This Is Get In Her Ears

As it’s our first week live as a blog, we wanted to give you an introduction as to what we’re all about and each of our three main reasons for starting Get In Her Ears…

Kate Crudgington – Features Editor

The huge volume of new music I’ve discovered since joining the GIHE team in 2015 has been overwhelming. Most importantly though, I’ve met Mari & Tash and both of them have been a constant source of support, information, and laughter.

Get In Her Ears is about much more than music. We’re about championing the voices of the voiceless, being allies to minority groups and using our words and our ears to engage with and listen to the struggles of girls and women from all walks of life. Here are three reasons why we do what we do:

Frustration:

Trying not to get frustrated at the lack of female headliners at festivals, the continuous sexual assault of girls at gigs and the legal and social struggles they face when trying to report these assaults is borderline impossible. Don’t let that frustration turn to fear. Harness it, and use it as the catalyst for change – whether that’s in your own circles, or further afield.

Feminism:

“Don’t agonise, organise.” – Florynce Kennedy

As someone who is prone to feeling overwhelmed when patriarchal shit hits the feminist fan, this is a quote I’m learning to live by. Identifying as a feminist and having emotional responses to the crushing pressure of patriarchal society are not bad, or mutually exclusive things – but letting negative emotions silence you, or dictate your next movements are. When you’re agonising, re-read the words of your favourite feminists and remember that you can organise yourself and others in to action.

For the Grrrls:

GIHE is for the girls and women who mimic the hairstyles, clothes, make-up and attitudes of their favourite front-women, because it gives them courage and a sense of belonging. Get In Her Ears is for everyone, but when I’m writing, I’m thinking of those Grrrls.

Tash Walker – Digital Editor

I’m often asked where we got the name Get In Her Ears from, the answer is simple: Get In Her Ears is a show hosted by women with a strong female focus throughout, be that the music we play or the topics we discuss. In a world where the default pronoun in law is masculine, we felt this was our subtle nod to the feminine.

Together with the ever inspiring Mari and Kate, Get In Her Ears has grown and grown, and to now be in a position to start our own website is amazing.

Equality:

There is no denying the gender imbalance still present across so many industries and elements of life, not to mention the ever pressing issue of sexual assault and the dehumanisation of women in the music industry.  And it doesn’t stop there, equality in general is a significant issue, but one which I feel more and more people are engaging in.

Music:

Music has always been such a strong driving force behind change – take the underground feminist Riot Grrrl movement which started in the ’90s as an example. It had a huge impact on the music scene and it’s amazing to see all the groups popping up now in the music industry focused on putting women first. There’s a real GRL PWR revolution!  Here at Get In Her Ears we want to celebrate the positive progression that we have all made but ensure we are focusing on and challenging what still needs to  change.

Awareness:

We’re here to celebrate diversity.  We’re here to raise awareness of gender issues.  We’re here to support and promote equality in music.  We’re here to empower each other.  As individuals we are loud but together we are louder so in the words of X-Ray Spex – “some people think little girls should be seen and not heard.  But I think ‘Oh bondage, up yours!’”

Mari Lane – Managing Editor 

Some of my favourite bands are cis white men in rock and have provided plenty of special memories. I’ve cried from joy the thirteen times I’ve seen Foo Fighters live, danced into the early hours to Arctic Monkeys on many a night out, and spent my childhood singing along to the Stones and The Beatles. But there’s so much more to music than just those guys, and – with the industry’s ongoing ingrained sexism and underrepresentation of women/non-binary artists – I didn’t feel the world needed another blog dedicated to promoting these kinds of bands. So, following over two years of the Get In Her Ears radio show on Hoxton Radio, and nearly a year of running gigs at The Finsbury, we wanted to start this site to continue our promotion of new music from all genders and genres, with a focus on supporting women in the industry.

Inspiration:

Kathleen Hanna is my biggest hero. Riot Grrrl pioneer and founder of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin, she never fails to inspire and motivate. And, as someone else living with a chronic illness, she has got me through many a tough time; her music, wisdom and determination being a constant source of strength.

Take Miss Eaves, for example, with her championing of body positivity and sexual expression, or ‘Feminist Punk Witches’ Dream Nails with their Riot Grrrl ethos and empowering anthems; just a few of the women in the arts who have been inspiring me of late.

I’ve recently had my breath taken away by the poignant social commentary and stirring emotion of Kate Tempest live, danced the night away in pure joy to JD Samson’s DJ set, and continue to learn from the immense spellbinding beauty of Julie Hawk’s voice and her prominence in Ireland’s Repeal The 8th movement.

I could be here forever listing the women who inspire me… So, it made sense to start a blog to write about them all on a daily basis!

U.N.I.T.Y:

In the words of Queen Latifah…

Getting to know Tash and Kate, and enjoying all our ventures together over the last few years, has made me feel more a part of something than ever before. Feeling a unity with two such wonderful, and like-minded humans, has been a constant source of comfort and motivation. And, along with the support, love and artistic skill of my partner in everything and own Riot Boi, Paul, it’s all been a pretty exciting journey. So, onwards with this new chapter we’re all starting together!

MUSIC. MUSIC. MUSIC.

How would we survive without music? Coming across new and exciting bands and artists is our favourite thing to do here at Get In Her Ears. Our main aim is to promote as much amazing music as possible; spread the word about the new, and occasionally reminisce about the influence of the old.

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Playlist: A Year Of Get In Her Ears Live!

For a year now, we’ve been putting on awesome gigs at The Finsbury, showcasing some of our favourite new bands and artists. From the sweeping, emotion-strewn power of Hawk, to the uptempo, jangly delights of Trash Kit; from the captivating cacophony of Madonnatron and the spellbinding power of ECKOES, to the immense, thrashing power of the likes of REWS and Bitch Falcon, we’ve hosted so many amazing musical highlights.

So, to celebrate our anniversary, here’s a playlist of all the fantastic bands and artists who’ve played for us!

Photo Credit: Jon Mo

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Guest Blog: Deux Furieuses at Nasty Women UK, 22nd – 24th September 2017

Last weekend, self-identifying Nasty Women artists, comedians, musicians, spoken word poets, workshop panelists and arts volunteers came together in London in one glorious fuck you to the current president of the USA. Donald Trump’s “such a nasty woman” aside to the microphone while Hillary Clinton spoke during the final presidential debate has galvanised a global arts movement in a show of resistance and solidarity.

With an aim to give everyone who has ever felt silenced a voice, Nasty Women UK is an intersectional movement bringing together people of all genders, races, faiths and LGBTQIA identities. Nasty Women UK Co-Director and Producer, Kasia Uscinska, explains: “The last twelve months have seen a spate of sexist news stories, with women’s rights being threatened, both here and around the world. The political climate has normalised intolerance in our culture. An estimated 100,000 people attended the Women’s March in London in January. We want to carry that momentum forward, ensure our voices are heard and inspire new generations of Nasty Women.”

Deux Furieuses marched on that Women’s March and when we were invited to play Nasty Women UK’s event, we were determined to find a way to play a part. As we could not perform our normal drum-powered assault in the gallery space we decided to make our acoustic debut. We very much felt that there should be a nasty element to the music at this event. We challenged ourselves to put across Deux Furieuses without the power of drums and a Marshall stack. Ros played ‘Can We Talk About This?’ and ‘Are We Sexy Enough?’ on acoustic and changed the lyrics from “Are we angry enough?” to “Are we nasty enough?”. Vas joined in on vocals and tambourine for new song ‘Let Them Burn’. The response to our short set on the night and the following day has encouraged us to get our message out in as many ways as possible.

Following the crowds round from Hackney Wick station to Stour Space on Friday evening, we found the opening night in full swing. We wanted more of Bishi on her sitar; we were introduced to the wonderful Phillippa Egerton who has created Donald Trump’s head in fruit cake form and invited us to the slicing and eating event at her house on 15th October; we were thrilled to find that rock photographer Iona Dee had a photo print of Ros playing guitar at our album launch at The Lexington in the exhibition… Guess who bought it?!

On Saturday night we were welcomed to Stour Space by moonlighting Southbank Centre volunteers who showed us to the performer green room. We looked down to a packed audience sitting on the floor and laughing uproariously in recognition at the comedy of Sindhu Vee. We loved that she was smart and could handle her British-born son but was quite defeated by the ‘old people logic’ of her Indian parents. Fatiha El-Ghorri also had us laughing while allowing us some insight into her struggles as a female Muslim Londoner in a head scarf who clearly leaves the house armed with a cutting comic retort. A drink with Saturday night’s DJ and Clit Rock founder Ms Mohamed led to a discussion about female musicians’ isolation in London and her idea for a monthly meet up.

We squeezed our way into the Art As Activism workshop on Sunday and felt our own struggle reflected back by the many other artists there. The panelists told us about their work, talked about female artists often suffering from imposter syndrome, and during the Q&A an audience member asked about the soul destroying need to measure the impact of your art for the purposes of funding – “GO SMALL!” said panelist Sam Roddick.

As we came down the stairs from an inspiring workshop, we heard singer songwriter Madame So soundcheck in the main space. As sound engineer Isabella Dibi adjusted the sound, people milled around looking at the art as photographer Suzi Corker captured everything with her camera. From the organisers’ production grid to real life, here was Nasty Women in action; at its best when the different sections of curation overflowed and merged together in one common creative endeavour.

Later Feral Five front woman Terry Tyldesley (whose photo on stage giving it her all in a home made Nasty Woman T shirt pretty much nails it) encouraged us round to witness Selena Godden in full flow spitting out her spoken word to a spellbound audience. Here was all the depth, power and comment that we aspire to as musicians and songwriters.

Nasty Women’s weekend event has raised over £7500 for End Violence Against Women and was a smash of a success. But it is not over. It feels like it is just beginning – and, as we look at the photos and find each other online and plan to meet up, the work starts again! This is an art movement on the march.

Words: Ros & Vas, Deux Furieuses
Photos: Suzi Corker

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

Introducing Interview: Beckie Margaret

(Originally posted on Gigslutz)

When Parallel Lines first announced Beckie Margaret’s debut London gig at The Waiting Room earlier this year, I immediately scrawled it in to my diary. As an avid fan of Cool Thing Records (the label Beckie is signed to) and all of the artists on their roster, instinct told me this was going to be something special. My instinct turned to panic when they (very kindly) asked me to DJ on the night under the name of Get In Her Ears, but the panic subsided at the thought of chatting to Beckie before the gig and spinning a few 90s grunge classics throughout the night.

I met Luke (Asylums/Cool Thing Records) outside the venue, and was introduced to Beckie shortly afterwards. We joked about both being from Essex and my questionable DJ skills, before heading down to the backstage area of the venue to have a proper chat. Although Beckie is new to interviews and gigging, speaking to her about both was effortless and genuinely enjoyable. We laughed our way through interruptions (that’s what happens when you sit on a chair in front of a door) and talked about her influences, her expectations, and where she’d like to perform next…

So, Beckie, when did you first start writing your own songs?

I started playing songs when I was about 7, and then when I was around 9…

That’s so young!

I know! I think it’s because I just loved poetry and words from a really young age, so just out of curiosity I started using other peoples poems and putting them to guitar. I mean, obviously they weren’t very good – I was 9 – but I’ve always been interested in English language and literature. I think the poems were just things that I’d find on the internet, or in old non-recognisable books in charity shops…God knows.

That’s cool. So your inspiration came from poetry originally, but are there any songwriters/musicians in particular that your song-writing is influenced by?

I love Jeff Buckley.

ME TOO! Sorry, carry on…

Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, they’re probably my main ones. When I started to self-produce, James Blake became a massive influence in terms of arrangement, but for song-writers it would definitely be Jeff Buckley and Bon Iver. Purely for the organic emotion, that gets me.

Same, especially with Jeff. How did you hear about your label Cool Thing Records? Did you approach them or did they approach you?

Luke (Asylums/Cool Thing Records founding member) is a teacher and he taught me song-writing, and he’s one of the reasons I’m doing my song-writing degree at ICMP (The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance). I’m in my third year of that now. I left college, started my degree, self-produced my single ‘Cars & Catacombs’, got it mixed and mastered and ready to go, but I didn’t know how to release music.

I dropped Luke a message asking if he could recommend any websites and how to release new music, and he asked me to send it to him. I was like, “why does he want to listen to it?” and I remember saying to my boyfriend “I’m really nervous, why does he want to listen to it?” – the next thing I knew, I was in a meeting with Luke and he said he wanted to sign me. I literally just thought I’d get a link to a website when I sent the message.

That’s great, he obviously had faith in your talent if he took you under his wing straight away?

He’s great, he’s always helped me. Even when he taught me back in college he understood that sometimes I didn’t always work as well in a group so he’d let me sit on my own, and just let me be, you know?

It’s great that you’ve got that level of support from him. 

Your sound differs quite dramatically from the other acts who are also on the Cool Thing label (Petty Phase, Suspects, BAIT, Asylums). What do you like about these bands? Is there something in their sound that inspires you in your own performances or song-writing?

I think it’s mostly just about being yourself and each band doesn’t really care about trying to be like anyone else. I think that’s what Luke looks for, as well as quality. I really love how different and versatile everyone is. It’s a real support system as well, everyone’s behind each other all the way and that’s what makes it an inspiration for me. Music is music at the end of the day, as long as you can emote to it, it doesn’t matter what genre it is!

You’re about to play your first London headline show for Parallel Lines at The Waiting Room. How are you feeling? What are your anticipations for the night?

I’m hoping I won’t just be playing to my Mum. I’m new to gigging, so I think it’s just about remembering you’re doing it because you love it and to not take it too seriously. I just want to enjoy it, which is actually harder than it sounds. I’m just gonna focus on my band mates and get lost in the music, and if it goes wrong – it goes wrong!

That’s a good attitude to have! I know you’ve only just started to perform live, but once you’ve established a larger following (which I’m sure you will) do you have a “dream venue” that you’d like to perform in?

KOKO. I love KOKO. We’ve (Cool Thing Records) had discussions about potential followings and finding a following that’s loyal, and not big – kind of like Lucy Rose. I saw her at a festival recently and I went up and spoke to her and we were just having a chat about her music and her little dog, but no-one else really came up to her and knew who she was. I’d like to be like her, to be respected but not be mobbed, you know?

That sounds cool. What new music have you been listening to recently?

This is gonna sound really weird, but I starve myself of music as part of my creative process. I tend to listen to Brian Eno, Philip Glass and drone music because it provokes lots of thoughts and helps me to write my own songs. I’ve been starving myself of music while writing single 3 (listen here to single 2). I have listened to Nothing But Thieves new album though, and Anderson Paak, and I’ve gone back to Bon Iver recently too. And of course, the Cool Thing guys too. I couldn’t help myself in those areas!

Of course! So, what’s next for Beckie Margaret? More song-writing? Recording? Live dates?

Everything really, we’re going to be stepping it up a notch. I’m already working on single 3, I’m working on a cheeky EP, and just getting ready for next summer really. I’m going to make this my project for the final year of my degree too, so very busy. It’s good to be busy though!

Huge thanks to Beckie for answering our questions, and to Cool Thing Records for being as cool as ever. Follow Beckie Margaret on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment