Photo: Anna Ledin Wirén
Riot Grrrl is a movement that originated with the feminist punk bands of Washington State in the late 80s and early 90s, and was used ‘officially’ for the first time as the title of a zine created by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, Bratmobile’s Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman and musician and writer Tobi Vail. Since then it has come to be applied as a genre term to wave of bands, and stands out as an iconic source of inspiration for politically-minded musicians everywhere, such as Stockholm-based musician Canan Rosén. Rosén, who also plays in the band Twin Pigs, initially wanted to start a new band, but then came upon a new idea: why get together some of the best female, transgender and non-binary musicians around, and write and record a punk record in one weekend? That idea became Riot Grrrl Sessions, and funded by an Indiegogo campaign they made the record this September. Now it’s due for release in February, and we caught up with Rosén to talk about it.
Where did the initial idea for the project come from? How did it all start?
I have played in various punk and rock bands for many years now, but I have always wanted to play in a riot grrrl band. The only problem is that all awesome musicians are already busy with their own bands. I tried to think outside of the box about how I could solve this puzzle and that’s when I came up with the idea to do this as a short term project. If it was for just one weekend a lot of cool people might be able to join! After I came up with the idea, there was no turning back, I just had to go on with it.
After you announced the project, how did all the various musicians and designers and so get on board? How did you recruit the people needed to put the record together?
I knew pretty quickly which musicians I wanted to ask, so I just asked them. I knew most of them from before, I knew that they are supporters of the riot grrrl movement, but also that they are extremely talented and professional musicians and songwriters who would be able to pull this crazy idea off. When it comes to the rest of the team around the musicians, who are equally important for this project, I kind of sat down and tried to think what people we need on board to be able to pull this off. If I didn’t know the people myself, I asked friends for recommendations. It felt extremely important to recruit people I knew I could trust since I knew I couldn’t run around and babysit people on set, ha ha. The team included recording engineers, mixing technician, mastering engineer, two photographers for still photographs, three photographers for filming, one sound engineer for the film crew, two studio assistants, one graphic designer, one record label manager, one PR manager and other crazy supportive people who just showed up at any signal offering their help.
You funded the project via Indiegogo. Can you tell us a little about that process? You eventually raised €7149, 119% percent of your goal, were you surprised by the response?
The fundraiser was crazy times. People have warned me there would be a lot of work to pull a thing like that off but I WOULD HAVE NEVER IMAGINED THE AMOUNT IT TOOK….. pjuuuuuh. Most of the time I was pretty confident we would reach our goal. Though there were a few days when I was in doubt, and that was no fun I’ll tell you. The last day when we were up on, I think 80 something percent, I got a text message from a random guy asking questions about the project. As a woman in the punk rock industry. I have had to deal with nutheads before, so at first I was a bit cautious. But he seemed nice and I try to always believe in people’s good intentions. And you know what? He was super nice and obviously also super rich so he just threw in €2000 in the end. The 119% was a fact. Even though a lot of people have worked on this project for free, or for a lot less than they usually do, it has been a challenge to make it work…
How were the actual sessions? Was it challenging for a bunch of people who might not have played or worked together before to come in and put this album together?
This project has been pure hell to put together. But also one of the best things that has happened in my life. Before the sessions we had a few ideas for songs. We organised it in such a way that I made a list which we followed thoroughly through the recording weekend. The list consisted of all thirteen songs and which musician was going to play on which song. We had different setups of musicians for almost every song. So when one constellation was in the big recording room, another was out in the kitchen rehearsing and a few others were upstairs recording additional vocals and guitars. We’ve hadn’t really rehearsed the songs before entering the studio so I didn’t know what to expect but everyone worked their asses off. Like I wrote before, they’re all professional musicians, so in one way I’m not surprised at all. I’m super happy that the feeling in the studio was 100% warm, friendly and including. It’s much easier to work when you feel accepted and got other people’s trust in you. Also Linn Fijal, first recording engineer in the studio with assistants Katharina Grubmüller and Frida Claesson Jönsson made it so much easier for us. So professional, fast and hard working but still so nice. They deserve the Nobel prize in something, anything.
How do you think the Swedish rock and punk scene looks from the point of view of female and non-binary artists today? Is it important that they have their own spaces like Riot Grrrl Sessions?
I’ve been playing in punk bands for 20 years or so and I think we are moving in the right direction. But too slowly! Still 90% or more of all new bands consist of cis-males. You only need to take a glance at the #metoo movement to imagine what kind of shithole the music industry has been, and is, for non cis-male musicians and songwriters. Of course initiatives like Riot Grrrl Sessions is important, as you need some rest from time to time from various assholes. But as time goes by, I mostly get annoyed by questions like this because I fucking NEVER see any cis-male artists and bands get them. They should be the ones answering these things, because it’s their fault that my music career has been a complete struggle from time to time.
And the release party for the record is in February, tell us what you’ve got planned for that.
The release party is mainly for ourselves and fans of the project to celebrate that we made it, but not only that we made it. We did it so fucking well! The record is absolutely amazing. When you hear it you won’t be able to believe that it’s been made in just one weekend by musicians that aren’t even used to working together. We will meet up to listen to the album together. We’re gonna show pictures from the recording sessions, but we are also making a documentary about the project. So hopefully we’ll be able to show that too. so everyone gets a chance to see what exactly went on during that weekend 🙂 There will be DJs and there will be party! The venue is quite small though so if you wanna attend, better be there on time!
Having done all this, does Riot Grrrl Sessions have a life after the release of the record? You’ve achieved what you initially set out to do, where does RGS go from here?
When I initiated Riot Grrrl Sessions I thought of it as a project that could be made on a regular basis. So hopefully we could do it again. Maybe with different musicians, who knows? That is the reason this release is called THE FIRST SESSION. But for now I just look forward to the release, to share these awesome songs and for all of us to sit back, relax and enjoy people’s reactions. THE FIRST SESSION is out on vinyl, CD and digital platforms on February 23.
You can see a list of the musicians involved on the Riot Grrrl Sessions Facebook page. The Riot Grrrls Sessions record is out on Feb 23. The release party for the record takes place at Bar Brooklyn on Feb 21. For more info see www.riotgrrrlsessions.com
