Madigan Shive - Biography

Biography

Shive's parents were "intentional future community" people; her mother called her Running Pony until she was about six years old, and regularly changed her name. Shive eventually chose one of them, Madigan, as her permanent name when she was a teenager. The family lived in a teepee in Washington for about two years when she was a child, and moved often. At the age of seventeen, she formed the Seattle based duo Tattle Tale with Jen Wood. The band broke up in 1995. She formed Bonfire Madigan with contrabassist Sheri Ozeki, guitarist Shelley Doty, and percussionist Tomas. Also in 1995 Shive formed her own artist run music label, Moonpuss Music. Shive's songs have appeared in many films, including But I'm a Cheerleader, Better Luck Tomorrow, Chain Camera, Don't Need You: the Herstory of Riot Grrrl, D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist. In 2001, Shive made news while raising money to fight tenant eviction and trying to raise awareness of tenant's and poor people's rights. In 2003 Shive became a founding collective member of The Icarus Project alongside Sascha Scatter, Jacks Ashley McNamara and Will Hall. In 2008 Shive was a contributing author to the anthology Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction on Seven Stories Press.