JS: It was an interesting switch for me. I had gone to school for experimental filmmaking, and I guess I expected to get into the film world and get a job either editing or set design. But kind of out of nowhere I started becoming friends with Le Tigre because we were all involved in the feminist art scene in New York. Soon I was going on tour with them and being part of the band was kind of a surprise to me, then I just took it as an opportunity. So that’s kind of how I got into being a musician. But my parents were artists and it was always my favourite subject in school and it was my dream really to be making art. So, that was something that I knew when I was a kid.

MK: Last year you had written a piece for the Huffington Post about being a musician, and you said that you loved the job but it was not stable in terms of income. You described yourself as a workaholic, productive, queer woman but there are some hefty issues you still needed to think about in order to feel secure. Can you talk about some of those issues?

JS: Sure. I mean, it was interesting write something so personal for Huffington Post. They’d asked me to write something that could seem controversial to some, I guess. We really wanted to have a discussion on the blog, so I found that this was a really good way to get the most complicated you know, I wanted to be as honest as I could be. That’s really what my character is about; coming through and talking about the things that tick me off, and how that can then bring the community closer together. It has been great to have such an incredible voice to affect wonderful queer teens and other feminists. When it comes down to it, sometimes it does feel that living month to month is something difficult and I’m not necessarily sure that’s something that I can be strong enough to do for the rest of my life. That’s why I wrote that article.

MK: Now that you’ve written the article, have you found that you’ve made any changes in your decision making?

JS: To be honest, it’s been really interesting. I've had a lot of responses to the article. Some people found it too negative or I was complaining and I’m really lucky – I've had a great life. And I really tried to make that clear – that I do feel very lucky for what I have, and I do feel like in a lot of ways, you know, believe me, I am not calling myself the poorest person in the world, I’m just saying that the economy has taken a nose dive and everybody feels it. I think it’s perhaps a way to bring people together again. As an artist, it’s just a way to find a discussion around something that people might be scared to talk about and try to bring people together that way.