So first of all, I have to ask you about Austin. From what I gathered you once went to UT and also while in town you were in a local band called Veronica. Why the decision to leave Austin, and how did you end up here in the first place? Any fond memories of our fine state capital? What happened to Veronica?

I went to Austin to go to grad school, but i missed the northwest a lot when i was there and so came back as soon as i could. i really had a good time there and have really good memories of the place. i still have good friends there and love to visit. veronica went the way of bands whose members move away. veronica still lives in my heart.

 

Speaking of cities, do you think they put something in the water in Portland, or in the whole North West for that matter? What is it like living in an area that seems to breed and cultivate Indie Music in the forms of bands and labels as well as so many forms of political activism. It just seems like such a Mecca for everything you represent.

I think if you look around, you'll see it where you live too. i don't think the pnw has a monopoly on cool indie culture. there are a few things about portland, seattle and olympia that have made it particularly great for the past ten years (mostly the grassroots infrastructure building of labels and artists working together in many media) but i think there is great stuff going in austin, not to mention places like dc.

 

You have a PhD in Comparative Literature from what I have gathered. That is quite impressive, and a little intimidating form a reviewers standpoint, how does your degree effect your music if at all? Are you still teaching? Yes i'm teaching. this semester (spring 2001) i am teaching classical mythology at evergreen in olympia and writing at Portland Community College. in terms of being intimidating, if knowledge about the history of the discipline of classics intimidates you, please reconsider! i don't really think a lot about the ways that my degree per se influences my music. i know that my teaching really influences me, the interactions and new information i get when teaching new classes is really energizing for me. i really enjoy working with my students.

 

I have read that you are quite active in gay/lesbian and feminist issues. Are there any particular issues you are really focused on at the moment? How did you start to get so involved in these areas? Do you ever speak about these issues when you are in a musical setting? Like for example mention things in-between songs.

I sometimes speak to these issues, but not often. usually it is in a context of a specific event, or if i have been thinking a lot about something (like marriage, or violence, or youth issues) i have not been very active recently because i'm super busy with work and teaching (my day job is at a design studio/magazine called Plazm). i think my whole coming to consciousness about my sexuality and my politics around it took place in a punk rock context -- they have never been separate in my mind. i just got invited to be a judge for the floats at portland gay pride this year, i consider this a great honor. that might be my gayest moment of the year.

 

Do you consider yourself more of an activist or an artist? It seems from the lyrics of “What She’d Trade” you differentiate the two: “the selfish life of the activist can only be understood by the selfishness of the artist". It seems the two would be able to live fairly symbiotically, but I can also see how one would feed off the other in a more parasitic sense.

I think that they are the same. by separating them and opposing them, i wanted to get the listener to think about they ways they were the same and different. i think to do either/both with any conviction, you must be very selfish, especially with your time and energy resources.

 

We know the Lookers are now defunct, what about the Crabs and Cadallaca are you still working on those projects or does your solo work take up the bulk of your time now?

The crabs and cadallaca are both on breaks right now, so most of my music time is spent with my solo work.

 

How has the attention been from working with Corin Tucker of Sleater Kinney and Janet Weiss of Quasi? Do you feel this has helped to bring your music to a wider audience? It has been good. i hope it has brought my music to a wider audience, i'm not really sure if it has or not.

 

So is there an instrument that you prefer working with as a medium? I know you play a Farfisa organ with Cadallaca and The Crabs. Then on your solo work you seem to be predominately a guitar player. Is there one you prefer?

I like both. i can write better on the guitar.

 

How is working with Mr. Lady Records? Any reason for the switch from K? Is your next record, which I hear will be here in the fall, going to be on Mr. Lady? I like mr. lady very much. i admire the politics and the business practices of this label. i wanted to work with some feminists, so that is why i switched. my record coming out in october will be on mr. lady.

 

Because of your openness about your sexuality, and Mr. Lady’s for that matter, do you fear people will clump you into that lesbian rock category, like mentally shelf you right in-between Tribe 8 and Team Dresch? Not that either one are bad bands to be grouped with, but the categorization would obviously be based strictly on sexuality and not sound. Do you feel this has happened to you at all? To quote you again, I once read you were trying to make the “idea of 'punk lesbian' more complex than some might prefer”.

It is difficult to get people to change their minds, especially when it comes to issues of aesthetics and politics, both of which play a part in the question you pose. i think if people disregard my music because of my openness about my sexuality, it is their loss. for me it is very important to be open and honest about who i am and what i sing and think about -- obviously these things are more complex than just my sexuality. that is just one part of what i am about. but because we live in a homophobic culture that would like to compartmentalize (and eradicate) difference, my sexuality becomes more important to some critics than it actually is.

 

More in detail about mixing sexuality and music, how does it effect you when people mention your sexual preferences in a review (or in an interview), like it is relevant to the way your record sounds? I don’t read reviews of heterosexual musicians that mention their sexuality. That is a good point. It is exsasperating. On the other hand, I view performance and creation as explicitly political acts. it is only frustrating when sexuality becomes a reductive term rather than an expansive one.

 

Any upcoming tour plans? Are you excited about Ladyfest in Scotland? Any insider news on the decision to have it in another country this year?

I'm touring with the butchies and amy ray next week down the west coast. i hope to do a little touring in the summer as well. i am very excited about ladyfest scotland. there are going to be a number of ladyfests around the country as well -- they are not affiliated with the ladyfest in olympia except via inspiration.

 

What is the future like for Sarah Dougher?

rosy and busy.

 

Photographs by: Storm Tharp and Tae Won Yu