SONiA speaks out about social issues before local performance

Chances are that you've never heard of SONiA and Disappear Fear, so here's a little primer.

SONiA (last name Rutstein) and her sister, CiNDY, formed the folk-pop duo Disappear Fear and signed with Rounder Records in 1994, as out-and-proud lesbians. They were immediately honored and embraced by the gay community and the independent music community, singing about love, tolerance, the evils of war and other social justice causes.

CiNDY has since dropped out of the group to raise children, while SONiA has stayed on the road.

On Thursday she'll perform at the Cape Club Complex for her second visit to Cape Girardeau (she performed here and spoke at a university event before). In March SONiA called in to talk for a few minutes with the Southeast Missourian.

Q: You're an out and proud lesbian activist. Do you think that overshadows your music?

SONiA, seen here performing live at a festival, will perform Thursday at the Cape Club Complex. (submitted photo)

A: Yeah. I do ... and I think it's really unfortunate, actually, because probably if that's in the headline of something it might really turn some people off, especially people who think that being gay is an abomination, if they saw that they wouldn't come to my concert. And I would be sad about that, because I feel like my music is from my heart, and I feel we all share that love, all human beings, regardless of how we choose to express ourselves in our lives, through our religion or our sexual preference or how we dress or whatever.

I just think people should be true to themselves. I'm not saying you should be this way or you shouldn't be that way, I'm just saying be true to yourself.

Nobody really wants to be gay. It's fine and it's great, and I do what I do. It's just that for me, that's who I fell in love with, and that's what seems to be right for me. My feeling on it is I'm just being a product of nature.

But my music is much bigger than that. My art is much bigger than that.

Q: Your musical message really seems to reach beyond gay activist issues, though.

A: Absolutely. In fact, most of my fans are not gay, they're straight, just because that's the way it is. I probably have a larger amount of gay fans than, let's say, maybe Toby Keith, I don't know [laughs]. It's all good. I'm for love as being the common denominator.

Q: Your CD "No Bomb is Smart" really seems to take on the bad things happening in the world right now. Seems like you're sort of plugged in to social causes.

A: Yes, definitely. My next CD is going to be in Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish, and a little bit of English. And it's really a way of, I'm really hoping that it touches people on different levels. One, frankly, to know how much we really don't know, and two, to sort of get a window on other sounds and the challenge of communication and understanding.

Supposedly the diplomacy staff of the United States diplomatic corps that's worked in Iraq, there's like 1,000 people on the staff, and out of that, only six actually speak Arabic. There are so many simple, excellent, diplomatic solutions that we could move toward as opposed to the approach of violence and death, you know. That would be just far more humanitarian and not that difficult to do.

We accept the word impossible. We accept as a nation that it's going to be the way it is, rather than to explore and discover the possibility of it being a different way. Part of that I think is, there's a female, uh, molecule, and it's in men and women, and it's the molecule of nurturing. I know it's going to sound weird, but it's that I think is missing, that nurturing and caring part.

It's not about being right and powerful, it's about love and caring.

And that's really what my music's about, just that as human beings, we're more alike than different.

msanders@semissourian

335-6611, extension 182