Early life
Born in Atlanta as Martha Kristin Hersh, she was raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She learned guitar at age nine from her father, and started writing songs soon after. As a teenager, she formed Throwing Muses in the early 1980s with stepsister Tanya Donelly and other high school friends that were subsequently replaced by bassist Leslie Langston and drummer David Narcizo.
Hersh has listed among her early musical influences The Raincoats, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü, Velvet Underground, R.E.M., and X. She has said her parents' albums by Patti Smith, the Carter Family, Stevie Wonder, Robert Johnson, Talking Heads, The Clash, Steve Miller, The Beatles, Philip Glass, and traditional music influenced her when she was growing up.
Throwing Muses and early solo work
Hersh began singing and writing most of Throwing Muses' songs in changing tempos, with Donelly also singing and writing some of the songs. Early in the band's career, Hersh became friends with classic star Betty Hutton while both were students at Salve Regina University. Hutton attended several Throwing Muses concerts.
The group was signed by the British 4AD Records label in 1986 and, after one album, signed a U.S. deal with Sire/Reprise Records in 1987. They began touring around the U.S. and Europe while recording critically acclaimed rock albums, with Hersh writing most of the songs.
Throwing Muses became a trio when Donelly left the group after 1991's well received The Real Ramona. In 1994, Hersh began an additional career on Sire/Reprise and 4AD as an acoustic solo performer, beginning with Hips and Makers, an album sparely arranged around her vocals, guitar, and a cellist, in contrast to the volatile, electric sound of her band work. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. made an appearance on this first solo album.
Hersh's solo songwriting style focuses some of the relationship subject matter on her family. While Hersh's work reflects her personal experience, she has said that she writes from a point of view outside of her personality. Stating that "songwriting is about shutting up instead of talking", Hersh has said that songs that appeal to her are those that "say things that I don't know yet and tell stories I may not have lived yet".
The New York Times pointed to Hersh's explorations of "rage, aggression and mental chaos" as evidence that there were at least a few female rock music artists by the early 1990s pushing against gender role boundaries to express "more than simply vulnerability or defiance" in their work.
Hersh, whose early publicity at times portrayed her as a tortured artist "channeling" her songs from her psyche, has mentioned that the "angry young woman" fascination of some writers in reviewing the work of female performers has at times led to cartoonish stereotypes, rather than three-dimensional portraits respecting their intelligence. By the mid-1990s, journalists acknowledged that the breadth of her "fierce, quirky, and imaginative" lyrical style included explorations of "emotional and physical love" combined with "elliptical puzzlement".
After receiving some airplay and major media coverage for Throwing Muses album University in 1995, Hersh moved to Rykodisc for her 1996 Throwing Muses album, Limbo, and her 1998 solo album, Strange Angels. In order to better control her career and the distribution of her recorded material she created the ThrowingMusic label with husband/manager Billy O'Connell in 1996. This enabled her to co-release certain Hersh-related projects, including an ongoing download subscription service called Works in Progress (WIP) for releases available only through the Kristin Hersh website; which serves as a "listener powered" gateway to all of her projects.
Later career
In 1999, Hersh also participated in Throwing Muses drummer David Narcizo's Lakuna solo project album release, Castle of Crime.
In 2001, she released the Sunny Border Blue solo album, on which she again played nearly all instruments. She has described this album as having even more intensity than her previous works, as she continued her pursuit of songwriting as being in part a way to transform "ugly feelings" into art.
Hersh's recorded and live performances in recent years have occasionally included appearances with like-minded alternative artists like Vic Chesnutt, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Grant Lee Phillips, and John Doe.
In 2003, she released The Grotto, an acoustic solo album of song sketches with personal lyrics set in Providence, Rhode Island, with Andrew Bird on violin and Howe Gelb on piano. On the same date a self-titled album by her Throwing Muses group was also released, the first since Limbo. Both were recorded at Steve Rizzo's studio in Rhode Island.
Also in 2003, she formed a power rock trio 50 Foot Wave, when Narcizo was unable to tour on a full-time basis due to other commitments. Her touring appearances and recording efforts in 2004 and 2005 centered around both 50 Foot Wave and her solo career.
In 2005, Hersh recorded a cover version of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" for American Laundromat Records 80's film tribute.
In January 2007, Hersh released her first solo album in four years, entitled Learn to Sing Like a Star.
On November 26, 2007, Hersh announced the opening of CASH Music. The subscriber-based, direct-to-consumer model had its first year-long project in the form of what was supposed to be an album called Speedbath, which was released one song per month for free at Kristin's CASH website. 50 Foot Wave also released an EP titled Power+Light through the CASH organization. January 2009 began another series of one track per month for free on the website, and the tracks wound up cohering without the song "Speedbath" at all; the new record, Crooked, was released in 2010. It was available to buy as a hardback book which included essays on the songs and a link to download the album and related tracks.
Hersh has written and illustrated a children's book called Toby Snax.
In 2008, Hersh recorded a cover of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" for the American Laundromat Records charity CD "Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity".
A second collection of Appalachian folk songs, The Shady Circle, is expected to be released. Live recordings of the songs have been available since late 2008.
In 2010, Hersh released her memoir, Rat Girl, which covers events from early 1985 through early 1986, when she was in her late teens, and was referred to by Rolling Stone as "one of "The 25 Greatest Rock Memoirs of All Time". The UK version of the book, released in early 2011, is entitled Paradoxical Undressing. The book covers topics such as the meaning behind many of her songs and the early stages of the Throwing Muses.
Musical style
Hersh's music is known for its chords, sonic treatments, and a vocal style ranging from softly melodic singing to impassioned screaming. Some of her signature contributions to popular music include addressing the complexities of life through impressionistic, sometimes hallucinatory lyrics about everyday feelings and varying mental states. A few of her songwriting subjects have included childbirth ("Hysterical Bending"), love ("Tar Kissers", "Lavender"), surreal vignettes ("Delicate Cutters", "Fish"), death ("Limbo"), emotional anguish ("The Letter"), loss of custody of her first son ("Candyland"), and the shedding of a relationship's anxiety ("Snake Oil").
Hersh has used images such as apples, water, diamonds, eyes, the sea, snow, ice, rain, fire, the sun, parking lots, sand, and cowboys. On occasion she has used historical figures like anorexic suicide Ellen West as metaphors in depicting a state of mind. Eccentric characters encountered in her family's travels have made occasional appearances in songs such as "Ruthie's Knocking"; a 2005 live solo set list included a then-untitled song ("Under The Gun") about a "parrot lady" character she met while visiting Lake Michigan.
Some interviews have described Hersh's early drive to perform as due to hearing sounds in her mind so that her songs began to "write themselves", becoming at times their own separate presences in her life, inner voices haunting her. She has stated that hearing these "pieces of songs" clanging together in her mind compelled her to take the pieces apart and craft songs from them. "If I don't turn ideas into songs, they can get stuck in me and make me sick," she said in a 1995 interview with AOL's Critics' Choice electronic music magazine. "That's the way a song hits you right here, right here [she motions to the heart and gut] instead of in your brain because the words themselves are all real sweaty, color, action words, so they just go bangbangbang. They're not supposed to make you think and try to figure out some puzzle. People think that I'm trying to trick them, that I have some thing I could write down and I haven't done it and I've just given them a bunch of poetry instead. I find it to be the clearest way to talk. It's like the way little kids talk because they have no filler words and no overriding thoughts to color your impression of what's happening in a song."
Candyland
Kristin Hersh Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And now I look for him
Through every window
And behind every door
My son went down
This isn't trauma
It's not even drama anymore
With a sad song in my mouth
He gave me a reason to sing it
It's like this boy
Took all my clear cold nights
Left me hot and dry
And when he falls
I can't hear it
This isn't vodka
It's not even chocolate
I don't know how long I can stay straight
And still see straight
He gave me a reason to say it
Don't wait for pain
To find out you exist
Don't look for shame
Your better off without it
Life is unkind
This isn't Candyland
I know you don't understand
So nice not to be ashamed
So nice not to be creeped out
Ice is unkind
'Till it freezes your enemies
Life is unkind
'Till it burns up your memories
Life is unkind
He gave me a reason
To live it
The song Candyland by Kristin Hersh tells the story of a woman who is searching for her lost son. The first stanza highlights her persistent search for him even though she has already looked through every window and behind every door. The second stanza describes her state of mind where she has accepted her loss and is living with the pain of it. The next few lines explain how a boy, who is now lost, had given her a reason to sing, and how he was a part of her life like the clear, cold nights. However, now that he is gone, she can't hear him anymore.
The third stanza takes a turn where the woman compares the pain of losing her son to things like vodka or chocolate, as if to say she has experienced worse pain. She is constantly trying to maintain her sobriety and hold onto the memories of her son. The lines "Don't wait for pain/To find out you exist/Don't look for shame/Your better off without it" suggests that the woman believes that pain and shame can coexist in life but they are not what defines us. Life is unkind and we can choose to live without these negative emotions and experiences. The final lines of the song "He gave me a reason/To live it" show how her son's existence had given her a reason to live, and now that he is gone, she has to find a new purpose in life.
Overall, the song is a touching portrayal of the depths of a mother's love for her son, and how the loss of a loved one can shake us to our core. It is also a reminder that life is not always going to be full of sunshine and happiness, but we can choose how we react to the challenges that come our way.
Line by Line Meaning
I lost a boy
I am searching for a boy whom I have lost
And now I look for him
I am trying to find him
Through every window
I am looking through every available opening to find him
And behind every door
I am searching behind each door to locate him
My son went down
My son left and is not in sight
This isn't trauma
I am not experiencing trauma
It's not even drama anymore
The situation is not considered dramatic anymore
I was born
I was brought into this world
With a sad song in my mouth
I have a sad story to tell
He gave me a reason to sing it
The missing boy has given me a reason to express this sadness
It's like this boy
This boy reminds me of
Took all my clear cold nights
This boy has taken away my peace of mind
Left me hot and dry
This boy has left me in a state of desperation
And when he falls
If this boy ever falters
I can't hear it
It would be impossible for me to know
This isn't vodka
This is not alcohol
It's not even chocolate
It's not even something comforting
I don't know how long I can stay straight
I am unsure how much longer I can remain strong
And still see straight
Maintain a clear perception of reality
He gave me a reason to say it
The boy has given me some kind of motivation to continue
Don't wait for pain
Do not wait for hardships
To find out you exist
To determine your true purpose
Don't look for shame
Don't seek shame in yourself
Your better off without it
It's better to not carry shame with you
Life is unkind
Life is hard
This isn't Candyland
The world is not a perfect place
I know you don't understand
It's difficult for others to comprehend
So nice not to be ashamed
It is a relief to not feel shameful
So nice not to be creeped out
It is a relief to not be frightened
Ice is unkind
The harshness of life may freeze you out
Till it freezes your enemies
Until the harshness becomes a tool for your own victory
Life is unkind
Life is difficult
Till it burns up your memories
Until the harshness of life takes away your precious moments
He gave me a reason
The lost boy has given me a purpose
To live it
And I shall carry on living my life regardless of the challenges it offers
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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