Add Category
Posted
Dozens of budding musicians have performed at one of Perth's most popular live music venues as part of a drive to support girls in the music scene.
The girls, aged 10 to 17, spent a week of their school holidays in workshops writing and producing original songs at the WA Girls Rock Camp.
Perth radio host and musician Em Burrows coordinated the camp and said the goal was to empower young women to feel confident navigating through the booming music industry.
"It's about amplifying the voices of people who perhaps haven't been," she said.
"Music is the vehicle for that sort of empowerment.
"At the camp we have guitar, bass, keys, drums and vocals, but we've also got people here with ukuleles, a keytar, we've got percussion players — all kinds of things."
Ms Burrows said all the staff, volunteers and sound engineers involved in the camp were also women.
"We want them to feel a sense of empowerment and confidence to go pursue music in a way that they hadn't before," she said.
"I think there's also a lot of role-modelling in the camp — they see a lot of volunteers and people they can look up to which is really important.
"We know visibility is one of the most important things for people to be able to pursue something — if you see it, you can be it."
For 15-year-old guitarist and singer Georgia Scown, who attends high school in Mandurah, it was a chance to see where a career in music could take her.
"I just wanted to meet some like-minded women with the same general idea as music as me," she said.
"I want to experience what it's like to have more women in the industry rather than men."
Songs express everyday experience
Each of the participants in the camp formed bands and crafted their own songs before performing live on stage at Mojos Bar in Fremantle.
"At this age, [they're writing about] things they've experienced in their daily lives," Ms Burrows said.
"Some of it is about broader issues like feminist issues because they feel they're in an environment to express that kind of thing and their experience.
"They have a super-fun week and they make a lot of friends which is awesome."
Music touches all people
WA's Minister for Culture and the Arts, David Templeman, said $70,000 had been set aside for the Girls Rock! program from the Government's newly launched Contemporary Music Fund.
"It's focused on giving young people an opportunity to share, be mentored, to express themselves and work creatively in a supportive and safe environment to explore their own creative interests and talents," Mr Templeman said.
"It's cliché to call music the universal language, but I think it is.
"Music touches people of all ages, it also builds bridges and relationships between people of all ages and circumstances."
Inclusive learning creates connections
The Girls Rock program also welcomes young girls who identify with the LGBTIQ community.
"Cisgender women are not the only women in this world," Ms Burrows said.
"So, we're open to transgender women, people who identify as non-binary.
"We cast a wider net and look after those people by creating a safe and inclusive space for all of them.
"I think music has the capacity to express things that words don't. I think it's a primal connection between people."
Topics: music-education, bands-and-artists, music-industry, dance-music, women, arts-and-entertainment, human-interest, people, perth-6000