Portland Cello Project may look like a string ensemble, but don't let the bows throw you off. Metal music is their wheelhouse—specifically, Pantera. As a cello-dominated string section, Portland Cello Project get inside the body of the Pantera beast and link into the torment of the sound. Bows move together as the beast's cilia. Fans call them PCP, and the churn of their strings is similar to the churn in metal music. PCP also play hiphop, covering Lil Wayne, Outkast, Kanye West, and Jay-Z. PCP will actually play anything and everything, from Britney Spears to the Dandy Warhols to baroque to the postmodern perfectionism of Arvo Pärt. So, yes, PCP are a string section that can sound as exquisite as a China doll's porcelain face, but they're really punk as fuck, and they want to gurgle and seethe like a rabid water buffalo.

Since 2007, PCP's repertoire has grown to more than 900 pieces of music. At MusicFestNW, PCP celebrated the 20th anniversary of Pantera's album Vulgar Display of Power by playing it in its entirety. PCP revel in such cross-ups. One night, they'll play a punk club, the next, a symphony hall, and the next, a Shakespeare festival. The audiences may vary, but PCP's destruction of them does not. PCP leader Doug Jenkins spoke from a rehearsal in Portland. He was neither gurgling nor seething.

How did Portland Cello Project begin?

It was pretty spontaneous, actually. On a lark, a group of cellists in town got together and said, "Let's go play in bars and see if we can keep people from throwing stuff at us." It was mostly classical music to start with. Then I had the idea to do the Britney Spears song "Toxic." It was obviously a good idea right away. From there, a lightbulb went off and we thought, "We can do whatever we want."

Which is more difficult to play, Pantera or Jay-Z?

I'd say Pantera. Epic metal songs really lend themselves well to the orchestral realm. And metal is complicated on the same level as classical music. In the Pantera song "Hollow," the timing is in 12/8, then it changes and gets all evil and becomes 13/8. They had to have done that on purpose [laughs].

Black Sabbath played intervals that were said to be evil, such as the "Diabolus in Musica" tritone, which the church banned because of its evilness. Do these intervals transcribe for cello? Does PCP engage in the "Diabolus" tritone? Is PCP satanic?

The "Diabolus in Musica" tritone does sound dark. The church banned it around the baroque era. Metal bands are like, "Yes, that's all we're going to play." Yes, we are satanic. You can quote me on that.

Have you ever sacrificed a small pelagic seabird, such as a puffin?

Should I say 'no'? Or 'no comment' [laughs].

You toured with Buckethead. Tell me about Buckethead.

I can't tell you much. He was very secretive. He would show up five minutes before he went onstage. We didn't really get to know him, but his tour manager would say, "Bucket wants to know if you guys are having a good time," and pass us notes from him. They called him Bucket. We were surprised he called us and wanted us to tour. It was interesting experience. Those were some of our first real metal audiences.

Who is Buckethead? Is Buckethead really Thomas Hunter from Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, Wild Orchid Children, and White China Gold?

I cannot confirm or deny Buckethead's true identity. I went in thinking I would find out everything but walked away knowing nothing.

How often do you all experience negative reactions from metal fans?

If it happens, it's usually within the first 30 seconds. People are like, "What is this?" It used to happen more. It's funny: Seattle was receptive to us right away, Portland was not. We're serious about what we do. We want to destroy the audience, like metal bands do. We try to come out onstage and launch right into a huge, loud song. When people see the cellos, at first they're a little hesitant. Then we play and usually win them over. We try to make the show as metal as possible.

What's the key for PCP to be as metal as possible?

You can't go in and appropriate it or change it too much. You gotta have the feel of it and play with the energy that's behind the song, or else it could seem like a joke. And this isn't a joke. When we played the Pantera album at the Wonder Ballroom here in Portland, the crowd was singing all the songs, singing the choruses throughout the show. It was a good feeling. I love metal music. We want to honor it.

Have any disgruntled metal fans thrown anything at you while you played?

No. Nothing physically thrown yet—knock on wood. At the Buckethead show in Portland, we thought it would be funny to play the Britney Spears song in the middle of the set to see what would happen. It was our hometown, we thought people would be okay with it. But people weren't okay with it [laughs]. There was a lot of yelling.

Women throw panties at you all the time.

Not so much. I wish I could say yes. I think the cellos scare off that type of behavior. I don't seem to talk to as many women after shows as I do old guys who want to talk about amplifiers.

What's the next song you all want to cover?

We recorded a version of Kanye West and Jay-Z's "Niggas in Paris." Katy Perry also sings it, but calls it "Ninjas in Paris." I think we're going to call our version "Ninjas in Paris," too.

With all the elbows up there flying around for y'all on the cellos, are there ever collisions?

Sometimes. We're usually pretty good about it. In classical music, you write in which direction to bow, so that helps. The main obstacle with stringed instruments is the horsehair bows. The hair breaks off. It's real hair and is affected by climate and location. Playing in Denver then playing in Phoenix changes the cellos and the bows and how they play. The hair in the bows lengthens and shortens according to where you are. And that determines what you can do when you play. It changes all the time and is kind of annoying. After a tour, the cellos are pretty beaten up. They're very sensitive to everything, especially if we fly.

Does the hair ever just completely fail?

Yeah. We've had a couple bows where the hair completely exploded onstage. Now we travel with backups.

How much do the bows cost? Those things aren't cheap.

A good bow? It would be rare to find a symphony player with one that cost less than three grand. Ours are around $500. Everything is expensive with cellos. I consider it my savings account.