Issue 89 / June 2018

KEYCHANGE IS COMING
More than just being great
celebrations, festivals are also
handy focal points at which to
assess the state of the music
industry. During this year’s
Sound City, our Student Society
team took a closer look at a
sector-wide initiative aimed at
bringing gender equality to our
festivals within five years.
This year marks a change for Liverpool’s Sound City
festival: not only has it moved back to the city and into
the creative fringe that is the Baltic Triangle, it’s also the
first year the festival is proudly running as the official UK
partner for PRS Foundation’s KEYCHANGE initiative. Keychange
is a pioneering international initiative with aims of empowering
women to transform the future of music and encourage festivals
to achieve a 50/50 gender balance on their line-ups, conferences,
commissions and production teams by 2022. Having quickly
gathered speed across the music industry, Glastonbury’s Emily
Eavis, an ambassador for the initiative, endorses the project:
“A project like Keychange is an excellent way of promoting the
brilliant women that are working in music, while encouraging
men and women from the industry to do more to support their
careers.”
Keychange aims to accelerate change and create a more
inclusive industry for everyone in the music business and, with
Liverpool being the diverse city that it is, it’s little surprise to
see Sound City leading the charge and pledging to make their
festival fully inclusive by 2022. Becky Ayres, Sound City’s Chief
Operating Officer, thinks the move towards a 50/50 gender
balance is the perfect fit for the festival. “Championing equality is
at the heart of what we do at Sound City; across our festival and
conference programme and within our organisation we strive for
diversity in everything we do.”
To kick-start the festival, an event was held at the Sound
City+ conference to celebrate 40 more festivals signing up to the
initiative and to present arts and music pioneer Jayne Casey with
a Keychange Inspiration Award for her services to Liverpool’s
punk and new wave scenes in the 70s and 80s. Vanessa Reed,
CEO of PRS Foundation, expresses the importance of this award,
highlighting how important role models such as Jayne Casey are
right across the creative spectrum. “I’m sure that the industry
innovators and artists we’re supporting through the Keychange
talent development programme will be inspired by people like
Jayne. She demonstrated the importance of women’s contribution
to music at a time when the gender gap was even greater than it
is now.”
Inspiring people through awards has recently proven to
be a popular and powerful platform, one that has been used
to covertly address gender inequality through the media. In
Hollywood, actress Frances McDormand recently ended her
Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actress with the line, “I have
two words for you: inclusion rider.” A term unknown to many,
McDormand was referring to an equality clause that actors and
actresses can insist be inserted into their contract that requires
all of the film’s cast and crew to meet a certain level of diversity in
regards to race, sexuality and gender.
Away from Hollywood, we have become accustomed to
gender inequality being prevalent in the music industry. In
regards to the recent #GrammysSoMale debate, Recording
Academy president Neil Portnow patronisingly suggested that
women need to “step up” to be considered for awards and
festival line-ups in the music industry. New Zealand pop star
Lorde found herself at the centre of this debate after she was
the only female artist on the shortlist for the Album Of The Year
Grammy, but the only act not asked to perform solo on the night.
Despite all of this she did indeed step up, just like the countless
female musicians who have come before her and fought back
against the archaic idea that women don’t deserve to be treated
the same as men in the music industry. Festivals such as Sound
City are the ideal place to start addressing this issue of gender
equality in the music sector: they attract a lot of attention and
hopefully projects like Keychange will percolate through to
grassroots musicians and venues after being successful at
festivals. This is why Sound City
is in such an interesting position;
people come from all over the world
to experience Liverpool’s music
and culture scene, so to be one of
the first cities championing gender
equality is a great move forward.
During this year’s festival,
we decided to go out and
canvas opinion on the impacts of
Keychange from those who it affects
most: the artists. From speaking
to a number of acts performing at
Sound City, it’s evident, and perhaps
unsurprising, that performers are
embracing the initiative. Brightonbased
indie-rock quartet BLACK
HONEY speak to us before their
storming set at Camp and Furnace.
Vocalist Izzy Baxter expresses
her excitement in welcoming the
change. “Getting to watch the difference between before and
after, we’re really stoked to see more women and diversity.” She
also offers ways for the campaign to go even further: “It’s also
down to culture. If there were more girls being encouraged from
a younger age I think it would be more even. The campaign could
be like, ‘Give young women instruments and electronics and
teach them how to produce,’ that is also a thing. You’ll see that
change happen naturally then.” District headliners THE ORIELLES
also recognise the importance of encouraging young women
role models to reach the top. “They aren’t encouraged in the first
place, it reflects why there’s a lack of female headliners,” bassist
Esme tells us. It all starts from the bottom.
The idea of women being involved in all aspects of the music
industry is one that has proven popular among artists. Creative
three-piece STEALING SHEEP’s Suffragette Tribute was arguably
one of the most important performances of the weekend. 2018
marks the centenary of women’s suffrage and working with
Manchester organisation Brighter Sounds on their Both Sides
Now campaign, alongside co-commissioners Edge Hill University,
Stealing Sheep’s Lucy, Emily and Rebecca created a special
marching band procession to celebrate the movement. The
“Festivals such as Sound
City are the ideal place
to start addressing the
issue of gender equality
in the music sector:
hopefully projects like
Keychange will percolate
through to grassroots
venues [as well]”
mesmerising performance was created with women and equality
as the focus and brought together female musicians, designers
and production students to walk to the beat of a new drum, a
new outlook on women in music and a new hope for everyone
in the industry. “It’s about trying to get more women involved
in the music industry through different projects,” Emily explains
while the trio are taking a break between rehearsals for the
performance. “The standard format is generally male-dominated,
but it seems like there aren’t many role models for women to
think, ‘I want to do something like that.’ It’s not an obvious option
for women, they might not have the confidence to do it.” This is
what the Keychange initiative is encouraging, a place for women
in the music industry to harness and share their creativity and be
treated the same as the men involved. 50/50 equality is at the
root of the issue; it’s not about division, as Lucy explains. “I don’t
want all-female or all-male [line-ups], I want it to be even, with
everyone being treated equally.” This is a valid message; the point
of the movement isn’t to disregard men from festivals, but make
sure that there are equal opportunities for everyone.
It’s also important to get a male perspective on gender
equality. “I think we should definitely support it,” says Chris from
Black Honey in regards to Keychange. “When more guys are
saying it, maybe other [guys] will start listening.” The Orielles’
guitarist Henry agrees with the
sentiments, adding, “I think the
lack of females at festivals goes
beyond it just being a festival; in
terms of the music industry, female
musicians are actually promoted a
lot less and that’s reflected in the
festival line-ups. If you listen to the
radio and then list the amount of
women doing the festivals, it just
doesn’t reflect music.”
Alongside the Keychange
initiative, Sound City have joined
forces with local university, Edge
Hill, which has been named as an
Innovation Partner for the festival.
Not only are they working with
Stealing Sheep for the suffragette
performance, Edge Hill are also
introducing students to the music
industry. CATHY BUTTERWORTH,
Edge Hill’s Arts Manager, addresses how important it is to give
young people these opportunities. “A lot of our students are
women, but not a lot would think they could go into performing
arts at festivals. Access to the music industry is important and for
Sound City to be signing up to this change is so important.”
It does all come down to education and awareness of the
problems surrounding gender equality, not only in the music
industry, but across every workplace. To have women equally
sharing festival line-ups with men, the wider industry needs to
be addressed from the ground up, and by Sound City signing up
to the Keychange initiative it shows that we’re more than ready
to make this a reality sooner than later. To paraphrase Frances
McDormand, I have two words for you: sign up! !
Words: Sophie Shields / @sshields43
Photography: Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu
keychange.eu
Turn to page 34 to read our Sound City 2018 review – and head
to bidolito.co.uk to see some exclusive rehearsal and performance
shots of Stealing Sheep’s Suffragette Tribute.
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