GIHE: International Women’s Day 2023

International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the achievements of women, and a time to reflect on and evaluate the work that still needs to be done to achieve true gender equality. As you already know, these are some of the core values of Get In Her Ears! We champion women & non-binary folk who make the music that we love every day.

Last year, we put together a round-up of some of the brilliant organisations who work tirelessly to make local music scenes and the wider music industry a safer, more enjoyable place for women to create their art.

Today, we’ve updated that list to include more initiatives and events that are taking place across the month of March. We’ve also included links to some UK based charities who stand up for women’s rights, informative & fun podcasts, and there’s even some reading recommendations too.

We’ve also put together a celebratory IWD Playlist to accompany this information, which you can listen to at the end of this post. You can find plenty of new music on our website and on our Spotify page too.

Solidarity to all of our followers. Thank you for supporting GIHE and all of the wonderful artists & initiatives that we help to promote all year round. x

 

Level Up! International Women’s Strike (8th)

Where & When: Wednesday 8th March, Trafalgar Square, London 6.30pm

Organised by the Feminist community for gender justice, Level Up, the Transnational Strike of all Women and Gender Non-Conforming folks takes to the streets this IWD to resist capitalist, colonial and patriarchal exploitation. With Trans and migrant rights currently under attack from the far right and the government, it seems particularly important to be drawing attention to these issues right now, especially whilst the police remain a violent institution, protecting the interests of those who systemically continue to abuse us. In the words of Level Up: “Around the world, our sisters shout WOMEN LIFE FREEDOM from Kurdistan to Peru. They fight for liberation and sovereignty against violent and repressive states. We stand with them because this is our fight here too”.

Find out more at Level Up’s Instagram and visit their website

Come Away With ESG by Cheri Percy (9th)

Where & When: Thursday 9th March, Rough Trade East, London 7:00pm

Journalist and broadcaster Cheri Percy has written a new book that champions South Bronx sister trio ESG. Featuring insights from Peter Hook, Karen O and punk professor Vivien Goldman, the book shares how this group of young women and their primal beats paved the way for modern dance music today.

Cheri will be celebrating the launch of her new book with an event at Rough Trade East. She will be in conversation with Hacienda DJ Dave Haslam and Melissa Rakshana Steiner (The Quietus), discussing the album’s decade-spanning influence on modern music some 40 years on from its original release. The panel will be chaired by journalist and Green Man Literature Tent host Michelle Kambasha.

Grab your ticket on DICE here

WOW Festival: Queers On The Map Panel (10th)

Where & When: Friday 10th March, Southbank Centre, London 12:00-1:00pm

Our very own Tash Walker will be speaking at Women Of The World Festival as part of the Queers On The Map panel! The discussion will run from 12:00-1:00pm and you will need a day pass to attend the event (tickets here). Full event details below.

“A look at the story behind the recent census data on the LGBTQIA community. The 2021 census was the first to ask people about their gender identity and sexual orientation, and so revealed for the first time data about queer life in Britain today. We look at the story behind the data, and revisit some of the activism and milestones along the way. Why has it taken so long for the LGBTQIA community to be included in the national story? And what impact does this recognition have for a community that still struggles for equality?

Speakers include host and producer of The Log Books podcast Tash Walker; journalist and presenter Shivani Dave; award-winning trans and queer creative Fox Fisher; Gayathiri Kamalakanthan from the School of Sexuality Education; and writer, producer and presenter Abi McIntosh.”

Safe Gigs 4 Women Event (11th)

Where & When: Saturday 11th March, Bush Hall, London, 3:00pm

“An initiative established by regular gig goers with the aim of creating a safer environment for women at gigs.”

Inspirational and innovative organisation Safe Gigs For Women are hosting an awesome sounding event on Saturday to celebrate International Women’s Day. With live music from the likes of The Pearl Harts and GENN, it’ll be a perfect opportunity to celebrate some incredible women in music and network with some of the incredible people behind the scenes working to create safe spaces for us all.

Tickets on Dice now. Visit their website for more information.

Whose Song Is It Anyway? Panel Event (22nd)

Where & When: Wednesday 22nd March, The House Of Commons, London

A special event to celebrate the launch of ‘Whose Song Is It Anyway’ – a podcast discussing copyright and creativity in the music industry. Hosted by Dr Hayleigh Bosher, it will include panel discussions with the likes of rock legend Brix Smith, songwriter and founder of the OWHL Foundation (Overseeing Welfare, Human Rights and Liberty within the creative industries) Katie Waissel and Charlene Brown. Panel discussions will be followed by live music and networking opportunities.

Register to attend by emailing whosesongisitanyway@gmail.com

Decolonise Fest

“A London-based festival created by an for punx of colour.” They’re taking a break from organising their annual festival this year, but visit their website for more information on upcoming events and how you can support them in their future efforts.

First Timers Fest

A DIY music festival encouraging people to pick up instruments for the first time and learn how to play in a low pressure, friendly environment. We spoke to some of the team on our February Soho Radio show, which you can listen to here. Visit their website for more information about this year’s edition of the festival.

Girls Rock London

A charity based in Hackney who focus on increasing access to music for young and adult women, trans and non-binary people. Visit their website

LOUD WOMEN

London-based promoter, blog and radio show “putting women on stage and turning up the volume!” Visit their website

Girls Against

Organisation fighting against sexual assault at live music events. Visit their website

OMNII Sound Collective

A London-based collective “aiming to inspire women, trans and non-binary sound enthusiasts to operate in all aspects of audio production.” Visit their website

Music Production For Women

“A global movement, community and online education platform which aims to encourage and empower women who are taking their first steps into music production.” Visit their website

Ladies Music Pub

A London-based community open to all women, non-binary and gender variant people in music. Visit their website

WXMB 2

A “community of womxn connecting and coming together with a shared mission: to take on inequality within the music industry.” Visit their website

WITCiH

“An inclusive platform supporting Women in Tech. WITCiH is an online and real world platform for research, creation, performance and networking.” Visit their website

Content Is Queen

A “podcasting agency and community that’s been amplifying minority voices since day dot.” Visit their website

The Log Books

An award-winning podcast telling the untold stories from Britain’s LGBTQ+ History. Founded by fellow GIHE grrrl Tash Walker. Listen here

Black and Gay, Back In The Day

Black and Gay, Back in the Day brings to life a photo archive of Black LGBTQIA+ life in Britain, from the 1970s through to the early 2000s. This podcast is about the experience of Black LGBTQIA+ communities with open discussion about racism, homophobia, transphobia and sexual discrimination. You can listen here

Black and Gay, Back in the Day is an Aunt Nell Production (who GIHE Co-founder Task Walker also works with!)

We Wear Black

A fun podcast that focuses on what it’s like for women & non-binary people living an alternative lifestyle, talking about everything from “sex, racism and gigs to Myspace and emo fashion.” Listen here

Girls Twiddling Knobs

A podcast “for female identifying musicians eager to start self-recording their music” hosted by Isobel Anderson, featuring interviews with Gazelle Twin, Jessica Paz and Emily Nash. Listen here

Unglamorous Music Project 

This Leicester-based local initiative, founded by Ruth Miller back in 2021, aims to mentor, coach and support women of all ages to start playing a musical instruments. This year, they encouraged women to get involved, form a band, and then perform live for their International Women’s Day gig!

Find out more about the gig & what they do by visiting their website

Sisters Uncut

UK based charity “taking direct action for domestic violence services.” Visit their website

Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips

Author, Journalist, Activist and one third of GIHE faves Big Joanie, Stephanie Phillips’ book looks at more than just the career of Solange Knowles. Why Solange Matters is a book about “what freedom could look like for Black women, in which Phillips provides a framework [and] a vision of a new world, one she hopes Solange would be proud to be a part of.”

Buy your copy here

Lead Sister: The Karen Carpenter Story by Lucy O’Brien

Mari Lane (GIHE Co-Founder & Managing Editor)

“Having had somewhat of a fascination and tender spot for Karen Carpenter since first hearing that unique crystalline voice on ‘Close To You’ as a child, I was extremely happy to hear that one of my favourite authors/journalists Lucy O’Brien was releasing a new book about the late star. With Lead Sister, O’Brien looks to shine a light on the often overlooked strength, talent and humour of Carpenter, whilst of course delving in with poignant insight into the musician’s infamous tragic fate.

The Karen Carpenter song on our IWD Playlist is taken from her solo album (which was sadly never released in her lifetime due to the record label not approving of her change in direction), which she recorded in New York during the last few years of her life. Although it’s a Paul Simon cover, I love how you can hear the joy in Karen’s voice – free to experiment creatively, and delve into her love of disco and blues.”

Buy your copy of Lucy’s book here

 

GIHE: IWD Playlist 2023

We’ve put together another eclectic playlist of new music and classic tunes from women who we love for personal and political reasons. Featuring genre pioneers SOPHIE, ESG, Queen Latifah, The Runaways and Jackie Shane, pop heroes Lady Gaga, Shania Twain and Lizzo, and GIHE faves such as ARXX, Problem Patterns, Circe, Maria Uzor and Fraulein…we hope this mix provides the perfect soundtrack to your activism and your after-party this International Women’s Day!

 

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INTERVIEW: Breakup Haircut

Today is International Day Of The Girl (11th October), a time to champion the achievements of girls on a global scale and to highlight and challenge the gender inequality that girls still face today.

Women Of The World Festival (WOW)’s research into gender disparity in music has found the following: “Recent studies show how underrepresented women are in the industry: a landmark US survey reported that from 2019 to 2020, female artists fell from 22.5% to 20.2%; female songwriters decreased from 14.4% to 12.9%; and female producers declined from 5% to just 2%. The research also took a representative sample of 600 songs between 2012 and 2020, of 23 individual women credited as producers just seven were women of colour, resulting in an overall ratio of one woman of colour to every 180 male producers.”

Determined to help change these statistics, WOW Festival created their WOW Sounds music programme to showcase and celebrate a range of girl bands from across the globe. This year, they’ve recorded performances with Nadia Javed, Breakup Haircut, Sri Lankan acoustic trio The Singing Potatoes, Roma girl band Pretty Loud and a project Naytive Mentorship led by Australian rapper and songwriter Naomi Wenitong. Each performance has been released as an exclusive short set with an introduction about the artist/band’s activism. The UK acts all filmed sets at EartH Hackney which you can watch via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube throughout today.

We caught up with Ishani, Ripley & Delphine – aka Breakup Haircut – who formed at First Timers Fest in 2019 to talk about their performance for WOW Sounds, how they think things have progressed in recent years for girls interested in music, their work with First Timers Fest and the work/life balance that accompanies being in a band that you love…

Hello Breakup Haircut! Talk to me about the pre-recorded set you played for WOW Sounds at EartH in Hackney…

Ishani: It was a really cool, fun experience. I thought our set was really chilled because we rehearse constantly, so it wasn’t too big a thing to play stuff from start to finish like that. Everyone was so nice. The sound engineer at EartH is called Luca and he was a very chill person to hang out with. I was also playing bass in Nadia Javed’s band too, so I was there for a bit longer.

Ripley: We played three of our tracks, ‘Why Can’t I Be Cool Enough To Move To Berlin?’, ‘Mum, I Wanna Be a Greaser’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Be Your Friend’.

Delphine: I’ve been to WOW as a punter and been to talks and shows before, but not as a direct contributor to the festival. It’s pretty nice to be on the other side of the stage!

I’m looking forward to watching your performance! As you all know, International Day Of The Girl is about highlighting the triumphs and the challenges that girls face. In terms of music, do you think things have improved for girls and young gender non-conforming people who are interested in joining bands and playing instruments since you were girls? 

Ishani: I think there are more movements now than to help people to diversify the music scene and that’s a really good thing. When I was younger, the reason I didn’t start a band was more because of my location. I grew up in the northeast and it’s not great for people of colour up there. It wasn’t easy to find people who wanted to play music with me. I think being in a big city is one thing, but also having movements like First Timers Fest and WOW Sounds, they make it a much friendlier and nicer place. You don’t have to brunt quite as much hostility to get to the point of playing a show or playing music. I think there are people who champion and try really hard in that to make stuff happen. Two of us are on the committee for First Timers and we help out with that now. That’s something we think is very important and we want to champion people being able to play music.

Delphine: I didn’t grow up in this country, so I can’t really talk about the UK in general, and I have no idea what France is like at the moment because I’ve been here in the UK for 17 years. So I’m like: “I can’t talk about the UK as a kid, but I can’t talk about France as an adult.” But in France I come from a very rural area where because of distances it’s a challenge to access things.

I think music is a bit different in the sense that France is very serious. You either go to music school and you study music, or you don’t do music. In terms of representation, I come from a very white area. So if you were a person of colour, it probably would have been harder as well. It’s not a very diverse. So in terms of representation and challenging that, it just didn’t happen at the time. But it probably has changed a lot now and I’m glad it has, because we’re actually waking up to the fact that there is space for everybody. You have to allow people to be themselves and you have to allow people to express their art, because everybody’s happier that way. I think championing minorities and allowing more access and making effort to actually give access to more people is going to benefit everybody in the long term.

Ripley: I think it’s definitely better than when I grew up in terms of accessibility. I’m from a family where no one does music except for me. I grew up military and I moved around a lot and pretty much every school I went to, music was for kids who had money. Financially as a family we were comfortable, but music lessons were really expensive and I couldn’t have them. So I think stuff has got better because with initiatives like Girls Rock London and First Timers Fest where people are trying to eliminate the monetary barriers so you can actually have a go with an instrument, which is great.

Also, speaking as a queer person as well, there’s a lot more queer people in music which is really, really cool because I had zero role models when I was a kid. So over the last five years or so, there’s just been more and more queer representation. We’ve always got to keep pushing so that things keep moving forward and don’t go backwards, but I think it is on the way to being better.

You’ve listed some great organisations that we’re big fans of here at Get In Her Ears. I think if Girls Rock London and First Timers Fest had been around when I was a girl, I might have started to learn an instrument…

Ishani: We run adult camps too, so you can always come along to those!

Delphine: Come along it’ll be so much fun!

Maybe I will?! I really like the idea of being in a non-judgmental environment where people don’t care if you don’t know what a chord is and you’re allowed to just take your time and enjoy playing an instrument…

Ishani: That’s so true, actually. People can be so elitist about it and make you feel so shut out. Everyone starts somewhere, just because someone happened to start learning music when they were five doesn’t make someone else’s efforts to start a bit later in life any less valid. Music is such a joy. Everyone should be able to have the opportunity and access to it and it really sucks that people still don’t.

After forming at First Timers Fest in 2019, you released your debut EP, What did you expect? I got it off the internet. What are you most proud of about this record?

Ripley: I think at the time, it was just getting something out.

Ishani: Releasing that EP was actually incredibly stressful for all of us because we put an unrealistic time constraint on ourselves. We wouldn’t do it again like that, I’m quite proud of the fact that we did, but we never want to do it like that again. We recorded six songs live and the entire thing was pulled together in a month and then we released it two months later.

Delphine: I’m glad that we survived that, because that was a lot. But have we really learned that lesson of not doing too much at once?

Ripley: Partly? Thanks to lockdown, we’re in the mixing and mastering stage of our new album now. The album has taken over a year to record due to various lockdowns interrupting us, so partly due to world events, we have taken a much longer time on this record…

Delphine: Err…we recorded 10 songs in one week? So…

Ishani: Ripley has definitely taken me aside and said that we have been waiting for this album for literally years at this point. We don’t need to rush the output and we may as well do it right. I really forget that you don’t have to output consistently. So it’s really good to have people reminding me of that.

Ripley: Burnout is real in so many aspects of life. So many people I know are having trouble with it in regular work and for projects outside of work. I’ve burned out several times before. Trying to pace yourself and learn how to look after yourself is harder to do in the digital age where everyone’s expected to output on every front all the time. Getting that balance right is quite tricky.

Delphine: We just have to remind ourselves that we’re doing this for fun. That’s the main thing. This doesn’t pay our bills, it helps when we have gigs and stuff because then the band can sustain itself a bit by not having to worry too much about paying for rehearsal spaces and things, but it’s not something that pays for our day-to-day things.

Ripley: I’ve been in a previous project before where it was very much “the band is the main thing, screw your work” and it was a really unhealthy atmosphere, so unsurprisingly I left. We had an agreement upfront when we started Breakup Haircut that we were all going to try our best, but if any of this is impacting people’s work and their income, then as depressing as it is sometimes, people’s day jobs do have to come first. Although this is way more fun than a day job, you’ve got to be able to pay your rent and feed yourself. So we’re trying to make sure that we take care of ourselves. I’ve said to my mates that my day job makes it so I can pay the rent and then the keeps me sane.

It sounds like you’re all on the same page about the work/life music balance, so that in itself is encouraging to hear.

Finally, do you have any bands or artists who you’ve been listening to at the moment that you’d like to give a shout out to?

Ripley: I’ve been really enjoying Penelope Scott recently. She plays kind of lo-fi electronics with funky sounds and she does a song called ‘Rat’ which is a kind of “screw you” to tech billionaires like Elon Musk. It’s got really good lyrics and some nice sort of science-y burns. I like it. Also shout out to pinkshift, I’ve really got into pink shift recently as well.

Delphine: Since Loud Women Festival in September, I’ve been listening a lot of ARXX and Lilith Ai, because she’s just so beautiful.

Ishani: I’ve been listening to a friend of mine Kapil Seshasayee, he is part of the South Asian scene and it’s interesting to hear someone making music that’s very different from the output of that scene and he makes a lot of like interesting political points as well. So I’m really enjoying that right now.

Thanks to Breakup Haircut for the chat!

Follow Breakup Haircut on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Watch their performance at EartH via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube channels

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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INTERVIEW: Nadia Javed

Today is International Day Of The Girl (11th October), a time to champion the achievements of girls on a global scale and to highlight and challenge the gender inequality that girls still face today.

Women Of The World Festival (WOW)’s research into gender disparity in music has found the following: “Recent studies show how underrepresented women are in the industry: a landmark US survey reported that from 2019 to 2020, female artists fell from 22.5% to 20.2%; female songwriters decreased from 14.4% to 12.9%; and female producers declined from 5% to just 2%. The research also took a representative sample of 600 songs between 2012 and 2020, of 23 individual women credited as producers just seven were women of colour, resulting in an overall ratio of one woman of colour to every 180 male producers.”

Determined to help change these statistics, WOW Festival created their WOW Sounds music programme to showcase and celebrate a range of girl bands from across the globe. This year, they’ve recorded performances with Nadia Javed, Breakup Haircut, Sri Lankan acoustic trio The Singing Potatoes, Roma girl band Pretty Loud and a project Naytive Mentorship led by Australian rapper and songwriter Naomi Wenitong. Each performance has been released as an exclusive short set with an introduction about the artist/band’s activism. The UK acts all filmed sets at EartH Hackney which you can watch via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube throughout today.

We caught up with the amazing Nadia Javed (known to us as a solo artist, activist and lead singer of The Tuts) about her performance for WOW Sounds, what she’s gained from speaking to the girls in their on-going mentoring programme and the importance of talking about the “double life” of a female musician…

Hello Nadia! how are you doing? What have you been up to recently?

I had the most amazing morning even though I’m absolutely exhausted. I was on the London Eye at 8:30am mentoring sixth form girls and it was the most incredible experience, it was so much fun. I was able to give them advice and share my life story with them and it was so wholesome and vulnerable. Then I had to rush back home for a meeting at 12pm with my day job, so I went from being on this high of “life is so amazing! I’ve met all of these inspiring people!” and then my Mum messaged me to say “you’ve got a parking ticket in the post” and I was like “what is this!?” I have this double life thing. We need to talk about double life thing you know, this needs to be separate piece! I had to talk about this to the girls today. I was like “look, I’m a musician, but I have a day job still because I do have to think about how am I going to pay the bills, blah blah blah.” I was honest with them about it, because sometimes from the outside it can seem like I am a full time musician when I’m not. It’s hard. I was actually talking about balance to one of the girls, because she wants to do medicine but also do music as well, so it’s really hard to get the balance right sometimes without burning out.

It’s so much to balance isn’t it? Such extreme highs with your everyday life and the lows that come with that sometimes. I hope the parking ticket isn’t too expensive…

Tell me about your performance for WOW Sounds that you recorded at EartH in Hackney…

It was really amazing. I’ve played WOW Festival before with The Tuts on International Day Of The Girl at Southbank Centre and it was absolutely incredible. The crowd was just a sea of young girls from a local school and I felt like I was in Little Mix, because they were just going wild. So when WOW approached me again tis year, they initially wanted The Tuts to play, but we’re on a really long hiatus at the moment. I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip, so I asked how they felt about me performing solo and they were really supportive, they said they would love to have me, but with a full band behind me. At the moment with my solo stuff, it’s literally me and an acoustic guitar. I’m like the brown Ed Sheeran, except that I need to invest in a loop pedal so I can do all the stuff that he does. Although, I think KT Tunstall did the pedal thing as well back in the day, so let’s not forget about Katie…

So, I got a Ishani from Breakup Haircut to play bass and I got Christabel who’s previously been in other bands like Suggested Friends and I got another friend to jump on drums. Then I thought about which songs would sound cool live, so we did ‘My Therapist Said’ which is a very upbeat pop punk track. It’s about my journey through therapy and having a problematic white therapist who didn’t know what South Asian was, and then having a South Asian therapist who told me that I “punish men,” so that did not work well. But, good news, I do have a good therapist now! Then we did a stripped back, more emotional song called ‘I Can’t Marry You’ which is about coming out of a very long term relationship where I felt pressurised to get married to this guy because I’m Muslim and he was also Muslim. He was very nice, but he just wasn’t the one.

That all sounds great, I’m looking forward to watching your set. You mentioned that you spent the morning with a group of young girls talking about being a musician. Do you think things have improved for girls and young gender non-conforming people who want to get into music since you were a girl yourself?

I don’t know how long ago that would have been for you actually as I’m not sure how old you are…

I’m 33 now. Before, I was very secretive about my age because I was like: “I should be rich and famous by now, I should be an established pop star and rock star by now.” But the truth is, I’m not. This is the reality of how long it’s taken for me to get to where I am now. I went on my first tour with The Tuts at the age of 24 with Kate Nash and then we played Glastonbury and then we went on tour with The Selector and The Specials. Then our last gig was with Bikini Kill at Brixton Academy. I’ve played Brixton Academy three times. I don’t think there is another South Asian female Muslim punk who has played that venue three times? I sometimes have to remind myself of that when I feel really shit about myself, but the point I’m trying to make is that it has taken me to get to this age, to have this “CV” that I have, because as a woman and as a woman of colour, that’s how long I feel it has taken to get here.

I think it’s different now though. I think there’s more support in a sense, because more and more people are opening up their platforms. For example, what you do at Get In Her Ears, you platform a lot of female and non-binary artists and we have the amazing Loud Women Festival too. There are more platforms out there trying to help and I think that’s a step in the right direction. We can use social media to be activists and talk about things and protest about things that we feel passionately about. I think that change is happening, not at a super fast speed, but it is happening. I think it’s important that people just become the change that they want to see. Because, let’s be honest, white cis mediocre men are still dominating everything, so we need to make sure that we don’t let that defeat us. Instead, we need to use that anger to fuel our music and our creative passion to make the change. Keep asking for help from people and networking and connecting with people and opening it up, rather than thinking that you have to solve this problem completely on your own.

I sympathise with you there. You joked earlier that you were “the brown Ed Sheeran” and some days I find myself being furious at Ed Sheeran as one mediocre man in the music industry, rather than taking a step back and connecting with our DIY music community and focusing on what I can do as part of that community and Get In Her Ears to make things better…

I mean, mediocre men – we could do a whole other interview about that as well! We’re all doing the right things. We’re using our voices and our platforms as best we can. There’s only so fast we can move before we burnout as well. You can’t do everything.

When I was speaking to the girls earlier on today at the London eye, they asked me if I ever felt anxious or nervous before I go up on stage. It is quite stressful, but there’s also a lot of imposter syndrome out there as well. We all get it, I get it all the time, but I told the girls to just remind themselves that there’s so many mediocre white cis men out there who are just doing the same thing over and over again with an acoustic guitar. So just by you existing as you are, and me existing as I am, is a political statement in itself. That is enough. You are enough.

With this WOW mentoring scheme, it’s taught me so much about myself, because I remembered that we all know more than we think we do. We’ve all been through so much in our lives, that we all have our own individual stories. We’ve all had our own struggles and painful experiences and those things have taught us so many lessons. Then it’s in moments like this, that you realise “oh, that kind of horrific experience wasn’t so bad now, because I’ve got to share it with someone and they’ve been able to relate to it and use it to their advantage now.” So it’s quite cool actually.

That’s really solid advice. Your work with WOW is clearly important to you, but I know you work with other great organisations like the Solidarity Not Silence campaign too. Are there any other charities or non-profit groups that you recommend we check out?

I dressed up as a pregnant woman to help my friend Janey who works for Level Up last month. A pregnant woman who was supposed to take part in the campaign had to pull out last minute so I stepped in to help out. It’s such an important campaign. They’re trying to stop pregnant women from being put in prison, because even if you have a short sentence, you can get put into jail for simple things like not paying council tax or a minor first offence. There are some horrific stories of girls giving birth in their cells and their babies dying – horrific things that no one should have to go through, so we are fighting for that really big change. We need around 10,000 signatures on the petition and we’re somewhere around 7,000 now. We want there to be a huge change in the law around this issue. Sharing these stories starts a conversation and that brings about the change.

The work that organisations like Level Up do to create change is incredible, I admire their efforts and your involvement too.

Before we let you go, are there any bands or artists that you recommend we check out?

I literally have the most basic taste in music. Basically, all I know is the Spice Girls, The Libertines, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift and McFly. I listen to my own band’s album sometimes too!

Thanks to Nadia for the chat!

Follow Nadia Javed on Twitter & Instagram

Watch her performance at EartH via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube channels

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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International Women’s Day Events Across The UK, 2020

As you may be aware, at Get In Her Ears we celebrate wonderful female and non-binary artists every single day! So, you may feel that there’s no real need for us to remind you on International Women’s Day to recognise them. But, as much as we try, days like this still seem necessary for society to take a minute and recognise not only the achievements of all the fantastic womxn in the world, but also to draw attention to the ongoing injustices and ingrained sexism that still sadly exists in 2020.

And so it only seems right that there are plenty of incredible events happening across the country this weekend to celebrate this official day of womxn. Here’s just a few that we’d strongly recommend!

The Bechdel Sound Test Weekender – Brixton, 6th – 8th March
South London’s ultimate female fronted music weekender is back to celebrate International Women’s Day.The party kicks off at the Bechdel Sound Test’s spiritual home – the Book and Record Bar right next to West Norwood station, with South London bass and garage DJ Rosie Riot. She will be supported by genre spanning Bechdel DJs ensuring the party goes on in to the early hours. Saturday is live music night at iconic Brixton venue the Windmill, headlined by CHROMA and supported by Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something, Foundlings, Rookes and Faultress. Festivities will come to a head on Sunday with an International Women’s Day party upstairs at The Ritzy. Promising an afternoon of chilled acoustic vibes and DJs it’s the perfect way to round off the IWD weekend. There will also be some small pop up stalls with records and feminist gifts supplied by The Book and Record Bar and Brave Girl Gifts. The event is free entry and raising money for Samaritans and Refuge. Sounds like a perfect celebration of all things female! Event info here.

BBC 6Music Festival – The Roundhouse, 8th March
Where you can expect to find me on Sunday, BBC 6Music bring their annual festival to an epic close on International Women’s Day with a line-up of some of the most incredible females in music at The Roundhouse in Camden. Headlining will be total favourite Kate Tempest with her perfectly poignant and stirringly honest offerings, along with the legendary Kim Gordon, the cinematic sounds of Anna Meredith, the seething power of Jehnny Beth and the gritty musicality of Nadine Shah. I cannot wait! More info here.

Southbank Centre – WOW Festival, 6th – 8th March
Southbank Centre’s annual Women Of The World festival is always an incredible and inspiring collection of events, and this year promises to be no different. Over three days, WOW’s line-up of world class speakers, activists and performers including Naomi Wolf, Shazia Mirza, Scarlett Curits, Sandi Toksvig, The Guilty Feminist, Svetlana Alexievich, Mary Robinson and more will be joined by thousands to explore the state of gender equality across the globe and tackle the subjects that matter most to women and girls across the world today. With a range of both free and ticketed events, it’s definitely worth a visit. More info here.

GRL 2020 – Base Camp Boro, Middlesborough, 7th March
Featuring GIHE faves Bugeye, as well as other awesome bands such as Dead Naked Hippies, Bad Bug and Eve Conway, this family-friendly Middlesborough event brings together some of the UK’s best female/female-identifying performers & artists, in addition to live art, street food, a feminist market + more! If you’re in the area, get your tickets now.

BSWA Fundraiser – The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, 8th March
Indie Midlands have collaborated with Loud Women to host this Birmingham event. Taking place at The Sunflower Lounge, it aims to raise money for Birmingham & Solihull Womens Aid (BSWA). With music from The Sunset Beach Hut, Glass Ceilings, Fawner, Gray Wave and Shanghai Hostage, it sounds like a great way to celebrate International Women’s Day, and all for a good cause. More info here.

WCDI International Women’s Day Special, Peckham Audio, 8th March
Female promoters We Can Do It celebrate International Women’s Day by hosting Honeyblood’s Stina Tweeddale, who will play a special solo set. With support from The Pearl Hearts and more, it’s going to be awesome! More info here.

Punka International Women’s Day Show, Zed Alley, Bristol, 8th March
If you’re in the South West, you should be aware of promoters Punka by now. Championing womxn and LGBTQ artists of all genres in Bristol, their events always like a lot of fun! For International Women’s Day they’re hosting a special show at Zed Alley with performances from solo artist Emily Breeze, Lucy Reynolds and drag kings such as Isaac Dix. More info here.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY w/ WXMB 2, Colours Hoxton, 8th March
London collective WXMB 2 are celebrating International Women’s Day by hosting an all day event at Colours in Hoxton. With a programme full of great live acts, DJs, workshops such as sound engineering, music production, freelancing and zine culture, panels, a sustainable creatives fair, yoga, a balancing feminine energy course, and much more, it really sounds like an inspiring day for all! Including live music from Elsa Hewitt, Austel, Rory Sky, Evie Balfe and more. Ticket info here.

Get In Her Ears Live @ The Finsbury w/ Ghost Car, 13th March
Ok, so this one’s a bit late, as our Finsbury gig doesn’t quite fall on International Women’s Day this year… but we’ll be celebrating some incredible womxn in music as always at our gig the following Friday! With a headline set from the quirky bubblegum indie of Ghost Car, there’ll be support from The Other Ones, Gaptooth and Minimals. We cannot wait! Get In Her Ears celebrate women every day, we welcome everyone at our gig who supports our ethos, but especially aim to create a safe space for female identifying and LGBTQ+ people. Come and keep the IWD celebrations going with us on the 13th, and all for FREE! More info here.

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