Exclusive @ Out.com: The queen of the damned

Photo: Kristofer Buckle

If you don't know Diamanda Galas -- and many people don't -- you'd think just by looking at her that she's some kind of Marilyn Manson meets Morticia Adams goth freakshow. You know -- the kind of chick who spends her days gargling the blood of snow-white virgins and her nights in an East Village dungeon punishing badly behaved pencil pushers with a cat o' nine tails fashioned from rusty Diet Pepsi cans.

And you'd kind of be right. Galas is interested in the darker elements -- death, decay, disease -- but as implements to examine society and culture and to try to understand where we stand at this particular moment in history and why.

I got the chance to speak with the classically trained pianist with a three and a half octave range a few weeks ago and I have to say that it was hands down my favorite interview that I have ever done. We chatted on the phone for nearly an hour and I was at turns terrified, mesmerized, shocked, and several times I laughed so hard that at the end I was left with a t-shirt covered in little patches of snot and tears.

The thing that I love the most about Diamanda is that in an era of growing complacency -- with AIDS on the rise and many people more concerned with who's going home on American Idol than who's going to be our next president -- she is a true activist. While you may not like everything she has to say -- or find some of her opinions a bit hard to swallow -- she's out there tirelessly campaigning to remind people that there are still fights to be fought, battles to be won, and if we aren't going to tackle them -- no one else will. She's an amazing walking, shrieking, singing, cackling wake up call. And she takes no prisoners, has no time for petty bullshit, and really could care less if someone dislikes her or what she has to say.

On top of all that, she effortlessly drops some of the best sound bites you'll ever read. Like calling Elton John a "horrible little midget corpse." Or this gem comparing Britney Spears' voice and the sound of the radioactive worms from the 70's sci-fi horror flick Squirm:

[The filmmakers] took these worms that they had and put them through electroshock. They’d put water on them and they shocked them -- and they got the sound of them. It’s horrifying. And they interfaced that with some really sleazy analog synthesizers. That’s what I think of when I hear Britney. I like Britney for all the wrong reasons -- I like her because there’s a total pedophilic worshipping station there but it sounds like radioactive worms!

Crank your speakers and check out the sweet sound of electrocuted worms here:

You can read the entire interview with Diamanda Galas -- including conversations on drag queens, American Idol, AIDS in America 25 years after the epidemic started, and more at Out.com.

-- NOAH MICHELSON

Comments

[Dylan]

Noah, you are my hero for posting this! I have been following Diamanda for years and love every interview I can get my hands on. Have you read the recent interview with her in Arthur magazine? It's full of furious, pithy and pro-queer tidbits. Here's the URL: http://www.diamandagalas.com/images/Arthur.pdf

[noah]

hey dylan -- thanks for the link. i'll check it out. there's another interview i found somewhere when doing research where diamanda talks about wishing that all the snooty upper west side women's little pooches would get carried off by rabid bats. god i love her.

[Martin]

^-^

M.