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On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a legend of ’90s-era punk in deep conversation with a songwriter you might be hearing of for the first time: Kathleen Hanna and Jim Andralis.
Hanna, of course, was a founding member of Bikini Kill, the band credited with starting the riot grrrl movement and inspiring an incredible number of young women to pick up guitars and claim their place in the rock universe. After Bikini Kill’s initial split, Hanna went on to perform in both The Julie Ruin and Le Tigre, though recent years have found her spitting fire with Bikini Kill yet again—they’re actually on tour now through September. Hanna also released an excellent memoir this year called Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, which is absolutely worth a read or an audiobook listen—Hanna reads it herself, and it’s awesome.
Hanna’s people approached us about having her chat with songwriter Jim Andralis because, as you’ll hear in this chat, she might be his biggest fan. Andralis is a New Yorker whose day job is as a trauma-focused psychotherapist, but who’s been writing songs for the past 20 or so years. Considering Hanna’s fandom, it might surprise you to learn that Andralis doesn’t come out of the punk tradition at all: He’s a songwriter in the classic sense, meaning it’s tough to pin him into a genre box—Kathleen tries a little bit here, but doesn’t come to any conclusions. Andralis recently released his fifth album, Ghosts, check out a song they chat about toward the end of this episode, it’s called “Carnival.”
Hanna and Andralis jump right into their chat here, and you can tell they’re old friends. As you’ll hear at the top, Hanna and her band were recently honored by Olympia, Washington with Bikini Kill Day, celebrating a lifetime of achievements. After that, Hanna gets straight to picking Andralis’ brain about his lyrics and songwriting. She interprets one song in particular that turns out to be… not quite right, but also exactly right? You’ll see. Enjoy.
0:00 – Intro
2:48 – Happy Bikini Kill Day!
9:26 – Kathleen tries to figure out what genre Jim’s songs belong in
21:07 – Jim’s song about political depression
32:48 – An appreciation of Jamey Johnson
39:05 – “What a dick, if I had written the song that way!”
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Kathleen Hanna and Jim Andralis for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!
(Photo Credit: left, Jason Frank Rothenberg; Edited by: Keenan Kush.)
