20 Questions with... Stephanie Dosen

A bit late for our Bella Union week we know, but we couldn’t resist the chance to catch up with folk goddess Stephanie Dosen who wooed us with her tails of kittens, sea voyages and the fact she’s going to knit us a nice jumper and pair of socks by next week.

1. Describe your sound in 3 words?
Forest floor shanties.
2. What would be your ideal holiday?
I would stay home…light a fire…have a bunch of kittens delivered…and watch 24 hours of “flog-it”.
3. What’s the best cure for a hangover?
Eggs and sunglasses?
4. What’s on your rider?
Jack Black.
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
I pretend I dont have a show at all… Then at the last minute I drink a beer smoke a cigarette and run on stage. That way its a surprise.
6. Favourite song to play live?
Death & The Maiden.
7. When was the last time you told a lie?
What’s a lie… Really…
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
I think I would try to stop that fight and keep the goat as a pet (for the free goat cheese) and then chase the stoat into the garden so he could find his friends. I think I would win…in the end.
9. What was the last album you bought?
The Bird and the Bee.
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
“Great Balls of Fire”.
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
I’d like it to be an animated film where the characters were animals and I could be a white mouse. The voice would be Zooey Deschanel.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival.
Sinead O’connor, Cocteau Twins, Ozzy Osbourne, The Cure, Death Cab For Cutie and Midlake. Yes, I know that’s six… but I would hide Ozzy behind my back for a while until everyone stopped counting people and then I would bring him out for the finale.
13. Desert Island Disc? Pick only one.
Cocteau Twins “Four Calendar Cafe”.
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
I played a show in New York a long time ago that wasn’t advertised at all. There was a mix-up with the booking and they had the wrong day. So they put me upstairs where a bunch of people were planning their next high school reunion and told me to play there… Being an idiot at the time, i said ok. The people hadn’t seen each other in a long, long time and were all talking at the top of their lungs and actually standing in front of me with their backs to me while i was playing. A guys head was almost on my face. So I started singing about blow-jobs, titties and sleeping with all of their moms… I went completely insane and no one heard a single word. It was surreal and hilarious.
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Ghost visits… sea voyages… sneaking out of my room in winter as a little girl to go ice skating at midnight… singing onstage with Midlake last week at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
16. Do you read your own reviews?
Absolutely never. People send them to me and I just close the browser. I try to think of them as none of my business… I dont know what that is saving me from, but I just cant do it.
17. Are you a morning bird or a night fox?
Night fox.
18. If you could travel back in time where would you set the dial?
I’m not really into going back… I was such a frail thing. Any other time period and I wouldn’t have seen age 13.
19. What three things could you not live without?
Knitting, kittens & diet coke.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
I could knit you a jumper and a pair of socks by Tuesday.