In November of last year I wrote a review of the Cliks then independently released album "Snakehouse". Much to my surprise, this month I received another copy of their CD through Warner Music, who recently picked up the album on their label.
The band is comprised of Lucas Silveira (guitar/vocals), Morgan Doctor (drums), Nina Martinez (guitar) and Jen Benton (bass). As you may recall, Silveira was born female, but now identifies as male. Silveira says the explosive CD "expresses everything about who I am, where I’ve come from and how this album came to be." We sat down with the foursome at Money Pennies last month to find out more about the band and their plans.
"This band is a little different than a lot of other bands out there...because of the issues that it can bring to light. The way that people are seeing things now is really different. I mean, transgendered is not a new thing, and queer is not a new thing, but the way the world is receiving it is new. So in a way, we’re cutting edge, and it’s really fun to be a part of that whole thing," said the group’s guitarist, Nina Martinez.
Bass player Jen Benton piped in, "I’m a session player – that’s what I do for a living. So music is always a priority for us. Our sexuality is so normalized in our lives. I think that’s what we bring to this project: completely normalizing everything and focusing more on the music. ...The response is that it becomes normal out there."
"It’s because we’re open about it. It’s not an issue, so it has that normalizing effect," adds Martinez. "We also don’t go through interviews saying ‘no comment’; we don’t avoid talking about that."
"It’s not like we go out on stage and say ‘Hi, we’re a queer band’, you know. We just play and we do music, and it just happens that we are queer," says Silveira. "If somebody asks, then we just go ‘yeah’ - we answer. It doesn’t become this big secret, it doesn’t overwhelm the music. We are who we are, and we are people just like everybody else."
Though they have kept the same collection of songs since their independent release, this re-released album has undergone some changes.
"It’s been remixed and remastered. There were a couple of backups added. It sounds so much bigger now and clearer. It was mastered by Howie Weinberg who worked with Nirvana on Nevermind, so the difference is pretty intense. The album that you reviewed before was the independent version, and now we have the newly tweaked, more financially backed major label, which we love completely," Silveira explained.
Silveira’s decision to identify as male has helped to distinguish the band, however the group sees it as an opportunity for society to observe just how much of a non-issue it becomes in the larger picture.
"We don’t use it to get attention, but it does get us attention because people are looking for a story. I went to South by Southwest and I happened to have an asthma attack on stage. Next thing you know, the story is about how many asthmatics are in the band. So then we become...an asthma band," recalls Silveira. "We’ve been really lucky. You know, we went into the music industry thinking we would get a lot of resistance and they’ve been more than open and really supportive of what we’re doing."
"I think it’s like going through customs. You know, there are people who just attract a lot of trouble, and there are people that don’t. We just go through customs and we’re like, we’re not the musicians you’re looking for," says Doctor. "There’s some bands that...it’s part of their thing, that’s how they want to get attention. But that’s now how we want to get attention."
Silveira and the rest of the group are very transparent when it comes to the issue of transgenderism. Their comfort in speaking about the topic is another way that they downplay taboo, break down assumptions, and help people to understand.
"I’ve done top surgery, that’s it. I don’t take testosterone because it will change my voice and I can’t take that chance. Unfortunately I’ve met too many trans guys who end up sounding a little froggy, and if they’re singers they actually lose the complete ability to sing. You can be trained back into it but, I’ve been working on this voice my entire life and I don’t feel like going there. So my main priority is my music, that’s the choice I’ve made. It’s also made me realize that having a beard and hair on my body, and maybe a couple more muscles doesn’t exactly make me more male or less male than anybody else. It’s who I identify with up here," Silveira points to his head.
"I have to be [comfortable] because when I first came out, it was like, either you do this or things go bad. It was kind of weird because my entire life I thought, especially as a musician, if I do this my career is in the shitters. Like, who the hell is going to want to sign a transgendered singer? And it was funny because as soon as I said I’m just going to be who I am and be happy for me and do what I need to do, that’s when everything just started happening. ...A lot of people were like ‘oh, this is a bit of a schtick that you have.’ No. You know, being transgendered is not a schtick, it’s who I decided to be. And yes it makes for a good story, but it has nothing to do with that, it has to do with the fact that I am who I am and that’s it."
The Cliks are currently playing as part of the True Colors Tour 2007, hosted by Margaret Cho and also featuring Cyndi Lauper, Rosie O’Donnell, The Gossip, and many more performers. For more information, visit their official band site on MySpace.com.