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An interview with Hesta Prynn

Sometimes things in life unexpectedly end up lining up better than they would have if you had actually planned it. A few weeks ago, a trip I had scheduled to go to New York ended up coinciding with an opportunity to meet up with Hesta Prynn, the fiery-maned musician whose regular “party in a petite package” persona had recently been somewhat sidelined due to a serious hip injury. We met up at a little cafe close to her apartment and while I came armed with my computer, she came armed with a pair of crutches which she spray painted black. It’s hard to look fierce with crutches but these black ones did the trick. We sat down and the former member of Northern State began to fill me in on the back story of her injury, her overwhelming love of RuPaul and the long list of great projects she’s been working on.

Hesta Prynn: Can I just start out by saying I love LOGO [AfterEllen.com’s parent company] so much? Carly, a producer over there is just so funny. I was in the car the other day reading her Twitter and I just kept retweeting everything she was saying so finally I was just like, “Saving myself time, go follow @Carlytron and pretend I retweeted everything she wrote.”

AfterEllen.com: So wait, were you friends with her before doing anything with Logo? HP: No, actually the order of events went like this: my old band, Northern State, went on NewNowNext, and it was Carly’s first day as a producer. She interviewed us and Robyn.

AE: Oh, my. I’d be like, I can quit now. HP: That was her first day of work. Um, hi. That was like, two or three records ago for Robyn, it was a hot minute ago. I remember talking to Robyn in the green room and recommending a remixer to her because my band back then was going to Sweden all the time so we were talking about Swedish artists.

AE: They just breed pop stars over there. HP: Totally. Cut to my interview with her at Bonaroo sometime later and I ask, “Why do you think the Swedes do pop so well?” and she has a full answer for it. I was like, “Why do you guys just do this so much better than us? What’s going on?” She had this amazing answer and I was like, “I love you.” So fast forward to a party I DJed about a year and a half ago. Robyn and Carly were there and Carly was like, “Hi, I interviewed you like a year ago and I know you have a solo record and I’d love to have you on NewNowNext.” So I was like, great! I went in and did a day on NNN and we just had a really good time. It was so fun, we just hit it off so hardcore.

So I was just like, I love LOGO, I am the biggest RuPaul fan on earth and think RuPaul’s Drag Race is the most important show on television. My therapist agrees with me.

AE: It’s always good to have your therapist’s approval of your TV watching habits. HP: So I was explaining to Carly how much I love the channel and how my dad and I both love watching RuPaul’s Drag Race and since I have access to a lot of cool artists, I would love to do something with them. I had just been booked to play and DJ at Bonnaroo so they said “Cool.” So I booked all these interviews with The Strokes and Robyn and Scissor Sisters, and we did like a whole thing for NewNowNext. It was awesome, I really tried to do an A-plus job.

Back to RuPaul – that show has changed the world. If anything, I’d say it’s kind of rendered Top Model irrelevant.

AE: It’s pretty bad. I recapped this past season of America’s Next Top Model: All Stars. Things got uncomfortable. HP: I would’ve loved that job, I’m just saying.

AE: No, but, it just wasn’t over-the-top enough. If it’s going to be a ridiculous show like that, give me some drama. I want Tyra to be wacked out of her mind. The weirdest, most over-the-top part of this season was just uncomfortable and that was when Tyra was shooting a piece for a short movie she was doing based on her book, Modelland, and in the scene she sucked Tyson Beckford’s thumb. It was creepy.

AE: So you’ve got some new and exciting stuff going on with YouTube. What’s that all about? HP: So, YouTube and Google did a deal together to start a series of cable channels.

AE: Oh yeah, I saw that they were picking certain celebrities to kind of create their own channel. I think Shaq has his own channel? HP: Yeah, Jay-Z has a channel, Shakira is going to have a channel. I told my manager about the Shakira channel and he was like, “Oh that’s going to be awful.” I was like, “You couldn’t be more of a 42-year-old straight white guy; that channel is going to be awesome.”

So this, company called IshTV that produces a lot of big shows including Love & Hip-Hop – which I love – they were given a bunch of channels and four of them are going to be music. So there’s the Jay-Z channel, Shakira Channel which is going to be about world music I guess, one is going to be Uno, Dos, Tres, which is the Spanish music channel and the fourth music channel is called My Ish and they hired me to be a VJ on it. AE: That is awesome! HP: Yeah it really is. Yesterday I had my first day of shooting and there’s three VJs – me and two dudes. They want us to kind of create our own content like an early MTV News Kurt Loder type of vibe. So I’ll be doing a little bit of writing but I get to use my own voice.

AE: Well right, they hired you because of your personality. HP: It was really fun and really hard – especially on the crutches I’m on.

AE: They didn’t let you sit down? HP: Well, first they came over to my place and I kind of gave them a little background info on who I am and showed my DJ setup and all that stuff. But then we went to the studio and I had to shoot on a green screen and couldn’t sit down for that. That was really challenging. They had a chair that they kept bringing in and out. I feel like professional makeup can make it look like you’re not on crutches when you are. Like getting my makeup done erased any of the looks of pain of a full hip dislocation and all the medication I’ve been on. But wiping the makeup off, you’re like fully on drugs and incapacitated. [Laughs]

But it was really cool and fun and it’s really exciting to be a part of a new medium. Who knows how this is gonna go but a lot of big people think it’s going to be the next big thing.

AE: I would agree just because everything is turning into web. Everyone’s attention span is shot to hell so TV just can’t be the same anymore. Especially if you can take it on your phone with you or your iPad with you or whatever. I think that’ll be awesome. Are you going to be interviewing people? HP: Yeah, I actually did an interview on Friday with my friend, he’s a remixer named RAC. I don’t know if you know him but he’s putting out a solo record this year which is really exciting. So I did that but I think I’ll be doing more presenting than anything. I’ve got a short contract with them that I’m excited about, but I’ve got a couple more things that are in the works. Right now I’m kind of seeing where it all might land.

AE: Kind of casting a big net and seeing what you get back? HP: Yeah definitely. I’ve got an agent now – like a hosting agent, not just a music agent.

AE: Ooh la la! [Laughs] HP: Ha, yeah. And my song, “Turn It Gold” is in the new Android commercial. It’s playing all the time now. [It was] playing during the Super Bowl! My parents were tweeting me about it last night. I think it was on during Modern Family.

I also signed a publishing deal so I really have to write a record now. I have an awesome new writing partner, this kid Ido, who is a young producer and writer. Right now he has this project called Versus The World and he’s putting vocals on the Justice record that doesn’t have any vocals, which is really cool. So we’re writing together and I’m really happy about that. We’re writing a song together called “Born Again,” which is kind of my Gloria Estefan “Coming Out of the Dark.”

AE: Wait, so that was another thing you had tweeted to me, that you were “working on an inspiring song” for us. And I was like, for who? For me? For AfterEllen.com? For Rachel Cantu who was on our tweet thread? [Laughs] HP: [Laughs] Well, I was looking for inspiration for these co-writes that I do. You see, when you sign a writing deal, you get hooked up with these producers to do co-writes. Sometimes it’s really awkward and sometimes they’re cool but [the songs aren’t] really for you. I’ve written a lot of more pop-oriented songs but have learned that my sensibility is a little weird, which I can accept at this point.

AE: Well and I appreciate it. I like my comedies dark and my songs weird. HP: Me too! And that’s why we love Robyn because she’s a perfect mix. She got it right. So I feel like, I wrote a lot of pop stuff and it’s cool but it’s just not my style.

AE: I mean, yeah, you painted your crutches all black. Britney Spears didn’t do that when she was on them. HP: But maybe Jessie J would! So, after I got hurt and had the surgery, I finally figured out what I want to write about. Once I got this kind of big license, I think my publisher was kind of like, “Oh you want to make weird songs? I don’t care.” So I was like, “OK, awesome” and that’s what we’re doing. I decided I’m going to put out a little EP in March with some songs I’m writing this moment. I’ll put it with some dope artwork that’s inspired by this injury. AE: So it’s going to be sort of a Frida Khalo type of thing? HP: Yeah basically. Or I’ll just post pictures of me in my underwear and crutches. [Laughs] Something sexy, but in a dark way. I love that people are continuing to buy my stuff on iTunes but I feel like I really need to put some new stuff out.

AE: Is it easier or harder for your writing process when you’re under contract and forced to write a certain amount of songs? HP: It’s the only way I can get anything done. I’m doing too many DJ gigs. No one was making me write songs until I signed this contract and people were like, ok we gave you the check now are you going to do some work? [Laughs] But I really wasn’t feeling inspired before. I was reinventing myself and doing a lot of DJ gigs and hanging out with friends. I started a new relationship and not writing wasn’t a problem. I’m inspired by my new writing partner though and meeting new producers and getting new tracks has really opened up my world.

Hopefully people will like it, I feel good about it. AE: Well, as long as you like it that’s what it’s all about. I mean, if you’re really into what you’re doing, your audience can hear it. I feel like, for the most part, the audience can also tell if it’s being phoned in. HP: Totally. So you want to hear something kind of weird that I found out this weekend? I was hanging out with a bunch of Israelis, and I found out that, no joke, my Hebrew name means “Homosexual.”

AE: Shut up, really? HP: So if you say somebody is “Aliza,” that’s my Hebrew name, it’s supposed to be like, that person is gay.

AE: I’m just going to be calling everyone Aliza from now on. Haaay Aliza!

So, I’ve got one more question for you and this one is from one of our readers who is a big fan of Northern State and wanted to know if there were any plans in the works to get together for a little reunion tour or to put out any new music together? HP: Well, what I can tell you about Northern State is that I was on the phone last night with Spero for 1.5 hours discussing The Bachelor is gross detail and the last half hour was on speaker while cross-referencing videos from the show.

I think it’s really funny – like when I started this new relationship, I had to talk about my band a lot, you know? So I spent a lot of time rehashing all of that. Then I recently had to explain who I was and that part of my history to the Ish audience and it just brought up a lot of things. Like I was showing the first time we were in Rolling Stone, my sister-in-law had the article framed because it was a big deal for me, you know? Like, the first time we were ever written about. So we were talking about that and then Sprout – she and I haven’t been very close in a while but she sent me a really nice card because she knew what had happened (with my hip) which I thought was really sweet. The band ended in not the best way, but at this point, I don’t know. Sometimes we get asked to do things here and there. The last gig we did was in Barcelona in 2008 or 2009 and then we weren’t going to play anymore. But then we got asked to play this Halloween show at this college in like, Missouri. I think it was a science college, and they offered us a good amount of money.

AE: Cool, did everybody dress up like atoms or something? HP: Ha, right! So we hadn’t seen each other, hadn’t rehearsed, just showed up and kind of got together and were like, cool, let’s play this gig! And then we went to a frat party afterwords, which was very us. We were like, “Here we are; we’re so old! We couldn’t be more old!” And they just kept bringing us cases and cases of beer because we had a reputation for being a party band – and we were.

And then I kind of went on my own with Tegan and Sara and that was really it. So, in conclusion [laughs], I feel like the time for a reunion show is definitely closer.

Check out Hesta Prynn’s post-Super Bowl Ish and we’ll make sure to keep you updated on the new EP.

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