“Our first show was opening for DOA, which was great,” Jean Smith says. “Absolutely nobody was interested.” Smith is one half of the long-running experimental duo Mecca Normal. The band’s first show, which took place in 1984 at a place called the Smilin’ Buddha in Vancouver, was something of a wake up call. “It was like we weren’t part of the thing that we felt we were part of,” she says. “Yeah, we went to the shows and everything but once we tried to represent what we were thinking about, in the configuration we realized we wanted to stick with, it just wasn’t what people wanted to put up with. We were room-clearers. Totally we were.”

Over 30 years later, Mecca Normal has not only outlasted most of their punk forebears, they are also still writing songs about politics and protest, and still staying true to their feminist, anti-capitalist ideals. Smith, now 57, has lived a life that could serve as a model on how not to sell out. Still based in Vancouver, Canada, she has spent the past several years working a series of part-time jobs, which allowed her to devote much of her time to art: playing music, writing novels, and lately, painting.

Last winter, though, she grew increasingly frustrated with her work situation. “I quit one stupid job and then I took a job at Whole Foods, which was horrible,” she says. She worked as a cashier, a position that put a strain on her wrists. “I need my wrists for writing and painting and guitar, and chopping my onions, and other things.” Another part-time job at The Home Depot was similarly draining. “I don’t mind working. I kind of like the structure,” she explains. “But when you start damaging yourself or putting yourself in harm’s way psychologically or your time’s jeopardized, you really have to be careful that you just don’t fall into that….The purpose for having the stupid job is so you have all your time, most of it, to do what you should be doing, which is the music or the writing or the, in this case, the painting.” . . .