My gender is who I am. It's how I see the world. But it's not something I consciously think about when I make music. Music is so personal -- a woman is who I am, and who I am makes music.

I liken Sleater-Kinney to a freight train. It felt like this incredible, forward-moving, powerful energy.

A band asked me to go on tour when I was 22 and asked me to play drums, and I taught myself so I could go on this trip with these people. The drums found me; I didn't find them. When I started playing, I realized how appropriate an instrument it was for me.

The advice I like to give to drummers is that there's no right or wrong way of playing the drums. I think the drumming community can be very antiquated and very stuck in the past of, like, this Neil Peart style, technical Guitar Center drum video kind of approach. That you need to have played for 15 years before you ever do anything worthwhile.

Just really be yourself, and if being yourself means you play two snare drums and nothing else, then play two snare drums and nothing else! Really figure out who you are and how you want your drums to feel because it's a very emotional instrument.

I was a dog groomer. I delivered radiators; I was a photography producer. I typed classified ads for many years. It was my longest term job - years of typing classified ads while I was in bands.