Call & Response with Ani DiFranco Issue #35

Venus Zine readers get their questions answered

By Venus Zine Readers
Published: March 1st, 2008 | 12:27pm

What does it take to stand out in a saturated world of hipsters, rock stars, diluted pop mindsets, and business-savvy executives?
— Joseph to the Lions of Austin
Nauseating levels of sincerity, an iron will, and a terminal case of the fuck-its! Plus, maybe the underlying belief that you don’t need any of them. You are richer even in perpetual poverty and obscurity than they are in all their grand “successes.”

What is your advice for talented female artists who have everything that superstardom requires but are held back due to lack of funding or the right connections?
— Marty Marmor of Austin
Yeah, that’s a lot of people for sure. I started out as a little girl from Buffalo with no money or connections, but after many years of hauling my butt bar to bar, the word slowly got even as far as a booking agent, some record company A&R types, and an independent distribution company. So money and connections ain’t the only way to have a career in music!

Just don’t ever forget why you do it — what inspires you about making music for people. Never stop working on your craft. Think of all the genius jazz musicians who never received fame or fortune but worked night after night in whatever bar, making the music they were compelled to make. I always aspired to be like them much more than the propped-up, pampered rock star. And I do believe that my lack of pining for superstardom gave me the patience to keep on. I eventually found a place of financial security, but even if your music does not pay your bills, it can enrich your life and bring you a lot of unexpected joy. Art is art after all, not a means to an end.

How has the birth of your daughter changed the way you see the world and the people in it?
— Sarah Santagata of Tiverton, Rhode Island
Being a mom seems to have changed the way the world sees me more than the other way around. Being pregnant really shifts your relationship to society, and then walking around with a baby shifts it again. I love the feeling that I get from other parents — women in particular — of being a part of the club. Club Sacrifice, you might call it. It’s cool to have camaraderie, warmth, and openness with strangers. I wish that dynamic was more prevalent in general, but I am grateful to have it now.

Can you offer any advice regarding the cultivation of imagination?
— Jessica Snow of Burbank, California
Stay in touch with the vitality of your inner child by allowing yourself to create freely and without judgment. Judge later if at all. Examine to the greatest extent you can the presuppositions and assumptions that underlie your daily life and behaviors ... to what extent are you being subliminally led? Conformity is slow and insidious. If you’re having a hard time coming up with an answer, I’ll bet you anything it’s simply the wrong question. Transform the question. And if that doesn’t work, smoke pot.

In the 20 years of your amazing career, what do you feel to date has been your greatest personal accomplishment? Do you have any regrets?
— Jessica Beck
I have many regrets when I listen to my old records simply because I wish that my songs had better representations out there in the world of posterity. I think I rock hard and true onstage, but I don’t feel I’ve often gotten it right in the almighty studio. I think my albums are capable of connecting with my immediate tribe simply because the songs somehow shine through the settings, but I don’t think they translate easily to the world at large. Regrets aside, my great accomplishments come in incremental doses every time someone expresses to me how much my work has helped them or accompanied them in their life. These interactions are my great reward. I have no great accomplishment, just a lifetime of daily giving little gifts, and in return I have a lifetime of daily receiving little gifts in return.

What is the album that you enjoyed most while recording?
— Lauren Tweedy of Boise, Idaho
I have enjoyed making many of my records in different ways. In more recent memory I recall how peaceful and romantic was my solitude in making Educated Guess. I was in my apartment in New Orleans listening to the trains go by my back door…going out to bars alone and then walking home in the humid night air to sing to myself. The making of Reprieve was extra sweet for me because I was in the process of falling in love with the guy recording it! It was recorded in that same apartment with my favorite musical comrade, Todd, playing bass, and Mike, my babydaddy, running the machines.

Did your daughter help you to look back at yourself and career to create and build the lovely Canon and Verses?
— Leslie Geldbach
Yes, my daughter, and her father before her, help me to love myself and therefore not be overwhelmed by the self-loathing spiral that accompanies checking in with my old albums. Unfortunately, I am able to put a real good hatin’ on my own records, but I have resigned myself to my troubled relationship with the sound of my own voice and recordings and resolved long ago not to let that inhibit my singing and record making. But, yeah, it sure helps to look up and go, “Screw that embarrassment and regret. Look at this beautiful family of mine — this is what matters, and I ain’t gonna let a little insecurity get in the way of this happiness.” The poetry book [Ani DiFranco: Verses (2007)] was another story. I loved making that all on my own.

How would you advise other young women to start their own businesses and stay independent over the course of their careers? Or would you?
— Erin Berkey of Seattle
I would certainly encourage anyone to follow their own path and start their own business rather than work within a form that is alien and unsuited to their nature. When we create our own businesses, we can employ principles that are more elevated than sheer profit motive and that is sorely needed in this capitalist cesspool of a country. Anyway, I figure if you combine respectful business practices with a good product, it is a grand endeavor, even if it fails or falls short of your expectations. The things you will learn and the places and people it will bring you to will enrich the course of your life nonetheless.

I see you are endorsing Dennis Kucinich as a presidential candidate. What makes you feel he would be a fitting leader for our country?
— Cal Orth
Dennis is a true public servant who is working to create peace and justice in this world (even at his own expense, as his history as the mayor of Cleveland exemplifies. He fought to keep Cleveland’s power from being privatized and then was politically crucified by big business — a battle that foreshadowed the central struggle of the world’s people in the 21st century). His ideas include creating a “department of peace” (we have a department of war, after all, so it stands to reason that that’s what gets made) and a “works green administration” (echoing the “works project administration” that pulled this country out of the Great Depression), which would transform our energy consumption from the doom of fossil fuels and nuclear power to clean, sustainable technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. These are just some of the great ideas and strategies he has put forth. Dennis himself is a feminist, a pacifist, a vegan, and an all-around selfless person, which puts him head and shoulders above the rest of the candidates, in my opinion.

Do you feel any added weight (spiritually, emotionally) knowing that you’re a voice that represents hundreds of thousands of females? Do you feel social responsibility to us? (Which I hope you don’t — I love that you continue to inspire and kick ass.)
— Michelle Tomlinson of Los Angeles
You’re funny. And don’t worry, I don’t give too much weight or brain time to my representative role. I do definitely feel a responsibility to making my society a more just place, but I understand that is a responsibility I share with everyone, regardless of job or position.

Your music is the soundtrack of my life — I've been listening to you since I was 16, and I just turned 30. What is the soundtrack of your life? And, can you tell us why you chose to have a home birth? Would you do it again?
— Mindy Kufahl of Topeka, Kansas
Oh, geez, I guess there have been many along the way. There are too many directions to point! Different artists have accompanied me in different ways but no one I can easily single out.

I would definitely choose a homebirth again despite the fear mongering of this patriarchal society, which convinces women that they are incapable of having babies without the intervention of men and their machines. I look at societies where women are marginalized and oppressed their whole lives (even covered head to toe in tarps!) but are still in control of birthing practice, in a whole new way now. I mean, who is really more advanced? To take birthing out of women’s hands and deny us the continuum of eons of wisdom and experience is to eject us from the very seat of our power. I believe that women in hospitals are prevented from being able to have normal, healthy birthing experiences because of the intimidation of being on the clock, being pressured to take drugs to make it quicker, being inhibited in their movement and activities, and alienated by a sterile, fluorescent lit, feet-in-the-air type environment. You know the classic “performance anxiety” of not being able to pee or poo because somebody’s watching you? Multiply that by a million! A cervix is a sphincter after all! Then to add tragic insult to injury women are numbed through their great moment of revelation. I believe the act of giving birth to be the single most miraculous thing a human being can do and it is surely the moment when a lot of women finally understand the depth of their power and connection to all of nature. You think it can’t possibly be done, you think you can’t possibly take the pain, and then you do — and afterward you look at yourself in a whole new way. If you can do that, you can do anything. Check out the books on this subject by Ina May Gaskin. She’s one of my great heroes. P.S. I was in labor for 43 hours. Pushed for five hours. It was brutal and scary and prolonged, and if I was in a hospital, they would have definitely cut the baby out of me. I thank the goddesses that I was at home with patient midwives who knew how to go the distance. The memory of pain always recedes. The memory of triumph does not.

How do you stay inspired to give consistently spectacular performances on even a day-to-day basis, let alone year to year?
— Gabriella Cartiglia
It’s hard to stay inspired some days (and years!), but at my core I really love what I do and that makes all the difference. On those nights when I feel tired, sick, or sad, I just refocus my attention off of myself and on to all the joyful people who paid their hard-earned money and hauled ass to get to the show. I just tell myself, “You’re lucky to have this job, now get out there and don’t suck!”

Do you have any difficulty relating to your older material? Or do you just find yourself looking at older songs completely differently than when they were penned?
— Brian O’Neill of Philadelphia
I still relate to a lot of my older songs and poems, even if they come from a very different place than the one I reside in now. I guess I relate to their bravery and honesty even when I think, “Wow, that was me?!” And it’s kinda cool to sing old songs with a new voice. It makes me hear how the inflection of experience can inform even the very same words and subtly shift their meaning.

I've always admired you for fighting the system while still being somewhat in it. Do you see it that way?
— Erica Olsen of Portland, Oregon
I guess we are all entangled in “the system” unless we are living without electricity and growing our own food, but I feel pretty good about the degree to which I have managed to live my ideals.