Interview: Kathleen Hanna

Kathleen Hanna fronts the band Bikini Kill as well as two other bands, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.

She was a key figurehead of the Riot Grrrl movement and currently owns Tees4Togo, a T-shirt company that works alongside Peace Sisters, a non-profit that sends girls to school in Togo, West Africa. Kathleen has accomplished so much, and her resume is ridiculously long; this intro would basically never end if I listed all her projects and achievements. So, let’s talk about Bikini Kill.

Bikini Kill is raw. Their music is fast and in your face, and Kathleen’s vocals are energetic and aggressive. Her lyrics are politically driven, unapologetically confrontational, and a verbal illustration of the horrors of the world around the band in 90s small-town America. Three decades on from the band’s inception—and after a prolonged hiatus—their influence still stands strong. And now they’re back and currently touring the world. I spoke to Kathleen to commemorate Bikini Kill’s future Australian stops, which happen to be their first shows here since 1997.

Photo: Debi Del Grande

After the long hiatus of Bikini Kill, what brought the band back together?

We got asked to play a song to open for The Raincoats, in New York, to celebrate a book that was written about them by Jenn Pelly. I was on the fence about it because I live in California. Kathi [Wilcox] called me and was like, 'Tobi [Vail] is going to be here and we're going to do something,’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to go all the way out there.’ I hung up the phone and was like oh my god, I am so stupid; this is an opportunity to hang out with two of the people I love most on the planet. When a band breaks up, there are always hard feelings and weirdness, but here is an opportunity for us to hang out and celebrate The Raincoats, a band that we all really love. I called back and was like sure, let’s do it.

The funny thing was I ended up being the one who really wanted to play together more because it was so much fun and awesome for us to be together. Not only just as musicians, but as friends and people who went through this really strange experience, which was Bikini Kill in the 90s. There were only three other people that went through that and to be together with two of them was pretty remarkable and something I wanted to repeat.

The tour originally started in 2019 but was postponed due to covid. Was doing Australia and New Zealand stops something that was planned then?   

That was a newer thing. Once the US shows were successful and fun, we realized, we wanted to keep going, and we were like, we want to go back to Australia. As a band, we have always had a fun time when we went to Australia, and it was always a really important bonding time for us. Getting to travel and see old friends in Melbourne. It kind of relieves the stress because we don’t have the same scene dynamics and stuff over there as we do at home.

You guys were brought out to Australia by Steve ‘Pav’ Pavlovic in the 90s, (whose collection makes up the Unpopular exhibition). Do you have any memories of working with him?

Steve let us stay at his apartment, and he said to us, ‘You can stay here but don’t go through my stuff, and don’t wear my bathing suit.’ We were just like, what kind of gross person is going to wear your bathing suit, like, who do you think we are? Then the second he closed the door, we took out his bathing suit, and we all put it on. We took polaroids of each other in his bathing suit, and we left them all over his apartment [laughs]. I think they are in the exhibition, and I want to go there, take a sharpie, and if they’re on a wall, write the context next to them. Because I think it looks like we were taking these cute, sexy polaroids in his bathing suit. But we weren’t. It was just a total joke that we left for him, and he just happened to keep the photos, so they ended up in the show.

Is the mandress going to make a comeback on the current tour?

I wish, but I sold the mandress at a garage sale when I moved from Olympia. I don’t know who has it. But I have seen it on the internet. Someone had one and was wearing it. I would love to buy one. It would be funny to surprise my band by wearing it [laughs]

What’s your take on Twin Peaks now?

I still haven’t watched it, so I really have no business criticizing it [laughs]. It’s the arrogance of youth. The only reason I didn’t like Twin Peaks was because these people in our apartment building had a Twin Peaks party every night, and they didn’t invite us because we were the weird feminists who they thought would criticize everything. So, I made a song that criticized it, just so I could fit in with the stereotype that I was the mean feminist. So, be careful what you wish for, neighbors. Then we went up on the roof and unplugged their cables so they couldn’t watch it [laughs]. We were such jerks. I love that about us.

In Sonic Youth’s ‘Bull in The Heather’ music video, you dance around terrorizing the band. What was filming that video like?

It was my first time doing something like that, and I did it because they gave me $500, and I was broke. They just told me to dance. I was really nervous. It was the first time I had my makeup and hair done. I ate a whole plate of chocolate chip cookies at the craft service table, and I wasn’t used to eating that much sugar at the time, because it’s not good for your voice, so I wouldn’t eat sugar when I was on tour. And I just danced around and acted super obnoxious, because I was high on sugar. And that’s the story of the video. I was super high on cookies, nothing else, just cookies [laughs].

I am a skateboarder, and I was wondering if you had any idea about the cultural significance Deceptacon has within the skateboarding community?

Yeah! I mean, I just know because people early on sent me skate videos of it. I mean, is it still a thing?

Yeah, people were making memes about it recently, being like, ‘When Rick McCrank’s Yeah Right song comes on,’ and it’s just people dancing.

That’s cool! I love that some throwaway song that ended up on a record I made became this weird thing in all these different pockets. I don’t know how to skate, like how cool is it that something that I made is a part of a really interesting youth culture; it’s awesome.

On that note, I have one question that I have been wanting to know for years. Who took the bomp?

I knew you were going to say that! I don’t know who took the bomp. For me, the whole thing about who took the bomp was more like all these people who dress up like they’re super rebellious or whatever and then just write these super boring songs, or they take the structure and look of rebellion, but then they turn it into something very sanitized and boring. That’s who took the bomp to me. Who took the fun, the politics, the excitement, and the life out of music and bands? Who sucked that dry? And it’s all of us; we all participate in evil sometimes. I guess that’s the question we all have to ask ourselves, am I actively taking the bomp right now? I wish I could just be like it’s Cher or the name of some person, but it isn’t really a person; it's more about the idea of corporations or people who take ideas that punk kids have. They steal them and use them to make money. While the innovators go about their lives struggling until the end of time.

BIKINI KILL TOUR DATES:

SUN FEB 26: MONA FOMA, HOBART

TUE FEB 28: PERTH FESTIVAL @ THE RECHABITE
Tickets on sale here.

WED MAR 1: PERTH FESTIVAL @ THE RECHABITE * sold out.

FRI MAR 3: BRISBANE @ THE TIVOLI * all ages
Ticket link here.

SUN MAR 5: ADELAIDE @ LION ARTS FACTORY * sold out

TUE MAR 7:  MELBOURNE @ THE FORUM  * all ages 
Ticket link here.

WED MAR 8:  MELBOURNE @ THE FORUM  * sold out

SAT MAR 11: GOLDEN PLAINS

MON MAR 13: SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, CONCERT HALL * all ages

Ticket link: https://soh.online/bikinikill