LH: Stories and characters are always to the fore in your songwriting, you paint pictures so well, and this collection is no exception. And once again the stories you tell here aren’t always pretty….what is it the attracts you to flawed characters and desperate situations?
GP: I find these characters heroic. They persist, despite having been dealt a bad hand. If there’s anything beautiful and admirable about humans (and we’ve certainly been tested in the past few years to find it), it’s the ability to maintain their humanity in inhumane situations. The girls and women on Dancing With The Beast are, as my coproducer Doug Lancio said to me, “wrapped in a ramshackle kind of elegance” – I love that, because it elevates them the way I see them – as heroines, with a certain dignity and grace.

to read this interview in its entirety, visit Belles & Gals.