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An interview with Corin Tucker

Corin Tucker‘s name has almost become synonymous with the Riot Grrl movement. As the front woman for bands like Heavens to Betsy and Sleater-Kinney, she played a huge role in raising consciousness for feminist issues to a new group of young women, all with her characteristic growl. When Sleater-Kinney decided to retire back in 2006, Corin took time away from music altogether and focused on her family and a regular full-time job.

Recently, though, after playing a few new songs at various benefits, Tucker was urged to put together a solo album and that’s just what she did. 1,000 Years came out last week and, while it is a departure from her Sleater-Kinney days, it is still uniquely Corin.

AfterEllen.com: Did you have intentions of making this album differently than the SK albums and do you think motherhood has changed your creative process at all?

Corin Tucker: Well I deliberately set out to do something differently with this project. Try different styles and different instrumentation than I did with SK before. I definitely wanted it to be something I hadn’t done before to bring something different to the table. I kind of think a lot of different things influenced it. Being a mom, getting married and just getting older, I think, sometimes can sort of expand your musical outlet a little. You might want to enjoy different kinds of music.

I’ve kind of always liked some of the great folk players like Lucinda Williams and I love Wilco — so I’ve always liked that kind of music and I already was on hiatus — I didn’t do music for a while — so when I came back to it I thought, well if I’m going to do this, I want to do something different.

AE: Are your kids listening to any particular kind of music?

CT: My son loves Green Day. He’s into really great punk rock bands but Marshall also likes the classical composers. He goes to an arts-focused school so we’re trying to show him a lot of different kinds of music. Marshall has also taken piano and now he’s doing trumpet in school and I think music is a really important thing to learn when you’re young.

AE: When you aren’t making music or taking care of your family, what do you spend time doing?

CT: Well I also have a job. I do web development and marketing and training videos for a medical devices company.

AE: That’s for your dad, yeah?

CT: Yeah, my dad started the business in, I think 1992; so it’s been a really great and a really flexible job for me to have with all the parenting responsibilities and being able to do music too, it’s been really great.

AE: Do you think a modern-day riot grrl movement still exists or has it sort of faded away into the background of shock-effect pop stars like Lady Gaga?

CT: I think feminism still exists. Riot grrl itself was kind of a really specific movement and it was young women sort of redefining feminism for themselves and kind of really redefining culture for themselves. I think feminism is a bigger part of our culture now than it was twenty years ago. We’re making progress. We just have to keep fighting to have equality in the workplace and equality in our culture too. We can’t just go like, “Woo we did it!” and were done. It’s obviously a continuing process and we have to work for it and fight for it. We’ve made some pretty amazing strides just in my lifetime.

AE: How does it feel to be such a huge part of the movement? How have you embraced that role, like it or not, to be one of the leaders of that pack.

CT: I guess I feel like I’ve done something positive to help other young women.

AE: Do you feel pressure at all?

CT: I think I did when I was younger and I struggled with that idea of sort of being watched by other people. Especially when Sleater-Kinney became more famous and I was in my 20s. It was really overwhelming at the time. I didn’t really know how to talk to people. I think I’m naturally a kind of introverted person.

So, at times I was overwhelmed but, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to take a step back and think about how to talk to the fans and how to talk to strangers and be a bit more gracious about that attention.

Also, touring with Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam helped with that experience. Eddie is one of the most famous people I can think of and he was so gracious with people and understands that role very well. I think that helps.

AE: Are you active on Facebook? Do people from high school try to contact you the same way my friends from high school do?

CT: [Laughs] Yes. In fact, I just went to my twentieth high school reunion.

AE: Oh wow!

CT: Yeah, I know, it was like “Hello I’m old!” [Laughs] it was so many things at once but it was so fun and I’m so glad I did it. I even ended up performing at the barbecue jam session at my friend’s house. We had this exclusive country club dinner that cost way too much money and then the next day, which was really cool, we had a free pot luck barbecue so everyone could see each other again and it was great. For me it was seriously this really positive experience. Just kind of acknowledging your past identity and your present identity and opening up the door between the two.

And being able to say to those people, it’s really good to see you again and being able to perform some songs from my solo record and show people, “Hey this is kind of what I’ve been doing for the past twenty years I want to share it with you,” it was kind of totally liberating.

AE: So what was your high school experience like?

CT: Well, like I said, I’ve always kind of been an introverted person and I think I really struggled with my self-esteem in high school. I didn’t do music, I didn’t do drama, I was too shy to join all of these activities and I probably missed out a little bit. But being able to go back and see people and sort of share the accomplishments I’ve had in the past twenty years felt really great.

AE: So what you’re saying is that there’s hope for all of our younger readers, that even if you’re quiet and a little shy about letting your true identity out, later on it will get easier?

CT: I just think I was a really angry person at times in my life and I feel like part of coming to terms with the stories that I’ve made in my life and that we all did culturally for women is kind of a peaceful acknowledgement that the anger isn’t really as useful of a device in moving forward.

AE: I know you keep in touch with Carrie and Janet, what do you think of them starting a “supergroup” with Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole?

CT: I love it, I’m really excited about it.

AE: Are you planning on being a groupie?

CT: [Laughs] I’m planning on being a fan! I think it’s going to be great.

AE: Do you think there’s a possibility you’ll join them onstage at some point?

CT: I don’t know, I’m really enjoying doing my own thing and I’m happy for them in their new project. I think things are good.

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