Rock goddess with the raw material

Her newest project, Ex Hex, delivered a debut album last year of power-pop magnificence, all gigantic riffs, snappy melodies and no nonsense rock n roll.

It was a bundle that recalled the likes of Cheap Trick, the Cars and the Ramones, and quite different to Timony's earlier work with alternative acts like Helium and Autoclave.

The Washington DC native's appreciation for writing some pop hooks stems partly from spending some time as a guitar tutor.

"Before I started teaching, I was really in my own space with it (music), a bit more idiosyncratic songwriter, and teaching has maybe put a lot more normal into my body, just through what I've been listening to and taking apart a lot of guitar parts for songs," she says.

"You can chose what you want to be influenced by, and with this band I wanted to make it more classic and retro, which was maybe influenced by studying all of Brian May's guitar parts!"

For Ex Hex she's teamed up with drummer Laura Harris (of indie rock duo the Aquarium) and bassist Betsy Wright (from rock 'n rollers the Fire Tapes) and the results swiftly came together.

It's the most direct music Timony has made, partly influenced by her previous project, the group Wild Flag, where she teamed up with Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein for a group that focused on sharp guitar pop.

Ex Hex has stripped that even more to the bone.

"There's a lot of different ways to go about writing music," explains Timony. "Songs can be fun to write because they're complex or difficult to play, but this time I just wanted to write songs that I could listen to a lot, and then I was proud of them being short and succinct.

"I guess it's really just making music that could have been on the radio in 1982, because that's what I felt like listening to at the time. For me, there's more work that goes into writing a pop song than one that's, say, technically difficult."

That hard work can be heard on Rips, a record that the group partly recorded in Timony's basement studio. Yet while the tunes are short and sharp, the creative process saw the band spend plenty of time labouring over them until they were satisfied.

"We just kept listening to what we did, editing it and re-arranging it," adds Timony. "We'd done a lot of work in my basement before we made the record and everyone on the team was involved in it. No one person was saying 'hey, this is how it goes' - everyone was going 'is this working or not' and everyone seemed to agree on whether it was or not...

"I feel editing was a huge part of this record - editing the songs, getting stuff out that you don't need and that changes the sound of a record. We just wanted it to sound really raw and live as much as we could."

Timony's bands have always held a certain rawness, going right back to her early days in all female quartet Autoclave, who arrived just as the riot grrrl movement was starting to make an impression.

Fast forward 25 years, and Timony believes women in rock music is becoming a more common sight.

"The change is basically that there's simply a lot more women in bands, and that's a great thing," she adds. "It doesn't feel as weird as it did when I was younger - it's not completely the same amount of women playing (as men) but there's more - when I was in my early 20s it felt like you were making a huge statement in doing that, like you were a female truck driver and it was a bold thing to be doing."

Timony's own passion for music has also sustained her through many highs and lows. Prior to her stint teaching she worked a host of odd jobs to pay the bills and ensure she could keep making music.

"It's a hard thing to do, for sure. It's not very practical but it's the thing that makes me the most happy, so I'll keep striving to do it because I love it so much.

"Emotionally it can be pretty challenging and it's hard to make enough money to pay the bills, but I can't stop. I tried stopping once and that was really boring, so I've got to keep doing it."

Ex Hex play Broadcast in Glasgow tomorrow night.