Nothing Is As Nice As Plugging In

Living In Portland, Which Is A Predominantly White City, The Privilege And The Luxury To Be Able To Obsess Over A Certain Kind Of Minutia, That I Think, If You Did Not Have That Privilege, Would Never Be Bothersome. When People Are Worried About Whether "local" Means 100 Miles, Or 50 Miles, Or 10 Miles From A Grocery Store, I Just Think, "wow. What A Privilege It Is To Have That As A Major Concern In Your Life." As Opposed To, "can We Afford Food Tonight?" Sometimes I'm Just Shocked At What Becomes Concerning In These Kind Of Communities.

There Was A Clarity To The Nineties. It Was Pre-9/11, Before That Anxiety Kicked In That Exists Right Now About The Financial Crisis Or Terrorism. We Were All Just Going To Move Forward Into The Millennium And Everything Was Always Going To Get Better. Then, Whoops, That Didn't Happen.

Nothing Is As Nice As Plugging In Your Guitar And Turning Up The Volume Really Loud, Just Seeing What Kind Of Beautiful Noise You Can Make With It.

I Love Coffee. I Love A Midday Espresso On Set, Just For The Energy.

With Sleater-kinney, We Did A Lot Of Improvisation In Our Live Shows, And Even Our Process Of Songwriting Involved Bringing In Disparate Parts And Putting Them Together To Form Something Cohesive.