Beth Torbert, a.k.a. Bif Naked.Supplied
The music documentary Bif Naked is titled as such because that’s the name under which Canadian alt-rock legend Beth Torbert performs and records. But that’s only part of it. To be naked, as in truthful, unvarnished and vulnerable, is the concept at work with the film directed by Pollyanna Hardwicke-Brown currently airing on Super Channel Fuse.
On her way to Ottawa recently for a film screening, Q&A and acoustic performance, the rocker spoke by phone about riot grrrls, her experiences at Lilith Fair and her sexual assault in high school.
In the film, George Stroumboulopoulos, a champion of yours, says you are an icon for girls who want to be different. Do you feel that way?
In the early 1990s, there were a few of us breaking out. We were in our early twenties. The riot grrrl persona was just beginning in the Pacific Northwest. We didn’t have a blueprint. There was Debbie Harry and a few others before us, but we were flying by the seat of our pants. We wanted to embrace that do-it-yourself feminism that didn’t tolerate any nonsense.
The documentary cites one example after the other of the nonsense you faced in the music industry.
Not just me. But we had to soldier on. It was a fun time to be a rebel.
Karolina Turek/Supplied
The film gets into the resistance you faced as a tattooed rocker by some of the artists on Sarah McLachlan’s touring all-female Lilith Fair festival in the late 1990s. Did that experience surprise you?
Honestly, my band and I were treated fairly. Sarah McLachlan was warm, polite and very inclusive. All I can say is that some of the other artists might not have been familiar with the harder rock artists who were added to the tour. But it was an amazing opportunity. At the end of the night, all the artists did the finale with Sarah on the big stage.
What was the vibe?
I had a bass player at the time, Coco Culbertson, who was thrilled to go on stage with Chrissie Hynde and the Indigo Girls or whoever else. It was a different world in 1999. I can’t imagine what it would be like now to do a tour like that again.
It was revived in 2010, and it failed financially.
And that says a lot about the world today. I don’t know what’s wrong with people. I mean, VHS tapes would fail today [laughs].
You talk in the film about your sexual assault at a high school party, and that you’ve gotten past it.
That particular sexual assault is just one I shared. For a lot of young women like myself, there’s more than one story.
You were the victim, though, and yet you were shamed.
It’s kind of reflective of those times in many ways. We didn’t have the language to describe some of the experiences we had. We didn’t have the expression, ‘date rape.’ All of us, boys and girls, didn’t have the language to talk about those social pressures.
Supplied
You are incredibly empathetic about it, even saying you feel bad for the perpetrators.
I mention that and I stand by it. I always will. I believe quite firmly that for those individuals they were also victims, in a different way. I shared that particular story in my 2016 memoir. And on my first record in 1994. I’ve been singing about that incident since I was in my early 20s, performing Tell on You (“Letter to My Rapist”) a cappella in front of audiences. I share the experience with other survivors and in different talks with victim services over the years. I made peace with it when I was a young person.
The film mentions two high-powered female executives in the music business in the U.S. who didn’t get behind you in the 1990s. Has the environment changed?
I look at young female artists today, and you can see that the machine does get behind them. There are female executives who do champion female artists. It’s heartening to see.
Laurie Lee Boutet, who manages the all-female rock band the Beaches, comes to mind. You blazed a trail for bands like the Beaches. Do young, female rockers solicit your advice?
Not so much. But when they do, I’ll make a joke, tell them to always use sunscreen. Mostly I tell them to be themselves. If they ask about the secret to success, I say never stop what you’re doing.
You’re 54. Are you leading by example?
I look at the career of Tina Turner. She didn’t play stadiums until she was in her 50s. That to me is inspiring. That’s my benchmark. You’re in your 50s − that’s when you start working hard.
This interview has been edited and condensed.