Miss K ain't no slouch. The graphic designer, musician and self-confessed z-list celebrity tranny is more prolific than your mother - and if you don't believe me, then you'd better check out her weblog, her fabulous comics, websites and her music.

Having cut her teeth with the notorious drag punk band Six Inch Killaz, she's now back, back, back with The Electric Shocks, whose loud and rocking sound will have you crying like a baby. It's hard not to be in love with this gal, as you’ll find out when you read this little interview.

How did you get into drag?
I can't claim to have got "into" it really. It got into me. Being transgendered was something I was born with. My earliest recollections of not feeling quite "right" date from when I was about eight, I guess. It all really took off when I was at school in my teens. (Like everything else) I'm often driven to wonder how deep the need to identify with the opposite genetic gender goes. Generally, it's a creative, performance-based thing; I do feel, though, that it may be a bit deeper than that. There's a yearning.

What look are you rocking these days?
I'm er, rocking a "rocking" look. I've always been a bit of a rock chick at heart; my favourite look is a kind of blonde fucked up dissolute rock star look. My absolute idol is Deborah Harry. While I don't go for a slavish imitation of her, I do feel like I'm channelling her in some way. Yes, even the 80's Deborah Harry. And no, I didn't know you could channel a person who's still alive either. Live and learn.

For you, how does being Asian tie in with being transgendered?
Culturally, Oriental Asians have always been considered a bit "the West's bitch" haven't we? That sort of colonialist hegemony's still quite hard to shake off. That awful David Cronenberg film, M. Butterfly, based on the play I haven't seen (which was meant to be quite good) encapsulates the fact that the East has always been perceived as female, by the masculine, buttoned up West. To me, it's not an issue, but tell that to the sex tourists in Thailand!

Aesthetically, I think it gives me a bit of a head start.

Tell us a story about the Six Inch Killaz
Most of the good ones have been told. Jasmine falling offstage into the Christmas tree at ULU, Luis glassing a heckler with a plastic beer glass, Luis throwing dog food at the audience. They mainly tend to revolve round Jasmine and Luis, the stories.

I'll tell you about the weirdest gig we ever played. This was quite late on, '98 I think. We were playing with Cheetahs (now The King Cheetah) quite a bit around that point and we both got booked to play in Swindon, of all places, which was nice. Cheetahs were opening up, we were in the middle, and some dreadful local "alternative" band were headlining. It was the first and last gig out of London we did. The journey up and back was pretty "amusing", with five grumpy trannies bent double in the back of a windowless transit with no seating and the rather bulky Cheetahs' backline for company. We got some looks in the Motorway services.

Let me tell you about our gigs. Usually, the punters were horrified. They'd turn up expecting some sort of glammy, post-ironic drag queen version of the Spice Girls to point and snigger at. What they got was five atonal trannies, some of them quite angry, making a deeply un-ironic, punishing and painfully loud noise to a primitive, relentless electronic beat. Punk Rock! Yes! On rare occasions, a really good crowd would get into this and go absolutely nuts, but normally the reaction was fear, loathing and GETMEOUTTAHERE!!

The weird thing about Swindon? 

No fucking reaction at all. We start playing. The audience stand around, talking, smoking, drifting to the bar and back, laughing at each others' jokes and basically being unaffected in any way by the magnificent and beautiful car crash that's going on onstage. It was like being a normal support band. Weird.

We drove back up the M4 in silence, scratching our heads.

Speaking of King Cheetah, their magnificent EP on Spitshine Records features the rocking "Six Inch Killaz" as the lead track. Thanks Rob, Simon and Robin. I like the fact that the fade out refrain features the lyric "Six Inch Killaz, Six Inch Killaz, Six Inch Killaz / Where are they?" No doubt a reference to our notorious lateness turning up for sound checks.

(If you want to read more I maintain a clearing house of Killaz links at www.phreak.co.uk/killaz)

Tell us about your current band, the Electric Shocks
Electric Shocks. We're a rock and roll band. We play poppy punky punchy angular stuff with tunes. We've been called "catchy". We're most often compared with old school punk and post punk bands like Buzzcocks, early Wire. We have loads of good songs and we play them often live. I play the flying V and stylophone, two preposterous instruments. 

We've had one album out and two singles and we're preparing our second long player at the moment. We've done gigs with many bands you may have heard of, including The Darkness, Electric Six, Bloc Party, Whirlwind Heat, Art Brut and Pink Grease to name but a few. We're good. You should give us a try!

The album's called Wild Dog Settings and is generally available - try Amazon (it's on the Artrocker label). Our site is www.theelectricshocks.com. You can download a free single from our label's site www.artrocker.com.

Oh - and I'm not a trannie in this band.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?
The surest way to my heart is to leave a comment on my weblog.

Make Miss K happy and get Wild Dog Settings by her band, The Electric Shocks. Buy online and save!