know my experience—which is that I loved
Iron Maiden. I still love Iron Maiden. I just
loved guitar, and I never really was made
aware of the fact that some people think
it’s an anomaly for a woman to really play
guitar. I mean, you have people like Marnie
Stern—who’s amazing … a crazy, crazy
shredder—and Merrill Garbus from tUnE-yArDs, who’s a great guitar player … there
are a lot of women who can really play—
even going back to Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Absolutely—she was the inspiration for
our new Forgotten Heroes feature series.
But there’s no denying that, for some reason, it seems guys are more often hyper-focused on guitar—probably too focused.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing.
Obviously it’s not that women are at a
handicap with motor skills … it must be a
cultural thing.
loripaulson.com
It’s certainly not a motor-skill thing. But
don’t you ever wonder why there aren’t
more women getting really into guitar?
I grew up loving Kim and Kelley Deal
from the Breeders, and Sleater-Kinney. If
you look for it, there are definitely women
playing guitar. I was actually laughing
with a friend of mine who was the guitar
player in a successful band in the ’90s and
2000s—please don’t take this the wrong
way—and we were kind of commiserating
about getting asked the “women in rock”
question. When people ask what it’s like
being a woman in rock, we were like, “The
only difference for us is we get asked what
it’s like to be a woman in rock.” [Laughs.]
It’s just natural—this is what I do. The only
times you are made aware of your gender
is when people make you aware of your
gender. You know? Again, you are being
incredibly tactful and I’m not taking offense
at anything you’re asking, but I just wanted
to point that out.
Alternating between quirkily sultry vocals, bouts of fuzzed-out mayhem, and jazzy lines, Clark is
always in control. Photo by Lori Paulson
talking about with formal music education: There’s no soul in it, and there’s so
much worry about the machismo—or
whatever it is—that it’s not even exciting anymore. So I just wondered if you
felt like there was something about how
women in Western culture approach
music that somehow makes them more
fresh on the guitar—because, by and
large, they’re not approaching it that way,
y’know?
Well, it’s an interesting conversation. I don’t
approach guitar like an ego thing—like, “I’m
going to play faster than somebody else.” I’m
not that interested in that athletic aspect.
AnnIe clArk’s
geArBox
GUITARS
1967 Harmony H15V Bobkat,
’60s Silvertone 1488 Silhouette,
1979 Hagstrom Super Swede,
Fender Deluxe Nashville Tele,
Epiphone Masterbilt slope-shoulder
dreadnought
AMPS
Late-’70s Fender Princeton Reverb
(studio), TRVR Little Boy blackface
Deluxe Reverb clone (live), TRVR
Trinity 1x10 (live)
And I knew I was taking a risk by asking,
but I had to because I love how players
like you balance being totally geeked-out
on guitar with an attitude of “Screw all
the technical stuff—I’m just going to
make badass music.” There are so many
of us guys who play guitar who can’t see
the forest for the trees—we’re so focused
on playing technically “good” guitar
and having the right gear that it’s almost
the musical equivalent of what you were
Neither am I, but sometimes it seems like it’s
an epidemic among a lot of male guitarists.
That’s the difference between being an
athlete and being an artist, and it’s great
when those things can combine. That’s the
ideal—to make something that’s musically
viable also emotionally compelling. That’s
the happy medium. But it’s a good ques-
tion. I was having a conversation with a
drummer friend of mine, and he was say-
ing, “Y’know, if I really am honest, I think
I started playing drums because somewhere
in my reptile brain I knew I would have a
sexual competitive advantage if I was good
at music.” So I’m sure there’s something in
there for everybody—some kind of evolu-
tionary thing.
EFFECTS
Death by Audio Interstellar Overdriver
Deluxe, Boss PS- 5 Super Shifter,
Eventide Space, Eventide PitchFactor,
Z.Vex Mastotron
STRINGS, PICKS, AND
ACCESSORIES
Ernie Ball .010 and .012 sets, Fender
medium picks, Nice Rack NYC cables,
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, RJM Mini
Effect Gizmo, RJM MasterMind
