Defiant DiFranco

Ever since Ani DiFranco began playing coffeehouses and selling cassettes out of the trunk of her car, she has been as well-known for her principles as for her music. She's steadfastly refused to sign with the record labels, no matter how hard they knock down her door. Instead, she started her own Righteous Babe Records, which she describes as a "queer-happy small business that puts music before rock stardom and ideology before profit."

Proving that it's posible to resist corporate control and still be successful is only part of her political presence. Most recently, she headlined -- along with Me'Shell Ndedecello and Angela Davis -- the Critical Resistance benefit in Berkeley, California, that highlighted the condition of women prisoners and explored alternatives to the current prison system.

We talked with Ani about her political activism, her sometiems-rocky relationship with her lesbian fans, and her new album up up up up up up.

GF:Do you have some personal experience that makes prison issues a priority with you?
DiFranco:Well, I do have some personal experience with women and crime, the details of which I will keep to myself. [laughs] It's just always really struck me that the system is unfair. The government has the right to kill people in whatever numbers and by whatever means they choose, and then they single out a poor individual from an unfortunate background, who ends up shooting someone behind the counter of a convenience store for $100. It's incredibly arrogant for them to punish this person with death, when it's okay for them to do the same things a hundredfold. When the state stops killing people, they can start pointing their finger at powerless people doing the same. It's all about a class war and racism, not about criminal justice.

GF:What's your reaction to the violent police crackdown on the antihate crime demonstration for Matthew Shepard in New York City, where more than 100 people were arrested?
DiFranco:It's all the rage these days for politicians to say they're tough on crime and push for more cops, as if this will make us a safer society. It doesn't, as evidenced by that demonstration. Crime prevention is a much more sane approach, but it's more complicated because it deals with the real problems, which are poverty, racism, and the proliferation of guns. Citizens need to speak up and say to our politicians, "Fuck you and your 'tough-on-crime' rhetoric. It's not making the streets safer for people. Give us what we really need, and stop victimizing us further."

GF:You identify as a folk singer, even though your music and your look don't fit into what is traditionally thought of as folk. Is this primarily a political identification for you?
DiFranco:Sorta. My music ins't what you typically think of as folk music, but for me it is. Not just because I play acoustic guitar. What folk music is to me is sub-corporate music. I really am a folk singer: I started in coffeehouses, and have been playing the folk circut since I was 18. I've sort of crossed over a little bit, but I still exist quite a bit in the folk music community. Another difference is that with pop music the focus is on the product. You put out an album with hit singles, and tour to promote it. With folk music, you're always on tour. You put out an album when you have enough songs, but albums are more peripheral. The performances are what's primary. It's the tradition of a traveling troubador.

GF:It's almost unheard of for an artist to be successful independent of any mainstream label support, as you are. How does this affect your ability to speak out on politically charged issues?
DiFranco:Oh, wow, that's a trick question, you see. Because the logical answer is that because I'm not with a label, I'm at much more liberty to do and say what I think. But for me, that's kinda like the tail wagging the dog. The reason I'm independent is because I've figured out my political ideals and acted on them. People make the choice to be with labels; it's not like everything's the label's fault. They sign because they want to be rich and famous; thier personal ambition gets in the way. It's like coming out: if you decide you can't be out because it'll jeopardize your career, then what do you wind up being? A closeted fag working for Chemical Bank. But whose fault is that? Chemical Bank's? The burden of personal change, and to change society at large, is on our shoulders.

GF:I want to ask you about your coverage in the mainstream press, specifically your Spin interview last year.
DiFranco:Oh, God.

GF:In it, the writer seemed to be trying to soften up your image, saying for example that you're a bisexual, but that you "prefer men," and that the antisexist statements you made would be said jokingly, as if he was trying to make you less of a threat. Do you think he was trying to make you more palatable to a male audience?
DiFranco:I'm trying to block out that interview. I don't know. All I can say about what is written about me in the mainstream press is "Be not fooled." It's very much the perspective of the writer. I had a lot of issues about that piece. I stopped reading all my press pretty soon after that came out, actually.

GF:In that same interview, you were asked about your relationship with your lesbian fans, and you said that, "when I insist on my own stupid personality quirks, it can be offensive to them." Were you reffering to your fans' reactions to your male partner?
DiFranco:I've been thinking about this a lot. Okay, here I go: "How did I get so straight?" by Ani DiFranco. When I started writing my songs, the people that responded to me first, and the strongest were my tribe--younger women. I got all hooked in, year after year, in this community. But the I noticed that after awhile my job had become to stand onstage and have a sea of bald-headed, overall-wearing baby dykes screaming at me. I could predict exactly which lines would get a response, and only one side of my songs was being affirmed. I was starting to feel like a cartoon. Not like I'm trying characterize all my audience like that. Please let it be known that I love them. I love my fans. All I have to do is go to other people's shows to realize how lucky I am to have my fans, how much energy they give back. But the front rows contain a lot of overbearing, enthusiatic women who are responding to one side of me, and then other parts of me cease to exist. It makes me feel lonely, and disrepected. The cheerign section was trying to reduce me to being a symbol of one thing, rather than a human struggling with many things. So I started going in another direction. My life has changed a lot. I stopped hanging out with a lot of young women, other than my oldest friends. And I'm totally, mdaly in love with my partner.

GF:At the critical Resistance concert, I noticed that all you had to do was pluck a guitar string and fans would be screaming, "We love you!" Your response to them really struck me. You said, "No, you gotta make me work for it."
DiFranco:That must have been a good night for me. [laughs] I call my last tour my "shut up and cam down" tour. I swear I had to say that more than once. Several nibhts there were women right in front who kept screaming at me and throwing things at me. One night in particular, I couldn't take it anymore and I knelt down and said to one of these women, "Please give me a break. I'm trying to do my job, and you're making it really hard for me." And I felt terrible, because I knew her heart snak. And I was devastated to be pushed that far. She disappeared for awhile, but by the end of the show she was up front again, and I knelt down to her again and said, "hey, no hard feelings, okay?" And she said, "I understand, it's okay."

GF:It's good that you can still engage with your fans like taht, even when you're upset with them.
DiFranco:When I get onstage, I get "Truth Tourette's." I just start saying whatever I'm thinking. It gets me in some sticky situations sometimes. I mean, I understand where my fans are coming from, I realize how important it is to have yourself affirmed, whether through books or music or whatever. So I understand their reaction, but at the same time it's a Catch-22 for me. It's an interesting struggle, an ongoing dialouge.

GF:Can you talk a little bit about your new album which is coming out January 19? How would you describe it?
DiFranco:It's live performances, recorded in this crazy big old beautiful house in New Orleans. I kinda like this new record, it has a good vibe, it's simple. With Dilate, I was grappling with all these heavy relationship issues. With Little Plastic Castle I was grappling with my job, and the weight of my public life. I think I'm over both of those things now. It's such a good feeling. I'm back to my old self--except I've learned a few things.