(The original link to this article has expired so I have reproduced it here. This was originally available from the on-line magazine Ozone.)

Even now, people still marvel that Michael Stipe volunteered, at the height of his career in 1992, to produce the debut EP from a little-known band from Georgia called Magnapop. Two years later, Bob Mould, riding a second wave of success with Sugar, dropped everything and did the same, and that collaboration resulted in 1994's highly praised full-length Hot Boxing and its surprise alternative hit "Slowly, Slowly." Meanwhile, record industry insiders questioned the band's wisdom when, after heavy pursuit from several major labels, they decided to sign with Priority Records, whose roster was exclusively rap. Clearly this was a band with something significant going on, with a strong independent streak to boot.

And that shows onstage. Guitarist Ruthie Morris works up a sweat almost immediately, singer Linda Hopper bounces gleefully, bassist Shannon Mulvaney (who is, despite popular perception, a guy) and new drummer Mark Posgay deliver an uncompromising, blistering set of buzzsaw guitars and memorable hooks.

Magnapop's second album, Rubbing Doesn't Help (produced by L.A. punk veteran Geza X of Butthole Surfers and Dead Kennedys fame), continues the momentum built by the semi-success of Hot Boxing, although this time the band ups the ante with a new level of maturity - and darkness. The melodies are just as resonant, if a bit less immediate, and now Hopper's lyrics display a depth heretofore obscured in the wash of guitars. In songs like "Open The Door" and "Dead Letter," she comes to grips with the death of friends; "An Apology" clears the air of a bad relationship; and Morris' "Hold You Down" (her first turn as lead vocalist) spews venom against a host of perceived enemies.

Ozone talked to the cheery - and loquacious - Hopper while she was stuck in a quaint little hotel room in San Francisco on a recent promotional tour.

What's it like being the first rock act on what is primarily a rap label?

It's awesome, because they're complete fans, and they've developed a great alternative department. One hand washes the other in this situation. Both of us stand to gain a lot by making this successful. I would love to have labelmates that are, you know, "cool," but the only way to do that is to have the label prove itself with us as a guinea pig.

"Slowly, Slowly," from your last album, was almost a breakthrough hit. Do you feel like this is The Album that's going to do it for you?

I don't know. My whole feeling on this album is, if nobody bought it, I would still feel completely successful, like it was the best work we ever did. Ruthie completely pulled this album out. We didn't have a drummer, and she writes all the music anyway, and spent a ton of time and effort and energy. Of course, I write the words and sing, but she gave me awesome stuff to work with.

It's hard to look at something you do from your heart as a commercial commodity. It's a careful balance. I love Hot Boxing and the way it sounds, but we went into the making of this album with a lot more of a defined idea of how we wanted it to sound. Whereas collaborating with Bob Mould made him an unoffical fifth member, now Ruthie and I, with Ruthie doing a lot more work, pulled the vision out.

I knew for my singing parts, Bob was going for the wall of sound, the multi-vocal approach, which was really cool to my ear. I knew that if we went, especially with these songs, with a singular solid lead vocal and had Ruthie singing more on it, that it would be more representative of what we're trying to prove.

Did you feel with Bob Mould, and to an extent with Michael Stipe before that, that you had these two big-name producers, and that that was overshadowing your own vision?

Yeah, we were under their protective wing, but it was recognized. It was a thrill to work with both men. And they both asked to work with us, and they were very respectful of our vision, as we were of theirs. But both men got a completely different band than the one that exists now mentally. We were still forming ourselves, and hadn't been through everything yet. It was a happy collaboration, a good experience. So, not to ever take away from them, but in a way, because there was so little history on us, that was the main interview question - "What's Michael Stipe like?" "What's Bob Mould like?" Like you're gonna say, "Oh, they suck." No, they're awesome people. They're complete artists. I couldn't be prouder to have worked with those two.

But now you're at the point where you're more confident in your own vision, so you don't really need that. Not to say that Geza X is not respected...

Oh he is. And he wanted to but his hands all over it, too. And there was a lot of fighting that went on because of that. But it wasn't disrespectful; it was more like knowing what you want and exercising it and having a complete vision. Geza helped us articulate, and he was artistic and technical enough to put it on tape.

We knew that these songs were coming from a place that was a lot more thoughtful, thought-out. We had a very firm idea of how it was supposed to be. And I can't say emphatically enough that most of it was Ruthie's vision and competence and work ethic that pulled this album out and helped elevate it to what I consider the best work we've ever done. And if radio doesn't play it, oh well, their loss. It hits on the right level, I think, if the artist is happy with it, and there's no regrets, no thinking, Oh, we shoulda done this or that.

And you do dig deeper emotionally on this album. There are quieter songs here and there, there are songs about dying friends, and a couple with the word "down" in them.

I think we've always been dark. But the way I delivered lyrically before wasn't singing in a rhythm, it was more like wordy, wordy, wordy. And the exuberance of the music and my delivery could distract a person from what the text of the song was about. 'Cause there's always been a real darkness to our songs, but it's been a growing thing, where we got to the point where my main focus was the delivery of the song, to be able to put the emotion in. And also, our live show is all so about the now, it's the sum of the whole day leading up to the show. I just feel like with anything you do, especially with art and music, there has to be a growth. Something, at least to the band, that's an obvious step up, step up, step up. For us, there's no sense in just retreading. We didn't want to make Hot Boxing II.

So the songwriting process starts with Ruthie and her music, and she has some idea of the emotion, and you take it from there?

Well, she's very liberal with letting me come up with an emotion. The music starts with her, and out of our partnership and a mutual respect, we meld together on the purpose of the song. There's a definite thing going on in her that she tells me about, that I keep with me when I start writing. We go from there. It's about, How can we make this song purposeful? and How can we make it the best it can be? There's no sense in letting something just hang and be mediocre. So there's a lot of back-and-forth-ness. Ruthie does not need me to write words and singing parts to a song, because she can do that in her own right. But it was more like the deal we made when we started Magnapop.

And Ruthie sings on "Hold You Down"?

Yeah, she does all the singing on that song. And the bonus track, "Suck It Up." She wrote that and sings it.

And you're fine with that?

I'm completely fine with that. I'm lucky to have the people to work with that I do. It's about the art, it's about the music, it's not about ego and who gets more attention.

There seem to be several singles on this album.

The idea is to have a hook, but not to insult people's intelligence.

How do you feel about being lumped into the girl-pop category?

I think that sucks, and I'm glad to be part of a movement that includes Kim Deal and Kim Gordon. Even though they're everything you would want in a woman, they're artists first. I think the walls are coming down. For us, to have two women leading the band, yeah there's this macho [perception of us as a] junior varsity thing. But our unspoken goal would be to be a band just for people, with universal themes people can relate to, as opposed to, "Oh, women. Girl group." Like, we're not singing about our boyfriends. We want to take that out of it and push women further down the road of acceptance as people, and not as, you know, the girl plays bass in the band because her boyfriend's the guitar player.

In fact, you still don't see a lot of strong female lead guitarists.

Exactly. I stand back and watch Ruthie and I go, "My god." I can see it, why people connect with her. What she does is very intense, and it's rhythmic and sound-controlled. It's not contrived or pretty or girly. I've watched her go through interviews where people say the stupidest things to her, like, "You play guitar like a penis." And she's like, "Excuse me? I don't have a penis. I don't know what you're trying to get at with that question." And they get all embarrassed, like (in dumb jock voice), "I always wanted a girlfriend who played guitar." She's definitely our not-so-secret weapon. She gets the kind of attention I want. She gets other musicians that admire her, that want to talk to her. And in a way I don't get that. But there's no complaints.

You yourself used to jump around quite a bit, much more so than lately. Have you made a conscious effort to try a different approach onstage - less bouncy, more controlled?

Yeah. It's 50-50. For these songs, I want to be more conscious of what I'm doing. The delivery is more important than the exuberance. The exuberance is still there, but... The band is all about the songs, and presenting the songs well and solid. If there's any sort of "show" that people notice, it's just the night, it's the moment. There's a complete love for what we do. Plus, like I said, I find myself standing back and watching the other people, particularly Ruthie, and being completely floored.

What happened with the change of drummer?

Well, we had a year without a drummer. We had different friends fill in for us on shows we had committed to, and the recording of the album. Mark isn't on it, because we hadn't found him yet. There came a point in our lives, in our artistic development, that we needed more from a drummer, and it was a lot of work in '95, changing a member and getting this album written. Normally, the way our lives were structured from January '92 to March '95, we were on the road, with a couple weeks off here or there. And a lot of it was, like when we recorded Hot Boxing, we ended a tour in Austin, a couple days pre-production, we had 12 or 13 days to record, we drove back to Georgia, got on a plane, and went to Europe for a month. It was just bam, bam, bam.

So we took our time, because we needed to, first of all. I needed to clear my head, which left a lot of burden on Ruthie's shoulders to write. But that kind of separation from the live stuff gave her the freedom to listen to music and play a lot and come up with what I consider her best work ever. So out of a tough year came a lot of beautiful stuff. And that's the way it is in life. The good things do not come easily.