SHOW DESCRIPTION:

Shawna throws out her usual podcast format to chat with drummer, activist, and lyricist Katy Otto on the heels of her celebrating 25 years of running her record label, Exotic Fever Records. If you own a copy of War On Women’s “Improvised Weapons,” you have an EXF release! They talk writing process, the things we’re working on (personally and musically), dads of daughters, Heart, Rosanne Cash, the Geffen Lollapalooza, the intimacy of co-writing lyrics, a little light misandry towards powerful men, being great at something you don’t feel like doing, becoming feminist because you survived being a teenage girl, and making bell hooks a mix tape.

Also: Salt-n-Pepa, punk recipes, Euro punks, the military budget, Landis Expandis, a Fugazi in every town, record players, and our Bikini Kill cover band, Rah Rah Replica.

Patron-only bonus moment available exclusively on Patreon, so sign up to catch that and other cool stuff from Shawna!

This episode is sponsored by Pupcakes and Pawstries and Ronnie of Navarro Hair Design.

SHOW LINKS:

Katy is on the cover of *that* Q And Not U album!! Read about it here: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/430176/beep-happening-how-q-and-not-u-made-a-classic-album-and-its-cover/

Exotic Fever Records - exoticfever.com

Bald Rapunzel -  https://baldrapunzel.bandcamp.com/

Del Cielo - https://delcielodc.bandcamp.com/album/us-vs-them

Trophy Wife - https://trophywifetheband.bandcamp.com/

White Picket Fence & Sun Within (her two new bands)

Rah Rah Replica’s first show! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmDqaMaT2ZU

Men Can Stop Rape: https://mcsr.org/

HIPS: https://www.hips.org/

Improvised Weapons link: https://www.exoticfever.com/artists.php?id=115

Secure Relating by Sue Marriott

Nonviolent Communication by Rosenberg

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

linktr.ee/waronwomen

EURO TOUR INFO: destiny-tourbooking.com

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. And I’m throwing my own podcast formula out the window today because I just played 25th Ann of EXF, lead by DC legend Katy Otto, and I thought - now here’s an interesting person I should interview. So I just did it. And now I want to share it with you. 

We met during my old AVEC days in the mid aughts, we played in a Bikini Kill cover band called Rah Rah Replica together (I’ll throw a video link of one of our shows in the show notes, worth a watch), and strangely that band kind of led to WOW, this idea that I could front a feminist band, not play guitar, I would not have thought of that were it not for our cover band. Knowing Katy, wow asked her to put out our first 10” ep, Improvised Weapons, so yeah, Katy is a part of our origin story. More importantly, she’s a drummer, lyricist, activist, and all around cool person.  So yeah, this episode is not lyric-focused, though we do get into her writing process! 

There will be a bonus moment, only for patrons, that gets into the military budget and war, tattoos and fugazi lyrics, AND Katy’s analysis of seeing WOW recently after not seeing us for nearly a decade? Is that right? Sign up for my patreon now so you don’t miss that alert. We also get into some different forms of microaggressions we experience as women in music, my thoughts on picking up guitar again, and the power of high femme. Yum. 

PATREON

Before we dig in, huge shoutout to my sponsor, Pupcakes and Pawstries, that recently shipped Rosie a birthday cake! I have likely posted something about it by the time this episode is out, so go check out my insta, and of course follow them and order cool shit for your pets. And see them when they table at Camp Punksylvania - we’re playing there Saturday June 21 - where I’ll see them, will I see you?

And thank you to my defacto sponsor, Ronnie the amazing hair stylist out of Seattle who has now cut my hair twice - why am I in Seattle so much?! Go see him if you’re in the area. And to my recruits Melissa P. and Nick of First Defense Krav Maga. 

And to all my Meatheads: Daniel W, Ben, Isias, russel W, Byron, Bob VV (see you at Camp) and the legendary Stephan K! I love you all, thank you for your continued support.

Depending on what you’re able to donate each month, you get different perks, one of which is asking me questions that I answer on the episode, so here are a couple.

Jon B asks: Do you like Tex Mex? And what is Tex Mex?

Oh Jon. I love Tex Mex. I am a native Texan and that was my version of mexican food growing up. I feel like it has more flour tortillas versus corn, so that’s my usual preference. And my favorite dish is fajitas, which to my understanding is sort of a tex-mex invention. You got me to do a deep dive on the difference and basically Mexican food is historical and traditional and based on native growing vegetables, and then Tex Mex takes a lot of elements but is very beef heavy bc of the cattle ranches in texas, and uses lots of yellow cheese instead of white cheese. Interesting! But I’ll take any version of Mexican food, I like it all, except for what you all call salsa in England, it’s more like ketchup. That was taken of the rider really quickly the first time we toured over there. 

Daniel W asks: Is there a lyric (not necessarily a song) that you wish you would have, could have written?

I actually do have a song I wish I wrote, and trust me I am fully aware of all the reasons why I could never have written it, but the answer is: Push it by salt and pepa and no I will not be elaborating on that.

He also asks what is something you’re struggling with, like personally, that you're finding difficult to incorporate? Kinda paraphrasing there, but my answer right now is self-soothing. Not relying on others to regulate me after getting upset and also not having a disproportionate response to you know, criticism or conflict. Luckily this isn’t something that affects me across the board, it’s mostly about the people closest to me, who’s opinion of me really matters, who I want to do right by. So, I’m at the awareness stage, not really sure what to do next, so I’ll be starting with a book called Secure Relating and seeing where that takes me. Hopefully I finish it by the end of summer, but… I’m also really excited to read a book called Nonviolent Communication and I could see myself reading that first, so we’ll see! What about you, listener? What are you working on? Sometimes saying it outloud is the first step towards doing, not just thinking.

[INTERVIEW TIME]

OUTRO: 25 years of running a label because she believes in magic and community and giving cool people a leg up. It’s so Katy! and it was so wonderful to talk to her about it. This felt like a meaningful catch up with my friend which was nice after a bunch of texts and emails about logistics for these shows we played, so I’m super happy about that. 

I’m also happy that Wow just announced our European tour! Head to linktr.ee/waronwomen OR https://destiny-tourbooking.com/ to see all the dates. My patrons always get in to shows for free! I will work something out with you if you contact me about it, so be sure to sign up as a patron and then message me about the show you want to go to. Even if you have to pretend to be crew for a day, I’ve got your back and it’s the least I can do to thank you for your support. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my Patreon at patreon.com/shawnapotter to tell me who I should interview next and listen to the bonus moments with Katy.

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 

You can also find me on Cameo! 

thanks for listening, huge congrats again to Katy on 25 years of exotic fever. And fuck trump and fuck ICE!