The alt-rock veteran answers your questions on Buddhist time travel techniques, duetting with Michael Stipe, and her autobiographical new album<\/p>\n
Do you think Throwing Muses would have sounded different were it not for your bicycle accident? [Hersh was struck by a car when she was 16, resulting in a concussion that changed the way she heard sound.] Bhafc99Yes. I think people might have liked us more, but we would have been more forgettable. Our songs were not very marketable. They came from a place of such utter honesty that it was difficult for us to become a band with an image, ambition or direction, which plays well on a human level, but not on a corporate one. Some people hate our music; they can\u2019t deal with it because it\u2019s triggering [emotionally], which I get.<\/p>\n
I was compelled to make music after cracking my skull open and then my life was very upsetting. But at the same time, I had real listeners. If you happen to come across a song that resonates with you, then it\u2019s yours \u2013 you can ignore the musician who played it, because they were just the messenger.<\/p>\n
Your guitar sound and playing is so distinctive, creative and superb \u2013 do you have an influence or hero who has inspired or guided you? GoonergeofNobody. We started the Muses when I was 11, so I didn\u2019t have time to invent a sonic vocabulary. I wish my music could be that palatable. I think there\u2019s a place where music can touch people and not be off-putting, but I couldn\u2019t engage in that way.<\/p>\n
But I babysat for this music critic and, every time I put his kids to bed, I was allowed to sit in his office and listen to records that hadn\u2019t been released. One was the Violent Femmes\u2019 first album [in 1983]. I remember the music critic told me that the boy in the band was \u201cthe male me\u201d and I admit when I heard it I was like: \u201cHe\u2019s right!\u201d They had this simple, percussive and raw sound that was very effective. [Singer] Gordon Gano sat in his adolescent-boy self and was just being very honest. That first record is a reminder that we\u2019re all attracted to that sweet spot where we seem to be in enthusiastic agony. And it turns out to be a party!<\/p>\n
What was the inspiration behind the song Counting Backwards? _Tiana_Time-tripping! I was raised Buddhist by hippy parents and I never thought I was made for letting go of the past, which any therapist will tell you is really unhealthy! But I felt very strongly that I could alter the present by altering the past in a dream state. And that it has to be done with kindness.<\/p>\n
I am curious why Leslie Langston left Throwing Muses between Hunkpapa [1989] and The Real Ramona [1991]. What happened? Androo1984She has a health issue with her skin where she couldn\u2019t play bass for decades. She didn\u2019t play on The Real Ramona, but then she came back for our next record, Red Heaven. Leslie ended up moving to the west coast and didn\u2019t want to tour, so Bernard [Georges] came in. Leslie\u2019s just now starting to play bass again and she almost played on the last record. She\u2019s a social worker and my hero; we spend a lot of time thanking each other for being on Earth. I lean on her \u2013 she\u2019s one of my favourite people.<\/p>\n
Any chance of you working with [her step-sister and Throwing Muses co-founder] Tanya Donelly again? ChrisOwensYes \u2013 she was on tour with us a couple of years ago. She sang on the second self-titled Muses record [2003]. And my son Ryder just stayed at her house when he flew into Boston. All doors are open: anybody who is in the musical moment with me is allowed in, but it\u2019s a big ask. No one\u2019s ever left the Throwing Muses, it\u2019s more like: \u201cYou feel like playing? OK, let\u2019s do it!\u201d<\/p>\n
I supported you in Dublin in 2001 and you said I reminded you of Frank Black. Have you seen Frank lately? PaulOReillyThe first time I heard the Pixies was when we were in soundcheck. A painter friend was at the bar and he said: \u201cYou should listen to this band,\u201d which I would never normally do. I thought Charles [Thompson, AKA Frank Black] was a woman at first. I thought she was so cool \u2013 she had a shaved head and was singing about her dick. I was like: \u201cShe rocks!\u201d<\/p>\n
But I forgave him for not being a girl and then I said: \u201cI\u2019m never letting go of you. You\u2019re playing all of our shows with us, and here\u2019s my manager, and here\u2019s my label, and you\u2019re coming on tour, and we\u2019re gonna make all of this happen.\u201d I did it for selfish reasons, because I wanted to hear them the whole time and I didn\u2019t want to be alone any more. That relationship lasted for years. Charles once drew a pie chart on the wall of a dressing room and said: \u201cThis is a Throwing Muses song.\u201d It was a moment where I forgave myself for carrying my musical treasure into the hurricane of the music biz.<\/p>\n
Your Ghost [from her debut solo album, featuring REM\u2019s Michael Stipe] is one of the most gorgeous songs I have ever heard \u2013 two unique voices coming together on such a haunting duet. Was it written with Michael Stipe in mind and are you still in contact? Frou1967I wasn\u2019t ever going to have a solo career; I wasn\u2019t interested. But I had to get off Warner Brothers and breaking up the band wasn\u2019t going to work. [In order to fulfil the recording contract, she was required to make another album.] I had this tape of leftover acoustic songs and Michael Stipe picked it up. He called me up and said: \u201cI love this tape.\u201d He knew I was going to fuck up the recording of it because I didn\u2019t care. He called the studio as I was having trouble recording Your Ghost and I realised I needed his voice on it.<\/p>\n
Not too long ago, I was in New York playing a solo show and he was in the audience and I didn\u2019t know. When I was playing Your Ghost, apparently he was in the back singing his parts and freaking out all the people around him. But I didn\u2019t know!<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve been prolific over the past decade. Is it safe to assume your EMDR nightmare is over? [Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing is a psychotherapy technique that Hersh used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and a dissociative disorder.] JosephKyleMy life has been so very difficult; my whole system was just confused. I reacted to the real [PTSD] triggers by passing out, vomiting and screaming. My band members knew to protect me from my triggers, but that\u2019s hard in life. Thanks to EMDR, I can still play music, which I didn\u2019t think I would be able to. I wouldn\u2019t recommend it for everyone. EMDR is like psychological chemo. I would collapse every time I did it. And then you can\u2019t stop it \u2013 it\u2019s like a snowballing process, where all the pain you dissociated from comes back to you at once.<\/p>\n
Your upcoming album, Sugar on Blackstone, has such an evocative title. Where did it come from? VerulamiumParkRangerMaking this album, I was back in my home town of Providence, Rhode Island, living in a street called Hope. It\u2019s off a street called Blackstone, which has this intense path on it that\u2019s like this ship of lost souls. So I had \u201cHope\u201d on the one side and the ship of lost souls on the other. These songs are autobiographical. They are very old stories from childhood, some of them dating back to the 1970s. There is one [Dark Eyed Junco] about me and my little brother, how we were scared to go home because our stepfather was there. So we just played basketball until we couldn\u2019t any more. The song is about how the feel of the basketball is more important than getting it in the hoop. I don\u2019t even want to aim for the hoop.<\/p>\n
Sugar on Blackstone is released on 18 September via Fire<\/p>\n