You are regarded as a pioneer in home recording technology. How do you feel about that label?
At the time that I started recording with a 4-track cassette recorder, which was in the late-'80s, that wasn't the intention. To me, it was something new. I had always played in bands, and I thought, "This will be a good tool to work out arrangements for the band. I can give them a demo and they can listen to it." That was the initial aim. I wasn't even aware of any home recording movement, or of other people who did it. But later, in the '90s, I saw more people getting these little 4-tracks. I had some friends who were making recordings with those, in probably the early '80s, but they weren't putting the product out. What happened in the late-'80s and '90s was, at least for me, I was putting the product out on cassette. After the band broke up, I moved back to Baltimore from New York, and I realized there was a self-released cassette movement going on. I thought I could get some response and feedback and send it to the 'zines who were reviewing these cassettes. You didn't have to be anybody known.
Did you play music as a kid? How did you transition into the rock 'n' roll scene?
I always dreamed of having an electric guitar as a child, because I was a big Beatles fan. I listened to AM radio constantly, so I wanted to do something like that. I thought I was too young to go out and buy myself an electric guitar. Later on, in the late '70s, early '80s, when new wave and post punk came around, there were a lot of women forming bands and putting out records who weren't the flashiest musicians.
When I wanted to learn, it was important to me that I was around other women. Was that something that was important to you?
Before I started playing in bands, it was very important for me. I was impressed by The Raincoats, and I thought, "This is the perfect band here." They were all women at that time. They'd put out a couple records, and I hadn't done anything. I hadn't even bought a guitar at that point, but I thought, "I'm going to do it. I should do it now." In the '60s, when I was a kid and I wanted to have a guitar to pretend I was a Beatle, this was something that I thought I could actually do. I had never written a song. I didn't necessarily have any musical ideas in my head. I just thought, "I can't do this unless I have a guitar." The first band I was in was three women. It was me and two other friends who had already been in a band; an all-girl punk rock band who were similar sounding to The Slits. These were people I felt I could connect with, because they already knew what was going on. They were probably four years younger than I was, but they knew all about the music that I liked too. It wasn't like going in and trying to find people to play with and their references are Jimi Hendrix and classic rock. I always had the idea that I wanted to be in a band that was all female. Then the second band I was in was also an all-female band.
How often were you playing live in those days in New York?
Very seldom. The band was called The Woods, and we played some good clubs, but we only maybe played four or five times. None of us were go-getters.
You then realized you enjoyed making music and recording at home rather than performing live. When did you start to explore that side of yourself?
The first cassette that I made, The Space Between the Buildings, was all recorded in my Brooklyn apartment. The band had been broken up for a little while. My friend, Brian [Bendlin], who was in The Woods with me, had a little studio in his apartment where he could add some effects to it, so he took over that end of it. I was just directly playing into the machine, and I didn't have any effects. That was the Fostex X-15 4-track. I did some recording before I started on this cassette where I was working out some songs to get the sound quality a little better. I was listening to some of those earlier attempts, and they were not the best. But later I was able to get it a little cleaner, even with the same machine. I didn't even have a really good mic at the time. But it seemed that people who listened to the cassettes were aware of the limitations of the sound quality. Now they talk about lo-fi, but what they're doing is not really lo-fi.
Yeah, they're capturing this pristine recording and then putting a lo-fi filter on it. When did you get your own machine and have that confidence to do it yourself?
I was working for an audio/video store in lower Manhattan. I used to go out at lunch, and there were a lot of other audio video/visual stores that sold all kinds of equipment. I was walking up a street one day, and I looked in the window and I saw the X-15. It might have been one of the first versions that was commercially available to the public. I went in, put some money down on it, and did the layaway thing. I was still in the band, and I thought, "This is the next step." I got it after a few months, took it home, and started to try to use it. I started making demos for the band. It was never a conscious desire to move from being in a band to making recordings.
Your solo cassettes started in New York. What happened next?
Once I moved back [to Baltimore], I did another cassette and then a label called Harriet Records showed interest in releasing a single. That kind of thing started to happen, where people would find out about me through the cassettes that were reviewed in Option, Sound Choice, or any of those music 'zines that covered alternative music. The cassette reviews would be in the back.
When you're using the term cassette, are you referring to the whole album, or are you talking about singles?
The original cassette would be, say, eight songs; there'd be four on one side and four on another. I designed a little cover, and it was all hand done. I'd cut them up with an X-ACTO knife; I'd buy my own blank cassettes, and I'd copy them on my double cassette deck. It was very much one at a time. And there may have only been not even a hundred of each sold.
How did you handle distribution?
A lot of it was people sending me personal mail saying, "I saw your review in Option." Option would always include your address and the amount for the cassette, usually $3 or whatever. People would start to write, and they'd ask, "Can I get a copy of your cassette?" It was word of mouth. It was interesting because there were little pockets of people that seemed to pay attention to this music.
When it came time to digitize those works, what was that process like?
That was much later. I didn't have a computer until probably the late '90s. Handmade Music made some CD copies of each cassette. I'd send him the original cassette and then he transferred it to CD. In 2011, I decided to put all my music up on a free website after ten years of not doing anything.
