Girls Rock School - All You Need To Know

Think bands are just for boys? WRONG! Edinburgh is home to its very own prestigious Girls Rock School.

Girls Rock School are a non-profit organisation loosely based on the U.S. Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls model, and if you haven’t heard of them yet, that’s because they are first of their kind in Scotland.   

Being female and passionate about music myself, I was interested to find out more about this movement. I chatted with Girls Rock School Edinburgh’s Founder, Coordinator and Guitar Tutor Caro Marrow; Fiona Watt and Campaign Manager and Astroturf Skirts member, Ashley Stein.

DS: Could you tell our readers about the background of GRS Edinburgh?

CM: I used to put out a zine called She's Pretty Good For A Girl, about sexism experienced by female musicians, and one of the bands I interviewed mentioned the Rock n Roll Camps for Girls in the U.S.  This started me thinking about starting something similar in Scotland, and I mentioned it to Fiona Watt, who had been a Ladyfest organiser, and it turned out she'd been having similar ideas.

FW: Yeah, I had this vague idea of volunteering for the youth club near where I worked, I was going to try and start a music class where girls could just jam with instruments. Then Caro suggested a girls rock school and the idea grew from there, although it took us about a year to put it together.

AS: I attended the Spring Term in the vocals class & loved it! When they had an open meeting for new committee members I went along and ended up becoming the campaign manager. I have helped to promote the Autumn term as well as the showcase gig which I am really looking forward to. This is a very exciting time for women in music & I am so happy to be a part of something that is contributing to that.

DS: ..and what was the motivation behind starting the group?  

CM: We felt that women weren't encouraged to pick up instruments like drums and electric guitars, and when they do it's perceived as a kind of novelty. You basically can't do it unless you look 'hot'. Everyone focuses much more on how you look, and almost everyone I interviewed for the zine mentioned that when they walk into a music shop the male staff assume they're a beginner, when they walk into a venue the sound engineer either assumes they're the girlfriends of the band, or is generally patronising. I'm reading Carrie Brownstein's memoir right now, and she talks about how Sleater Kinney were treated by male promoters, venue staff etc. They basically had to get their merchandise guy to talk to them, just to be taken seriously.  Apparently at one gig Corin Tucker got up on stage and shouted 'We're not here to fuck the band, we ARE the band!'   

FW: I just thought there weren’t enough women in bands! Which seems odd, when we make up half the population. I was sure there was the same creative drive, it just needed some encouragement.

DS: How do you feel the school has had an impact on girls in the local area?

CM: They're telling us that it's been lots of fun, that they've joined bands and they wouldn't have had the confidence to do this if it hadn't been for GRS.  One of our drumming graduates only joined us in the last two workshops and now she's playing in a band who'll be playing live at our showcase.  Some people had never picked up an electric guitar or set of drumsticks before, 6 weeks later they were playing whole songs, and now they're playing in a band.  

FW: Gaining confidence was definitely one of the main impacts - some women felt they had missed their chance because they didn't do this when they were younger, but we don’t think age should be a barrier to being creative, so women of all ages are welcome.

AS: Girls Rock School has given me the opportunity to meet a lot of amazing women. Most of us have joined bands & I never would have been able to get up the confidence to get back on the stage without GRS. There's a girl style revolution coming to the Edinburgh music scene & it starts with GRS!

DS: So the response has been a positive one?  

CM: It's been amazingly positive!!

FW:  Overwhelmingly positive,  We have not only started a Girls Rock School, but also created a community of women who want to make music in Edinburgh - they just didn’t all know each other before GRS!

DS: Do you feel like the music industry in general is changing its negative attitudes to women in music?

CM: I think in some ways yes, because there's a lot more women in bands now, but also there's more pressure to sexualise yourself. Girls in bands can't just turn up with unwashed hair and a ripped cardigan like Kurt Cobain. I can't see that changing anytime soon to be honest.

FW: It's happening, but it's slow, and for every serious artist there's one whose image seems to be more important than the music, so sometimes it feels like we're going backwards! Women have to work harder  for their music to be to heard and accepted.

AS:  I feel like it's changing but really slowly. Because of the current onslaught of overproduced music we have seen a great resurgence of the DIY/Punk scene & women are a huge part of that. I don't think that any of this is going to change until there is a strong female presence on the back end; we need female managers, agents, sound engineers. We need to be heavily involved to make a difference.

DS: Also, are you trying to attract a younger demographic; teens and young adults, or are you open to girls of all ages?

CM: We are not aiming at teens as we don't have the funding at the moment to cater for under 18s. We try to make it as accessible as possible for women of all ages.  People always email us to say 'I'm 35, am I too old?' when most of us on the organising committee are older than that!  We don't see why bands have to be skinny white boys in their 20s. We have participants in their 20s, 30s 40s, maybe 50s, and we don’t ask people their age. We do everything we can to make sure that ALL women who want to play music can have a go - we try and make all of our venues accessible, our workshops are free, and we're also very welcoming to transwomen.

FW:  We don't care how old people are! It makes for a great mix. We are especially keen for women who missed their chance to be in a band when they were younger, even though it was a dream. We make it a reality!  

DS: What are your biggest inspirations musically?

CM: Pretty much everybody in the organising committee would say Patti Smith and PJ Harvey. Personally speaking, I'm inspired most by women who don't play by the rules, have done things their own way, and still managed to be successful. Patti Smith never had to get her tits out to sell records!

FW:  Patti Smith - her album Horses made a huge impact on me - she was so wild and uninhibited; fearless. There was no one to touch her then, and nobody to touch her now!  

AS: Patti Smith for life! I also love Kate Vogele, Chvrches & a lot of older music like Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin. A strong voice always gets me.

DS: Finally, how are the preparations going for your showcase this weekend?

CM: We're pretty much ready to go, the line-up is finalised and the poster is currently being designed by one of our participants. Here's a link to the Facebook event.

FW:  All the GRS have been practicing hard! For some it will be their first time performing at a gig, so there are a few nerves, but it's all good! I can't wait, it's going to be brilliant!

AS: I think it will be brilliant. Everyone is working so hard to pull it off, I'm really excited to see them all play!

If you are interested in more information about joining the GRS, you can find it here.

Big thanks to Caro, Fiona and Ashley for taking the time out to chat. I'm looking forward to an AWESOME evening of riot grrrl music this weekend, get yourself along. A review of the event to follow next week.