There are a few instances on this list where it’s really the album that’s etched into a specific season of life. So, what I chose for this one was the first song of that album. I can just hear the CD going on – like on the CD changer in my bedroom – as a high school senior.

There was this substitute teacher at the high school I went to who was really into music, and he was in a punk band but didn’t talk about it that much with students.

We were on a field trip once – it was like a high school orchestra field trip to the nursing home to play Christmas songs – and me and my sister were sitting in the front row of the bus trying to talk to the substitute teacher about music. He was like: “Oh! You guys are really into Taking Back Sunday. You should listen to Björk and Cat Power.”

He was just trying to get us into better music. Anyway, that’s how I got into Cat Power. I love “The Greatest” and that record. I just have it fully associated with walking around the suburban area I’m from in high school and being ready for the next part of my life to start.

On a personal level, I just have that first Waxahatchee tape that came out. This was the first release, before American Weekend. It was just a few songs, and I have it so associated with my first apartment that I ever lived in towards the end of college in Massachusetts. Specifically, it really reminds me of sitting on the floor packing to move out of my first apartment. The summer it came out, it was just on a loop.

Also, at that time, Katie had already been in a certain corner of the DIY music scene. So, she already was someone who was kind of a little bit of a legendary musician to some people, because her bands had these cult followings.

When “Sister Saint” and the record it was on dropped, like, I recently described it to someone as that scene’s Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound records. These are really early home recordings. You hear them and you’re just like “Wow, this is amazing.”

This song is also attached to this memory for me of going to Lady Fest in East Hampton that happened in 2011. I lived in Boston at the time, and some of my friends drove out to this iteration of Lady Fest, which is sort of a feminist punk festival with roots in post-Riot Grrrl traditions.

Not only did Katie play at that festival, but it was the first time I ever saw her play. It was so special, and those early Waxahatchee songs remind me of that time.

I love Sleater-Kinney. They are one of my favourite bands and a big influence on me. This was also another instance where it was really hard to pick one song, but this song in particular I wanted to pick because in 2013, I launched a zine that became a really big part of my life. Actually, the only tattoo that I do have is its logo.

Anyway, in each issue, we did a mixtape that was part of the zine, and in the very first issue, I remember putting the song “#1 Must Have” on it. The lyric from the song, “culture is what we make”, is something that I come back to a lot because I think it’s so true.

In addition to Sleater-Kinney, I’m also a big fan of Corin Tucker’s band Heavens to Betsy. They’re a big influence on me musically, too. I play drums and write music, and I feel like a lot of times when I write songs, I’m thinking about Heavens to Betsy.

I’m someone for whom feminist punk music is sort of spiritual music in my life. X-Ray Spex are a band who in addition to being an amazing band that I think was totally ahead of its time, was also a band that has a huge influence on so many bands that have been so important to me.

I will also say, I learned so much about music from my sister. And X-Ray Spex is a band I learned about from her. The group was also influential on The Raincoats, and, eight years ago, my sister wrote a book about them. It’s one of my favourite books about music I’ve ever read. I know I’m biased, but it’s true!

With “Art I Ficial” specifically, I listened to this nonstop while I was working with my book. A few months ago, I made a list of songs that I listened to while I was working on my book, and this was the first song on my list. The lyrics about consumerism and culture are really ahead of their time. And there’s something about a song that that revolves around not just the word artificial but breaking it down into syllables and making you think about the word a little harder. I really appreciated that, especially when thinking about the AI hype cycle and trying to break it down.

Also, there was a documentary about Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex and I literally just cried through the whole thing at the movie theatre I was watching it at, because I think she’s so important and deserves so much more from the music industry.

I have actually seen Gillian Welch play five times over the last year. I loved the Woodland record she put out last year and I wanted to catch that tour as many times as I could.

The song “Hard Times” is one that I had been familiar with, but it was really only over the past year of seeing her perform it live so many times that it hit me in a different way. I can’t claim exactly to know what the song is about from Gillian Welch’s perspective, but when I listen to it, I hear a song that seems to be about a version of automation impacting somebody’s ability to make a living, or technological progress impacting someone’s ability to make a living.

It has this lyric where she sings: “It’s a mean old world, heavy in need / And that big machine is just picking up speed.” That’s a lyric I think about not just in relation to music, but in relation to the society we live in.

And, I’ve been a fan of Gillian Welch for so long. There was a semester where I did a radio show that was folk and folk punk, and I remember I used to play Gillian Welch a bunch. I think I saw her play with Conor Oberst in high school or college. The first music festival that I ever went to was going to Newport Folk Festival to see Gillian Welch!