EPISODE 40 - Christina Rowatt of Occupy the Void
SHOW NOTES:
After being interviewed by Christina Rowatt for her mental health podcast Occupy the Void, host Shawna turned the tables and interviewed her for But Her Lyrics! An enjoyable chat about what it’s like to be a woman in journalism and podcasting, her favorite interview moments, and how a love of language has led her life.
Also: Rosie barking, the Extra Extra jingle, having a face for TV, passionate metal fans that also love Rihanna, how lyrics affect us emotionally, men and men-tal health,
Shawna is not an expert in anything, “it’s all cabaret”, creative process, art does not have to be made for public consumption, and can the internet help us find female cinematographers in Australia???
SHOW LINKS:
Her War is Our War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9JU7ECTdXc
Occupy the Void: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/occupy-the-void-with-xtina/id1733957293
Revolver Fan First podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLANorT3Y7McP3s6W82Ucxz_LQZtSrbuIi
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/xtina_rowatt/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheVoidwithChristina
Soundgarden “Fell on Black Days” - I like the music video version better than the album version, so here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySzrJ4GRF7s&list=RDySzrJ4GRF7s&index=1
SHAWNA’S LINKS:
shawnapotter.com
Making Spaces Safer: https://www.akpress.org/making-spaces-safer-book.html
https://www.youtube.com/@shawnapotter
https://www.cameo.com/shawnapotterwow
SHOW SCRIPT:
Welcome to But Her Lyrics...the show where we delve into the political lyrics of songs I like, songs I wrote, or topics that I think should be a song. I’m Shawna Potter, singer and lyricist for War On Women - and your host. This is a unique one. I'm excited to bring you my buddy and interviewer of big rock stars, Christina Rowatt of Occupy the Void, a podcast about the intersections of music and mental health. We dig into her background of course, but she’s interviewed artists from Guns and Roses, Tool, Incubus, The Melvins, Mastadon, Chelsea Wolfe, High on Fire, Judas Priest, Converge, Haltestorm just to name a few. Super impressive. And I was recently a guest on her episode with Donita Sparks of L7.
Christina and I do know each other. We met when WOW toured Australia with Converge in 2019 and she documented our two big festival dates, using some of the footage for a short documentary, partly about us, partly about feminism and sexism in music, called Her War is Our War, which I highly recommend, link in the show notes of course. So it’s very cool to reconnect with her here.
But even though Christina isn’t a known musician - spoiler alert, yet - her connection to words, her experience interviewing big artists about deep topics, combined with this being the first time she’s ever been interviewed, well it makes for a very refreshing take on lyrics and the creative process that I hope anyone listening can benefit from. But up first?
PATREON
Biggest of shoutouts to my Patreon Recruits: Pupcakes and Pawstries, Ronnie Navarro, Nick M, Melissa P, and my Meatheads: Ben, Isaias, Russel W, Byron, Bob VV, Pete, and Stephan K. Thank you for your continued support. And thanks to my newest member, Jim B. and to anyone that has upgraded their tier recently. You can get a shout out too if you sign up. Or, you can gift a Shawna-specific Patreon membership to a friend if you think someone else would be interested in what I do. Maybe now is a good time to up your monthly membership amount, which you can do at a discount if you buy it annually instead of month to month. So, lots of options, and please know, patrons get to decide: what about my life do you want to see or hear? Message me your requests, and don’t forget about any special benefits your specific membership tier gets. I might owe you a virtual call! Also, I’m going on tour with Helmet in late February and March, WOW is finally heading back to the west coast, so keep in mind. My patrons get on the list, ok? So again, sign up, and then message me on Patreon and tell me what city you want to go to and I’ll see you there.
OK, so ahead of my chat with Christina Rowatt, I just want to say sorry! There’s a little bit of talking over each other, it’s not that bad, it just sounds like a real life conversation, not a stuffy interview.
INTERVIEW TIME
[transcript otw]
OUTRO:
I think she did pretty fucking good for her very first time being an interviewee, whaddya say? And I really hope by listening to this you’re inspired to do something that scares you, right? To get away from the screens and do something creative just for you. If I had permission to play Soundgarden’s Fell on Black Days at the end of this episode, I would, but instead I’ll just link it in the show notes and you can take a listen at your leisure.
You can support this podcast by liking my youtube channel, and sharing, subscribing, and reviewing But Her Lyrics... Wherever you get your podcasts - it’s free and it helps. To find episode transcripts, or to find out more about what I do, my book, my trainings, my patreon, head to shawnapotter.com
To learn about all things WOW, head to linktr.ee/waronwomen - we do have shows coming up all over the US and Canada with Helmet, so please come say hi if I’m coming to your town.
You can also find me on Cameo!
If you haven’t already, subscribe to my Patreon and tell me who I should interview next!
thanks for listening and please take care of yourselves and each other for the next 4 years - we’ll need our wits about us to fuck shit up properly. Good luck.