Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is an American singer-songwriter from Atlanta, born in 1966 and raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She is the lead singer and guitarist in Throwing Muses and also performs with the power trio 50 Foot Wave. Her work is associated with indie and alternative rock, and her labels include 4AD and CASH Music.

Early life and formation of Throwing Muses

Born Martha Kristin Hersh, she learns guitar at the age of nine from her father and starts writing songs soon after. As a teenager in the early 1980s, she forms Throwing Muses with her stepsister Tanya Donelly and other high school friends, later joined by bassist Leslie Langston and drummer David Narcizo. Her early musical influences include The Raincoats, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü, Velvet Underground, R.E.M. and X, while her parents’ record collection also shapes her listening.

Throwing Muses and solo work

In Throwing Muses, Hersh writes most of the songs and sings in changing tempos, alongside Donelly’s own vocals and writing on some material. The band signs to 4AD in 1986 and then to Sire/Reprise in the United States after one album. It tours in the United States and Europe and records a run of critically regarded albums. After Donelly leaves following The Real Ramona, the group continues as a trio.

Hersh begins a solo career in 1994 with Hips and Makers, an acoustic album built around vocals, guitar and cello. Michael Stipe appears on that record. In 1995, Throwing Muses’ University brings her wider media attention, and she later moves to Rykodisc for the 1996 Throwing Muses album Limbo and the 1998 solo album Strange Angels. Her 2001 solo album Sunny Border Blue features her playing nearly all instruments.

50 Foot Wave and other projects

In 2003, Hersh forms 50 Foot Wave when David Narcizo is unable to tour full-time. The group is described as a hardcore punk-influenced power trio. Her other collaborative and live work includes appearances with Vic Chesnutt, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Grant Lee Phillips and John Doe. In 1999, she also takes part in David Narcizo’s Lakuna project album Castle of Crime.

Independent release work and CASH Music

In 1996, Hersh creates the ThrowingMusic label with husband and manager Billy O’Connell to better control the release of her recordings. Through it, she co-releases related projects and runs Works in Progress, a download subscription service hosted on her website. In 2007, she helps launch CASH Music, a non-profit, open-source software project for recording artists. That platform later carries releases including Power+Light by 50 Foot Wave, and her releases Speedbath and Crooked are issued through a subscriber-based, direct-to-consumer model. Crooked is also presented in book form with essays and download access.

Writing, covers and memoir

Hersh writes and illustrates a children’s book called Toby Snax. She also records cover versions including the Pixies’ “Wave of Mutilation” for an American Laundromat Records film tribute and Neil Young’s “Like a Hurricane” for a charity compilation. Her memoir Rat Girl is published in 2010 and covers the period from early 1985 through early 1986; the UK edition is titled Paradoxical Undressing. She is also the author of a memoir of the early stages of Throwing Muses, and her book touches on the meaning behind many of her songs.

Songwriting and style

Hersh’s writing is known for varied tempos, strong chords, sonic treatments and a voice that moves from gentle melody to intense screaming. Her lyrics often use impressionistic or hallucinatory imagery to address everyday emotions and changing mental states. Songs in her catalogue deal with childbirth, love, surreal scenes, death, emotional anguish, loss of custody of her first son and the end of relationships. She often uses recurring images such as apples, water, diamonds, eyes, the sea, snow, ice, rain, fire, the sun, parking lots, sand and cowboys, and sometimes draws on historical figures such as Ellen West as metaphors.