Beth Ditto chooses joy

When Beth Ditto joins the video call, the lead singer of Gossip is wearing her pyjamas, accessorising them with orange-toned locks and a Juul. “It’s the morning here,” the Standing in the Way of Control singer tells me from her spare room in Portland, Oregon. Though she might not have been awake for
long, Ditto is as warm and vivacious as I’d been told she would be by my colleagues — she even returns the favour when I begin to ask her questions. I try not to go too off-track, though. We’re here to get an insight into the ever-evolving character of Ditto, who regrouped her band and dropped a new album, Real Power, last year — 24 years after Gossip released their debut record and almost 13 after their most recent, A Joyful Noise. “Being in your forties and playing music for a living, you can’t talk about that without talking about how much the music industry has changed,” the singer says. “Everything is so different and so big. It’s so easy as an older musician to get really freaked out, but I’ll be 44 in February and it’s been cool to be around for this long. It is a
different world, though.”

While a lot has changed since Gossip signed with the queer label Music with a Twist back in 2007 — “Even then we were like, this is a horrible name,” the singer says with a laugh — the same issues remain close to Ditto’s heart. “There’s something to say about gay people, queer culture, where we get lumped into this one thing,” she says. “At the time I was really happy. Like, if we’re going to have to sign to a major label, it felt good to be on a gay label. But it was not intersectional at all.” While things have at least begun to become more inclusive in the music industry, Ditto emphasises that there’s still a hefty amount to tackle. “The conversations around the need for inclusivity and diversity are all happening,” the Gossip frontwoman says. And, living in the US at a time when Trump has re-entered the White House and immediately started rolling back protection on LGBTQ+ rights, it’s a perilous climate for the queer community. “There’s this great pushback against it,” Ditto says, “because people feel threatened and they’re terrible. It’s just hard.” From the way the singer dresses to the lyrics she puts in her songs, Ditto fights for the things she believes in, and her unwavering sense of humour and punk spirit form a throughline as we talk.

Scarlett Coughlan: Let’s chat about your shoot — it’s, characteristically, so
imaginative.

Beth Ditto: I think when you’re younger and you’re a punk, you kind of assume that if you use a stylist you’re copping out — it’s not really your style. Or, if you pose for something, you’re a poser. But then the more shoots I would do, the more I realised the funnest part was that it’s not even you any more. It doesn’t matter. It’s just like, who gives a shit? I like that part of it. I like to be like, “That girl is hilarious.” Or like, “What is that girl doing?” It doesn’t feel like me at all. And I like to be like, OK, how can it get more fun or funnier? Funnier is always the thing for me. It’s always key. I also love to be in a group of people — it’s like being in a band. And one of the best parts about being in a band is everybody’s talking about shit — the things that you really love, the things you hate or, most of all, the things that make you laugh. That’s what I like the most.

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 34: Fight Back. Stay tuned for the full story.