By J.R. Taylor --Playboy Magazine--rouze.com
July 2000
Venus better known to her parents as
Steven Grandell arrives to an interview wearing a
tight corset, elaborate eyeliner and a necklace made of
nipple-clamps. In other words, she's standard issue as a
glamorous goth gal. The band she fronts, however, is genuinely
talented. All the Pretty Horses has a unique sense of melody
amongst all their dramatic darkness, as heard on the band's latest
release Ruin (available, of course, through PrettyHorses.net).
The Minneapolis act might still have
to wait for a big goth-glam revival. That said, Venus has an
instant core audience courtesy of her transgender
status. All the Pretty Horses is one of those acts you can often
find onstage at assorted fetish events. Shortly before
playing a show hosted by NYC's own Mistress Formika, Venus sat
down with ROUZE to discuss her strange niche market.
ROUZE: What's it like to get your band
booked because you're a transsexual?
Venus: Well, it's interesting.
Transgendered people have always been around but not quite so
much in the in the fetish community,
I was once invited to model for a fetish event, but they
couldn't clothe me, because the fetish designers only
wanted biological men in the men's
clothes, and biological women in the women's clothes. So it
can still be a bit of a challenge.
ROUZE: It has to eventually get old
playing to folks in fetish clothing.
Venus: Sometimes, yeah. We did a festival,
I suppose I shouldn't say where, on one of our
tours, and something I found very
interesting was that there wasn't necessarily an audience.
Everyone was a performer, and they weren't
necessarily all that interested in watching a band.
They want everyone watching themselves.
ROUZE: Do you ever worry about being just
another transsexual fronting a rock band?
Venus: I don't think so. I know that there
are a number of them, but often the trans people are
not quite as aggressive as we are with our
music. The metal sound is very different than what
they're expecting.
ROUZE: What's your personal take on the
fetish scene?
Venus: I'm a performer. I love to be on
stage. And I love fashion and costumes, so I enjoy that
aspect. But I do get a little tired of
everybody not paying attention to anyone besides their own
little groups. We throw our own fetish
shows in Minneapolis, and we encourage people to come
in costume, of course, but we try to make
it open for anybody to come. It makes it a little more fun.
I know there are a lot of people in the
fetish community who don't want that. They want it to be
exclusive so that people can go farther.
My feeling is that there's plenty of places to go to for that.
What I like to do is allow people to begin
to see what it's all about.
ROUZE: To be honest, All the Pretty Horses
could pass for a standard goth-glam act in most clubs.
Venus: Often, we do. That's part of the
performance, the revealing of who we are. But I'm the
only person who actually works with that.
The other band members just play straight ahead and
wear the costumes. I do more of the
performance part of it. But one of the things that we do
differently than some of the other bands
is that we're not a porn band. So we don't cross that line.
We're not just doing a performance for
the sensationalism. I do performance as a
performance artist. I've also been without
any clothes on for my performance art, but it always has
a point of reason for it. We don't do it
just for the shock value. Our music is serious, and I deliver it
seriously. I reveal who I am physically for a purpose.
ROUZE: And what about when you're touring
and there's isn't a goth club or fetish ball to play?
Venus: I actually prefer just doing the
regular bars. You don't know what the reaction is going to
be, and that can be really fun. I don't
alter my voice very much, so the audience isn't quite sure
how to read me. I usually get down to my
pasties during the performance. That makes them
completely off-balance. I've gotten things
like death threats, and people offering to give me an
operation for $10. But when you're in
heels and playing heavy metal with a big sharp guitar,
you're pretty much in charge.