The Anti-Room is thrilled that singer, songwriter and guitarist Kristin Hersh is the first person to answer our new regular questionnaire. Hersh founded the much-loved band Throwing Muses in 1981 when she was just 14 years old. The band went on to release seven critically acclaimed albums until they called it a day in 1996; they reunited in 2003 to release another album. Since 1994, Hersh has released a string of dazzling solo albums; her latest project, Crooked, is a book of essays accompanied by an album.
What’s the first record you ever bought?
X’s “Wild Gift”
What’s your favourite smell?
Grass (and watermelon, but only if it smells like grass)
Have you ever had a nickname?
Cuckoo Bird
What is your favourite room in your house?
My kids’ room…it’s fun in there
What are your guilty pleasures?
Codeine, the “Hey, Vern, It’s Ernest” show, fishing with my seven-year-old
What would people be surprised to know about you?
People are often surprised that I’m goofy… which is weird, ’cause I’m *really* goofy
Who is your closest female friend?
My dog, Kitty
Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
No, I don’t want any distinguishing marks… in case I need to commit an important crime someday
Where would you most like to live?
Home… my hometown was bought up by rich people
Who was your first kiss and where did it happen?
I disappeared all the kisses before my husband: camping in the woods, covered in bug spray, too shy to kiss each other until almost dawn, our lips burning with Deet
What’s the most unusual question you’ve ever been asked?
A Spanish journalist once asked me why I play “fuck music.” He meant “folk music,” but I didn’t figure it out until much later. I don’t think I play either one, really…
What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?
I don’t know what it was, but I treasured it because my grandmother made it. It was shiny, donut-shaped and confusing. It could have been a hat…?
What is your favourite word?
Cellar stairs… I know that’s two words, but it’s so pretty
Who was your first love?
Speed Racer
If you weren’t doing what you do, what might you have become?
I was studying to become a herpetologist when my band was signed
What’s the most useful piece of advice you’ve been given?
Be nice
Is there a book you’ve bought several times as a gift for someone?
Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory”
What happens after we die?
We dream
What female historical figure do you admire most?
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Sum yourself up in three words:
A small person
And finally… What are you anti? What are you pro?
I don’t like preconceived notions. I haven’t found academics to be smarter than other people or fashion models to be more attractive than anyone else, for example. I guess that makes me pro-real. I like real.
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Kristin Hersh’s new album Crooked is published in book format by The Friday Project. She plays Whelan’s, Dublin tonight (Monday July 19th). Her memoir Rat Girl will be published in the U.S. in September. Its UK/international title is Paradoxical Undressing and it will be published in January 2011. For more information, visit www.kristinhersh.com
Awesome lady. Great answers. Esp liked the response to the pro/anti question.
What a super idea to release a book of essays with an album! Everytime I stumble across a singer or a musician I love, I want to know more about the person, what makes them twinkle. Loved her answers! Also with Colin above, the pro/anti is irrefragable (that’s a new word I stumbled across that sits as comfortable as a frog but means what it means). Will check out Kristin’s new album.
“I like real.” – possibly the most interestingly simple and affirming statement I will read all week. And I love the word “cellar” too! This Q&A is a great addition to Anti-Room
Pro real.
Brilliant, exactly what I feel too
Fantastic interview Sinead. Some really insightful questions in there. Well done.
What happens after we die? We dream…I think I’ve just found a new philosophy!
Love this new feature – I think the pro- and anti- question is an excellent way of putting the Anti-Room stamp on it, but also it is the most fun question to answer!
I loved the dream answer, but I am surprised by her admiration for Anne Morrow Lindbergh, perhaps I am wrong, or maybe just influences by _The Plot Against America_, but I thought she was a fascist.
great stuff, what a special and sweet lady. just been to see her at whelans, magnificent!
That’s a lovely Q&A. I was at her gig last night in Whelan’s. It was mesmerising.
Two obituaries for Anne Morrow Lindbergh
http://richgibson.com/lindbergh.htm
She seems to have been a quite lyrical writer, if you look on the web some of the quotes from her essays and memoirs are very beautiful. Her books included _Gift From the Sea_, a best selling meditation on women’s lives.
She did appear to share some of the unfortunate views expressed more forcefully by her husband and perhaps shared by her social class. In a letter in 1940 she wrote that Hitler was “a very great man, like an inspired religious leader — and as such rather fanatical — but not scheming, not selfish, not greedy for power.” On the other hand, one of her children reports that her mother said she had pleaded with Charles not to make his notorious anti-Semitic speech, she warned him he would be criticized for it.
The New York Times obituary is worth reading, it discusses this issue it what seems like an even handed way.
There are a number of famous female aviators from that period, Anne is a funny example to choose, her adventures are quite caught up in her husband’s, the Irish and British female aviators were more obviously independent and more clearly defiant of conventional gender roles. It would be interesting to read one of her books, perhaps _Gift from the Sea_, that might explain Kirstin Hirsh’s admiration, certainly the possibility she held fascist views and was sympathetic to Nazism makes her an odd choice of admired historical figure.
Excellent Q&A, well done. Saw her in Cork last night and am no longer surprised (but excessively delighted) that she’s goofy. She told a hilarious story about an old lady on a bus, and gave the most spine-chilling performance I’ve ever seen.
It was Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s poetic and forgiving nature I so admired. Her son was kidnapped and murdered, her husband showed white supremacist tendencies…that is a hard life. The poor woman tried to forgive *Hitler* for god’s sake. “Independence” takes a different shape in everyone; for her, it was letting children and seashells inform her sensibilities.
Thanks a million for the interesting and though-provoking reply; I felt bad about asking this question but I am really glad I did now.
Isn’t the C21 great! 20 years ago, when the _Throwing Muses_ eponymous album lived on my record player, I would have read this in a magazine and wondered about it and I would never have gotten an answer.