Get Femme all weekend long with GIRLSCHOOL, this 100% female fronted music fest going all weekend long at the majestic Bootleg Theater.
After a heavy-hitting residency at The Satellite last year, Anna Bulbrook (The Bulls, Airborne Toxic Event) introduces GIRLSCHOOL, a collective and festival that is 100% female fronted, welcoming and celebrating all gender identities.
The girls will be gathering all weekend long for Field Day Weekend, a festival celebrating panels and performances by some of the raddest female performers in L.A. (see: Veruca Salt, Kera and the Lesbians, Gothic Tropic and so many more). And the best part? All proceeds go to Rock N’ Roll Camp for Girls (remember our zine workshop there last Spring, when Katy Perry admitted to being a feminist? Yep. The best organization EVER). We’ve got some more DUM crossovers too, with Alina Bea (DUM DUM Issue No. 4 release party veteran) and the fantastic venue itself, Bootleg Theater where we’ve been busy doing punk rock yoga instead of making zines this year.
DUM DUM Zine had a chance to chat with the amazing Anna Bulbrook about feminism, inclusivity and the magic of creative and community crossovers. With so much momentum and raw female power, we’re excited to see how the collective will grow legs in L.A. Gosh, isn’t the city so inspiring on weekends like this? Stay DUM, and Get Femme with us this weekend at this rare gem of a fest.
DUM DUM Zine: What gets you DUM?
Anna Bulbrook: I have a fairly generative brain on my own, but I can really get popping with the ideas when I’m in a room with other like-minded people and we can get riled up about which ones we want to do together.
DUM: Pick 5 vintage female-fronted albums you’d take with you if you were stuck on a desert island (by vintage, we just mean “not current” as in, not within the last 10-15 years or so).
Anna: There are too many… But Nico (The Marble Index), Madonna (Like A Prayer), Nancy Sinatra (Boots), The Cranberries (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?), and Siouxsie and the Banshees (Kaleidoscope) are some I plan to keep living with for a long time. And I’m not on an island yet!
DUM: What has been the most exciting aspect of making GIRLSCHOOL happen? The most challenging?
DUM: We LOVE anything female and/or feminist themed, and we feel it’s necessary at this point in our culture to have fests of this nature. We dig your mission statement for GIRLSHOOL about female artists getting more airtime onstage, and to give women opportunities to connect with each other in the music world. There’s a lot of talk in the music scene and art scene at large about trying to avoid these ideas of “female themed” festivals and shows, that females should get by on the merit of being artists rather than having to bring gender into it. What are your two cents on the matter?
Anna: I started Girlschool because I have spent the last decade proving myself as a women in the alternative rock scene, where there aren’t a lot of us. That said, since I play the violin, which isn’t a traditional rock instrument, I guess I have always had my own little niche within the rock world. When I was 24 and in a band of boys off chasing a hit song around the world (I am still in that band, by the way!), I was just happy to be making music and in a gang and doing it. It wasn’t until I came up for air seven or eight years of touring later that I realized: Man, there really are not a lot of women around here. I had been deeply missing it without even realizing it for a long time.
And yeah, we are always cautioned against doing “female-themed” things because that might belittle or pigeonhole what we are doing somehow. But I did a “female-themed” thing in the first iteration of Girlschool this past summer over a month of Monday nights at the Satellite, and in the process realized two things. One, the quality of all of the artists was just extraordinary. And two, all of the artists were so unexpectedly excited to be part of something like this together. People were excited about it, and that really impacted me.
I believe that the only way to prove yourself more than by being great on your own is to be great together. Togetherness is a force multiplier. I want to be in a scene and a community that I can be truly proud of — so now here we are making a whole thing out of celebrating fantastically talented women who are going for it with all their might, and it’s just the best lineup that I’m ridiculously proud to be part of.
DUM: What went into selecting the lineup for the fest? L.A.’s music scene has been experiencing a wonderful resurgence of female, riot grrrl, femme musical artists, so I’m sure you had a lot to choose from.
Anna: My number one goal was to put together a stupidly good group of bands that shouldn’t be “opening” for one another at all. So along with my co-booker for the event, Kyle at the Bootleg, we started by first approaching all of our favorite artists who whom we thought would be into the mission and who could also headline clubs around town on their own. And then, of course, after we put this idea out into the ether, people share suggestions with you. And artists or their teams start to reach out, as well. The people who really want to be part of it are the ones who turn up.
DUM: Related: what do you think about the resurgence of female/feminist/riotgrrrl in the L.A. scene?
Anna: I think its fantastic. Nothing is more inspiring than seeing people taking positive action and creating communities and change together.
DUM: How do you reconcile being a creator with running a festival that bands the female/feminist community together? Organizing a fest of this magnitude and playing onstage must have its blessings and hurdles.
Anna: Ha, well yes. I have gently kicked myself more than once in the past couple of weeks for wearing both hats, but mostly because the festival took on a life of its own and has run away with a lot more of my time than I thought it would. But I am a musician first and foremost and forever, so I am hoping that the performing half of the equation will be the easy and fun part. Plus we have this amazing team at Girlschool helping build our community and put this festival together, and I feel incredibly lucky to have Jasmine and Adrien at Girlschool, along with Kyle and Daniel at the Bootleg, making magic happen.
DUM: So many artists play with varying crafts. What kinds of creative activities do you like to do outside of playing music? I ask because over here at DUM DUM Zine we’re often playing with the intersection between so many art forms.
Anna: I write. I love to draw, particularly little cartoons or infographics of my feelings and such. I love to sew but I don’t do it enough. Or ever, right now, if I’m being honest. And if I had access to a wood shop, I’d totally be in there sawing and sanding and making shelves or whatnot. I’ve always loved making things.
DUM: What should we expect at the fest, aside from the music itself?
Anna: Expect a lot of kinds of people! This event may celebrate talented and formidable women, but it involves everyone and all are welcome.
And I’m maybe most proud that on Friday night, we are kicking off the weekend with a panel discussion by female leaders in music at 7.30 PM, as a way to connect leaders in our community and to get a brainstorm going about what the future could look like for women in music, or even just for our nascent community here.
There will also be a rad benefit raffle for Rock’n’Roll Camp for Girls LA featuring some incredible stuff like Fender guitars, a Sonos system, FX pedals, roller skates, and more. Plus we will be debuting our first-ever Girlschool merch!
DUM: Final question that will go into our archive as a “1 question interview.” What keeps you inspired and astonished as a creator?
Anna: When you are passionate and committed to an idea or project that you truly believe in, the energy you can find to pursue it is limitless. It just comes to you in a never-ending fountain. That’s when you know you’re onto something good.