Written by Francesca Lipinsky Degette
There is no denying that women are largely under-represented in the music industry. In 2013, all-male bands made up about 75 percent of the lineups for Bonnaroo, Coachella, ACL, Lollapalooza, and Outside Lands. In 2015, a mere 15 percent of the lineup for Coachella consisted of female artists.
At Colorado College, we are often just as guilty of overlooking females on campus. Take a look at a few of your favorite student bands—how many females do you see on stage? Perhaps one or two. Examine the Llamapalooza lineups for the past few years. See any women?
A major advocate of gender equality in the music world is Laura Patiño, the leading lady of Austin’s Holiday Mountain. I spoke with Laura about her experiences with sexist teachers, ass-grabbing fans, and how women can gain the respect they deserve.
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How and when did you start making music?
My mom got me started on classical piano lessons at five years old and around the time I hit my teens I started writing songs for piano and voice as a way to safely escape and process a lot of the feelings I was having.
When did you begin to realize that you may face a special set of challenges as a woman in the industry?
Honestly I can pinpoint it back to a specific memory-this is nerdy, but it was at a jazz camp (I’ll leave it unnamed) I had traveled to when I was around 15 years old. I was really excited to get more experience playing in an ensemble because so much of my musical practice was spent alone with my piano. Instead of putting me in an ensemble with bass and drums and all that, they basically had me go to a group that was all pianists, the majority of which were girls—I can’t really recall if there were any male students at all. The old guy who was our teacher just played a track on a CD and told us to all just vamp over it at the same time which obviously just sounded bad and didn’t really help anyone get better. I talked to the teacher after class who was easily 50 years old, and when I told him I would really like to be in a normal ensemble to be able to improve at being in a full band he just put his hand on my knee and said “hey, you’re already pretty good for a girl, just don’t worry about it” WTF!
Are there any times or specific events when it is or has been especially hard to be a female musician?
There was only one time where a dude I’d never even seen or met straight up grabbed my ass—like a very deep grab—right after a show, so my natural instinct was to throw my drink at him and start yelling. Maybe he informed all the other [creepy] dudes that I’m down to just publicly humiliate any guy who thinks that’s an appropriate way to treat a woman he’s never even talked to. But yeah, I don’t think dudes in the music industry have to watch out for shit like that as much.
How do you implement feminine ideals in conjunction with the draw of sexual appeal in your music and performance?
Every woman deserves to feel beautiful and dress/carry themselves in a way that feels right and authentic to who they uniquely are. I spent a lot of my teen years feeling ashamed of my body & feeling like I could never be pretty enough because I didn’t fit the mainstream mold. Once I was able to find communities and role models that resonated with me personally it was so much easier to find the self-love I had been missing. I hope I can offer everyone, but especially women, an environment where they feel safe and unafraid to embrace this powerful divine energy that is confident, strong, sexy, and alive.
Who are some of your role models and what do you think they have done to overcome societal boundaries regarding gender?
I’ve been getting more into Grace Jones. I think she was/is so ahead of her time and truly freed herself from a lot of the constraints of gender norms to progress art and music. Tune Yards is another great example of a musician who seems so awake as a person—it’s like she is past gender. Also, Kathleen Hanna is so awesome for being so honest in her music-she would get death threats from dudes who couldn’t handle her power & feminist punk approach. The documentary ‘The Punk Singer’ is a great option for those who want to learn more about her career.
What do you think women can do to make sure we are heard and respected in the music world?
I think women need to keep embracing all the things we are told not to be to truly gain respect—bitchy, dominating, “too intense” (whatever that even means), loud, impolite (when necessary)—whatever it is people put you down as to belittle you as a women is just a way to keep you in a box, to keep you behaving the way someone else wants you to. I’m excited for female musicians to destroy all of that.
As always, there are two sides to every story, so be sure to check out next week’s interview for a fresh perspective!