Katie Harkin talks touring with Sleater-Kinney

When Katie Harkin got the call to say that she was joining Sleater-Kinney - or at least heading out on the road to join their live band - it’s safe to say that she was probably a little delirious with happiness. Almost every fan of the band who has heard the bassless trio’s insane chemistry on record has dreamed of joining Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss on-stage at least once. Harkin, Sky Larkin’s frontwoman, got to do it for real.

“There was no audition, written exam, or agility test,” Harkin tells SPIN, looking back on her initial meeting with the band. “When I was visiting [Sleater-Kinney] in the studio as they were finishing the record, jet lag hit me hard. I could feel the curtain dropping…I had to excuse myself and nap on a bench in the studio lounge. My theory is that seeing me fast asleep on a hard surface under bright lights and blaring music proved to them that I had all the requisite skills to be a touring musician. I got an email and a text out of the blue a few weeks after and fell off my sofa.”

“It’s such a treat to be able to wander around in someone else’s record,” Harkin continues. “It’s like being granted access through a series of secret handshakes. As players, they all have their individual superpowers, then with an additional 20 years of band chemistry to navigate, it’s felt like I’m embarking on my punk-rock PhD.”

You can read Katie Harkin’s whole interview here. Watch Sleater-Kinney perform ‘Surface Envy’ - with Katie Harkin - on Conan, below:

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