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Vag Halen: ‘Part of what we’re doing is females doing this misogynist music’ (interview)
When I first listened to the new album by Savages, I knew nothing about them. The singer sounds like Geddy Lee. Then I read about them being an all-female band. All the comparisons were with other female bands, which is almost always the case no matter what they sound like. Is that kind of categorizing frustrating?
Part of what we’re doing is females doing this misogynist music. But when people say our guitarist is really incredible and that she does all the Jimmy Page solos, they’re not just saying it because she’s doing it, they’re saying it because she’s a female guitar player doing it. People like to categorize.
Like Heart being called the female Led Zeppelin, it’s a back-handed compliment.
Right. The one that triggers me the most is Courtney Love, who to me is an incredible musician. Say what you want about her personality. No man has ever been held accountable for who they are as a person, but she has, and she’s been crucified for it. When she and Hole came out with Live Through This, there was conspiracy-theory talk that she killed Kurt Cobain and that he had written her album. Why can’t people listen to Nirvana’s In Utero and say that Hole had a big influence on Kurt Cobain’s work?
Who else besides Courtney Love has inspired you?
Patti Smith. And my ultimate is Sinéad O’Connor, another artist who was crucified. There’s a whole legacy of female artists. In the end, if they survive it, they get their due. But you have to really live through it all to even remotely get your due in the end.
Vag Halen was included in a piece in The Guardian about all-female cover bands. It was written by a female journalist, who I thought was a bit sensational with the topic. What did you think of it?
There was a lot of that article that was a bit off. The whole “semi-nude” thing. To be honest I thought it was written by a man at first. I understand that writers like to fetishize what we do. Male writers do that more than women with us. They’re trying to be supportive. We get it.
You’re known as a feminist band. Is that an overt, political thing, or is it simply unavoidable?
As soon as you step on a stage, you’re a feminist. The struggle is inherent in what we do.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/vag-halen-part-of-what-were-doing-is-females-doing-this-misogynist-music/article12348149/
Part of what we’re doing is females doing this misogynist music. But when people say our guitarist is really incredible and that she does all the Jimmy Page solos, they’re not just saying it because she’s doing it, they’re saying it because she’s a female guitar player doing it. People like to categorize.
Like Heart being called the female Led Zeppelin, it’s a back-handed compliment.
Right. The one that triggers me the most is Courtney Love, who to me is an incredible musician. Say what you want about her personality. No man has ever been held accountable for who they are as a person, but she has, and she’s been crucified for it. When she and Hole came out with Live Through This, there was conspiracy-theory talk that she killed Kurt Cobain and that he had written her album. Why can’t people listen to Nirvana’s In Utero and say that Hole had a big influence on Kurt Cobain’s work?
Who else besides Courtney Love has inspired you?
Patti Smith. And my ultimate is Sinéad O’Connor, another artist who was crucified. There’s a whole legacy of female artists. In the end, if they survive it, they get their due. But you have to really live through it all to even remotely get your due in the end.
Vag Halen was included in a piece in The Guardian about all-female cover bands. It was written by a female journalist, who I thought was a bit sensational with the topic. What did you think of it?
There was a lot of that article that was a bit off. The whole “semi-nude” thing. To be honest I thought it was written by a man at first. I understand that writers like to fetishize what we do. Male writers do that more than women with us. They’re trying to be supportive. We get it.
You’re known as a feminist band. Is that an overt, political thing, or is it simply unavoidable?
As soon as you step on a stage, you’re a feminist. The struggle is inherent in what we do.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/vag-halen-part-of-what-were-doing-is-females-doing-this-misogynist-music/article12348149/
