Early Life of Kristin Hersh

Kristin Hersh is known as the catalyst that inspired the band Throwing Muses, which she founded along with her step-sister Tanya Donelly. The band was created under the name Muses, when Hersh was 14, and included Hersh, Donelly, Elaine Adamedes on bass and vocals and Becca Blumen on drums and vocals. Well-known Muses drummer David Narcizo joined two years later, after the band played a party at his home.

Early Childhood

Kristin Hersh was born in Atlanta on August 7, 1966 and named Martha Kristin Hersh. Her parents were part of a free-thinking hippie era, and her grandparents were rather conservative Southern baptists, making her early childhood rather confusing. She lived in Atlanta until she was six, when she and her parents moved to Rhode Island.

Parents

Kristin's father was a professor who taught American Indian mythology, yoga and Zen Buddhism. Her mother was a teacher for the learning-disabled. Hersh describes her mother as quite smart and her father as a strange combination like Dr. Who and Jim from Taxi.

Divorce and Remarriage

Hersh's parents divorced when she was 11, and her mother remarried when she was 14. This remarriage was a great influence on her life, because her mother married her best friend's father, making Kristin and Tanya Donelly step-sisters.

For Hersh, music was always magical. Her father gave her a guitar when was nine, and she began to make up music on her own. At 14, Kristen was the inventor and driving force behind the band, as well as its main songwriter.