Who's the Skinny White Chick?

Skinny White Chick? Why the focus on WHAT you are as opposed to WHO you are? Or are they synonymous?

Here's where I have to decide if I'm going to tell you the whole story on this first question, or spread it out through number four. *grin*

It's a choice in the name of defiance, honesty, and the games we all play with appearances, the judgments all people make as far as what really IS in a name, and whether or not someone really has the guts to give that book a chance with its cover ripped away. The first Skinny White Chick bumper-sticker I put out, a year ago, had the band name on it (Skinny White Chick) followed by a lyric of mine: Don't judge somebody until you've heard her speak. We all judge each other, whether or not we intend to. It's how we work. People think I'm a punk band, quite often, because of the name, until I walk in with my guitar and rip their heads open in completely unexpected ways. Other people say to me, 'wow, you really ARE a skinny white chick.' Did they think I would lie, that four middle-aged male jazz musicians would walk into the room and go at it instead? It's a very honest name, and it's so easy for fans to remember.

Do you think overweight women are offended by this choice?

I certainly hope not; if anyone is offended by any choice that I make, I hope to hear about it. Tell me why. I'll learn from you, I'm certain. No woman who's ever confronted me about any issue she had with my music, etc, has brought up the band name, itself. Again, I hope if someone's put off by it, they'll come forward. I certainly let it roll off when I hear through the grapevine that someone-or-other has said I'm 'probably anorexic' or 'not (fill in the blank) enough' or that I need to 'change the name to Well-Filled-Out White Chick'. I have an ass now, and I'm at peace with that, whether anyone else is, or not. Several people joke with me that I might have to change the name some day. I'll worry about it if the time comes.

It's funny; many people who work with me professionally start out being a little apprehensive about calling me Skinny White Chick. They're worried that I'LL be offended, myself! I explain to them gently that it's the band name, that I chose it, and it's perfectly all right, and then I let them know they're welcome to call me anything they like. Except Susie. (Her given name is Susan – see below) Don't even touch that one. *shudder* That 'N' is very important to me. I've had to come to terms with my own cuteness over the past several years, but that's where I draw the line.

What about women of color? Do you think that by coming straight out with what you are, that you run the risk of alienating, or ignoring, a possible fan-base?

Every human being runs the risk of alienating someone, somewhere, no matter what the situation. We're all different, and there's so much fear. It is my fervent hope that anyone who runs across me will let the music help him/her decide whether or not to dismiss me from his/her world, and nothing less. That's the most important thing; it's why I'm here. I'm not afraid to take risks. You can't be, if you're going to follow your dreams or your bliss.

My home fan base is in a very racially diverse area of the country, a very racially diverse, and often divided, city (Memphis). Being a white girl is rarely the coolest thing going, anywhere I've lived. But I'm not going to pretend, or to be someone other than myself. It all comes back to honesty. Most everyone I encounter, regardless of skin color, sees the humor in the name I've chosen and can appreciate it. Those who cannot will hopefully learn and grow. Our drum is the same, in any case. Blood always runs red.

Yup. Ok, here we go.

Once upon a time way back in the summer of 2000, there was a little three-piece rock band called (Her with a)Headcase. This was me + a rhythm section made up of two college friends. One night at a poetry slam in Hot Springs, Arkansas (yes, we have poetry slams in Arkansas), a friend of mine gave me a choice of two stickers to take home and put on my guitar case:

1. God is a Rock Star
2. If you are not a skinny white girl, you are nothing.

Tongue-in-cheek and irony prevailed, and #2 went home with me. (Keep in mind this is long before anyone cared a whit about Paris Hilton.) Said slogan is not at ALL what I have EVER thought, but where else could that sticker possibly go than on my guitar case? It was an act of empowerment for me, however small. This was the period during which men on the street would actually burst into laughter when they saw me carrying a guitar case around and actually ask if there was a guitar in it and if I could play it...you get the idea. Onto the case it went. That weekend, the three of us played an outdoor festival in the sweltering summer heat. We had a blast, and we were paid in store credit by the main benefactor of the festival: Banjo Dan's Vintage Guitars in Hot Springs (now closed...Dan ran into a great deal of health trouble and is sorely missed). The thing about this fest was, it was a fateful afternoon. I could've SWORN I had told the guys at the store what our band name was. Apparently, I had not, because they guessed. They had us billed as Skinny White Chick. It was a much more remarkable name, which we loved, and so we kept it. The end? Never.

What shampoo do you use?

This afternoon it was Suave Daily Clarifying. I'm much pickier about conditioner than I am about shampoo--I'll generally skimp on the former and shop around for days on the latter.

Your parents were musicians – did they encourage you to follow this path?

With their whole hearts. Mom is still doing so, and I am extremely grateful to have her. This goes for my entire family, close and extended. I was blessed to be raised by people who understand that doing what you love is often more important anything, let alone the size of your bank account.

Do you have similar musical tastes?

From time to time. *smile* I still love listening to everything that I was raised on, but often there are things I bring home that Mom would rather not listen to. The smidge of highly symphonic death metal that I sometimes cannot live without, for instance, is just not in her sphere. I can respect that, and I do.

How long have you been a musician yourself?

At the latest, since the age of six (piano lessons). At the earliest, age two (children's choir). I'm twenty-five now.

On CdBaby.com, I found you under S.J. Tucker, a CD called 'Haphazard'. Why the name change? (And what's S.J. stand for anyway?)

S. J. Tucker is my name, stage name, what-have-you. On Haphazard and on my new album, Tangles, I am the sole songwriter and the sole musician, with one exception. Here's where it gets complicated, again, all in the name of honesty. A peeve of mine is when solo artists go on tour under their own names, with gigantic nine-person-plus backing bands. In any situation where I am performing live with a band or with help, or recording/writing with other musicians, I use Skinny White Chick. It's the band name. I'm not solo at that point. As a rule, I use the band name when I am accompanied by friends and band mates. As a rule, I use my own name when I perform live or record/release an album solo. Sort of a broad case-in-point: Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor, however you look at it. I am definitely Skinny White Chick AND S. J. Tucker, in so many ways. Using S. J. as the 'official' stage name is a tribute to my uncle, Hardy Peacock, who's called me S. J. since I was a child. Hardy is an actor and a business man, my mother's second-oldest brother, and a real light in my life. He's one of the reasons I survived intact and with enough courage to pursue this gypsy life of mine. S. J. stands for my awesome southern girl-child name, Susan Jane.

Do you think that being involved with the Pagan Community, in the South has any effect on how you and your music are perceived?

Definitely. I hope so. It gave a couple of my relatives a shock. And yet, some people completely breeze over it, never notice it at all. Nothing can hurt you, really, unless you get bent out of shape. An ability to calmly explain that I am committed to going where my audience is has served me well. I can tell someone this without even having to get into my faith or other personal choices, which is preferable when you're on the defensive.

Last September, I played a Pagan Pride Day event and a family day at an Episcopal school in the same afternoon. Neither group saw anything amiss. What I've found is that close-mindedness is not a regional phenomenon. It's not specific to the South. You can find it anywhere, just as you can find open-mindedness. There are people who object to my being part of the Pagan community who still enjoy my music. What's important is that I'm appreciated and accepted by the Pagan community nationwide. I've made so many friends-for-life through playing Pagan festivals and being an active participant that I wouldn't have it any other way. It's really something, just like any other big family: the SCA, theatre people, fire spinners... I've been accepted by the Pagan community as a human being as well as a performer. Very hard to beat.

And on a more personal note…I am surprised we have not run into each other before…I mod a Yahell group for North Carolina Pagans, have a Witchvox.com listing, am a dreaded karaoke DJ…in this world of small worlds, how do you think women can find other women with a similar mindset?

Just don't give up! Put out your feelers! Do research! Get on Yahell and start searching! *lol* The internet is a priceless resource for finding adoptable family you never knew you had. It took me the longest time, it seems, to find so many of the wonderful friends, groups, and sisters I have today. They ARE out there, and they WILL find you, or you them. Touring helps, too, as do women's gatherings and retreats--which you can find all sorts of online.

Speaking of karaoke…??

Get thee behind me, Sarah.

Generally my policy is that karaoke is against my religion. The word means tone-deaf, you know. (Actually, it means ‘empty orchestra – and I am forced to say it!) However, if the perfect situation ever came along, I might dive in. The closest thing I can claim to karaoke of any kind, to date, actually makes me pretty proud. A couple of friends and fellow Divas in Memphis have actually done drag shows to my music. I'm also offering fan karaoke at my CD release parties in the coming month, giving the fans an opportunity to have me back them up on a song. So far, just about everybody's chicken, which is a damn shame.

On your website, www.skinnywhitechick.com, you include, with your lyrics, a short history/meaning of each song. (I love that.) Why'd you do this? Why do you think more artists don't?

I can't not do it. It's too important. I'm not patient enough to wait until an autobiography opportunity comes along to blurt all this stuff. Also, I have these 'blurbs to draw upon if anyone ever asks for them. Someone needed an explanation once, someone who had the 'I'm not sure you're (fill in the blank) enough for my event' problem. In this case, the blank was feminist. I literally had to explain myself to her. Sadly, I don't think she was really listening, but it turned out to be a good thing: that was what originally prompted me to start including those little paragraphs with the lyrics. I decided I hadn't done too bad of a job offering an explanation, so I kept it up. Just in case somebody doesn't get where I'm coming from, would like to know more, would like to have more to sink their teeth into. This is not to say I don't want you to have your own take on it, of course. I definitely encourage that. For instance, a lady at a Pagan festival last summer asked me, after hearing 'Mummy Medusa', if Rapunzel was in my pantheon, opening up a pretty cool discussion, making me think!

Who's your favorite musical artist and why? (Yes, I want you to pick just one!) Who influences you the most?

Ok, since you backed me up against the wall. It's fair, because the list is VAST. I'm happy that there's more music in the world, throughout history, that I like than music that I Don't like. Very well: I adore and would happily hug the neck and kiss the feet of Tori Amos. She is the lioness, the storyteller, the Muse, the Muse-driven, the queen of archetype-channeling. She has so much figured out in her own life and in her business life, and I love most of the song-food she delivers to us on lovely, gilded platters. She's even got her touring band down to a (devastatingly solid) 3-piece, including herself, so she sails high above my aforementioned solo artist peeve. There's genius behind those eyes of hers, and she's not shy about letting it out. She doesn't confine herself to conventional song structure and song behavior. She gives me hope that I can break the threshold of minute-men when I need to and run my fairy tales into the sacred ground, that I can continue to be myself in the chasing of this dream, and not someone else's idea of a radio-friendly, cookie-cutter me. For that, I love her.

Do you have any pets?

Yes. Her name is Merlyn, and she is a wildebeest in a cat suit. She lives with my mother while I'm touring, and she is the Jellicle Queen of the Back Yard. She's soon to be two years old--we've known each other since she was small and wobbly.

Inquiring minds wanna know…gay or straight? How does your sexuality effect your music?

Recently (in the scheme of things) identified as Bi, and quite relieved to have it sorted out. My sexuality affects my music as much as I let it get away with. Sometimes much more than others...heh. My best example of that is 'Tattoo Grrl'.You've been compared, vocally, to Janis Joplin. How do you feel about that?

Any comparison to any strong woman who's gone before and made your path easier for you is a gift and an indicator that you're doing something right. Comparisons to Janis are often bittersweet to me. I don't cover any song she ever did with any kind of frequency, because I had a couple of bad experiences doing so, years back. Besides, some things you don't really want to try to improve upon. Janis is far from my most favorite, but just try to imagine what she would be doing today, were she still here. I wonder what I'll sound like, and who people will tell me I remind them of, vocally, in ten years.

I see that your following, according to the World Wide Web, is predominately in the South and the Midwest. How 'bout them Yankees?

I'm working on the yankees, believe me. *grin* Things are looking good. I was well-received in NYC and New Jersey, this past March.

Toriphiles and Ani fans adore you – is this what you're going for?

Seeing as how I'm a member of both camps, I have no problem with it at all. It's good when people who like what you like also decide that they like YOU. I'd never limit myself to just these two groups, however. I have an extremely diverse fan base.

'Tangles', your newest album, is about to be released... what's your favorite track and why? What do you hope this album will accomplish?

Track one, 'The Pixie Can't Sleep', is my favorite, if I have to choose. It went from a very spooky break-up song with a catchy moment or two to a very tight and complex piece over the course of a couple of days. An engineer and mentor of mine encouraged me to edit my material for this project, which I'd never really done before. I tried to get deep inside each song on the album and change things around a little, make them tell me a little more about who they are, and 'Pixie' responded the most loudly of all of them. 'Pixie' managed to come out radio-friendly, but retain its depth and realness in the end. The harmonies, the bass line, the sum of its parts overall really give me something to be proud of. It's not your typical break-up song, either. There's a lot going on, a lot of layers, a lot of questions being asked of the lovers in question--by each other, by themselves, by their nightmares, even their chosen gods. It's a song that details a shattering without being painful or annoying to listen to. In fact, this one in particular seems to get stuck in more people's heads lately than almost anything else I've written. I'm trying not to keep a tally of how many people tell me so, but it's pretty cool.

I had a lot of good fortune with my first album as far as more people being able to find my music and take me seriously, bookings, reviews, and fan base growth. All I really want from this second album is more of the same, keeping the fans and contacts I have and gaining new ones. All I really want is to keep touring successfully, keep doing more than breaking even, which I have, keep on going until it's time to record the third one. All I really wish for is to keep following this upward curve. It's not about reaching a goal; it's about living it.

Maybe, too, with this one to show off, I will attract the right full-time band mates. I loved performing all the guitar, bass, and drum tracks as well as the vocals this time around, but if some magic would come along in the form of really good players who really wanted to join this life of mine, in touring, writing, everything, I would not complain at all.

When's it due, where can we have a listen…(plug that CD!)

Sound clips are up right now at CD Baby and here on my website. The official release is Tuesday, July 5th, and it will hit iTunes, as did my first album, shortly thereafter.

You have a very personal relationship with your fans, even > maintaining a blog that allows everyone a glimpse into your daily life, and emotions…why do you do this? If you got a trillion dollar contract…would this change? Why or why not?

*lol* First of all, trillion dollar contracts don't exist, never have, and never will. I have no illusions about that. No one is going to do this for me. By the same token, I want to remain as accessible as possible for as long as I can. Honesty again. And if I get morose and people don't want to know what's happening to me anymore, I'm sure I'll hear about it! In the meantime, I make an effort to reply to every email, talk to people at shows, sign autographs with my own little hand, admit it on the blog when I'm not doing so well AND when I'm having a fabulous life, and reach out. People truly appreciate the fact that if you become a fan, you generally become a friend and an ally, as well. After all, it's been the fans who've helped me find new venues and made sure I've had warm, dry places to sleep more than anyone in the so-called 'business'.

Do you know a good-sized group of them actually got together and bought me a digital camera this past Holiday season, on top of buying me Google ads so that I come up first in searches online, AND getting me free flights and hotel rooms?? That's love! I can't lose touch with that, and I have no plans to!

Who's Ken Irwin and what part does he play?

Ken Irwin is an incredible human being who made himself my fan/my friend a couple of years ago at a Pagan festival in Kansas. He told me to let him know when I was ready to get a website started, and that he'd be happy to help me do so for free. Ken is one of two webmasters I keep in my back pocket right now, the other being the love of my life, and Ken is the reason I was ever able to build such a wonderful website in the first place. He also ended up being one of two wonderful people who got thrown into the mix when my father died this past fall--we were on our way to a show when I got the call, and both of them refused to let me deal with it alone, making the mad dash to my mother's house with me, car full of camping gear and all. Ken is one of the finest examples of fan-turned-ally that I have been blessed to encounter.

The only people I 'know' from Arkansas are my friend, Hawk, Amy Lee and an artist names Elisabeth. So many people just call it the home of Clinton and move on. Do you think that where you hail from has any effect on success?

I'm sure you can imagine the volume of Arkansas jokes I've had to ignore since my very origin. The funny thing is, most of them have come from Bluegrass players. *smile* The bottom line: I believe you can make it in any field you choose, no matter where you grow up and no matter where you live, if you make up your mind to do so. Sometimes the only difference between an accent in the Bronx and an accent in southeast Arkansas is that the guy in the Bronx is pissed off. I was blessed to be raised by cultured, intelligent people who were always very supportive of me and my dreams. If the place where you grow up has any effect on your success, at the very least it has the potential to make you work harder and reach your goals in due time. You don't have to be in a big city to 'make it'. It might be easier sometimes to catch a break, but it all depends on YOU, not on where you are. (I plan to quote this…often.)

If I were rich, tattoos would be my drug of choice – and you have a song about my wishful addiction. Do you have any ink?

Yes; I will send a pic to you of the Reaper who lives between my shoulder blades and watches my back for me. She's on a mission. I've toyed with ideas for more ink ever since, but the time and the money haven't yet been right. My traveling partner is a knot work artist, among other things, and he's working on a wings concept for me.

Besides breasts, what do you think is the biggest difference between a woman with a guitar, and a man with one?

Well, having never been a man with a guitar, I won't speak for them. But what I will say, Dr. Freud, is that sometimes a guitar is JUST a guitar. *grin* I do have a pretty involved theory on guitars, girls, boys, everyone. Guitars are not all female, just as guitarists are not all male. Acoustic guitars are a bit easier to have a relationship with. They have this great hole in the middle that you can curl up and hide in, pour all your sh!t into, etc. With an electric, I have to be the one with the hole in the middle. It's not quite as effortless; I have to bend. I have to coax, to do more of the work than the guitar does, to get things soaring up where they should be. Bass is an exception. All basses are female, at least 5-strings are, and we get along great. ;)

But back to the question at hand. I haven't met nearly as many technically-obsessed guitar noodlers who are female as those who are male. And there's nothing wrong with being a technique-head, if that's your strong point. Female musicians are far from being as overlooked as we once were, and that may be the main difference. The difference between a woman with a guitar and a man with a guitar is that, in my mind, if a girl doesn't walk like she owns that instrument, people will, more often than not, assume that she doesn't even know how to play it. We have to work a bit harder. We have, through no fault of our own, usually, more to prove. Walk like you own it, ladies. Walk like you own the world. And play as if your life depends upon it. Mine certainly does.