I know you’re very much a live performer. How do you take the energy from a live show and bring that into the studio?
That’s always a hard thing to do. I know fans of Bitch & Animal were always craving a live recording of us because there’s a certain back & forth that is hard to capture on a CD. Although I am sitting on a recording of a live show that I will release at some point.With this record, June Millington produced it. When I came to her with the record, there were some songs that I didn’t know quite how they were going to be formed. I wasn’t quite sure of the arrangements. Some of them were just poems. The title track, “Make This/Break This,” when I recorded that song I had literally just finished writing it. It was a piece that had been floating around in my journal for a long time. But when I went to record it, I had never sang it before. I think that lends itself to a certain vulnerability. I knew what the melody of the chorus was going to be, but there’s a middle section which is a long verse, it’s a long complicated poem and I have never sang it before and June just hit record and said, “Sing it.” It was the first take that we took. I think it’s important in the studio to let yourself be vulnerable. Almost like you’re telling somebody a secret.
Tell me about your new record: Make This/Break This.
I’d like to talk about the last track on the record. I made it from answering machine messages left to me by my friends while I was recording. That’s the only song on the album that I made totally on my own. This record for me was a real huge culmination of support. It took me three years to make that record. I started it before I left Animal. I started it as a necessity, I needed to express myself in some other way. Making this record was an experiment in looking around and seeing that I had all this support and people who love me and these really good friends. I never thought of myself as someone who was bestowed with a shitload of friends, but I realized wow, there’s so much love in my world.So I took all these messages from my friends and made it into a song. It was a testimony to myself. It was like this song was reminding myself of who I was. That was going to be the secret bonus track, but I was so proud of that song I made it the last track on the album.
That reminds me, why is “Pussy Manifesto” a secret track on your first album?
I want to make a new version of that song. It’s a secret bonus track because when I first wrote it, I didn’t think of it as a song. It was a book or a declaration to me. When we were in the studio, both Animal and the guy we were recording with were said, you have to record that song. And I said, it’s not a song, it’s a book. But they forced me to record it. I think I just felt shy about it.Do you feel like you get marginalized for being so out as queer and so feminist?
Yes, no question.And?
So, fuck 'em. What am I going to do? It’s not an option for me to go in the closet. This album is very outwardly feminist. And it’s interesting, for a lot of the songs I was in love with this trans guy. Before I met Daniela I was crushed out on this trans guy, so a lot of the songs you could probably think I’m a straight chick.Do you get shit from the trans community for playing at Michigan?
Yes, from parts of the trans community. People who think there aren’t trans people at Michigan are so fucked up. If someone tries to tell me [Michigan] is transphobic, I tell them to stuff it. There’s so many trannies there. And it’s not trans people being marginalized. It’s people who were born as men. The festival is for people who suffered a girlhood. That’s all it is. They’re not trying to redefine what women are. I think it’s really ironic, I don’t see nearly as much activism around all male gatherings. I’m sure everybody over at Camp Trans are not protesting all the all-male gatherings that happen all over the country all the time. It is so the patriarchy. I’m so over it. I think it’s totally the patriarchy and it’s complete ageism.How so?
Because going to Michigan is like going to another country. These visionaries set up Michigan for six f**king days out of the year. It’s not like they’re trying to make a city. They want to have a party with only these kinds of people. They’re our elders. They had a vision. When I was younger, I had a stereotype of what an older lesbian was. I thought they were nerdy, wearing purple all the time and walking around with their hand drum that they can’t play. And then when I went there I had my mind blown by what an intellectual, what a survivalist community it was. If my elders want to say for these six days only these kinds of women can come, then I need to respect that. It is so against our nature to respect women for having boundaries. I think that’s exactly what’s happening.I had the same experiences as a white girl at Michigan. I felt blown away that I couldn’t go to the women of color events. I felt very entitled about it and very pissed off. And then I had to be schooled about it. I met this Black woman at a meeting and I told her I wanted to go to that, I feel it would educate me to be less racist. And she said sometimes people need to section off and they need to be with people who’ve had similar experiences so they can come out into the bigger community and be stronger people. I really had to respect that.
When me and Animal were on the scene, the three bands that people were going after were Bitch & Animal, The Butchies and Le Tigre. Ironically enough, the three bands that all have trans people in them, calling us transphobic. When I think of all of the girl energy/the raised female energy going into protesting that event when they could be getting the education of a lifetime and coming out into the bigger world and being such amazing trans activists. I would never go to a Black Women only event and demand that I be let in. I support us respecting our elders’ boundaries.
