Agent: Mike Leahy
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“A fearless rock innovator.”— The New York Times
“Hersh’s tough, instinctive wail has been one of the greatest sounds in American underground rock for decades.”— Stereogum
“Her songs have always been both confessional and formally challenging; they expose her, but also evade us, throwing down clues and scurrying into dark thickets before revealing anything more.”— NPR
Esteemed singer, guitarist and songwriter Kristin Hersh’s new single “Ms Haha” is out now via Fire Records with an accompanying video directed by Jonny Sanders.
The track hails from Hersh’s recently released full-length record Clear Pond Road. Of Hersh’s second single from the upcoming album she explains, “Mr. Bones is my man and Ms Haha is me, ripped off from a Truman Capote story. So heavy. Love is goofy gravity.”
The music video compliments the “goofy gravity” of Hersh’s “Ms Haha” with manipulated, distorted visuals of Hersh on the guitar moving with different elements. Of the video Sanders reflects, “Kristin lives in New Orleans and I live in London so we had to work out a way of her shooting a performance and me reinterpreting that. After speaking with her about her recording process and how audio can be revamped and effected, I wanted to use some of those techniques but in a visual way.” Sanders continues, “I took her footage and re-filmed it all using a projector onto various textures and, more interestingly, a technique called ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ from the mid 19th century. The film is reflected in a 45-degree transparent screen to produce an almost holographic effect, giving it 3D space and distortion. This was placed inside glass objects to further manipulate the image.” The album’s first single “Dandelion” continues to see critical acclaim, with Stereogum noting “the song extends, reaches out into the unknown. Its muted backdrop sends our focus to the lyrics, which Hersh delivers with all the eerie intonations associated with a murder ballad, but in this case the crimes are love and hope.” Hersh wrote, performed and produced Clear Pond Road at Stable Sound Studio. She incorporates strings and ambient field recordings on the record to lushly cinematic effect, with the close-up intimacy and sensory nature of each track culminating in a record that resembles a sonic memoir, or a home movie caught in time. Clear Pond Road is sensuous: a life-affirming statement, a new piece of this mysterious jigsaw, a very personal memoir. From street signs to snapshots, it’s a blossoming of a true icon of independence. The record is both intimate yet expansive. “Some records demand to be made,” says Hersh. “And you know this is the case when the songs function as systems in a body. I octavized an acoustic baritone as the skeleton, cellos are the lungs, a Nashville-strung Collings and glockenspiel were the fingertips feeling around in this weird-ass dark space, and drums are always your heart, of course…but the vocals are a strange narrator here. A narrator lost in the story, of all things, more like eyes. Hersh co-founded Throwing Muses in high school, and after earning a devoted following the group was the first American group to be signed to British label 4AD. Amidst international touring, releasing ten solo albums (multiple independently) and founding her own label, Hersh went on to form the power rock trio 50 Foot Wave and publish 3 books, including her acclaimed memoir Rat Girl. Hersh was one of the first artists to break outside of the traditional label system, using a fan-supported structure to fund her work. She teamed up with British label Fire Records in 2018 around her tenth studio album Possible Dust Clouds where she continues her partnership.
