Hi Jessica, for my readers that may not know what your all about can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Sure thing. I’m in my 30‘s and currently live in Boston (after a brief stint in Western Mass and many years in Chicago) where I spend a lot of time wandering with my dog in cemeteries and the woods, reading, listening to records and attempting to play the bass. I try to wear earplugs at loud events and a helmet when riding my bike. A pretty glamorous life, what can I say.
You have recently started Queen of Swords Records, can you tell us what inspired you to start up a punk/hardcore label for women?
It started last summer when I saw the band Honeysuck play here in Boston. On a basic level, it was just really exciting to see women that I admired and considered friends playing music together. And objectively speaking, I thought they’d written great songs and they were really fun to watch perform. The combination of those qualities gave me a sense excitement that I haven’t felt for a band from my area for a long time (maybe ever). Around the same time, I began to consider how long I’ve been involved with punk/hardcore music and how my participation has always been limited to the role of wallflower. Until more recently, I’d never felt stable enough in my life to be more involved, or felt as if I had a worthy contribution to make. It’s important for me to emphasize that last point. I think it’s especially difficult for women, queer-identifying people and people of color in punk/hardcore music to feel that we are entitled to our anger just as much as the white heterosexual males are, and that the things we really want to scream about are valid and worthy of being heard. No one is lured to this type of music because they are perfectly at peace with themselves and the world, and in my opinion, members of under represented or oppressed groups have much more to be angry about than the white middle class males whose voices currently dominate the microphones do. And I think that our subculture is unfortunately guilty of assuming the underlying fear of angry women that runs rampant in mainstream culture. But on the positive side, I believe there can be a snowball effect where one woman supporting another woman’s artistic efforts inspires other women to do the same, and before you know it, you’ve got an audience and people are listening to and seeing a new perspective. It’s just a matter of creating an atmosphere where a person who might not otherwise speak out can feel validated and safe enough to express themselves, and I want to help foster that growth in whatever way possible. So last fall when Honeysuck was looking for a label to help them release a record it felt like kismet.
What was it about punk and hardcore that drew you to that style of music when a lot of times it can seem like a real “boys club”?
In the very beginning I think I had an idealistic view of what involvement in the punk and hardcore community was going to be. I was looking for a replacement family, for some support and understanding that I felt was lacking in my life. I was an angry, hurt, confused teenager and regardless of gender, I wanted to be surrounded by other angry, hurt and confused teenagers. I also was a tomboy for most of my childhood and spent the majority of my time around males, so to some extent, it didn’t even register with me for years that I was in a boys club or that there was value in embracing my womanhood. On the surface I thought it just felt more comfortable to be “one of the boys” and play rough than it did to go to some dance night or party and try to be the picture of feminine perfection and do and say the right thing to attract the opposite sex. But in subsequent years, I’ve thought about it on a deeper level. If men have the power in our society, then who the hell would want to be a woman? Who would voluntarily choose to associate with the second class citizens by choice? I think I saw value in eschewing female gender roles for the sake of being a more powerful individual, but in the long run, it became somewhat insidious, in that I came to accept and internalize some misogynistic perspectives. For example, when you hear the lame excuse that someone “just doesn’t like women’s voices” enough, you start to buy it and can become blind to the fact that what that really means is “I’m uncomfortable with women having a voice”.
Do you find that there are specific challenges being a woman starting a record label that would be no big deal if you where a man?
I think the number one issue for women in any male dominated arena is having the courage to follow one’s own vision and conduct themselves in a way that feels authentic, which can feel like a lonely struggle at times. When you’re a male with a long history of involvement in a social group or organization historically dominated by males and you start a new project, there is a ready-made formula and system to help ensure your success. Even if your music or art sucks, there will be people who still support it for the sake of friendship. Whereas being a woman, there is this added element of questioning the validity of your creative output or writing off your accomplishments as uncool, especially if it falls out of the range of what is normally seen as something people are comfortable seeing women do. It’s easier to accept women playing sweet and pretty music because women are expected to be sweet and pretty, but it’s more difficult for people to accept women displaying ugliness or outward aggression because that’s seen as women behaving in a masculine way. Women are socialized to direct our aggression inward, towards ourselves and our bodies, or towards other women, instead of rejecting the denigrating messages we’re constantly barraged with and pointing the finger at the real enemy. People tend to think that it’s not ladylike to be angry outspoken, but to assign a gender to any emotion is ludicrous. One’s ability to express a full range of human emotions through art and music should transcend the gender binary.
I have been thinking a lot about strong female role models recently, would you mind talking about some of yours?
I’ve always been drawn to people who combine strength with compassion and of course, women who embody the warrior woman archetype. A bit of a contradiction maybe, but I see value in both and I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. My earliest female role model was Jane Goodall, the primatologist. She’s the type of person who manages to be influential and stands for what she believes in while still being gentle and caring. As far as historical figures are concerned, Joan of Arc, Hildegard von Bingen and Boudicca come to mind. And in film and television, some characters I admire include any of the characters Pam Grier has played, Cleopatra Jones, Ellen Ripley from Alien and of course, Xena. As cornball as that show was, I think it had a significant positive impact on a generation of girls to have weekly televised access to a powerful and complex female character.
You post a fair amount of videos from bands from the 90’s on your Goddess Syndrome page, who are some of your favorite bands from that time?
Honestly, I was so entrenched in the male dominated hardcore world for most of the 90’s that I entirely missed the Riot Grrl movement and the bands that were associated with it. Because of my age, a lot of people assume I was involved somehow, but I wasn’t. So in the past few years I’ve made a concerted effort to seek out music made by females. Two bands that I was really blown away by from that era were Babes in Toyland and Slant 6. And when I started listening to PJ Harvey I kicked myself pretty hard for missing out on her for so long, she’s incredible. Beyond that, there were a lot of all female or female fronted mainstream and punk bands from this time like L7, Hole, Luscious Jackson, Voodoo Queens, Elastica, Shonen Knife, Discount, Bratmobile, Lush, Lunachicks, Slowdive, Tilt, Spitboy, Dog Faced Hermans, Coleman, Skinned Teen, Hue & Cry, etc.
I have heard you are into fantasy novels, can you recommend a few good ones to us?
My introduction into the realm of fantasy novels for feminist minded individuals was The Mists of Avalon, a retelling of the Arthurian legend that a focus on the female characters. The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Song of Fire and Ice series are a given. More generally speaking I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman and Guy Gavriel Kay’s work, and just finished reading The Once and Future King, which I loved. And if I might be so bold as to include sci fi, anything by Ursula Le Guin comes highly recommended and Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood trilogy is fantastic, as well.
Do you think that your love for fantasy novels is connected to your feminist outlook on life in any way?
I think it absolutely is, but never would have made the connection myself. The point of fantasy and science fiction is to rewrite the past as we wish it could have been and to create a future of our own design. So you’re much more likely to encounter a woman wielding a sword or magic or a powerful queen in fantasy literature than you are if you read Medieval texts and history. We all know what it was like for women in that era, and I think it’s sometimes inspiring to read something instead about how it could have been. Likewise, in science fiction literature, one is capable of envisioning a more egalitarian future for humanity.
If you could hand pick a group, regardless if they are alive or dead, who would make up your dream band?
If I could Frankenstein a three piece superstar punk band it would be Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland) on guitar and vocals, Kira Roessler (Blag Flag) on bass and Patty Schemel (Hole) on drums.
Before we go can you tell us what’s in the near future for Queen of Swords Records?
Right now I’m focused on completing the Honeysuck 7” and hopefully helping them plan a small tour when it’s released. After that, I’ll be looking for another project, so people should get in touch at queenofswordsrecords@gmail.com
