Chords in colour _{by Madelaine Empson}

When Kristin Hersh was nine years old, she learned that she saw chords in colour – or, she supposes, that other people don’t.

“I started my band a few years later to bring about all that noisy colour and haven’t lost my fascination with turning an energetic into a sound body. Hopefully I never will.”

When it comes to her prolific career, which sees her continue to play solo and with that very first, now critically acclaimed band Throwing Muses, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist describes this initiation into songwriting as one of the most impactful moments. The other “was becoming listener-supported”.

After having fought her way out of the corporate recording industry, she was on the road with her band when their tour bus caught fire and crashed into the woods.

“We simply couldn’t afford to go on without our bus, so this would be the last record, the last tour. When we got to the next show, however, there were hundreds of emails waiting for us: people offering whatever they had, to make sure we kept going”, Hersh says. “It was astonishing. Not just the generosity, but the touching symbiotic relationship between musician and listener, both of us facilitating a sound we love.”

With Throwing Muses’ new album Moonlight Concessions out on the 14^th of March and Hersh’s recent solo album Clear Pond Road serving as a watershed moment in a career overflowing with creative firsts, the alt-rock luminary will play Old St Paul’s solo on the 23^rd of this month, joined by rising Ugandan singer-songwriter Jon Muq.

She describes Wellington as “a musician’s dream” and one of her most beloved cities – “honestly”. 

“Last year, I arrived so jet lagged that I walked straight to the water, lay down in the grass, and fell asleep. When I woke up, I was surrounded by a dozen birds with their heads under their wings, napping alongside me! Such a magic place.”