Punk Globe: Thanks so much for doing the interview. Tell us what inspired your book Hit Girls.

I had been listening to a lot of – almost solely – punk and post-punk from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and was really drawn to the bands with women in them… I had friends point me to new artists and suggest compilations, and I was blown away by how many women were making music at the time. The narrative I always understood was that there were a few special women invited into a boys’ club and that it wasn’t until the ‘90s that women carved their own space in punk – but I started to see that wasn’t the whole story. Women were always involved in punk and laid the foundation for the movement altogether. Once I started digging in, I realized it was a largely untold history. I think being a musician myself, experiencing misogyny and marginalization in music scenes even 30 years later, I felt that the stories needed to be told. 

Punk Globe  It was cool that you centered the book around Women in the punk movement from the 1970s.  I remember you telling me that you used Punk Globe to get information. What other sources did you use? 

Yes! I used Punk Globe! I also used Search & Destroy and any other archival writings, photos, and interviews I could find online. Sometimes newspaper clippings and even posters.  I was able to go to Penelope Houston’s punk archive in San Francisco, where I got to see a lot of photos, writings, calendars, and flyers. I got a lot of the records, and when it was available, I used information on the inserts. I would say one of the best sources on the internet is YouTube. I discovered so many bands that way and could listen to a lot of the stuff I couldn’t find or afford on vinyl. I also consulted a lot of other books– which, at times, I used to gather details and, at other times, used to contextualize scenes in various cities, as well as what the historical landscape had already covered. 

But the most important sources are the band members and the women themselves. I tried to talk to everyone I could. Although some have passed away, we are living a little more than 40 years from the time all this magic happened, which means we have access to these living storytellers. Telling each band or artist’s story as objectively as I could while also letting their voices drive the narrative was very important to the process.  

Punk Globe: I was impressed you spotlighted Nyna Crawford from The Vktms. Such an underrated musician.

She is so interesting. A handful of people brought her up to me – including yourself. It was cool to include a fable she wrote that her bandmate John Binkov sent me. 

Punk Globe: Were most of the Women receptive to your requests?

They were! Almost everyone I contacted got back to me and was excited to talk or write back and forth. I would say the excitement was especially palpable from the lesser-known bands, including many from the Midwest who hadn’t really gotten much press at the time or since then.