach. She wants only to push people to be active participants in democracy; she wants people to care.

"It is a sin for a guy to act so tough when he wouldn't even fight for this country when he was called to defend it," she said.

Otep presents herself as the antithesis to the generic image of a rock star, as she uses references to Dante's "Inferno," and other scholarly works during the course of an interview.

Her hostility comes across in interview as many questions are answered with sarcasm and impatience. With an artist who isn't driving an SUV with rims that could buy a few sweatshop children back from Nike, its nice to hear her say things like, "It's OK to make a living as long as your sole purpose isn't to make money."

"The students should check out our Web site, www.otep.com, because we have sections dedicated to fan art and poetry and even if dark metal isn't your thing you should know there's still power in truth and depression."