Nine Questions

Kindall Grey

Kindall Gray is an English instructor at the University of Arizona and an assistant fiction editor at Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts. She also writes novels, short stories and reality show recaps. Her fiction will appear in issue No. 174 of One Story, and she blogs at realhousewivesrealprofessor.wordpress.com. She is a native Tucsonan, is married to a very nice man, and has a schnoodle she spends a lot of time with.

What was the first concert you saw?

I didn't go to concerts much, if ever, in school because they were too expensive or I was grounded. I'm thinking it was Guttermouth, at Skrappy's, when I was 16. Though I wanted to be punk, I was inexperienced, so I stood in the middle of the mosh pit. I got stomped and my glasses flew off.

What are you listening to these days?

Elliott Smith, Frank Ocean, Danny Brown.

What was the first album you owned?

Whitney Houston's debut. I loved the picture of her on the cover: her stoic expression, her wrap dress.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone seem to love, but you just don't get?

Some alt-country feels inauthentic to me. I need to feel like a musician's experience helped them create their art, that they aren't just imitating a genre of music.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

Elliott Smith.

Musically speaking, what is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I like some modern pop: Pink, Rihanna and Kelly Clarkson.

What song would you like to have played at your funeral?

Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" or Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay." I want everybody to be really depressed at my funeral!

What band or artist changed your life, and how?

Hole. At 13 years old, I had never heard anything so grim, so angry, so raw, as Live Through This. The songs reflected all of these things I had been feeling about being a girl, about beauty.

Figurative gun to your head, what is your favorite album of all time?

PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love. It's just a perfect album.