SFBG: How is Amber Asylum going?

KF: We had an album come out on Profound Lore almost a year ago. It's done pretty good - done pretty well for itself - and made Terrorizer's top albums of 2007.

I totally produced it myself, so I'm pretty happy about it. I had lineup changes: Jackie and I stopped collaborating about a year before the album came out, and we collaborated for a long time, and cello is a signature for the group. I was playing with Leila [Rauf of Saros] in a side project [Frozen in Amber], and so we collapsed all that material into Amber Asylum and Martha Burns, who used to be in the group on the first two albums, came back. She played with me for almost seven years before I met Jackie.

Jarboe started taking me on tours - I was playing violin and singing. We did a Baltic tour, which was great: Lithuania and Latvia and Poland.

Amber Asylum is scheduled for another release on Profound Lore in November. Eric Wood is playing with us - he and Leila are in Bastard Noise together. So there's a man in the band for first time. I also wanted to rekindle some of the more instrumental and electronic aspects of the group. Amber Asylum had drifted into becoming very conventional, more of a rock band, and I wanted to get back to the roots, which were more instrumental.

SFBG: The sound must be very different now.

KF: Eric is a great melodic bass player - he plays oscillator boxes and makes weird sounds - and he sings mezzo-soprano. So Leila is playing piano and guitar and doing vocals. Martha is playing cello. I'm still producing so I make sure there's a thread of continuity. It's changed, but before it was bass and drums and cello and I played piano. It's always changed. The last lineup was most consistent for a period of time, but I've always tried to mix it up and make it more of a project. Jackie was there for closer to eight years.

SFBG: So I gotta ask, since you've been a part of the metal scene for so long - do you have any theories about why there are so many women metal musicians in the Bay Area?

KF: I've haven't really noticed more women in metal bands than in most places, but I've played some festivals where we were the only women there. Not even a single player in another band, so I don't know. Maybe it's the West Coast - I've seen a lot of women performing in the Northwest. I guess there are more women here.

But I don't think it's any better. I think the women band together - I feel a lot of support from women musicians. It's case by case with men - some are complete cavemen and atrocious, and others are enlightened and value everyone's contribution. But yeah, I've definitely noticed an alliance between the women - I feel a special connection to someone I know that's playing in that scene.

I'm not really in a metal band, but we do cross into it. Because it's dark and symphonic, people in metal scene like my project. I am on a metal label and have been consistently. But I've had horrible, horrible experiences in that scene. I remember having a vehement argument with someone at Relapse about putting the color pink in a package. And I've seen bunch a reviews where people would say, "They must be a bunch of fags" - not even knowing we were women. That was a basic display.

What I've noticed more significantly: if you're a women and aggressive and ask for what you want, you're a bitch, and people don't want to work with you. If you're a guy and you do that, you get what you ask for. It's a real disparity. I actually set it up so I don't put myself in that position anymore - I get the attorney or booking agent to ask.

And when people ask me to collaborate, I look and see if they've worked with women - if not, it's a crap shoot. I'm a professional producer and I do sound design for a living. I do the work - I ask for producing credit, and [people I've worked with] have said no. It's an issue - I find that happens repeatedly. It hurts them to value your worth. Jarboe and I talk about this all the time. We collaborate with same people all the time - it hurts their hands to write a check.

It's classic - I don't know the exact statistic but what were the numbers about women work just as harrd but earn 63 percent of what men earn, even though they're working 100 percent...

SFBG: You also used to do sound design for Electronic Arts?

KF: I worked on the Sims products. I left EA - took a year off and traveled, finished two albums, and just did a lot of work, a lot of music - it was great.

DJ DE LA FORCE (Kris Force)
Apocalyptica headlines
April 16, 9:30 p.m., $16-$18
Slim's
333 11th St., SF