1. Hello, my pretties. First off state your name for the record, and what role you play in Cinema Strange.
Lucas: I'm Mister Lanthier, responsible for words and music and I feed the Llamas on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Bonzo: I'm Mister Corner, Project Manager. And I feed the Llamas on odd Fridays and every leap year day.
Mikk: I mostly tamper with the machinery. You know, displacing sound waves to create only the most innocent aural phenomena. I also play several "musical instruments".
Yellow: The name at the moment is back to Yellow... soon to change again, however. The role I play at the moment is that of a haughty (albeit frail) lumberjack, but other roles I've played include: French maid, bass guitarist, Omni-synth-player, mustard, Hollywood starlet, and sequence programmer.
2. What is the story behind your nicknames? Don't try to hide anything, or else you will be zapped and I'll divulge your dirty little secrets.
Yellow: Since the lye behind my name is actually more convincing than the truth, I will give neither. I think there was a Portuguese mime named Yellow once...?
Lucas: "Lucas" isn't a nickname. My mom says she named me after the guy in "the Rifleman" TV series. I never saw the show, myself, but I presume that the character in question was dashing and witty, courageous and lucky with the ladies.
Bonzo: That would make one of you, then.
Lucas: Ah, excuse me, but I will thank you to observe my unabashed panache. I at least qualify as daring.
Bonzo: Yeah, I admit, the musketeer hat is pretty striking. Anyway, "Bonzo" is a nickname I've had since I was living in Maine as a young fellow. I won't mention how I got it. My real name is Ludo. But I like the Big Top connotations that "Bonzo" brings to mind. It's got a show-biz ring to it.
Mikk: My nicknames do come with a story, but I haven't finished it yet.
3. My sources told me about a secret headquarters at a PO Box in Camarillo, CA. Now if I lived in a box I would be po'd too. What's up with that?
Yellow: No comment. (But for the record, the box is in Somis.)
Lucas: Well, I DO live in a box, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, thank-you very much.
Bonzo: The Cinema Strange mailing address is PO Box 772, Somis, CA, 93066. There is a secret headquarters, apart from the mailing address, but its location is not an interview discussion topic, as you can surely understand.
Mikk: I happen to be the doorman for the aforementioned "secret headquarters" but I tend to think of it as more of a speakeasy.
4. What's the deal with all these Ribiats taking over the world? Didn't another brother used to play drums in the band? Ah brotherly love.
Mikk: The full-scale invasion has yet to be planned.
Yellow: This question confuses me, and since I hate being confused I will just assume that you're referring to other Ribiats that are at least in the upper echelons of society, elsewhere, where their transition to "taking over the world" would be less shocking than that of myself or Michael. There is a senior cleric Ribiat in Hungary? What?
Bonzo: James Ribiat, one of the older brothers, has played drums with the band on several occasions. He's great.
Lucas: I don't know anything about any Ribiat taking over the world, but that is certainly the end objective of my New American Socialist party. I hope to be representing the party in the 2024 elections, and then, I imagine, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to world supremacy.
5. The band has actually been around a lot longer than most people think. How did this creation come to be?
Mikk: It's the same way that any other creation comes to be... with magic!
Yellow: We also don't breathe as heavily as people think.
Lucas: Yeah, it's hard to believe that it's been as long as it has been. One minute you're cruising into town to catch the new Edison feature at the nickelodeon, the next minute you're a muddy doughboy, writing letters home to Mabel Mae from a trench in northern France, then you're abandoning dad's ice delivery business to be a musician, and then BAM! You're a rock star. And then it's nothing but fast cars and fast women and at some point you wake up next to a burro in a silk robe and there's a fat guy in a wolf costume going full speed on an exercise bike watching old episodes of Knight Rider on the hotel TV and you think, "Where did the years go?"
6. Is it true that you played the first Release the Bats? (If memory serves me right, I remember being in town at that time and being unsuccessfully persuaded to go)
Lucas: We played the first and we'll play the last, this I vow. We are the Emperor Constantine to their Byzantine capital.
Yellow: But that was back when it was only Lucas and myself in the band, so it must have been a dreadfully dull performance.
Bonzo: Agreed. Cinema Strange had a largely soporific effect on audiences before Mickey came along. In fact, the flyers used to state that it was unwise to drink alcohol before or during a Cinema Strange show, or to operate heavy machinery while listening to Cinema Strange.
Mikk: (Releases the Bat.)
7. Your shows are quite a spectacle and the audience will never see the same show twice. How do you come up with the costume ideas and theme for the show? It's all quite brilliant.
Lucas: Thanks! We generally come up with ideas by thinking and then discussing our thoughts with each other and then deciding on something.
Mikk: And lots of drugs and arguing and pie.
Yellow: It's actually all dreadfully dull... the creative process is so stagnant, we're all just so tired all the time, and we tend to dismiss the GOOD ideas immediately due to their requiring greater effort. Sorry to disappoint you.
8. Sometimes you use a drummer for your live shows, which enhances your sound completely. Ever consider getting a full time drummer?
Yellow: NO! THIS QUESTION IS TOTALLY PUSILLANIMOUS! What do you really want to know?
Mikk: I'd like to enhance SOMETHING right now.
Bonzo: Danny Walker, who plays drums, and how, is now a permanent Project member. He played in the last few shows in Mexico City and in Europe, in fact.
Lucas: Yes, to great effect! That was a good time.
9. On your new CD Astonished Eyes of Evening, the songs tell a story and flow together like a soundtrack. In my opinion, sight and sound go together like peanut butter and jelly. Are there any plans for making and releasing videos of the songs? To satisfy at least two of the five senses.
Yellow: Hmmm, sounds like your copy of the CD didn't include the accompanying breakfast recipes which we decided on early in the conceptual stages of the album- just as you suggested, to satisfy even more of the senses!
Mikk: I'd like to release something right now... in bed.
Bonzo: A Cinema Strange DVD is tentatively being planned. At least, everyone agrees that it would be a fine idea. It would be a great opportunity to show the rest of the world some of the film projects that C.S. has been incorporating into recent live shows.
10. What is new on the Cinema Strange front?
Lucas: A low-pressure system is sending clouds our way, so we're expecting scattered showers and light fog in the AM. So don't bother getting out those swim trunks until next Tuesday, when we can all look forward to sun, sun, sun and highs in the low 80s. Overnight temps in the two-day forecast look like low to mid 40s and again, those darned clouds.
Bonzo: And we're striving to hit the east coast of the USA August 2003, and release a new album by the end of the year.
Yellow: Also, trenches, barbed wire, mortars, and some pestilence. (But that goes without saying.)
Mikk: I'd like to front something right now... in bed.
11. You play a lot of shows in Europe, which you seem quite fond of. How does your audience there differ from the American audience?
Lucas: Generally, they speak different languages.
Yellow: And they wear better par-fum!
Mikk: I'd like to have an audience in Europe right now... in bed.
12. Do you make time when you are out in Europe to see the sights, or is it strictly business?
Yellow: I can smell a business question a mile away- this one is for Bonzo.
Bonzo: Generally, that is, excepting the drinking and the whoring, with us it's all business, all the time.
Mikk: I'd like to see some sights AND do some business right now... in bed.
13. Who or what influences and inspires you?
Yellow: I can smell a business question a mile away- this one is also for Bonzo.
Lucas: Generally, we exert so much influence over each other that there's no room for foreign manipulation.
Bonzo: And that's the truth.
Mikk: I'd like to be under the influence right now... in bed.
14. Is it true that you are all carefully programmed robots, out to take over the planet? Which would partially explain Lucas hitting those high notes so perfectly. Robot mating ritual or freak of nature? Come on you can tell me. Remember your lives are in my hands. You know what electric currents can do to a robot eh?
Lucas: We're decidedly anti-robot. Who, in the name of the Gunpowder Plot, do you think organized the Great 'Prentice and Livery-Wearers Insurgency of '80, whose sole intent was to cast aside the cruel and weighted yolk of the Droid Patriciate? Well, it wasn't the Sisters of Mercy, I'll tell you that much. But then, I'd be lying if I told you that I hadn't considered, briefly, cyborg throat enhancements to help with some of those high notes, which I assure you, are quite often far from perfect, but thanks for the compliment.
Yellow: We had all developed a theory regarding the co-existence of Robots and Zombies and their eternal conflict, but thanks to your observation, I'm beginning to think that Lucas is actually an internal spy in this otherwise troupe of zombies! That is really disheartening.
Lucas: I would have got away with it, too, if weren't for you meddling kids.
Mikk: (My response to this question intentionally left blank so as to heighten your anticipation for my next unique and witty answer.)
15. And final words or requests before I discombobulate you?
Lucas: I refuse to say anything else.
Bonzo: Oooh, does discombobulation involve racy nightwear? I'm looking forward to this!
Yellow: Well, what would be the use of making a request if we're only to be discombobulated? This is a trick question, isn't it?!
Mikk: I'd like to be discombobulated right now... in bed.