Melora: "Even a bad cello is very expensive so there's always a worry that they will be broken or lost or stolen. We're very protective, we don't even really like anyone to help us carry our cellos. I think a lot of people think 'oh it will be so easy to put these guys on tour it's just their cellos.' But we have the same amount of equipment as other types of bands, amplifiers and a drum kit"

When you were playing rock clubs, did you ever find that the sound people didn't know how to deal with the instrument?

Melora: "We have our own sound guy with us now who knows what we're doing. That's a great luxury for us. Playing clubs for so long, there's lots of stuff we know - don't take the treble off, don't go direct, and it's very difficult sometimes getting soundman to believe it."

Have you had any feedback on Rasputina from past cello teachers?

Melora: I just had my one cello teacher, who was an old man when I was a little girl. He was from Boston, so in the mid west he was a very upper crust/East Coast scary kind of fellow. But he passed away, though I think his wife is still alive and and may be periodically informed of what I do.

Is it difficult doing pop songs with three cellos?

Melora: "It's what comes naturally for me because I have limited classical experience. But things like syncopated rhythms and some keys that are common in popular music come very naturally if you listen to that a lot. For somebody who's very strictly classically trained it's really difficult and it takes almost as much time to unlearn a lot of that stuff. So rhythms that are natural and that I love, sometimes I have to work with the other girls who are better trained."

When you started playing, did you have any idea that the cello could be used in this way?

Melora: "I had no idea of it as a child. I studied pretty hard. It was a very regimented thing, you dread practicing and lessons are really intense. I stopped as a teenager, social pressure, and moved to NY and went to art school. There was so many bands around and to hear that I played cello when I was a kid people they were like 'ooh, play the cello in my band." I also did performance art kind of stuff when I was in my early 20's and I think that helped form what I do now. I mixed it all up."

Besides the drum accompaniment, have you considered using any other instruments in Rasputina?

Melora: "It was really important to me to have nothing else, especially on this first album. Just as a political statement, the cello can do lots of different things. The cello is our instrument, we don't look at is as a novelty. We see the word gimmicky used in connection with us a lot where it's an ancient and beautiful instrument and not a gimmick. But to take it out of context and play it in the new way, that should be a possitive thing. But because it's unusual people will put that word on it."