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"As time goes on in our increasingly capitalist and voyeuristic society, there is more pressure than ever to conform. It's time for women to just be a normal, everyday part of music culture, rather than a rarity or separate entity."
—Carla DeSantis

GIVE THE WOMEN SOME!

Carla DeSantis Organizes First Rockrgrl Conference, Targeting A Disenfranchised Sector Of The Music Biz—Women
By Jim Fouratt

The first Rockrgrl Music Conference will take place Nov. 2-4 in Seattle. The conference will present three nights of showcases featuring female artists in all styles at 20 venues, a special Women of Valor Awards banquet (this year's recipients are Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart), two full days of panels, workshops and clinics, as well as an artist-friendly music trade show. This pro-active get-together, with Ronnie Spector and Indigo Girl Amy Ray keynoting, comes at a particularly difficult time for female artists in particular, and women in music generally.

Ex-musician and single mom Carla DeSantis, the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of Rockrgrl magazine and Web site, birthed the conference. HITS wanted to know if this event was the beginning of an actual "kill all male rock stars" movement, so we rented a sea kayak for writer Jim Fouratt and gave him directions to DeSantis' island coven in the Puget Sound.

How did the idea of the Rockrgrl Music Conference come about?
Rockrgrl magazine has always strived to create a community for women who play music and to be diverse in scope, but it's difficult to build a community without actually getting people together physically. Holly Figueroa from Indiegrrl and I came up with the concept for a conference over dinner one night and then asked Louis Meyer, one of the founders of SXSW, if he'd like to be involved. Louis had just done a Women in Music symposium at his LMNOP Conference in New Orleans with Annie Melvin from Mother Rock Star. It seemed like a natural next step for all of us.

My theory is that if women can get together and talk about what we have in common—punkers, folkers, lesbian, straight, trans, indie, major-label, tall, short, young, senior, blonde, brunette—and create the foundation for a good, old-fashioned '70s-style consciousness-raising session, sans speculums, that we can collectively figure out how to maintain our creativity and dignity individually.

Apparently, a few people get what I'm saying—we had nearly 700 female artists from all genres apply to perform—over 250 actually will perform. Our trade show is sold out and includes a mini-NAMM show, where equipment manufacturers can market their wares to women, who in many cases aren't reading the gear trades, according to their own demographic info. The panels cover everything from dealing with stalkers and groupie mystique to being a mom on the road, as well as how to put out your own CD, Eminem's view of women and songwriting.

I notice that you have very little support from major labels, MTV, Internet music sites or radio. Why do you think this is the case?
Rockrgrl, like many of the artists coming, exists well below the radar of the mainstream. Many of the artists were once on major labels and dropped. Others are major-label artists. As I said, there's a diversity here that is critical. We are doing a Kill Rock Stars showcase, and have a couple of Daemon Records artists. But also Shannon Curfman [signed to Arista] and Jill Sobule [formerly on MCA and Atlantic and now Beyond] will be here too. One band on EMI, Handsome 3Some, is coming over from Europe to perform.

We also have June Millington, Exene Cervenka, Amy Ray, Ronnie Spector, Cindy Bullens, Wendy & Lisa, Pamela Des Barres, the real Pennie Lane, Amy Rigby, Kim Richey, Melissa Ferrick, Deborah Frost, Kate Schellenbach, Loreena McKennitt, Wanda Jackson, Eliza Gilkyson, and so many other wonderful female artists participating. Not to mention the journalists—Ann Powers, Holly George-Warren, Holly Gleason, Letta Taylor, Deborah Frost, Margaret Moser, Beth Lisick and others. So I can safely say I have delegates from many factions represented here. Can't win 'em all in the first year.

It's also the first year of the event. Typical of the industry, I'm sure some people are waiting to jump on the bandwagon the second year, after someone else tells them how important an event this was. But we do have lots of support from iCast, Fender, Guitar Center, Mackie—I'm pleased that these companies see how important women are to the industry.

What are the origins of Rockrgrl magazine?
I was raised a liberal and an optimist, and I cannot tolerate injustice in any form. I started to see a thread between my personal experiences as a musician and other women I met with regard to sexism. I heard the most amazing stories about radio stations actually having a policy to not play two women artists back to back and record labels that "already have a woman on the label." I finally realized that I wasn't just imagining these slights. It was like finding an amazing support group. I knew that there had to be many other women out there who felt the same way, but we had no way to connect.

So I guess I started Rockrgrl because I don't want the next generations of girls to feel the way I did. As time goes on in our increasingly capitalist and voyeuristic society, there is more pressure than ever to conform. And every few years the music media declares another "year of the woman." It's time for women to just be a normal, everyday part of music culture, rather than a rarity or separate entity. My goal is to help foster that.

If you could be Jimmy Iovine or Tommy Mottola for a year, what would you hope to accomplish?
Is this the Miss America question, where I'm supposed to say something about ending world hunger? Well, I wouldn't want to be walking in either of those guys' expensive shoes, but being the idealist I am, I would lobby for substance over shock-value. I think there's a lot of incredible music being made by people other than the teen singers and Eminem/Limp Bizkits. People who love music and are inspired most by it won't ever settle for prefab bands whose appeal is only geared to the lowest common denominator. They may have to dig more to find cool stuff, but it's definitely out there in droves.

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