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Beth Ditto: Spreading The Gossip :: The Gossip front woman runs D.I.Y. like it was the mid-'90s

By Joshua Glazer   Photography by Tony Stamolis

08/28/07 :: URB 149

Beth Ditto’s band, The Gossip, might not be a household name, but the openly gay girl from Arkansas and then Olympia, WA, has become a celebrity in her own right. Ditto is dominating the UK tabloids while hanging out with friends like Kate Moss, as her band slowly climbs the music industry ladder with hit remixes and sold-out shows. But this notoriety has come at a cost. While BFF Perez Hilton has championed Ditto’s fierce on-stage performances, much of the tabloid media has focused on her weight and her lifestyle more than her music. It’s a situation not helped by her tendency to undress in public. Which leaves Ditto facing the ultimate challenge, can her D.I.Y. punk credo protect her from the trappings of infamy? URB caught up with Ditto after a manic few days, enjoying a bath in her Pacific Northwest home.

URB: Are you working or are you enjoying some time off?
Beth Ditto: I don’t really know what time off is, basically. I don’t sit down ever, ever, ever, ever.

Is that a new development from what’s been going on with the band?
I’ve always been a busy person with a lot of projects going on. Something like a zine. But now, I write a column for The Guardian in London. I have to get that done every two weeks, so I’m constantly working. So I’m not just writing for me anymore, I’m writing for money and other people. It’s funny when you mention the zine thing. There seems to be a real home for it in the Pacific Northwest. Absolutely. I have a friend who pretty much lives off her zine. She does workshops for the elderly and she does workshops for kids. I don’t think you could do that anywhere else. Do magazine workshops and actually live off it. I’m really glad. I really enjoy zine culture for the most part because some of these are huge in the punk world. Like Punk Planet.

Punk Planet just closed, didn’t it?
I didn’t even know that! Well that’s weird.

At the same time someone like Perez Hilton, his site is really a zine for the most part.
Everybody says the blogs have taken over the zines. My sister, she’s 15 and she knows about bands immediately, and it’s really crazy to see that happen. It took so much to get Punk Planet to Arkansas, and that was only 10 years ago. And now it’s just like at the touch of a finger. Which is crazy.

Do you think a blog like Perez’s is punk?
Definitely. What I love about Perez is, even if some people think he’s shady, he reminds me of all the fags I went to high school with. And who absolutely made my high school experience a wonderful thing. You know, that’s what I think is great about him. Just hanging out with him and feeling, “Oh my god, I already know you. I know you five times.” Not to say he’s not an original, but I have always felt a strong kinship with people like him. I think that the reason he gets hated on is, his site isn’t always nice. It’s not always the sweetest thing. But you know Perez would never say anything completely fucked up or racist. I think that’s what it boils down to for me.