I started playing guitar when i was 13 in my eighth grade music class.  i taught myself a whole bunch of simple songs like puff the magic dragon, sunshine on my shoulder, and runaway train.  these songs bored me, so i started writing my own.  a few months later i aquired a bright red fender squire and decided i wanted to be courtney love.  i began taking guitar lessons and learned how to play 'live through this' in its entirety.  i always had the secret dream of being the 'frontwoman' of a rock band, but i wouldn't dare sing in front of anyone.  so when no one was home i would secretly scream hole and nirvana songs in my bedroom.  at the age of 15 i discovered bikini kill followed soon after by sleater-kinney and i never looked back.  at 16 i sold the fender squire and bought the black statocaster that i still play today.  i only listend to grrrl fronted bands for about a year.  corin tucker became my new vocal role influence.  i had no vibrato (i didn't really want it anyway…i didn't want to be her, just belt it out like her), but i taught myself a whole bunch of heavens to betsy songs.  my senior year of highschool i was given the final push that made me decide if anyone was going to sing my songs it was going to be me.  so i dug out my father's tape deck from the 1970s and recorded a few songs for a friend.  she was impressed.  this gave me confidence and i kept working on my singing, driving around listening to cadallaca, i always say 'your one wish' is the song that taught me how to sing.  i played three songs solo on my radio show and that was the end of my fear of singing.  i played an endless amount of open mics, angry that a few people had the nerve to call me a folk singer.  my roots were in riot grrrl, and i was playing rock with a punk edge…it just happened to be on acoustic guitar because it was an open mic after all.  i met jon a few months after my highschool radio debut.  i wanted to start a band, he mentioned that he used to play drums, and about a year later (after my endless attempts at starting bands that never worked out) cargo may shift was born.

musical influences
the band that made me want to pick up a guitar and scream was hole.  although i soon discovered bands that would influence my music much more than hole ever could, 'live through this' will always hold sentimental value for me.  it taught me to bang the hell out of my cheap little fender squire and scream until i could barely talk.  it makes me sad there's nothing that accessible that compares today.  there are no angsty girl role models in mainstream rock, and i think there should always be one, just to serve as a gateway to the amazing music being made outside the mainstream.
my very favorite band in the entire world is sleater-kinney.  so it is obvious that i also like, heavens to betsy, excuse 17, and cadallaca, and i might as well include team dresch, bikini kill, and the third sex while i'm listing influeces.  i listen to a much wider array of music than that, but i would say these bands are the ones that made me want to be in a band and i guess got me through highschool while they were at it.  i do like it when boys sing, despite popular belief.