Every week, Medium will post a story or review from the vault, #tbt style. This week: a perspective from former Diversions editor Allison Hussey on women in the local music scene. Originally published on the Diversions blog on Jan. 8, 2014, this perspective is in anticipation of the Girls Rock NC Carrboro showcase at Cat's Cradle this Saturday.
The Triangle is home to bands of all stripes — folk, punk, country, rock, metal, noise, bluegrass and more.
Embedded within some of these acts is a cadre of women who rock a little harder. Among these is Casey Cook, former drummer of Chapel Hill band Americans in France. Cook now fronts Midnight Plus One, a heavy punk-leaning rock outfit.
Cook said that her experiences as a woman in a more male-dominated scene have overall been positive, but there are still surprises.
“It’s always definitely jarring at times when there’s a sound guy that doesn’t realize you’re in the band or that you know what you’re doing,” she said.
“Especially when I was playing drums, I just couldn’t believe after shows when I hear people say, like, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen a female drummer before!’ and that was just like, ‘Wait, have you been living under a rock or something?’”
Michelle Temple is one of Cook’s bandmates in Midnight Plus One, though she’s well established in the Triangle metal scene in her own right. In 2009, she officially brought Lechuza Booking to life, eventually booking tours for about 15 bands. She’s since scaled back, now handling only Midnight Plus One and Caltrop, a Chapel Hill-based metal act.
Temple said that though she’s influenced by a wide variety of musicians, it’s the ones closest to her who have kept her going.
“There’s all sorts of women in rock and punk rock and metal who have inspired me over the years,” she said.
“But I think the ones that really made me feel like I could do it because they were a person that I knew from around town, or people that you’re able to put on the same level as yourself, or local musicians from Chapel Hill — like Cheetie (Kumar) from (The) Cherry Valance and Laura (Ballance) from Superchunk.”
Aimee Argote, best known by her musical moniker Des Ark, said it can be difficult to find other women to play with, especially when you’re trying to put together a more punk-leaning band like Des Ark. Argote said the result is that the rest of Des Ark is mostly men.
“There’s so few women involved in punk music. Once you sort of add up all the factors about what’s your band like and who’s in it, there’s not a lot of people left anyway,” she said.
“And when you work with statistics of how many women there are per men who play music, that kind of music, it gets even less.”
Having female mentors and peers is well and good, but for many women, carving out their place in a scene can still be a frustrating — especially when audiences focus on their appearance rather than their music.
Argote said she’s been dealing with that for as long as she’s been performing.
“I would say that at least 97 to 99 percent of the reviews that we get that are negative focus around the way that I look and my sexuality and they don’t actually address the music at all,” she said.
Temple, too, expressed her disappointment at the common focus on a woman’s looks over her musical chops.
“The point is not how hot she is, it’s this person, this human being who rocks,” she said.
Cook, Temple and Argote all cited the GirlsRock program as one of the best ways they’ve seen girls and young women get involved in music. Locally, GirlsRock offers summer camps and after school programs for girls.
Regardless of age, Temple said that all women — not just those involved in heavier styles of music — can benefit from mutual appreciation and encouragement.
“I think in our society there’s a tendency for women to be competitive, but instead we need to focus on embracing each other, complimenting each other and supporting each other, basically,” she said.
“And just being verbal about it, not being afraid to express yourself, to shout out to the world — whether it’s through your vocal cords or your amp. Just be heard, be seen.”
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