I have been a fan of Alt-Pop Rock Singer/Songwriter Rachael Sage for over a decade.

During our recent 2024 interview she told me about her friend Bitch, and said that if I ever had the opportunity to interview her, I should, because she is so awesome and talented!

Needless to say, I kept that part of our conversation in the back of my mind and when I received the press release for Bitch's new show, B*tchcraft: A Musical Play,  I immediately requested an interview with her.

I am so excited Bitch answered my call. In this interview she shares:

• How she got her name
• What she is looking forward to about performing B*itchcraft: A Musical Play
• What she learned about herself from writing this show
• Her love for witchcraft analogies 
• So much more

Connect with Bitch: Website, Facebook, Instagram

B*TCHCRAFT: A Musical Play will land at The Wild Project in NYC from February 7-March 1, 2025! Click here for tickets!

B*TCHCRAFT: A Musical Play, tells the story of how a quiet child from suburban Detroit became the queer icon and beloved musical artist Bitch (Bitch and Animal, Kill Rock Stars, Shortbus). Through her touching, incisive and often funny autobiographical story, we follow Bitch’s journey from third daughter of frustrated British ex-pat artists, to feminist warrior and acclaimed performance artist.

The show is a wild musical broomstick ride through Bitch’s childhood, feminist awakening, indie rock stardom and subsequent brush with cancel-culture. A dynamic electric violin-laced pop treatise on patriarchy, self-actualization and triumph, B*TCHCRAFT will have you dancing in the aisles and inspired to brew your own bitchcraft in a world that needs it now more than ever.

1. This February you are bringing your autobiographical show, B*tchcraft: A Musical Play to NYC for an Off-Broadway run at The Wild Project. After performing this show for a few years on the road, what are you looking forward to with this run of the show? As an independent artist who has been very DIY for a very long time, it is so great to be able to have a whole team to bring this show to life! Plus, to not be in a different city and venue each night, gives me a chance to really know my surroundings.

2. The show was created as you were getting ready to tour your album Bitchcraft because you wanted to return to your theatrical roots. What made this album the right time to come back to theatre? I had taken a longer-than-usual break between releasing albums. When I was making Bitchcraft (the album) I was really able to stretch out, take my time, and imagine the biggest side of myself musically.

Similarly, when it came to thinking about the tour, I knew I wanted to do something that pushed me to make something even bigger, brighter than I ever had. I knew I had a story to share, and needed the framework to tell it. Having a scripted, thought out, beat by beat rhythm was surprisingly liberating.

3. I know everybody is going to ask me, so let me get this question out of the way...how did you get the name Bitch? I met my first bandmate Animal during a mushroom-induced feminist awakening in college. We decided to name ourselves these archetypes that are basically scandalous for women or afab people to embody. It was a way to reclaim a word that’s usually used to insult powerful women. And it stuck!!

Bitch, Photo Credit: Jim Frohna

4. In writing this show, what did you learn about yourself that you didn't realize as it was happening? Wow great question! I think I realized how sharing one’s vulnerability is very powerful. Like, I tell about sides of myself I’m not proud of, or that I’m embarrassed by. The younger Bitch wore her name like a shield. The older Bitch is able to soften and integrate and admit. This has been a powerful discovery. I owe a lot to director Margie Zohn for this, who helped draw my story out of me. At this point, she knows me almost as well as my therapist!

5. You have performed with music icons Ani DiFranco & The Indigo Girls. What did you learn from touring with them? That they are all badasses who carved their own paths. That kindness and community go a long way in building a career. The patriarchy is alive and well, and women in the music business still deal with glass ceilings. I can be bitter all I want about it, (and I am!) but ultimately, I have the coolest friends on the planet.

6. I love the way witchcraft analogies are weaved into various descriptions of your work. What made you want to lean into these witchy descriptions? I have always considered myself a self-taught witch! And when you think about how witches have been characterized—mostly ugly, hag-like, riding brooms and hexing families—is something to unpack in so many ways, when you look at the larger story of patriarchy, witch hunts, and the ultimate powers that women possess.

Bitch and her broom, Photo Credit: Deborah Lane

7. Press notes state "B*TCHCRAFT will have you dancing in the aisles and inspired to brew your own bitchcraft." What do you feel are the ingredients that go into the perfect bitchcraft? An urge to be the biggest, boldest, brightest side of yourself. A dash of humor. Three pinches of imagining a new world.

8. I can't do an interview with you and not bring up our mutual friend Rachael Sage, who in one of my recent interviews with her told me if I got the opportunity, I had to interview you because you are so amazing! What is something you love about Rachael and how do you feel your artistic outlooks align so well? Aw that means so much to me! Rachael and I have always shared a sense of maximalist fashion, being colorful as a daily public service offering. We are both classically trained kids and I think it shows in our music!

9. What is something we didn't get to talk about in this interview that you'd like my audience to know about you? I tap dance and will in the show!!

Bitch, Photo Credit: Dana Lynn Pleasant

More on Bitch:

Bitch is a longstanding queer music icon who Yahoo Entertainment called “a feminist force that the world needs now more than ever” when she released Bitchcraft, her 9th studio album, on the legendary label Kill Rock Stars in 2022.  With her signature electric violin and lyrical smarts front and center over huge beats and deep synths, Bitch coined the genre “Poet Pop.” “Bitchcraft is a masterpiece,” said Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls. Both Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco took Bitch on tour as their opener. Joey Soloway (Transparent) directed the music video for “Easy Target.”

Bitch first achieved notoriety as one half of the folk duo Bitch and Animal. The duo had met in acting school at DePaul University (formerly the Goodman School of Drama), where Bitch was the recipient of the Merit Scholarship for two years in a row. They toured with Ani DiFranco, and released two albums on her label Righteous Babe Records, and were nominated for a GLAAD Media award in 2003.

In 2004, Bitch went solo, and shared stages with the Indigo Girls, acted in John Cameron Mitchell’s film Shortbus, co-wrote a song with Margaret Cho, and produced two albums of her elder and folk hero Ferron.

Recently, she played a role in the new Audible podcast of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For, alongside Jane Lynch, Carrie Brownstein and Roxane Gay. The series was directed by Leigh Silverman (Suffs, Violet, Well), and Bitch co-wrote a song for it with Faith Soloway (Transparent, A Transparent Musical).

When it was time to tour Bitchcraft, Bitch longed to return to her theatrical roots and add a new element to her stage show. She teamed up with co-writer Margie Zohn to ‘craft’ an autobiographical tale that Bitch took on a National headlining record release tour, dragging props and costume changes to over 100 rock clubs across the US. The show has gained momentum and has taken on a life of its own. Bitch presented new iterations of it at Joe’s Pub in NY, as well as a 12 week residency of it in Provincetown, MA in the Summer of 2024.