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girl in a band
July 27, 2015

These Female Musicians Aren’t Afraid to Make Noise

By Allison P. Davis

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Photo: Maggie Shannon

While researching the genre “noise rock” before interviewing the musicians featured in Maggie Shannon’s photo project Noise Girls, I stumbled across a Tumblr discussion that asked why women were so well-suited to the genre. One commenter’s opinion, loosely paraphrased: “women have always made noise.”

But Leila Bordreuil, a musician featured in this portfolio, calls bullshit. “My art has nothing to do with the fact I am a woman,” she said in an interview with the Cut. “I play loud and aggressive and people might think it’s badass that a girl makes noise, but sorry, I really don’t see the correlation, and I wouldn’t consider a girl making noise more badass than a guy making noise.”

Noise rock as a genre is fairly hard to categorize — it’s the experimental, dissonant, interdisciplinary (and often inaccessible) deconstruction of conventional music. And as with many other areas of music and visual art, female noise-rock participants are often outliers who get profiled as “objects of lust and curiosity,” explains Megan Moncrief, another musician featured in Shannon’s project. “I love noise because it’s a wide net that embraces all kinds of individual voices, and a lot of people think of it as a very masculine, aggressive genre, which doesn’t really bear resemblance to most of the artists I know and love.”

Moncrief worked with photographer Maggie Shannon to find female musicians who lend their voices and viewpoints to the genre. The result is a series of portraits of women who make a wide-ranging and diverse array of art, music, and other installations all over New York. While, for many, gender doesn’t inform what they make, the ability to tear apart conventional trappings of art, music, sound, and society and present something unique and interesting has allowed them to transcend the “girl in a band” trap.

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Megan Moncrief, Musician and Visual Artist Moncrief, who goes by Lazurite, plays a wide range of instruments including one called the ukelin... Megan Moncrief, Musician and Visual Artist Moncrief, who goes by Lazurite, plays a wide range of instruments including one called the ukelin. She says of her chief instrument, "It's an odd American invention that was sold door-to-door as a sort of competitor to the Autoharp during the Depression. It wasn't successful as an amateur-friendly folk instrument since it's difficult to play and ten times as difficult to tune. I love it because it's gorgeously eerie. It lends itself to unusual tunings, and I like the freedom of exploring on an instrument with so little canon." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Moncrief's Cat, Cody "Certain pockets of the scene can feel like a fraternity. After years of feeling enraged about it, I finally just decid... Moncrief's Cat, Cody "Certain pockets of the scene can feel like a fraternity. After years of feeling enraged about it, I finally just decided not to play or attend shows where the bill is more than 75 percent white hetero dudes. That's a super-low bar, but it's still left me with an awful lot more free evenings. I've taken up synchronized swimming." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Cammisa Buerhaus, Composer and Sculptor  Photo: Maggie Shannon
Laura "LaLa" Ryan, Vocalist in experimental group Excepter "Lucky for me, I got to learn from the best woman — my bandma... Laura "LaLa" Ryan, Vocalist in experimental group Excepter "Lucky for me, I got to learn from the best woman — my bandmate Clare Amory, who tragically passed away from cancer in 2011. Clare was really at home in her body as a dancer, and her carefree strong attitude toward creating music, being present as a collaborator, and being onstage really set me free. Before I performed with Clare, I was hyperaware of each moment that passed, definitely agonized in my approach. It's a rebel move to truly let go of your perception of what works onstage, and for the kind of woman that I am, that means to stop asking questions like: Does this make me look good? Do people like what I’m doing? It doesn’t matter. If the art is strong, people will respond." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Musician and Visual Artist Padgitt-Coles, who co-owns DIY label Perfect Wave with Kathleen Baird, plays synth in all-... Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Musician and Visual Artist Padgitt-Coles, who co-owns DIY label Perfect Wave with Kathleen Baird, plays synth in all-female ambient-noise quartet Future Shuttle. Photo: Maggie Shannon
Kathleen Baird, Musician Baird is the pianist for the popular psych-rock band Spires That in the Sunset Rise. Photo: Maggie Shannon
Momo Ishiguro, Producer and Singer-Songwriter Ishiguro, who makes "maximalist pop," poses with her signature blue guitar. "It's a ... Momo Ishiguro, Producer and Singer-Songwriter Ishiguro, who makes "maximalist pop," poses with her signature blue guitar. "It's a hand-me-down from an ex-boyfriend because he didn’t know how to play it. He passed it on because he was ashamed of looking at it in his room and I was always playing it. We dated for a really long time and when we broke up he was like, I can’t look at it. You take it." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Leila Bordreuil, Cellist and Composer "What you find in aggressive, harsh noise, is, as defined by mainstream ideologies of masculinity, a t... Leila Bordreuil, Cellist and Composer "What you find in aggressive, harsh noise, is, as defined by mainstream ideologies of masculinity, a testosterone-loaded concept. It’s interesting, because noise music is supposed to be alternative and progressive, yet it is completely male-dominated. So then you’re swimming in this sausage fest, and it’s hard to discern who likes your music and who just wants to bang you. But your sexuality can also work to your advantage, it can bring you places. And that very possibility makes me cringe." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Bordreuil's Cello "I experienced physical trauma in relatively recent years, and its aftermath has kept me from mastering some classical cel... Bordreuil's Cello "I experienced physical trauma in relatively recent years, and its aftermath has kept me from mastering some classical cello techniques (which I have been playing for almost 20 years now). I had to reinvent my playing in such a way that my physical limitations could actually become strengths. I think they are powerful because they are unique and reflect something deeply honest." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Lea Bertucci, Sound Artist/Composer Bertucci's primary instrument is the amplified bass clarinet, but here she poses with her alto sax.  Ber... Lea Bertucci, Sound Artist/Composer Bertucci's primary instrument is the amplified bass clarinet, but here she poses with her alto sax.  Bertucci and Bordreuill have collaborated on an album, l’Onde Souterraine. Bordeuil describes the album (out next month) as "very dark and kind of demonic." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Delia Gonzalez, Artist and Pianist "It's basically luck of the draw. I’m a female. Whatever I do will have a female perspective. In Remembra... Delia Gonzalez, Artist and Pianist "It's basically luck of the draw. I’m a female. Whatever I do will have a female perspective. In Remembrance, the record that I just put out, is a piano piece with 16-mm. film; it had a lot to do with giving birth to a child and the experience of having a child. That is a female experience. But I wouldn’t say that I make female art. I make what inspires me and I don’t take my gender or my sexuality into account when I’m making something." Photo: Maggie Shannon
Dagger, Sheet music, and Keyboard at Gonzalez's home. “This is my son Buggy’s dagger — his magical dagger. I bought it in Poland. We went to... Dagger, Sheet music, and Keyboard at Gonzalez's home. “This is my son Buggy’s dagger — his magical dagger. I bought it in Poland. We went to the flea market in Poland last October and he walked out with a 200-year-old dagger and a pair of pink ballet slippers. I thought it was fantastic.” Photo: Maggie Shannon
MV Carbon, Interdisciplinary Artist and Composer  Photo: Maggie Shannon
Teresa Barrozo, Composer and Sound Artist Barrozo is a Manila-based artist who composes mostly for film, theater, and dance. Photo: Maggie Shann... Teresa Barrozo, Composer and Sound Artist Barrozo is a Manila-based artist who composes mostly for film, theater, and dance. Photo: Maggie Shannon
Barrozo's mini-studo  Photo: Maggie Shannon
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Tags:

  • music
  • noise rock
  • maggie shannon
  • slideshows
  • leila bordreuil
  • megan moncrief
  • noise girls
  • photo projects
  • women in music
  • mv carbon
  • lala ryan
  • momo ishiguro
  • girls in bands
  • girl in a band
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