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Daria Radlinski: What was your first job?
Kembra Pfahler: I worked at the Santa Monica Pier, at the Skee-Ball game stand.
DR: What do you never leave home without?
KP: Black hair
DR: What object in your apartment have you had for the longest time?
KP: Two bowling balls that I found in 1980 in Union Square Park. I taped them to my feet with black electrical tape and used them like medieval torture shoes. It was one of my first performance looks.
DR: How long has your apartment been painted red?
KP: For 25 years, on-and-off, it's been red. Sometimes it's been black and it was yellow once.
DR: Why a monochrome space?
KP: I am an extreme decorator. It's like a math problem now for me to solve. What more can I paint red? The computer, the TV, the refrigerator, the glass on the windows? It's a domestic backdrop.
DR: Fill in the blanks:
KP: I like my city but I love my neighborhood .
DR: Do you have a lucky charm?
KP: No, I don't have a lucky charm, but I say the Serenity Prayer a lot, while on my knees smoking cigarettes. Especially before my band's shows.
DR: If you were going to be in (another) band who would be your bandmates be?
KP: My band is the only band I would be in. Samoa is the lead guitarist and founder of the band with me. He is my favorite guitarist. The band configuration right now is fantastic: Michael Wildwood from De-Generation on drums, and Gyda Gash from Judas Priestess on bass. Magal had been in the band for a long while, but now he is doing many of his own projects. We just got back from Berlin and it was my favorite Karen Black show to date. It was an unhinged type of show—my favorite kind. Alice is the star of the band.
DR: Best piece of advice you've ever received?
"Artists should not date other artists"—Marina Abramović
DR: What is your virtue?
KP: I don't know, that's too weird to answer. I can't say myself what virtues I have, but maybe my best friend could, but I don't have a best friend because I am such a violent, mercurial personality.
DR: What is your vice?
KP: You mean things that Christian people have? I don't technically know what a vice is. Splenda? Too much of something? I am pretty much straight edge pretty but I guess I have an eating disorder—I think eat too much but I can keep it down. I hate dancing.
DR: Any summer plans?
KP: My summer plans are to work on my next show at Participant Gallery, opening in September. It's called Fuck Island. Also, Antony Hegarty is curating The Meltdown Festival in London so the band gets to do that. It will be one of the first Feminist Future symposi