In 1976 Kate Pierson founded the famed Athens, Georgia band The B-52s along with her pals Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland. It was the era of punk and new wave, but the B-52s were almost a whole new genre unto themselves. The B-52 changed everything with their fantastic fusion of Surrealism, lurid sci-fi, kitsch-spitting Americana realism and forbidden dance party music. Kate’s part in the B’s was musically prominent, making her one of most distinctive and soulful female voices defining the point break of the new wave. Over the years Kate Pierson has explored many collaborations outside the B-52s, working with such artists as The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, R.E.M, Matthew Sweet, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. She became a Rockprunuer with the creation of her Lazy Meadow / Lazy Desert ventures and appeared on interesting moving image episodes of Guiding Light, Flight of the Conchords, The Simpsons, Portlandia, RuPaul's Drag Race, Difficult People and Phineas and Ferb. She released her debut solo album ‘Guitars and Microphones’ in 2015 which was produced by Tim Anderson (Ima Robot) and featured Nick Valensi of The Strokes on several tracks. Kate also collaborated on songwriting with Sia who executive produced the album which includes manifestos you can dance to. It offers wisdom on transcending cosmically dark days, on being who you are and loving it: a crowd surfer, an artist, a show stopper. Boy Scout talked to Pierson about pyramids, pick axes, and pygmies.
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