Kristin Hersh - Under The Gun

"Learn to Sing Like a Star was a strikingly inane piece of email spam I kept receiving," Kristin Hersh reveals, in reference to the title of her latest solo album. "I assume it was some American Idol crap telling me I needed to learn how to sing, which is probably true, but it hurt my feelings anyway! I saw it so many times that the syllables became meaningless and that's when things get beautiful to me. It began to sound like Dr. Suess or Madaleine L'Engle: 'singing like stars'."

Hersh has been a visible talent since the early '80s when, as a teenage whippersnapper, she founded Throwing Muses with her step-sister, Tanya Donelly (later of Breeders fame). Her songwriting, prolific as it is, has always been marked with a keen sense of self, though Hersh bristles at the very notion. "It always bothered me when my work was described as 'emotional turmoil', etc. I think musical noise is such a celebration that it can take ugly subject matter and make it beautiful. Not that songs only choose ugliness to talk about, but they don't seem to make a judgment call when it comes to subject matter. They work within a logical construct of intensity, so a song's impression of happiness will often be noisy and excited."

"The songs are technically autobiographical, in that they use my life stories and emotions to make their own point, but I don't feel like the result is only about me. I've spent the last 20 years listening, really. Trying to shut up so I can hear what the song has to say. I try to do any "self expression" I need to on my own time, in other words, so that songs can make their point without me getting in the way. My husband Billy says that I bare my throat saying 'see what we're like?'"

The Skinny enquires: would people be forgiven for thinking you're an intense kind of girl, it certainly appears that way when you perform live? "Hey, really I am so nice! I wouldn't want to hang out with somebody who acted like that in real life, would you? I don't believe my stage presence is an aspect of my personality, but rather, what I need to be in order for the song to come through. Playing music is really intense for me".

Hersh, it appears, is hooked on this intensity. As soon as she has completed touring her solo album, it's back to work on new records from Throwing Muses and her punk-pop trio 50 Foot Wave, formed in 2003. A Throwing Muses record is the perfect opportunity to catch up with Tanya. "If the Muses aren't working, we gotta think up some other way to get together. Tanya and I will always be close. We call ourselves the "step twins" because people mistake us not just for sisters, but twins, even though we aren't related by blood. We had to go our separate ways for that very reason - we were wildly dependent on each other, she literally did most of my talking for me!