Punk rock icon and riot grrrl legend Kathleen Hanna—frontwoman of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and The Julie Ruin—sits down with NPR’s Ann Marie Baldonado to discuss her recent memoir, her music, and her life.
Highlights include her discussing her position as a leader in the feminist punk movement, her influence on how women in the scene are treated, her life as a mother (which she had previously been very private about), and her friendship with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain when they were just punks in Olympia, WA.
BALDONADO: I’d like for you to start by reading a passage from the beginning of your book, “Rebel Girl.”
HANNA: Sure. This is from the prologue.
(Reading) I want to tell you how I write songs and produce music, how singing makes me feel connected to a million miracles at once, how being on stage is the one place I feel the most me. But I can’t untangle all of that from the background that is male violence. I wish I could forget the guy who stalked me while I was making my solo record, how he sat on the roof of the building across from mine and looked into my windows with binoculars as I worked, how he told my neighbors he thought I was a prostitute who needed to be stopped. I wish I could slice him out of my story as a musician, but I can’t.
ON MOTHERHOOD:
HANNA: I asked my son, whose name is Julius – I said, Julius, you know, Mommy’s writing a book. Do you want to be in it? And he’s like, yeah, I better be. And so he’s in it. And it was – it felt really good to be able to write about being a parent because it’s a huge part of my life. You know, you learn a lot about who you are in the world by being a parent. And I think also, with the current political situation, how do we talk to our kids about this stuff? How do we educate, you know, fun, awesome, wild but good citizens.
So these are conversations I’m looking forward to having and not dreading. I didn’t want while I was actively promoting albums to have, you know, constantly, like, you know, you and Ad-Rock have a kid. That kid must be so cool. They must be so lucky. They must listen to Kraftwerk every day. You know, like, I just didn’t…
BALDONADO: (Laughter) Kraftwerk.
HANNA: I didn’t – my kid did listen to Kraftwerk, actually, for a while. And he told me in the kitchen one time, he’s like, Mom, I know more about Kraftwerk than you. And you know what I replied? Go to your room. And it felt so good. I was like, don’t childsplain (ph) Kraftwerk to me, toddler.
ON KURT COBAIN/NIRVANA:
HANNA: (cont.) …And I took out a sharpie marker, and I just wrote, like, Kurt smells like teen spirit because me and Tobi had been at a grocery store and seen this new deodorant called Smells Like Teen Spirit, and we were like, that’s hilarious. What does teen spirit smell like? Like, we were just, like, laughing at it.
BALDONADO: It was geared towards girls, too. It was, like, one of those…
HANNA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BALDONADO: …Products geared towards girls that, I guess…
HANNA: Yeah.
BALDONADO: …Smelled like bubble gum or something.
HANNA: I mean, note – it doesn’t smell like bubble gum.
BALDONADO: Oh.
HANNA: It smells like teen spirit.
Rebel girl, you are the queen of my world.
Please read and listen to the full article/interview! It’s amazing!
Source: NPR
Resubmitted with tags! Sorry.
