Indiegrrl
by Alex Teitz
Last fall FEMMUSIC.com stumbled across a small site called Indiegrrl. At that time it consisted of a piece about joining, and a small list of those who had joined.
In the Spring of 1999 we received an artist’s bulletin mentioning the lndiegrrl tour. Indiegrrl tour? FEMMUSIC.com decided to investigate.
lndiegrrl is a multi-faceted project for independent women in music. It has four separate categories. The first is the lndiegrrl list, an e-mail list with over two hundred fifty members. The second is a CD Label, lndiegrrl Records. Third, a non-profit organization, and last, a national tour. The national tour begins on July 1 on the East Coast. FEMMUSIC.com strongly urges those interested to check out the lndiegrrl website at http://www.indiegrrl.com
In addition, FEMMUSIC.com invites you to check out Music Haven. Music Haven has covered many of the Indiegrrl women in their July issue. FEMMUSIC.com also asks you to take a look at our CD reviews this month which include Holly Figueroa’s Three Chord Plea, Elisa Peimer’s EP, and Leora Salo’s Remember Me. FEMMUSIC.com will continue to review Indiegrrl artists in coming months.
In April, FEMMUSIC.com was able to catch up with lndiegrrl’s founder, Holly Figueroa. What follows is our interview about Indiegrrl, and independent music.
HF: Professionally? I started about five years ago singing backup for a seventy’s cover band in Columbus, Ohio. Got paid really, really well for singing backup, and then I moved to Seattle and got started getting paid nothing for doing original material. Which I guess is really common for original musicians. It went from there. I’ve been doing blues. I’ve been singing in a blues band for about a year now to pay the rent, and doing originals on weekdays. I occasionally will get a good original gig that pays well on the weekends, but not very often. That’s it. Whole life story.
FM: Tell me about your band, and how you hooked up with them?
HF: Okay. The first week I moved to Seattle I went to a blues jam, and I met Jake Thompson, who plays guitar on the CD. He came up to me after I got finished singing some blues song, and said, ‘I play guitar. I’m trying to put a band together. Do you want to see what we can work out?’ And I said ‘sure.’ And we tried really hard to put a band together for about four months, and nothing worked out, all the people were really lame. And we said ‘Okay, That’s it’, and we’re doing an acoustic duo. So we did that for a little while. Did a lot of coffeehouses, and then we hooked up with Ray Fairbanks who wrote most of the songs on the CD. We worked with him for a long time until he moved to Virginia. After Ray left we thought we gotta get a band together to do these songs because they’re band songs. You know. Most of them. And we got a drummer, Rick Jacobson. Actually we got Jerry first, the bass player. Rehearsed with him for another couple of months, and then we found the drummer. And things started failing into place. So we actually only had a band together for three months before we did the CD. You listen to the CD, and then you listen to us live and it’s like, ‘Who are these people?’ We’ve been rehearsing. We’ve been playing a lot of gigs. The CD it sounds okay, but it doesn’t as good as it could’ve if we would have waited a while longer to record it.
FM: Which artists have influenced you and your music?
HF: I think most of all, Big Momma Thornton. Who influenced Etta James. Who influenced Janis Joplin. Are you familiar with Big Momma Thornton?
FM: I’ve heard the name before, but I’m not too familiar.
HF: She’s an old blues lady. And probably before her, who influenced her was Bessie Smith and Ma Rainy. It just goes over a big long line. It seems like blues gets diluted as the time goes on. Ma Rainy was the grandmother of blues. She influenced all these people who did their own spin on it, and made it their own, up to Janis Joplin. Who I guess is a contemporary of Bonnie Raitt. She kinda influenced Bonnie Raitt as well. I think all those women, and then more recently I really like songwriting styles of like Dave Matthews. He just floors me. Consistently floors me. I know it’s not like blues or anything. He just, something about his songwriting does, something to me. It’s really cool.
FM: Where do you get the ideas for your songs?
HF: Most of them are them are just..they’re so easy. You know, it’s like..something happens and you go, ‘Oh that’s a song.’ And just write it down, and there it is. And make sure all the words rhyme. And there’s a song. Personal experiences mostly. Every song on the CD is from a personal experience. I’m writing a little less literally lately. Some of the stuff on the next CD will be from other peoples’ experiences. The only one that’s not a personal experience on the CD is “Three Chord Plea.” Which is about Jake and his fiancé. And how she left him ten days before the wedding. Before they got married. Which is a story in of itself.
FM: How has being a female lead helped or hindered the band?
HF: I think that it’s helped in that it’s a lot more accepted now to be a woman in front of a band. You know the seventy’s cover band I was talking about before, I sang backup because I couldn’t sing lead. There was like ten popular singers from the seventies that were women, and there were hundreds of men. So I just couldn’t find any music that I could sing lead on all night long. A seventy’s cover band didn’t have it. But now, say, if I wanted to form a ninety’s cover band. Go forbid. Perish the thought. I would have a plethora to choose from. I would have no problem finding music. So I think that’s helped a lot. That it’s more acceptable. That people are more in tune to women. There’s been a big boom with the Lilith Fair, and with all of that. Big boom of women singer-songwriters. Which I’m kind of, but not really. I not the typical girl with guitar. I don’t play guitar well enough to be a girl with guitar. I don’t just tour around. I tour with a band generally.
Hindered. And you know what? I don’t really think about that too much. I think that it may..l think that I’m not society’s idea of beautiful, or society’ s idea of what a female singer-songwriter should look like that may be a hindrance. But I try really hard just to do what I do. And not let it get me. If I had talent, if anyone has talent it’s going to come through regardless of what they look like. It’s radio. If I was an actress it would be different. It’s radio. It shouldn’t matter. That’s the way I look at it.
FM: What is Indiegrrl?
HF: lndiegrrl is a cooperative of women. Helping each other. Kind of giving each other a hand up in music. It started out as an e-mail list. Just last May I started an e-mail list, Indiegrrl, because I was on another list of primarily men, and there were making cracks about women in music and how they don’t have a voice, they don’t have a place. They don’t matter. And I didn’t appreciate that much. And they said well ‘Go start your own damn list.’ So I did. A lot of women signed up, and they all had really good ideas and we formed committees, and ran with the ideas, and now I’m talking to you about it. And talking with a bunch of people about it.
Do you want to be more in depth than that? It’s a record label. It’s non-profit organization. It’s an East Coast tour. There’s concerts being planned all over the United States and Canada.
FM: What is Indiegrrl’s Mission?
HF: Oh, the mission. We haven’t figured that out yet. You think I’m kidding. Oh let me review the mission statement. ‘Indiegrrl is a growing network of independent female artists exchanging information freely to further the progress of all women in the independent music industry.’
FM: Tell me about the different parts of lndiegrrl?
HF: Okay. There’s four main parts. There’s the lndiegrrl list. The e-mail list, and that is open to anyone and everyone to join. We have sixteen year-old girls on there asking, ‘How do I get started in music. I would like to take voice lessons.’ And then we have people like Carla DeSantis from ROCKRGRL magazine answering the sixteen year-old, ‘Well here’s what you do…’ It’s like that. The whole list is like that. It just varies greatly. And anyone can join, and it’s totally free.
And then we get into the money. Into lndiegrrl Records. Which is releasing a compilation in mid-May. It’s in duplication right now. This compilation, it was thought of before the tour and there was no selection process. It was whoever got their CDs in first. The first seventeen CDs, the first seventeen songs that came in. And we put them all on a CD. It’s of varying quality. This time, because there was no selection process. And we decided “Let’s have a tour”, we wanted to have a CD as like a demo for the tour so we could send it off to venues. So we decided to call it Indieqrrl Volume I Compilation CD. I don’t know how Indiegrrl Records will pan out. I don’t know how it’s going to work. What I would like to do is to get underprivileged female artists and kind of produce them. Perhaps manage them. And that’s Indiegrrl Records, for now.
The non-profit organization is in the works. Our lndiegrrl lawyer, who is also a phenomenal singer-songwriter acoustic musician, Jen Cass is working on the non-profit organization. It should be final in early June.
And then the tour and events. The tour is lasting from July lst to the 24th. It’s all along the East Coast. We have about thirty dates planned now. We’re in the last week of planning so the publicity is going to start. Publicity campaign. The first of May. We’re in the last week of booking.
And then events all over. There’s an approved list of performers that’s going to be loaded on the website soon (It is now loaded). The people send two press kits and a live tape to me, and then I have a listening committee who listens to them. And we go over everything that comes in a couple of times, and decide if this person is “ready” to perform at an lndiegrrl event. And then we bookers all over the country booking events and booking people in these events. And a couple of them here in Seattle are monthly, or bimonthly so it’s really taking off. The events are really taking off. It’s kind of hard to keep track.
FM: What criteria do you use for new lndiegrrl members (for events)?
HF: We take the press kits and we put them in the corner, and we put the CD on. And we all sit around and listen to it. And we are usually drinking wine at the time. We all sit around and listen to it. And if there’s a quality … a CD or live tape … whatever we end up listening to..if there’s a certain quality in their voice and in their songwriting then they’re in. And it’s not that hard to become a performer, to an lndiegrrl. You just have to be able sing, and be able to play. You don’t have to have twenty years of experience, and you don’t have to have worked in the best venues or anything. It would be nice if you had some performing experience. We usually look for that.
After we listen to the tape or CD and if it’s really exceptional and then we go to the press kit, and then we see that they don’t have any performing experience we might have them wait awhile until they get some performing experience. And if they’re really phenomenal it would be really cool if Indiegrrl could “break” them.
FM: Who has helped you the most organizing this?
HF: Who has helped me the most? I’m going to get in trouble. There’s several committee chairs, and I’d say they’ve all put in an equal amount of work, honestly.
FM: What has been your biggest challenge with the Indiegrrl tour?
HF: Biggest challenge. I don’t know if it’s so much a challenge, but would I really like to achieve. We’re going to do this tour again next year, and then there’s going to be a Midwest tour in the Fall. What I’d really like to achieve is to get different genres of music. Not that folk or singer-songwriter stuff is necessarily bad. I mean I do it. It’s not bad. I’d like to get different genres. I’d like to get like rap, and hip-hop, and jazz, and more blues. Alternative rock, like bands. I know I can’t please everybody all the time and nobody can it’s just that I think that different races can be better exposed through lndiegrrl. There’s only a couple of women of color on the Indiegrrl tour at all. When I put lndiegrrl up I didn’t say you have to be white to join. That’s how it’s turned out. The response has been overwhelmingly Caucasian. It’s really not acceptable to only book singer-songwriter and folk musicians in my mind. So I’d like to branch out a lot more in the future.
FM: What has been your best moment with the Indiegrrl tour?
HF: The coolest thing that happened is realizing all at once that. Oh what was it? You brought it right to my my mind.We had a showcase ..an lndiegrrl showcase here in Seattle. It was the second one. It was at Madison’s which is a really good venue in Seattle. And Kym Tuvim, who has also been instrumental in helping, said, she put it all in perspective for me with like three sentences. She said, ‘Indiegrrl is an enormous cooperative of women which, if you listen to society, should not be happening. If you listen to what society says tend to be backstabbing and catfighting and not cooperative and not helpful to each other because they’re afraid that the other women will … what’s the word I’m looking for … will not cooperate with them. They’ll get ahead of them somehow and pass them up. But that’s not what Indigrrl’s about and you’ll hear that on stage tonight.’
And there were four of us on stage and it was a songwriters in the round. And we all just really had different styles, and all had different genres of music. And we all really appreciated each other and that was the biggest, the coolest thing for me. To see that happening. And I would never have been a part of something like that if it weren’t for Indiegrrl. So I’m really, really proud to be a part of it at all.
FM: What role does lndiegrrl, and similar projects nationwide create for music and the music industry as a whole?
HF: There’s so many answers to that question. I think the biggest thing is Indiegrrl is a wakeup call to major labels. It’s not the only one. There have been many, many, many. The independent music movement has taken over. The major labels are feeling it in a big way, and record companies are shutting down because of it. I totally believe that. I think that independent music is the most intelligent music out there. I think that it has the most to offer. And I think that people who are independent musicians do not need to strive to be on major labels because the only thing the major labels can offer you is money. With organizations like lndiegrrl, like the non-profit Indiegrrl we can can raise that kind of money to do publicity campaigns for shows for several women at at a time. So if everyone is cooperative in the organization. There’s two hundred people on the lndiegrrl list. If everyone chips in and works for the organization, there’s no reason to have a major label. As long as we keep Indiegrrl from being that corporation, you know. From being as corporate as a major label. I think there should be more organizations for independent musicians. Not just for women, but for independent musicians as a whole. lndiegrrl does support men, indirectly, who are involved with music. As long as they’re involved with supporting women in music. That’s the short answer. Do you want a long answer?
FM: What are your goals for Indiegrrl in five years?
HF: Well, today the goals are to have many, many tours. Several tours like this one to get Indiegrrl Records off the ground in the forefront. It’s really important to me. To have more compilations to send to radio. We’ve got a great radio network. We’ve got a lot of DJ’s on the lndiegrrl list who have been clambering for this CD. I’d just like to get Indiegrrl Records out there. Do major radio campaigns.
I want to get the non-profit off the ground. It’s been a long time in coming. I think it’s really important to start getting funding for all of these grand ideas. That are just ideas right now. I think that’s it.
I’d really like, at least a couple times a year, to hold major benefit concerts. I don’t want to do a whole bunch of little concerts. I did a concert for Seattle Children’s Hospital in March, and it was really little. It was okay. We only raised a couple hundred dollars. It’s only a couple hundred dollars when I’m sure we could have raised a lot more if it was a major deal. So I’d like to do at least two major benefit concerts involving a lot of women in music for causes that also affect women. For example, we’ve been talking with RAINN about doing a concert for them. There’s a couple of locally based organizations dealing with domestic abuse that we’ve been talking to as well.
FM: What are your personal goals for yourself, and your band in five years?
HF: Oh boy. You know when people ask what I’m going to do when I get successful. I go , ‘what do you mean when?’ If I never do anything else, I got my CD out. And that’s what I wanted to do. And it’s out and it’s available, and it’s getting radio airplay. It’s more than I ever hoped for. So , like I said, if I never do anything else, I’m ultimately successful.
What I’d like to do in the next five years is get at least one more CD made. One, I’d like to do an accapella CD. And that might not happen. We have enough material now for another CD and we’re just cultivating it, and waiting and promoting the one we have. Trying to justify making another CD before we have all of these sold. The band’s not too into now, but I’m working on them.
And I’d like to tour a lot more. Touring is great fun. I’d love to tour with my band. This summer I’m only going to tour with a guitar player, and maybe my friend Kristen, who plays fiddle with the band might join for a couple of dates in Boston.
FM: What advice would you give to a woman artist just starting out?
HF: Get a good demo, but don’t record your demo until you’ve been with your band for a Iong time. Unless they’re world class players. In that case start gigging before you do your demo. I don’t know. I did everything backwards. I recorded a CD before we ever played a gig. We used the CD to get gigs. Which was backwards. You’re supposed to do gigs, and then make a CD after you’ve have a couple of gigs.
I think it’s really important to trust your gut. I mean, when I started out with a different band, here in Seattle. We tried to make it, like I was saying, work for a few months. And I knew from the first rehearsal that it was not going to work out, but I kept kicking that dead horse. And I thought, ‘It’s gonna change. It’s gonna turn around.’ I’m a big changer. ‘It’s gonna change. It’s gonna turn around. We’re gonna go out. We’ll have a couple of gigs and everything will fall into place.’ And it just did not happen. So with this band we went through seven drummers, and like fourteen bass players. Until we found the right one. Until we found the one we were happy with. And it was real shaky at the beginning cause we’re really starting off slow, and I’d like it to move faster. But I had to be patient because I knew they were good players. And now they just blow me away. Every time. Every time we get on stage they blow me away. And I think ‘God I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this band.’ Be patient. Use your head. Don’t stick with a dead horse.
FM: What else would you like to tell our readers about you, lndiegrrl, or music in general?
HF: You know I think we covered everything that I wanted to get in there about independent music. That people should really support local independent music if they want to see if flourish. It’s flourished in so many different areas and died so fast because people don’t support it. So the musicians move out of the area and then the people go “We don’t have any good music around town.” People don’t really realize that they drove them out by not going to see them. So that’s important.
I think that’s it.