Since then the changes have been broad and sweeping: Kristin's halfsister Tanya Donelly (also a singer guitarist in the Muses) joined up with then Pixies bassist Kim Deal and played on Pod, The Breeders killer debut album. After that all hell broke loose. Muses bassist Leslie Langston left, The Pixies bitterly split and Donelly left both bands to form the equally wondrous Belly. Her replacement in The Breeders was Kim's identical twin and then novice guitarist Kelley. Whether she has an equally huge appetite for dak is unknown...
In 1992 Throwing Muses released their first post-Tanya album Red Heaven an earlier this year came the Kristin Hersh solo album Hips and Makers. As with the Muses musings, the songs on Hips and Makers are powerful and reflective exorcisms of what Kristin Hersh sees, feels, does and thinks. Sure, she might be an internationally respected musician, but there's also been a massive amount of mental stress and emotional upheavals that has dominated her life as well, that very few people would want. The songs have been the perfect release from this.
The other immediately noticeable thing about Hips is that it sure ain't no rock album. Instead it's minimum input, just some dazzingly simple and beautiful acoustic guitar songs, the occasional cello backdrop and most importantly Kristin Hersh's stark, angelic, ethereal voice. That voice, that voice, that voice.
After failing to see both Throwing Muses and Belly in Auckland last year I felt compelled to see her solo show in Wellington on June 22. (There would've been South Island shows, but she only had three days in the coutry including travelling in and out).
The venue in the capital was the Paramount Theatre, normally a fairly reasonable sized movie theatre. Hopeful of an interview I went went there in the afternoon. Walking up the stairs to the auditorium, it's obvious Kristin Hersh is sound-checking - I can hear her, but not see her. Once inside the auditorium itself, I take in half a song, before my awe-struck stat is interrupted by a familiar voice: "Hey Grant, how's it going". Like a corny scene from 'This is your life' I know who it is even before I see him. Paul McKessar, Flying Nun, um, person and Arsenal supporter is slouched on some nearby steps. I'm tempted to wind him up about how a friend in Hamilton's social cricket team beat the Flying Nun cricket team by one run off the last ball in a game back in summer (which pissed them off endlessly), but instead we just gossip about various people. He says an interview after sound-check is no worries. I exit delighted and go score a tape.
Half an hour later, Paul shows me through a small room behind the Paramount stage and informs me that Campbell Walker from Rip It Up and Real Groove mags is interviewing Kristin as well. That's cool by me. As it turns out Campbell Walker looks heaps like Nick Vendt, except with really long hair. (If you don't know Nick, you would've at least seen him around). We all introduce ourselves.
The first thing you notice about Kristin Hersh is not that her normally light blonde hair is dyed blacker than Nick Cave's, but how intense and full-on the whites of her eyes are. They're just so obvious, like little saucers. Her eyes are direct and glare strongly, but not in an unpleasant or uneasy manner, but in an honest and highly concentrated way. In her teens Kristin was wrongly misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. What she actually had was bi-polar disorder, which caused her to hear 'voices' in her head. This was succesfully overcome three years ago and Kristin starts of talking about how it relates to Hips.
"... that's the psycho-garbage I was talking about... sometimes I write songs now that are full of it, something will happen that I can't get out of my life and it'll come out in a song..." To Kristin her songs are cathartic, but in a positive sense, not the hackneyed gloom others flog. "Usually people think that's what songwriting is - which is unfortunate so we have all these records full of people that have just drained themselves of all this catharsis. It's just kinda awkward hearing music that's not more optimistic." According to the person that made it, Hips should also be seen as optimistic. "That's only for people that don't recognise the real happy stuff (considering it depressing) in life, the real high stuff. Y'know, they think this is a melancholy record, aor an angry record, because any high hard, acquired emotion has got to be (Kristin starts laughing) anger, fear, jealousy, sadness, depression, y'know, all those words they have to it." They also misinterpret the songs' slants. "The serious stuff sounds sad to them, because I take love seriously. They think 'Oh she must be depressed about it', but I'm not."
The forthcoming Throwing Muses album University was recorded earlier this year in New Orleans, a city some argue as being much more violent and dangerous than LA or NYC. According to Kristin "LA is deceptively dangerous, it's so clean and tidy and landscaped that you're convinced you're going to be shot any minute, or that it'll never happen - and the people that kill you there are like (wait for it) clowns! A nervous giggle follows. "When we were living there was a clown killer that'd ring your doorbell and shoot you to death." There's another peel of manic cackling and Kristin Hersh continues on her roll. "There's also jeep torturers (?) who come and set fire to jeeps (more laughter) and stuff like that. In New York they just take your money - but they give you the cab fare to get home! It's like, their job." Things are even more desperate in the Mississippi delta. "In New Orleans it's a racially tense-drug thing. There's a lot of poverty, like real bad neighbourhoods." The Big Easy movie gives a vague impression of what it must be like. "I haven't seen it, but part of it was filmed in our house," Kristin says as a dash of trivia. It's a good movie I reckon. "That's what I hear - it's a good kitchen!" Kristin responds, amidst yet more short bursts of laughing.
Apart from Hersh herself the only other constant in Throwing Muses has been the conspiciously low profile drummer David Narcizo. "He's the nicest person on the planet. We started playing music when we were 16 and we've been friends since we were about eight, ha, ha, ha. Is that a good answer? Now he's building a dog house - he's been building a dog house for about six months straight. It's really special - there's Virgin Marys and Christmas lights. It's beautiful, little trees all over it." Does the dog like it? Wlker wonders. "No, no dog in it's right mind would want to love in it!" Kristin splutters.
After completing University Kristin and her manager/husband Billy O'Conell relocated to Rhode Island, NY, where both Narcizo and Tanya Donelly also reside. Despite being related, various personal differences led to difficulties, that have since been dealt to. "We realised that we thought we were so close, but really we were just spending a lot of time together because we had the same job in the same band" Kristin remembers. After belly formed "... we suddenly realised that being in different bands we didn't see each other for six months. So now we make a real effort, after lots of late night phone calls from our hotel rooms. Now everybody's back home (Rhode Island) we have cook outs and stuff, ha ha ha ha."
Thankfully there was no actual falling out between the two, just a realisation that different directions were needed, as Kristin elaborates. "She's always written popsongs and likes photo shoots... and I can't really bear that stuff - it was good that I had Tanya in the band doing it (more laughing) because she would take care of all the photo shoots and I wouldn't have to deal with it or anything, or the pop side. But I think it's good that we got the three careers out of the one band. We're more interested in the family than in the music business, so we don't really talk about it."
There's no love lost between Kristin Hersh and the music 'business' nor as it turns out with the American family court system. After Tanya Donelly left the Muses Kristin avoided the business for 15 months; at about the same time her former husband was granted custody of their eight year old son Dylan (irrespective of the fact domestic violence had occurred). Kristin and Billy also have a three year old son, Ryder. "That's why I quit the business for as long as I could, at the same time I had really bad stuff happen to me in the music business. I hate the music business, it destroyed me for a long time" Kristin says, not bitterly, or coldly, but with a thank-God-I-survived vibe. She knows she's one less victim of the monster. "I have as many highs and lows in my personal life as I do in my professional life - like in any working parent" Kristin continues. "When I'm home I have Dylan half the week like anybody would. They (the US family court system) just can't take into account the fact that I travel. They're not real liberated as far as working mothers go anyway and the fact that I'm not always there. They make stuff real hard for my family."
Inadvertently, Dylan's school class also made things hard as the following great anecdote from Kristin shows: "I took Dylan cup cakes at school on his birthday. It was weird, second graders are so fucked. When I came in - like they know who I am - they started going (puts on whiny kid's voice) "Are you Dylan's mummy?" - like they were told to say (goes drony) 'Good afternoon Mrs O'Conell' - that's my married name. So they said that, then they started going (back in kid's voise) "Are you the mummy with the CD? Are you gonna sing some songs for us today?" So I was staning there holding cup cakes going 'No children, don't say that any more.' When they found out I wasn't going to sing they started to sing and literally didn't stop for 45 minutes - I just left. Dylan was pretending to shoot himself in the head and writing 'STOP' on paper and holding it up."
The family court system is once again slated by Kristin, before, showing superb taste, she raves about Harvest cider, how Raising Arizona is her favourite movie ("it's perfect") and The Spimpsons her favourite TV programme, before talking about the perils of the music business. "As long as you keep your eyes open and know how to take care of yourself it's ok. But it's hard and most of the time there's more drugs to eat than food, so you can get into a viscous circle that's not in touch with real life and the way people talk to and treat you is different and you have to keep very clear of it and spend time with good people that treat you like normal and stuff like that. You just can't do too much of it (the rock lifestyle), it makes you sick and a burden on your kids and stuff like that. After 10 years you learn all about it..."
"I remember you well, The Chelsea Hotel... and all that jiving around..." - Leonard Cohen, 'Chelsea Hotel No.2".
The worst thing that has happened to Kristin Hersh in the past year involved doing a photo shoot for mega US music mag Spin. It seemed like a nightmare just hearing about it. The reality was even worse. "I was supposed to do this thing called a 'Rock 'n' Roll Wedding', it's a six page fashion shoot in Spin (a disgusted look appears on Kristin's face), I was supposed to marry John Stewart the comedian - he's like David Letterman. He's ok, I just thought "as long as I don't get fuckin' Evan Dando or someone." He had to retape his show all day, so they (Spin) said "Don't worry Kristin, we'll get an ultra hip male" and I'm like "Oh no! Billy, I don't know..."
Nonetheless, Kristin is philosophical about such compromises. "I'll so that stuff if it's going to sell records because I'm not selling a bad record. If I'm tricking people into buying a good record, then obviously they're buying a good record. So I'll shame myself, I don't care." The ultra hip male chosen was "the guy from Possum Dixon, a hip LA band and he was great, a real sweet LA kid, he was fine. Then we had to meet the people who were running the photo shoot and it was absolute hell. Y'know the girlfriend in Spinal Tap, with the cowboy hat and everything? It was her but 10 years and a few addictions later, kinda like brain dead and her hair's all bleached out and she's dressed (Kristin says the next few words bitterly) grunge with a capital G and the photographer is this chain smoking Italian woman who is going (puts on fake Italian accent) "You are not looking to me like the wedding bride of someone, you are looking more like ex-girlfriend who fucks the groom before the wedding and then smokes cigarettes through the ceremony, ah, ha, ha, harrrr! I was going "Billy, oh no!" To make things even worse, Tanya Donelly was in the photoshoot in the same issue wearing underwear and children's clothes. Kristin's costume was equally horrific. "They wanted me to look like white trash. My 'wedding dress' - which was what they called it - was a suede bikini top with little triangles to go on your nipples if you're well endowed, which I'm not, and these lacy panties with the word 'bride' written in rhinestone on the crotch. So I'm standing there with the poor Possum Dixon kid thinking 'professional musician, professional musician' and the poor kid, they squeezed him into an aqua-marine tuxedo and spiked up his hair, so he looked as bad as I did. We're in this seedy New York hotel (The Chelsea Hotel, where the poet Dylan Thomas once lived and Sid Vicious murdered Nancy Spungeon) and Billy just shook his head (at the costume) and said, "We gotta go." This Possum Dixon kid was going, "No, no, don't leave me here!" A model took Kristin's place, but this still didn't prevent Spin from having a story. "It was all about how I'm out of my fucking mind," Kristin recalls amidst yet more hoots of laughter.
A small discussion on the various Muses albums ensues with Kristin revealing that Hunkpapa is her least favourite, while House Tornado and Red Heaven are the best. Kristin's also a fan of lte 70s, early 80s Boston act Mission of Burma who Bob Mould has cited as a major influence and R.E.M. have covered their 'Academy Fight Song' and 'Anti Aircraft Warning'. After Burma drummer Peter Prescott formed Volcano Suns, whose 'Jak' Throwing Muses covered on the 1992 'Firepile' EP. It's time for me to score some major cred points and reveal that I too am a long time Suns fan. "You are?" Kristin exclaims. "Where did you get into the Volcano Suns?" Um, I've got all their albums. "No way" Kristin continues in disbelief. "I've been pushing the Volcano Suns for, like, my whole life, they were the first grunge band - as far as I'm concerned." I tell Kristin I'm delighted 'Jak' got covered. "Yeah, yeah" she screams gleefully. "They went beyond Husker Du, that's the band that should have been big, not Nirvana." I then get asked which was the first Volcano Suns album I owned, which was Bumper Crop "Really? You fucker!" Kristin yells astoundedly, before asking me which is the one with 'White Elephant' on it. Easy, it's Bright Orange Years, oops, I mean All Night Lotus Party. "Yes, you fucker!" Kristin gushes, just as Paul McKessar comes in and says "I come in here and she's abusing you," causing everyone to go into hoots. There's a bit more enthusing about Burma and the Suns and what the respective members are doing these days, before the ugly spectre of the blatantly sexist and generally conservative state of US radio is outlined.
"There are stations in America that wouldn't play 'Your Ghost' (the single from Hips) because they were playing too many women's songs. They wouldn't play Liz Phair ever. They play Tori Amos because she's faggy and stupid, they would never play P.J. Harvey even though she's faggy and stupid. They play Tori Amos and (screwing her face up in disgust) Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs) and that's too many women. (Getting angry). They could never say they played too many blacks, but they are allowed to say 'Kristin Hersh? No, but if Kristin was playing in a rock band then it wouldn't be women's music anymore' - what do they think I've been doing for the past 10 years?"
For the past 10 years Kristin Hersh has been creating evocative songs, releasing some astounding albums and giving genuinely moving live performances, both with Throwing Muses and solo. Anyone that's met Kristin or seen her live will also realise that she's far from the kooky loon that the media blab on about. If anyone's a kook it's her father who 'has taken more acid than has ever existed' and claims to see 12 foot long frogs while tripping.
The concert itself saw Kristin play Hips and Makers, some Muses material and 'Amazing Grace'. Kristin's fundamentalist Grandma claims she'll burn in hell for destroying the religious standard. Interspersing the songs were snippets relating to her hippy parents, her college days and her son Ryder's rather zen philosophy "Mummy, sometimes you're sad and then you're happy, then you're sad, then you're happy" and his favourite joke "big fat dog butt." I'm glad, no actually I'm thrilled I saw it.
When all's said and done, Kristin Hersh pukes, drinks, goes shopping, pays the telephone bill and hangs out with her friends just like anyone else. It's just that Kristin Hersh is also an inspiring and undoubtedly unique musician.
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