By Patricia Tomasi
Here come three chick rockers telling women it’s okay to be a bitch.
And not only is it okay, it’s something to aspire to. Meet Kinnie Starr, Oh Susanna, and Veda Hille, who are on the Scrappy Bitch tour (a sort of anti-Lilith fair) crossing Canada.
So just what exactly is Scrappy Bitch? Kinnie Starr explains: “I can be gentle but I don’t fuck around. I skip the bullshit and get right to the point.”
“I looked up ‘bitch’ in the dictionary and it said a spiteful woman, a female dog, or a complaint,” the 25-year-old Starr says. “I want to play the spiteful woman,” she says, “like coming out in the middle of Veda’s performance and shouting ‘fuck you Veda, don’t you know who the real star is?’”
Starr is joking, of course. She’s more interested in making fun of the super-competitive woman of today. She’s planning to do this by coming out on stage wearing a blond wig and fake nails.
Adds singer-songwriter Oh Susanna: “We’re going to fight a lot in the van and scrap it out with each other.”
Susanna doesn’t want their femininity to get in the way of their music. “It’s more about making music that’s strong, being in control, and being autonomous,” she says.
The tour was Veda Hille’s idea. Hille, 29, loves being called “little volcano.” She doesn’t like the “flowery and airy” image Lilith Fair created this summer. “Lilith Fiar was all sweetness and light,” she says. “I’m tough-talking.”
Hille is interested in reclaiming the word bitch. She says it should stand for Bold, Intelligent, Charismatic, Hellcats. “It should be taken as a compliment,” she says. “A bitch is totally in control of herself.”
If that’s the case then these three women have definitely earned the title. Oh Susanna, 27, has a contract with Melissa Etheridge’s management team. Kinnie Starr beat out 800 bands to play on the Lilith Fair tour and Veda Hille was commissioned to write an album of songs about the Canadian painter, Emily Carr.
Veda Hille wants fans to know that the show will include a diverse selection of new Canadian music. “What is worth more support than that?” she asks.
Kinnie Starr just wants to bring her some organic fruit.
Leave a Reply