An Interview with Kristin Hersh

Three years ago I had a great conversation with Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. The following resonated with me:

They thought we were from outer space and that's strange for people who are being authentic. You shouldn’t really be called strange if you’re only telling the truth and not adopting anything false. It was a little disheartening for us to keep pointing out that three of us were female and we were young. It seemed so beside the point to us. Young to us just meant stupid, ignorant, or wait til you grow up and then we'll listen to your band. And female, my god, I really just don’t believe that male and female people are different. I don’t buy into gender segregation in anyway. I just can't come up with a single character trait I would attribute solely to one sex or the another, so I just threw it our the window and I assumed that anybody of any gender, race, persuasion, age even would be able to listen to a song that was honest. It should be coming from your humanity and should be received that way. Ultimately that is what happened. My audience now is a wide cross section of people. That’s as it should be. It's a high honor to not be associated with straight white female cause that’s what I am... in my age group because I have no describable demographic, which I think is very moving. I appreciate that. I would've appreciated it when we were teenagers I just didn’t get it for a few years. - Kristin Hersh on the reaction Throwing Muses received when she started the band at 14

Hersh currently has an inspiring memoir called "Rat Girl" out that is highly recommended.