When Kristin Hersh’s new album “Clear Pond Road” begins, the listener is thrown into a sonic world of field recordings, strings, and Hersh’s unmistakable raspy voice. But, unlike her work with her rock bands Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave, this is a relatively unplugged production. She says that tack began with a move away from a major label, to an audience-funded and eventually indie label production.
“In order to get off of Warner Bros., I traded them my first solo record for my contractual freedom and Throwing Muses’ contractual freedom,” Hersh shares. “So that became my acoustic career.”
“Not everyone prefers the bright, loud colors of a painting that is the rock band,” she acknowledges. “Some people prefer the pencil sketch that is the original drawing underneath the painting. And that's what an acoustic song is to me.”
Speaking of music in terms of visual art makes sense because of Hersh’s synesthesia, a condition in which she sees colors associated with musical notes. She’s experienced this since childhood. “I didn't realize that chords didn't come with colors for everyone, obviously, for a long time,” Hersh says. “I had a hippie dad, and he taught me the chords that you need to be a hippie dad: Neil Young, Bob Dylan. … And I said, ‘Great, but now I want more than primary colors. I want ochre and Aquamarine and magenta.’ He looked at me like I was nuts and then he said, ‘All right, this is your guitar, you go play colors.’”
She adds that her songs are like her books: “They're all memoirs. … Many people think I'm a poet. I'm not, I don't make anything up. It all really happened. And I wrote it down. I’m just ripping pages out of my journals, making paper airplanes and flying them toward y’all.”