Kim Field ( The Stargazer Lillies, Soundpool)

“I’m not sure about the the music industry at large. I can only go by my own personal experience which is yes, it is dominated by mostly men. To me, that is not at all a negative thing, as the men I’ve been surrounded by in the industry have been my greatest champions and have been total sweet hearts. I wouldn’t have the catalog of work I do or have had all the incredible (challenging and hard as they have been) experiences that I have with out that belief, friendship and support.

The Dreampop/shoegaze scene is special in the way that most bands tend to have male and female members. But, this is a super indie, even underground scene. Basically, that equals living like relatively unknown, poor and struggling artists for the most part, unless you’re super lucky. That’s because our music is too good for the masses and in general we’re probably mostly anti- corporate thinkers. The rock, pop scene is more commercial. Yes, the women dominating that scene are used as marketing tools. But they’re also extremely successful. That’s not all bad. Commercial equals successful marketing. Commercial means big money/corporate backing. You can’t really say Lady Gaga or Beyonce or other women in pop and rock aren’t considered artists. Their art is just more commercial. They are ruling that world. I just don’t understand the mainstream music style or culture. I don’t understand the appeal. It’s become so body centric and so much about dance moves that it’s too much for women like me. Maybe that’s just what our society asks of female artists, in general, in trade for monetary success. Supply and demand. Have they all been manipulated by the men marketing the music? Or is this what those female artists want to do? How did it get like this? Who am I to know? I do admire their careers and power. So good for them. In the end our genre differences are all about style. I think the genre views, as far as what gives an artist cred or not, may be simple. Like it’s just that Dreampop/Shoegaze/Indie female artists are more commonly found playing instruments and writing songs. You don’t see a lot of instruments being played in commercial music by either male of female artists (Gaga being an exception, but she’s different and has distanced herself from the scene I’m referring to anyway). It’s almost as if main stream music has been hijacked (like many things in our society). But, image and marketing have always been important. Even for male artists. Look at Bowie. He finally made it when he started dressing provocatively and blurred gender lines. He used himself and his sexuality as a marketing tool for his incredible talent. He just did it in a cool way and his music was good. This is not about men vs women. It’s just the nature of the industry

I’m setting my musical course when I’m in the studio creating. I’m not thinking about my looks. I’m under a lot of personal pressure to create the best songs I can. Of course looks probably play a role at some point for most women artists, including me. Our society is really good at giving us that added pressure. We signed up to be performers. I personally put a lot of effort in to honoring that. If I’m asking people to give me their time and money and make the effort to come out to my show and I’m asking them to give us their attention for 30-45 minutes, then I’m going to make the effort to look as good as I can while I’m performing the music I’ve asked them to come out and support. That’s part of my job. We as a band (male and female) are aware of this. But we’ve also tried to alleviate some of the pressure off of our looks by adding other visual entertainment for our audience. To me your looks mean nothing without style. I’ve actually left shows where I was annoyed with how little a band cared about how they looked. It’s lazy and boring to look at. Style has always played a big role in an artist’s musical course. It’s entertainment value. As far as instruments go, I’m not an expert but I think in general there are a lot of guitars that work really well for the average petite women proportions. Also, men can be very petite too just as some women are gifted with longer proportions. Like, if you’re Alex Ghering of Ringo Deathstarr, who is one of the most talented bassists I know, for instance, some men may even envy you for the length of your arms and fingers just like most women would probably envy the length of your legs. I happen to be on the petite side so I’ve chosen to play short scale basses which work really comfortably and well for me. My 1968 Gibson Melody Maker proves that this is no new thing. This also brings me back to style and the fact that sexuality has always sold and that’s o.k. Men and women are different. That’s o.k. We can work together and respect each other. Jane Birkin, 1968 in her see through mini dress wearing nothing but panties underneath, hand in hand with Serge Gainsbourg. Was she simply a marketing tool? I recently saw an interview where she had nothing but beautiful things to say about Serge and how well he took care of her even after his death. I think she made her own decisions and had a lot of power. We weren’t all blessed with being born with Jane Birkin looks but she had such style and became a classic icon because of it. You choose your style and you choose your power and you can do it hand in hand with the men or women who champion you.