Kristin Hersh started off playing music in her band Throwing Muses when she was just fourteen years old. With an intimidating IQ and a bi-polar disorder things were not to stay safe and serene.
From ups and downs in her various bands and within her solo projects she is now exploring the other tendrils of talent that inhabit the world of Kristin Hersh – a new book is on the way, a children’s book is already available and her new multi-media project Paradoxical Undressing has just finished at the Southbank in London. The name is fitting: it’s the bizarre behaviour of hypothermia victims in which they remove all their clothing. This odd compulsion is the crux of Kristin Hersh and can be found in all her songs and writing.
In the show Hersh reads from her autobiography and along with musical performances this is the most laid bare and honest show you will likely see from anyone. In the cold light of the stage, she strips down to her self and shows whoever’s looking what it is that makes Kristin Hersh.
Big City Redneck catches up with her a day before the show to talk of all those things and more.
BCR: I’m glad I could catch you on the phone, I know you’ve got a crazy schedule when you get to London.
Kristin Hersh: I love email ones ‘cos I’m so shy.
BCR: Are you still shy after all this time?
Kristin Hersh: Oh… yeah. I can’t even go to the grocery store. Luckily I have a very loud husband who handles all the talking out loud. We’d get pretty hungry without Billy around.
BCR: It sounds like you’re going straight from the airport to the Southbank for Paradoxical Undressing …
Kristin Hersh: Yeah, there’s a lot of production associated with this. The projection and sound is handled very differently. Most of it's spoken word but there’s also music so I need two different microphones, two different boards set up. I just have to stand there for six or seven hours.
BCR: yeah, it seems like quite a big endeavour with lots of different elements. Is this the first time you’ve done spoken word?
Kristin Hersh: They made me do some when I lived in Portland, Oregon, which is a very literary city. Powell’s is based there which is the biggest bookstore in America and is an industry in and of itself. They used to do spoken word presentations frequently. At the time I was getting a lot of attention for my blog and every time I did a press tour for a record they didn’t want to talk about the record, they just wanted to talk about the blog. So I had to do readings on the radio, and in Portland I was included in a lot of writer’s series. Kind of against my will… I end up stuck in the back of the room asking myself “what the hell am I doing here?” I would ask people ahead of time, just what do you want me there for? They’d say bring copies of your book and you can sign them for people. But it wasn’t a book! I’m not a writer! So I thought I had to write a book.
BCR: It’s as good a reason as any. Your blog does seem, in the same way as your lyrics, very honest. I especially love the bits and pieces of what your kids say. Is it difficult to tour with your kids? Having to leave people behind etc…
Kristin Hersh: That can be hard. It’s a strange way of life. But it’s hard to leave them behind too. I could leave them safely ensconced with their grandparents and they wouldn’t have to be leaving constantly and yet it’s my perspective and I want to share it with them. I still haven’t figured out if they’ll need therapy later but they have an interesting global view that most kids don’t. They see the world as being full of people who are potentially loveable. They know a lot of people who look different from them and speak different languages. They have Maori aunts and uncles, and German ones. They’ve been everywhere. It’s interesting. I don’t want to say anymore because they’re also afraid of the grocery store! They find out that they’re leaving the house and they say “for how long?” ‘cos they don’t know if it’ll be for two hours or two months.
BCR: Touring always seems a strange thing for most of the people I’ve interviewed. But you’ve been doing this now since you were fourteen…
Kristin Hersh: That’s the just the thing, I don’t really know anything else. I think it would be harder for me to drop the kids at day care and take the subway into an office. That would be wrenching for me. But to fly halfway across the world is not. I work with similar people; music people tend to be not much different from each other. We’re on the same side and so, there’s a certain amount of comfort that comes from that. The kids see that warmth and that shared mission.
BCR: It must be nice to have that kind of camaraderie, there’s not too many industries that could say the same.
Kristin Hersh: Yeah, particularly in this sub-genre that I’m a part of. There’s no competition. The good musicians want more good music in the world. We’re fighting the same battle against the bad music…
BCR: Well, this is what CASH is about right?
Kristin Hersh: Yeah, I’ve been able to extricate myself from the ugly and be supported entirely by fans at this point.
50 Foot Wave
BCR: What started CASH?
Kristin Hersh: So many things, it just solved so many problems. Fans, for years, have been saying that they wanted to turn this venture into a co-operative. 50 Foot Wave, my other band, was the first step in that direction. 50 Foot Wave is itself a co-operative and we released our last album free for download. I think it’s up to two million downloads at this point. It was an interesting experiment in doing without the business. I kept them out of the whole music business equation. We’re loud and we swear so no one will play us on the radio so that was… out. We’re not pretty, we’re not going to styled and worked on so that was out. It was freeing. Essentially a group of ten people who all volunteered their time to make this music work. Some of those people are publicists, some are videographers, some are promoters… It’s a labour of love and it’ll keep us… broke. CASH needed to happen in order for us to present a sustainable alternative to the current construct. It requires you to dumb it down and pretty it up. I have a problem with both of those things.
BCR: I think anyone who likes music for music instead of what it looks like would agree.
Kristin Hersh: Exactly. There’s this untapped audience that actually prefers music to not be idiotic. And they have money. The only reason they don’t want to pay for music is because they know who makes the money.
BCR: For sure. I find it really disturbing that they make a CD for 2p and it sells for £16.
Kristin Hersh: Even the musicians that do get the money, you know for a fact that they're already rich. So it’s not that I’m particularly pro-musician in this case, I just have a problem with the whole construct, how it’s set up.
BCR: Do you see the music industry changing, in the States at least?
Kristin Hersh: Yeah, but I’m not sure what’s really fuelling it other than the disintegration of the industry. I’m not sure it’s the rebellion that it should be. It’s more that everybody’s lost their jobs. I think it was the New York Times that said recently, in two years time there will be no more record labels. And I thought, right on. The problem is that the first to go were the great labels, the young DIY labels. They’re finding answers but just like the small record stores were the first to go… the great labels were the first to die. And also the great musicians. So as much as I cheer on the death of the industry, I want music to be in the ether, if you know what I mean, I have to admit there’s… carnage.
