"This is the first time I heard songs since the Throwing Muses broke up; the songs feel like there's a story still worth telling," explains former Muse Kristin Hersh about her fifth solo release, Sunny Border Blue. At 34, Hersh has already lived ten lifetimes -- forming a band at 14, marrying her manager, raising three sons, losing and regaining custody of her eldest son (who she had with her high school sweetheart), and launching a solo career. So you can only imagine the stories the songs want to tell. Hersh allows them to come, sparing no one's feelings, not even her husband's. "[The songs] turn pretty into beautiful and ugly into real," says Hersh.

Kate Quick: One of the most inspiring moments of my life was when Throwing Muses were playing at the Middle East [a club in Cambridge, MA], and you were pregnant and there were signs everywhere saying that people couldn't smoke. You kept saying, "You really want a cigarette don't you?" It was cool.
Kristin Hersh: It wasn't even my doing, really. People just did it for me, which is great. I was kind of embarrassed at the time, but now I'm like, thank God! Because that was just so dangerous, every night. And now it still happens. People put up signs: Kristin Hersh Show--No Smoking.

KQ: So the Throwing Muses are a done deal now, right?
KH: I would give anything to have the Muses back. It wasn't time for the band to end. We were getting better and better. We just ran out of money. But this record felt really good to make by myself. It was just a different studio experience. Just the engineer, Billy [O'Connell, Hersh's husband], me, and the dogs.

KQ: How was that in terms of family stuff?
KH: It was the first time the kids weren't there the whole time. I was just kind of torn. I would leave when they were in their jammies and come back when they were in their jammies again, and that's good and bad. My real daily life is taking care of the kids and going to the dentist. I do home schooling with the older one, and they eat constantly, so I am always just running back and forth. It's what other parents have to do all the time.

KQ: How do you maintain the integrity of your music?
KH: If you can stay on the road, if people keep paying to see you, then that's a much better way to be working than playing the game. They really need you to have a different kind of personality to sell yourself. And I'm simply not cute enough; I'm so shy I can barely speak. There are so many other things to do, like play good music. Who cares what the radio thinks, or what Rolling Stone thinks, or what charts you're on. I consider myself a great songwriter, a good guitarist, and a fair singer. So it's good that I tour so much, it's just...it would be nice to have a life, too.