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" \u202A  \u202C Photo: Drew Reynolds Being in a band and traveling on the road the majority of the year can be a real grind. Especially when you&amp;#039;re the only woman in a blisteringly loud, five-piece punk band like Perfect Pussy. We wanted the inside scoop on how to survive the touring life. Meredith Graves, whose band is set to release their debut album, &amp;#039;Say Yes to Love&amp;#039;, next month, obliged. Below check out the Syracuse band&amp;#039;s frontwoman and lyricist&amp;#039;s tour diary, where she breaks down everything from her tour essentials to the books and albums she brings along for the ride. Since I&amp;#039;ve been on this planet, my two primary interests have been making music and playing dress-up. I grew up with a very fashionable mother who was a musical theater actress, so self-presentation, costumes, and being onstage have gone hand-in-hand for me since birth. I worked as a stitcher for a theater all through college and have spent the last few years as a seamstress and alterationist\u2014moonlighting in wardrobe for independent film and the occasional weird never-to-air TV pilot. I&amp;#039;ve since ditched my job as a seamstress and shopgirl to sing in a hardcore band and live in a 15-passenger cargo van with five dudes for months at a time. I refuse to believe that I can&amp;#039;t have it all\u2014despite the fact that most of my clothes are from thrift stores and I sort of dress like Mia Farrow attempting to go undercover at a Boy Scouts meeting. I&amp;#039;m not sure I&amp;#039;m the best at giving fashion tips, but as someone who genuinely loves dressing up and refuses to give up feeling good about how I look despite spending 12 hours a day in a van, I can say a few things for sure: UNDERPACK: On our first tour, I had a monster 1980s Louis Vuitton duffel bag given to me by my ex-boyfriend and I think I brought 17 uncomfortable dresses, pleather shorts, one pair of underpants, and one pair of shoes. I learned my lesson. Pack only things that match so you can get dressed in the dark in a pinch, stick to natural fabrics or crazy synthetics that don&amp;#039;t wrinkle, and for God&amp;#039;s sake, bring more than one pair of shoes so your feet don&amp;#039;t rebel against you. I carry two months&amp;#039; wardrobe in an ergonomically sound and very uncool backpack; you can, too. FUCK EMBARRASSMENT: You live with your friends in a van. They can see, hear, and smell you at all times. They&amp;#039;re going to see you in your pajamas, with bedhead, with no makeup (or last night&amp;#039;s makeup halfway down your cheeks), waking up on a floor in the same clothes you&amp;#039;ve been wearing for a week. Embrace the insanity and lose any pretense you may have had about being seen in your long johns. Any rules you&amp;#039;ve made for yourself at home go out the window when &amp;quot;home&amp;quot; is four time zones away. I am very self-conscious and worry deeply about looking anything less than perfect. But under these circumstances, someone else is going to embarrass himself far worse than you in far weirder and grosser ways so you might as well let your bandmates see you without mascara. It&amp;#039;s a lot more fun when you stop worrying about trivial shit. Don&amp;#039;t forget to brush your teeth, though. LET IT GO: Being precious about material possessions will stop you from having fun faster than anything. If you brought your favorite shirt on tour and it gets ripped, fuck it. If you stay with someone who has an excellent wardrobe, trade something of yours for something of theirs (my good friend Madison, who sings in Cloud Rat just sent me over the Canadian border with a handmade silk flower crown and a velvet dress she picked up in Germany on their last tour. The world is magic.). Dye your hair in a motel bathroom, give your books away when you&amp;#039;re done with them and always work toward lightening your physical load; you&amp;#039;ll notice your emotional and psychic load lightening as well.      ESSENTIALS: Dr. Bronners Magic Soap, rose scent: When I was 14, my super-hippie childhood best friend brought Dr. Bronner&amp;#039;s Magic Soap to gym class because it was the only thing that masked the chlorine smell from the pool. I&amp;#039;ve been totally loyal to it ever since and, I swear to God, it cured my teenage acne. I buy little travel-sized bottles at our co-op because at this point if I use skin products or any fancy scented soaps, my skin goes totally ballistic. It works as toothpaste and laundry detergent in a pinch. And if you&amp;#039;re bored or run out of books, you can read the bottle. Sapphire Tree&amp;#039;s Chamomile Floral Water: Sapphire Tree Candle Co. is run by a friend of a friend and she makes the most beautiful, safe, completely harmless and natural products I&amp;#039;ve ever encountered. I keep a bottle of the chamomile water in the cup holder and it functions as everything from a calming face toner to a deodorant to an air freshener. (Living in a van with five dudes for two months at a time can get really smelly). Her Etsy name is &amp;quot;TheMassageArtisan,&amp;quot; and she makes other floral waters as well (a friend loves the Neroli).  Singer&amp;#039;s Saving Grace: This is powerful medicine for anyone who does a lot of talking (or singing, or screaming) in their day-to-day life. It&amp;#039;s a throat spray made with licorice root, yerba mansa, echinacea, and other good plants. The bottle refers to it as &amp;quot;soothing,&amp;quot; but it feels about as soothing as a double shot of Devil Springs if you&amp;#039;ve been doing a show every day for two months. It burns like a bitch. But it works. The non-alcohol variety does nothing for me, but the Professional Strength formula is the only way I&amp;#039;ve made it through some of our shows. I keep a bottle in my bag and use it liberally\u2013though I&amp;#039;ve been asked to not use it in the van because it smells like burning electronics and freaks out whomever&amp;#039;s driving.  Disposable Cameras: The cheaper the better. Don&amp;#039;t buy anything that&amp;#039;s name brand because you usually can&amp;#039;t whack them on the palm of your hand to get double exposures. Keep one in your pocket at all times even if it feels like a burden because cell phone cameras are awkward and terrible and not fun. Drunk hot-mess selfies on a cell phone are predictable and get erased the next morning. Drunk photos on a disposable camera send you into rolling hysterics when you finally get them developed two months later and you&amp;#039;re forced to recall what you did the night the picture got taken. Also, take pictures of all the nice people you meet so you have a reason to stay in touch.  Good rituals that make you feel less crazy: For me, it&amp;#039;s getting my hair cut. If I&amp;#039;m out for a month I&amp;#039;ll find a barber shop and get my bangs trimmed and the back of my head shaved; it keeps me feeling somewhat pretty when the world around me descends into the Great Big Gross. The best haircut I&amp;#039;ve ever had was earlier this week from Izzy, owner of Les Deux Chevaux in Montreal. Part salon, part tattoo shop, located above the world&amp;#039;s tackiest and most alluring chandelier shop, Izzy uses all-natural products and washes your hair while you lounge on what looks like a big furry fainting couch. The space is bright and full of nice plants, and her dog sleeps at your feet while you deconstruct feminism and the medical industrial complex and BOOM, just like that, before you know it, you have a super fucking cool haircut. Currently Reading: Pema Chodron - When Things Fall Apart Catharine MacKinnon - Toward A Feminist Theory of the State Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon Records That Keep Me Awake on Long-Distance Drives: Green Dreams - Sweats Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister Friendless Bummer - Friends Forever And, one last thing: &amp;quot;Worst Behavior&amp;quot; by Drake might be the coolest song ever written. 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