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6 hours ago
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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.] Bhafc99
Yes. 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’t deal with it because it’s triggering [emotionally], which I get.
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’s yours – you can ignore the musician who played it, because they were just the messenger.
Your guitar sound and playing is so distinctive, creative and superb – do you have an influence or hero who has inspired or guided you? Goonergeof
Nobody. We started the Muses when I was 11, so I didn’t have time to invent a sonic vocabulary. I wish my music could be that palatable. I think there’s a place where music can touch people and not be off-putting, but I couldn’t engage in that way.
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’t been released. One was the Violent Femmes’ first album [in 1983]. I remember the music critic told me that the boy in the band was “the male me” and I admit when I heard it I was like: “He’s right!” 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’re all attracted to that sweet spot where we seem to be in enthusiastic agony. And it turns out to be a party!
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.
I am curious why Leslie Langston left Throwing Muses between Hunkpapa [1989] and The Real Ramona [1991]. What happened? Androo1984
She has a health issue with her skin where she couldn’t play bass for decades. She didn’t 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’t want to tour, so Bernard [Georges] came in. Leslie’s just now starting to play bass again and she almost played on the last record. She’s a social worker and my hero; we spend a lot of time thanking each other for being on Earth. I lean on her – she’s one of my favourite people.
Any chance of you working with [her step-sister and Throwing Muses co-founder] Tanya Donelly again? ChrisOwens
Yes – 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’s a big ask. No one’s ever left the Throwing Muses, it’s more like: “You feel like playing? OK, let’s do it!”
I supported you in Dublin in 2001 and you said I reminded you of Frank Black. Have you seen Frank lately? PaulOReilly
The first time I heard the Pixies was when we were in soundcheck. A painter friend was at the bar and he said: “You should listen to this band,” which I would never normally do. I thought Charles [Thompson, AKA Frank Black] was a woman at first. I thought she was so cool – she had a shaved head and was singing about her dick. I was like: “She rocks!”
But I forgave him for not being a girl and then I said: “I’m never letting go of you. You’re playing all of our shows with us, and here’s my manager, and here’s my label, and you’re coming on tour, and we’re gonna make all of this happen.” I did it for selfish reasons, because I wanted to hear them the whole time and I didn’t 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: “This is a Throwing Muses song.” It was a moment where I forgave myself for carrying my musical treasure into the hurricane of the music biz.
Your Ghost [from her debut solo album, featuring REM’s Michael Stipe] is one of the most gorgeous songs I have ever heard – two unique voices coming together on such a haunting duet. Was it written with Michael Stipe in mind and are you still in contact? Frou1967
I wasn’t ever going to have a solo career; I wasn’t interested. But I had to get off Warner Brothers and breaking up the band wasn’t 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: “I love this tape.” He knew I was going to fuck up the recording of it because I didn’t care. He called the studio as I was having trouble recording Your Ghost and I realised I needed his voice on it.
Not too long ago, I was in New York playing a solo show and he was in the audience and I didn’t 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’t know!
You’ve 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.] JosephKyle
My 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’s hard in life. Thanks to EMDR, I can still play music, which I didn’t think I would be able to. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. EMDR is like psychological chemo. I would collapse every time I did it. And then you can’t stop it – it’s like a snowballing process, where all the pain you dissociated from comes back to you at once.
Your upcoming album, Sugar on Blackstone, has such an evocative title. Where did it come from? VerulamiumParkRanger
Making this album, I was back in my home town of Providence, Rhode Island, living in a street called Hope. It’s off a street called Blackstone, which has this intense path on it that’s like this ship of lost souls. So I had “Hope” 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’t any more. The song is about how the feel of the basketball is more important than getting it in the hoop. I don’t even want to aim for the hoop.
