Where are the women in electronic music?

Industry experts and women artistes, disc jockeys and producers, have, over the years, grown sick of the query – 'why is there an underrepresentation of women on the electronic music scene?' But, the issue keeps doing a whack-a-mole. Look at 2018 Forbes Highest Paid DJ's. Not a single woman on it. Just four female DJs feature on UK-based DJ Mag's Top 100. Billboards Dance 100 Artists was a bit kinder, attributing nine women artistes, and three women-fronted bands. Our homegrown festival lineups are no different – Canadian producer Shawna Hofmann of KMLN duo was the only woman on Sunburn 2017's headliner acts.

Sexism at work

"Lack of confidence, fear of picking up technical skills [that are] portrayed as being outside the realm of the feminine, sexualisation and commodification of women in the music industry; family apprehensions, no access to mentors/support in the industry..." writes Sarah Chawla, the co-founder of Wild City (WC) – a Mumbai-based alternative music promoter that brings out Magnetic Fields Festival. She feels the long list of deterrents kill what should've been a burgeoning female presence at the deck. Attempting to counter this non inclusion, WC with British Council (BC) curated a two-day four-city 'Women in Electronic Music' workshop in March. The initiative, supported by music giants Albeton and Sennheiser, had the likes of UK-based DJ, producer and vocalist Nightwave and Indian artistes Jyothy Singh and Kini Rao give crash courses to beginner DJs.

Kavya Trehan, of dance/electronic rock Delhi-band Mosko, felt relieved on attending this all-women workshop because she always felt there was a dearth of female electronica idols. The only exception being Sanaya Ardeshir aka Sandunes, who she looks up to as her own icon. "I am here today because of her. When I saw the video she did on how to produce music... I thought if a woman can put it out so easily, so can I," says the 25-year-old, who doesn't always feel welcome by male producers and festivals organisers. "I've experienced this especially in Delhi and Hyderabad. For any decision, even now, the organisers talk to my drummer and guitaristist, though I'm the face of my band."

India's leading electronica DJ Ma Faiza, on the scene for 20 years, also ridicules the patriarchal Indian culture that treats women like dimwits or sex objects. As there are very few women on the scene, girls interested in learning the ropes have to approach male mentors, many who are the condescending types. "They're like, 'gosh, you're so stupid, I've told you five times already this is how you plug it in... you know what, don't worry I'll do it for you'." And then, open-mindedness is a rarity. "You tell me, how many boyfriends or husbands are okay with men hitting on their women every night while she deejays? Which club will hire a woman who is breastfeeding or looks terrible post pregnancy? A male DJ can be fat, balding, in a dirty Tshirt, and no one cares," observes Ma Faiza, who as a 6ft tall lesbian at 100kgs, with multiple tattoos and piercings, found it unfair in her days of struggle that the ones prettier than her would get more bookings and a fatter pay. "But men understood I was there for my talent and not my looks, and then took me seriously."

Objectified is what Kaleekarma felt during a couple of shows, one being "when I was asked to doll-up for my performance by a booking agent."

It also doesn't help that music is still not a career option. While musician Tarana Marwah's dad, a musician himself, got her a Yamaha Motif 6 synth when she was just 10, Kaleekarma's middle-class family had very less understanding of the music world. "I feel its a cultural thing that girls aren't encouraged for doing offbeat things like music. And so, it was very natural of them (my family) to freak out. But today they are very supportive."

The innate fear of technology still exists in women, observes Marwah, 24, whose electronic alter-ego Komorebi screams all things Japan. She also felt dependent on male producers to produce her sound, till she gained confidence to do it herself. Her crowdfunding endeavour to create a stop motion music video for Little One, a song from her EP Soliloquy crossed its `3.50 lakh target, which she feels is a case in point that women artistes are being taken seriously.

Like Ma Faiza, Kini Rao, who plays house and techno, views music as a leveler, where your quality of music precedes you. In fact, she's full of examples of accomplished musicians. "I just opened for Helena Hauff in Mumbai, a globe trotter pushing her sound. Wendy Carlos' album Switched-on Bach was the first all-synth interpretation of classical music. Laurie Spiegel did groundbreaking work with computers in the 70s and created the Music Mouse (software). Delia Derbyshire used feedback (technique) and bits of tape in 1963 to create the sound of traveling through space and time, and was behind the iconic arrangement of Doctor Who…"

Solutions

Perhaps, more initiatives like the BC and WC collab? Those workshops were such a hit that BC is now collaborating with indie online mag Homegrown, and WC with shesaid.so, a UK-based network for women in music for specialised workshops on the subject. Moreover, India's first femme DJ collective The Coven, of 30-odd women was born right after the Delhi workshop. "Instead of assuming we know what women want, we asked the them directly at the workshops," explains Chawla.

But polishing skill-sets, though vital, occupy second place. The need of the hour is a change in perception, says Door No.1's DJ Russel, who in his 25-year career, has seen bookings for a gig going first to the male artistes with the women listed in 6-7th place to himself being replaced by a female DJ for her physical attributes and not talent. "Female artistes need to be allowed to showcase their skill like we do, given equal space at the decks and paid the same as we are, and not be propositioned for sex."