Jucifer: the dynamic duo that has Athens rocking again

MICHAEL STIPE: First question: Charlotte Rampling or Brigitte Bardot?

AMBER VALENTINE: I don't know who Charlotte Rampling is.

MS: She's a movie star. OK, Brigitte Bardot or Jane Fonda? No, wait--what are Jucifer's influences, musical or otherwise?

AV: Ingrid Bergman. [laughs] [William] Faulkner. We like all different kinds of things, but most of what we like best we don't emulate at all. So it's kind of weird.

MS: Your album, I Name You Destroyer [Velocette Records], just came out this summer. What record have you guys played most in the past year?

AV: I listen to a lot of old cha-cha and tango records and hip-hop radio. I like Missy Elliott, Ludacris and Outkast-I got to see them when they played here [in Athens, Georgia] last summer, and it was one of the top 10 shows I've ever seen. And Blondie, that was a big influence on me because the first album I had as a kid was one of theirs, and it's something I've listened to my whole life. I totally thought Debbie Harry was the coolest person I'd ever seen.

MS: Blondie really had it together, that's for sure. OK, are you cat or dog people?

ED LIVENGOOD: Both. We take our dog on tour, but we have eight cats.

AV: We love all animals pretty much.

EL: We even have a possum. [laughs]

AV: I came on a baby possum nest one time in the woods when I was a kid and they were really cute because they were small. But whenever you see them on the road, they look kind of scary close-up. This one has a lot more fur than I thought it would have. I thought possums were kind of hairless. It's got little eyebrows and it's not very afraid of us.

MS: Well, that's good.

EL: I pet it with a broom.

MS: Let's talk about Athens. My gardener has a theory that because Athens is at the foothills of the Appalachian mountain range, it's sitting on top of the oldest exposed rock in North America. It does seem like there's a lot of good stuff that happens here. And people are drawn to this place, not just in Georgia or in the Southeast, but from everywhere.

AV: It has some sort of an image that people are really attracted to. I think some of it's from you guys and from the B-52's which I think is great because those two bands have little in common sonically, but much in common spiritually. I think the feeling that permeates that music is part of what lives in Athens.

MS: Are there any other bands from here right now that you guys find really exciting?

EL: Well, now more than ever, there's a steadily increasing number of good bands playing many different styles of music--whether it's rock or country or rap.

MS: Also, the guy that cloned the first cow lives here.

EL: Really?

MS: Yeah, a bunch of agricultural experts live here. It's easy in Athens to be fascinated by trees and nature and agriculture and stuff like that.

AV: Yeah, I mean it's so present: You drive for eight miles and you're seeing dairy cows or beef cows or horses. The thing about Athens is that none of the bands are really trying to do what is the trend; they're all trying to make something of their own.

MS: And are you still on the ketchup bottle that is used as a soap dispenser in the men's bathroom at the Clocked restaurant? [laughs]

AV: I don't know. I went in there once but I didn't use the restroom.

MS: You should check it out, because you were emblazoned on the ketchup bottle that's used as a soap dispenser in the men's bathroom.

AV: Someone told me they saw me on a mustard bottle in a restaurant in Indiana.

MS: Really?

AV: Yeah. [laughs]

MS: That's great. You've hit the big time!

AV: I just actually ordered those plastic souvenir cups with our new record title on them. It was great because they offered the cups in black with gold lettering, which looks pretty swank.

MS: That's kind of Jack Daniel's style.

EL: Yeah, totally. It is.

MS: Can I have one?

AV: If you're really lucky. We might even autograph it for you with a gold paint pen. [laughs]

MS: People are always saying that it's amazing how much sound comes out of the two of you; it sounds like much more than two people onstage.

AV: Well, we wanted to make music the way we heard it happening in our heads, and we discovered fairly quickly that that wasn't going to be possible with other people involved besides ourselves. So we had to figure out how to make it sound the way we thought it should. And I'm really happy with what we've come up with.

EL: Yeah, I wasn't going to be happy until I could feel it through my whole body.

AV: We have basically a stadium amp setup that we take to small clubs. [laughs]

EL: When we show up at a place, it's like the circus has come to town.

AV: We start bringing our equipment in and then we bring in a few more things and then we keep bringing things in [laughs] and people's jaws get lower and lower.

MS: Is it tough being a girl in a band these days or has it gotten easier?

AV: It's tough just because people worry about it more than they should. Like I don't really think of myself as a girl in a band. People try to force you into that position a lot. I've definitely experienced the soundman who won't talk to me because I'm female and he asks Ed and the roadie where my equipment's going to be and stuff like that.