You mentioned that you’ve had stalkers, which, I’m so sorry. Do you have protection from them now, restraining orders?

There have been a few [restraining orders]. But people who aren’t balanced don’t care about restraining orders. And then there was everything I had to do via the law to get the restraining orders validated. Basically you go to court and validate every single thing about what’s wrong with the situation, and you give the stalker everything they want. The laws are insane and have nothing to do with what should actually be happening in that situation.

It feels punk rock to say, “Yeah, the government doesn’t care about me,” but you really know it’s true when you’ve rearranged your entire existence and spent your life savings just to keep away from a stalker. It is a poison that fucks with your quality of life, and I don’t accept it. I rage against it. I don’t know how to get it out of myself—like if I could take a maple syrup tap and stick it in my side and bleed it out, I would do it. If I have to get it operated on without any anesthesia, I would do it, just to get this rage out of me.

I feel like stalking is an under-discussed problem in music, as something faced by artists on many levels.

I don’t know why people don’t take it seriously. A friend the other day sent me a profile of the guy who shot up the Waffle House and killed those people. He was massively into Taylor Swift, but that [incident] had nothing to do with her. It’s terrifyingly similar to my situation.

It’s not talked about enough, and huge, and shitty. I know a lot of men who have been stalked as well, and they feel the same way. But with women it creates this by-product of the easiest, most played-out trope that we’re crazy. It’s like, “No, we’re lacking a very basic freedom to protect ourselves.”

With the post-Weinstein reckoning going on in our culture right now, do you think anything is going to change long-term as far as women’s danger being taken more seriously?

Well, I keep getting repeatedly shat on, and maybe it’ll just be me, but I don’t think so. There are a lot of younger ladies that are fucking loud, though. They make my life complete.

Like who?

There are so many women on Twitter who are educators and activists, and I find a lot of inspiration from them, especially young native women. Because not only are they taking the time to explain what it is about feminism or about liberalism that doesn’t include them, they’re explaining colonialism from the ground up in a way that makes it clear that feminism and human rights are the same thing. It’s a big deal. I’ve learned more in the last year shutting my mouth and hearing them talk. I’m not tooting my own horn, I’ve got a long way to go. But hearing what these women have to say, it’s just plucking at strings that have always been there but kind of dormant.

Are you feeling like your feminism is strengthened by this period of listening?

Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

You mentioned that studying ancient history has been heartening for your feminism as well. Where did you start?

I came upon Adrienne Mayors’ book [The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World]. She is essentially the person who proved, with the help of many other historians, that Amazons were not mythical, they were actual people. With DNA testing, they were able to figure out that all these warrior bodies in these graves were women. They traced them to actual people, to female horse cultures all across the world. They’d always been there. These societies were more matriarchal, and merit was based on your abilities, not your gender. They were an unstoppable force. They were just fucking efficient and highly mobile. These cultures thrived for many, many years. It was so validating to me. It pulled me out of a really dark place.

You were one of the first musicians I saw publicly resist a gender-specific compliment, with your response to Playboy in 2014: “I’m not a fucking ‘woman in music,’ I’m a fucking musician in music!”

Dude, I’m such a fucking futurist. [laughs] I don’t know if I would even identify as a woman if they didn’t fucking hate us so much. I’d love to not even think about it, but I can’t abandon my post.