Mission Drift, a new American musical created by Brooklyn-based ensemble the TEAM in collaboration with Heather Christian and Sarah Gancher, opens this week in The Shed, the National Theatre’s new temporary venue. New York singer Heather has not only written the music for the show, but also stars in the production. We spoke to her about acting, singing, her band the Arbonauts and kickstarting her way to a new piano.

Run-Riot: Mission Drift looks like a fantastic production- is it accurate to say it's a bit of a lovesong to America? How did you go about composing for such an epic theme?

Heather Christian: Yes! It's completely accurate to say that. I think of them more as hymns, but lovesong will do just fine. We started out trying to write a play about Capitalism- but in order to understand capitalism, we had to understand money, no small undertaking for a group of freelance American artists. I was baffled at the beginning because I couldn't find any inspiration in what we were researching at the time- primarily, economic history, but when we all started opening up and talking about our own personal relationships with money/Capitalism, it became very clear that it was hard to talk about money without talking about being American. And that BOTH of those things are incredibly tied up in our own personal histories spanning generations. As it turns out, Capitalism is inextricably linked to our own personal ideas of who we are and where we came from, and there's something large and almost holy about that. It was at that point that I decided to chuck the idea of writing songs ABOUT Capitalism, and started writing songs that were hymns to our lineage in this country that emerged FROM it. We are a nation of people descended from individuals who constantly wanted more and next- we have to reconcile that to who we are now. And that's complicated and multi-faceted- just like a relationship with God is.

RR: You're obviously very comfortable acting and singing in a production like Mission Drift- do you find that when you do straight forward gigs you end up acting too? Do you have an on-stage alter-ego?

HC: Ha. A little bit. Sometimes I like to joke with my boys that I have two personalities: One is grandma, who stays at home in her fleece slippers, eating peanut butter sandwiches, writing songs all day. It's incredibly hard to get grandma out the house, much less put an outfit on and party. The other is this demon peacock that sass talks her audience and drinks chocolate martinis and gets into trouble. To be honest with you, at this stage, I'm not sure which one is the alter-ego.  

RR: You were classically trained, but your voice is incredibly distinctive and other-worldly- when did you discover that this was how you wanted to sing?

HC: I'm not sure I was conscious of "wanting" to sing like anything. I'd been trained in lots of different schools of thought-I damn near failed EVERY formal voice class I ever enrolled in. It wasn't until I started writing music that this freak started coming out of me- which was electric and organic and TOTALLY safe because at that stage I wasn't doing it in front of anyone. Since I had a lot of theater training, my songs, in the beginning, started from a place of character, and from there, all these idiosyncrasies that a song's "character" did in the moment started becoming part of my vocabulary. Now it's not so conscious. I open my mouth and odd sounds come out in different ways every night, and it's the most liberating thing in the world to do. I feel 100% myself.

RR: You recently ran a hugely successful kickstarter campaign to buy a new piano- is this the future for independent musicians?

HC: YES. I don't know if it's the future for everyone in the music industry- (let's be real, it's not the future for pop stars) but for people like me; singer-songsmiths for whom there is no real choice in the matter (I'd evaporate if I weren't making noise) it is a wonderful, magical thing that allows us to make a living doing what we were made to do without feeling the pressure of signing with a label who would ultimately make it their business to neuter and/or change us. Kickstarter has done many amazing things, the LEAST of which is funded a piano. It has given me the confidence to go at my own career guerrilla style and be my own company, trust my own aesthetic decisions, be proactive about pleasing my audiences in ways other than making records or playing concerts. It has also stripped down the castle wall that has, up til now, traditionally been put up between an artist and their fans. I like having a direct connection to the people who are listening to my records. I like making a package in my house with my album in it, wrapping it in pink ribbon and slathering it in glitter and putting that in an envelope and sending it directly to someone who wants to hear it. Its a farm to table situation, only with music. Brilliant.

RR: Your band, the Arbornauts are all blokes- is it sometimes hard being the only girl on tour with a bunch of guys? Do you feel like the music industry is sometimes a bit of a boys' club?

HC: I love being the only girl in a pack of dudes. I feel very much like a den-mother. Sometimes they call me band-mama. It's a thing. It used to freak me out that I was trying to put on those proverbial pants and stay afloat in a "man's industry"-but with age and with confidence has come a realization that it just doesn't matter all that much. I'm a creature that makes a bunch of noise, and so is that guy and the next guy and it's not about gender as much as it is about genuinely owning the monster that you and you alone specifically are. Especially if you're a front-person. The artists I am most excited by are totally self-specific outside of their gender. David Bowie, Bjork, Antony and the Johnsons. They are aliens. It's glorious.

RR: Your dad was a blues musician- did you have a very musical upbringing? Was this what you always wanted to do?

HC: I don't think of my upbringing as being particularly musical, but then again, I can't compare it to anything. There was always music playing in the house, lots of Muddy Waters and the Beatles. Sometimes my dad would blast Jethro Tull in the car on the way to elementary school. I mean, that's gotta be formative, right? I was classically trained on the piano from a very early age, but never really wrote anything musical. I played Hayden and wrote weirdo poetry and made videos of myself lip syncing to TLC-- somehow all that came together. :) I had no idea I could do this until well into my 20's, so no. It was not always what I wanted to do. I did, however, paint NYC on my walls when I was in 6th grade, so I know I always wanted out of Mississippi. I went through stages. I wanted to be a novelist at one point, a hot air balloon pilot, I wanted to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

RR: If we were to visit your hometown, where should we go?

HC: If you, by some obscure stretch of luck, happen to find yourself in Natchez, Mississippi- you should go see Longwood, or any of the old antebellum houses- if you're into architecture and straightforward sight seeing. If you're into food, you should go to Fat Mama's and eat some tamales. If you're into the avant-garde, you should go see the Natchez Historical Pageant. Which is NOT avant garde in any way, but if you've got those tendencies, it will seem incredibly po-mo.

RR: Have you spent much time in the UK before? What are you looking forward to doing while you're in London? I've spent little pockets of time in the UK here and there- I LOVE VISITING YOU. I am looking forward to a midnight stroll in Sainsburys. You guys, it seems, share my incredible sweet tooth, and for this, I thank you.

See Heather in Mission Drift here.