SexHerald: Had you wanted to enter the adult industry?

Eon McKai : I actually wanted to get into adult filmmaking. When I was in school, I was always looking at a lot of adult films. I was really into the Dark Brothers stuff and Alex de Rinzy. It’s something I was interested in. I met Veronica Heart, I saw her speak and kind of got hooked up with her. And then, that’s how I hooked up with VCA at the time.

SH: What did you feel was missing in porn? The girls that you were attracted to, did you feel that’s what was missing in porn?

McKai: Yeah, I mean literally what I thought was missing was . . . I was around when SuicideGirls first started and I was taking photos of their early models. That’s kind of how I got hooked into the fact that I wanted to see this type of look represented in regular adult films. With how much SuicideGirls grew and how fast it grew . . . now SuicideGirls is part of pop culture. That just told me that there is a need for this in the market. This type of girl.

SH: How would you define alt porn?

McKai: Alt porn is a contemporary alternative to the mainstream of pornography.

SH: Do you feel that’s an accurate name for the genre or does alt porn say it?

McKai: Alt porn says it and that’s where it’s at right now. Alt porn is the car we’re riding in. this is our entrée into the business. When I say us, I say even the directors here at Vivid Alt, what Burning Angel is doing, what Joanna Angel is doing with BurningAngel.com and Burning Angel Studio. Really, I didn’t know what to call it until I hooked up with Johnno from Fleshbot.com. I asked Johnno, ‘Are we indeed porn?’ There wasn’t really anything really independent about what I was doing at VCA considering that was a big studio. Every time Johnno would talk about me on Fleshbot, that’s when I would get a . . . I mean Fleshbot has a better Alexa rating than AVN.com. I mean it’s insane. So I asked him and he said, ‘You’re alt porn.’ Then I went to Joanna and I said, “Look, this is our label. We need to wear it. This is what’s going to help people understand us.’

SH: Did you foresee alt porn taking off as big as it did last year?

McKai: Yeah, I knew that the audience was there. So I had a really bizarre confidence about it just because I could see it on the Internet, and I knew that what wasn’t happening was that we didn’t have hardcore movies with these girls getting fucked. That was the missing component to alt-porn erotica, basically. I knew, once that missing piece was there, that people would respond to it. The need was there. With SuicideGirls, it’s not a bunch of punk rock boys looking at punk rock girls. All kinds of people like these girls. It wouldn’t be that big. It wouldn’t have gotten to the size that it has if there wasn’t a more universal appeal to the way these girls look.

SH: What are your responsibilities at Vivid Alt?

McKai: I’m overseeing the production of eight movies by other directors, and I’m directing four movies myself. And so literally I’m bringing in new directors and helping them make some of their first movies or some of their second movies. And I’m on set for pretty much every shot. I’m working on the promotion of vividalt.com which is going to launch really soon. I’m really excited about that because that will basically open the channel between us and people who like alt porn. There will be a message board, and all of the directors will have a profile. Basically, I got Steven Hirsch to back a website that’s not going to sell anything. It’s just going to be information about us, trailers . . . you’ll be able to look at photo sets from the girls in the movies. You’ll basically be able to totally kick the tires and look under the hood. You’ll be able to do everything except to look at a hardcore sex scene, then you can go off and you’ll know what you need to know to find the type of product you’re looking for. So yeah, my responsibilities are here and basically overseeing that and making sure these other directors have the kind of experience that I always wanted to have, which was to have total freedom to be creative and make the kind of movies they want to make.

SH: Is that the vision you have for Vivid Alt? What ideas are you coming up with, where do you want to take this imprint to?

McKai: The main thing I want to do this year is to show people how wide and diverse alt porn can be. I think right now Joanna and I have been successful. Rob Rotten, who doesn’t like to be called alt porn, he’s got a lot of movies coming out this year and he’s doing quite well. Those are the views of three different people. I want to show Winkytiki’s first movie, Rebel Rousers, which will be the first alt movie to come out. It’s like a psycho-billie, rockabilly movie, which is totally different. Alt porn hasn’t had anything like that. Next thing from Vivid Alt is like totally from a different direction. Dave Naz, who is a very well-known photographer, he’s done something called Skater Girl Fever, and it’s girls dressed in late-70s, early-80s clothing, with feathered hair, they’re riding skateboards and having sex. It’s just a really contemporary movie but it’s got a retro feel that’s really fresh and it’s really hip, and to me it’s alt porn. So I want to show people how wide it can be. Like you asked me what alt porn was and I told you. I’ve already come to the conclusion that’s it’s a contemporary alternative to what’s going on out there. If you want porn with a little bit more contemporary style to it that’s what alt porn is.

SH: Besides the tattoos, what do you think really sets alt porn girls apart from other porn girls?

McKai: That’s an interesting question. I think everyone who makes alt porn casts in a different way. I think, what I hear coming back from people in the business is, “You do this stuff with the girls with the tattoos and the piercings.” When I think about it, I think it’s a lot more than that. I’m going to shoot Charlotte Stokely. To me, when I look at her I’m not thinking here’s a tattoo chick or a pierced chick. She’s a really contemporary girl. She dresses herself with style in real life, and she’s really unique and has her own style. That’s really what I’m looking for. I don’t want a girl who’s just trying to make herself kind of an empty vessel for porn to use. I want to take the girl’s own individual style and work that into the movie. That’s what I thought was so exciting about SuicideGirls was that you had girls with really unique style. Even the girls on Joanna’s site, like I shot Pixie Pearl who was in Joanna’s Angels 2, and she’s just a really interesting girl who has a lot to say, and has a really, really cool style.

SH: Which girls really are the faces of alt porn? Obviously, you can’t talk about alt porn without mentioning Joanna Angel.

McKai: Joanna Angel is the first generation of girls to come. I think girls like Riley Mason, she’s really a popular girl all over pornography. When you strip her down and you’re hanging out with her on a porn set, she really is somebody who hangs out at the same kind of places we would hang out. She really is that girl. Kimberly Kane I think is a force and she’s started to direct. She’s got her own line with Pulse. Her first movie is like insane. Again, she’s a young lady with style and she’s not afraid to open her mouth and say what she thinks. I like Charlotte Stokely, I think she’s great because she’s got her own thing. They’re all different, all four of those girls are really different from each other. I really like the girls that are coming out of New York.

I don’t want to see us in a separate cage. I think when you want a movie with style and you want that, we’re going to be here for that. I don’t think for the regular porn viewer, you don’t want to just jack off to porn with style all day. You’ll drive yourself crazy. We make good movies that will help bring people together. Maybe you can show them publicly when you have friends over. A movie like Rebel Rousers, if you’re in the psycho-billy scene, you now have a movie when your friends are over drinking and go, “Lets put on The Rebel Rousers.” This is going to be a lot of fun and it’s an excuse to put a movie on. I get emails every day with people talking about they’re at a party and somebody puts on Neu Wave Hookers on. Ultimately, this is pornography and we don’t want to box ourselves in. I don’t want to box the talent in and say they can only appear in these types of movies. We all know the majority of porn is watched in one-on-one situations. We don’t need all this cute stuff surrounding it. I think we got our place but I don’t want to box us or our people in at all. I really want to invite everyone to the party.

SH: Will any of the Vivid girls do cameos or star in any Vivid-Alt films?

McKai: No, I had it put in my contract that I don’t have to use the Vivid girls because I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be shoehorned into doing that. I’m looking into making a Debbie Does Dallas movie and there are a couple of Vivid girls that I think I’d like to use for that. But right out of the bat I wanted to protect ourselves. We’re not part of that system that has to crank out movies with Vivid girls and I wanted to make sure our directors had the freedom to cast however they see fit. The cast is a big part of what’s made alt porn great. Alt porn is good because you put it on, and if you’re a kid in a scene and you get a movie that matches that scene and you put it on, you’re like “Wow! This is made by people who really feel the way I feel.” It’s a really personal experience. We just can’t slap any old Vivid girl into it. So Vivid Alt, at this point, we’ve not shown any Vivid girls.

SH: Where do you see the future of alt porn?

McKai: I see it becoming a lot more broad and covering a lot more territory. I just see it becoming bigger and bigger. I see it affecting the talent pool in the business. I think girls will start to feel that they can express more of who they are and what their style is. As we make more movies I can just see the talent pool changing which is great. When a girl really is who she is in a movie, I think you get better sex scenes and it makes it easier for you to connect with her in the film.