While guys are enabled to age disgracefully in music, using up the mantel of Rockstar, ladies continue to be commodified, we desire them young, beautiful, attractive yet not too hot, actually give them to us innocent, yet additionally slutty? All of which was ever much more clear with Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s brand-new solitary WAP, ladies having their sexuality is a no go.
With that said in mind, we met up with brand name brand-new artist Flownn, that is not just female but also in her 30s— in a market that prematurely ages women— and also preparing to launch her very first solo solitary.
It is 2020 and also Corona-coaster apart, it is beginning to feel like we’re finding our feet; fighting for equal rights across the board, functioning more detailed as areas and also sustaining each various other in what has been just one of the hardest years we have dealt with internationally— and three years after the launch of the Me Too activity females are being progressively supported and also represented across all industries, right?
Well … in the music market ladies still only make up 21.7% of musicians, 12% of songwriters as well as terrifyingly only 2.1% of manufacturers. Female artists in the graphes are extremely young— signed young, Mahalia was authorized at the age of 13, and also taken into consideration ‘past it’ once they reach their very early twenties.
With a musical job spanning 10 years, Flownn’s soon-to-launch solo offering has actually been long prepared for and also seems like a return to form of the most glorious kind. Though she lists the likes of H.E.R., Amber Mark, Cleo Sol, James Blake, Tom Misch as well as Rosalia as her much-loved musicians, her musical style can not be thawed down as well as moulded to a solitary category as well as components of every one of the aforementioned can be listened to at points.
Flownn’s very first solitary release— think honeyed vocals gently distilled over an electro-pop beat— is entitled «Illuminate» and was produced at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown through a Zoom with producer Pearse Macintyre … «We poked fun at the suggestion of in fact creating something of worth through the ‘brand-new normal’ of a computer screen, let alone creating an opus that makes you want to move at a time when we were all so sedentary.
I was so made use of to teaming up in reality that I actually struggled to make it work on my very own however we kept at it and also to my shock Illuminate was birthed. The tune is about the internal representation on love just working out and the facets of that physically and psychologically illuminating you, yet I have found that the tune does that for me as well.»
Below she opens concerning the motivation behind the songs and also the problems she has actually dealt with as a female musician in a man dominated market …
It is notoriously difficult to significantly break-through in the songs industry as a solo musician. What have been a few of the barriers you have confronted?
Absolutely, it’s one of the hardest video games out there, I constantly contrast it to stand-up comedy, will they like me? Will they like my tunes? What side of myself do I need to show to get a dedicated audience. There are so many brand-new releases and also brand-new artists, being primarily male led as we know, you have to do whatever to be various whilst likewise revealing your real authentic self. I have actually kept my head down, working with the manufacturers I love, if the tunes that we create don’t function I put them to bed, possibly I’m also competitive however at this phase and age I feel like this needs to be the style in which I work. I presume you might claim my interior barriers are what I’m up against yet fuelled by the industry I’m in and what it has actually come to be.
What type of sexism you have experienced has shocked you?
Previously I remained in an all-female band called Paradisia and also actually the sexism as well as sexualisation was virtually anywhere. One celebration, which I think of commonly as the musician in question has actually currently formally been ‘cancelled’ as a predator, takes me back to two years back. We got on excursion with a very effective, older male solo musician. He DM ‘d us the day prior to the excursion began asking us to satisfy him in his hotel area prior to soundcheck, amongst some other fairly leading messages.
At the time we were so fired up at the possibility of this outstanding possibility and being messaged by one of our heroes. It is really easy to see exactly how you can find on your own in a compromising and possibly hazardous circumstance, all of us were in our late twenties, in dedicated relationships, however additionally seemed like we could not actually state no. I honestly think the only thing that quit us from entering into difficulty time and time again is that there were three of us; something I am much more aware now that I’m solo.
Today though, I need to claim it is a lot better all round as well as I do think Me Too has had a substantial influence on this— there is a feeling of adjustment within the creative market, I now function extremely carefully with mainly females as well as my management are extremely protective so I wish I won’t find myself in that setting again.
Do you believe the market still subscribes to an age restriction on lady musicians?
Definitely, considering the leading 3 female selling artists, all of which are under the age of 25 as well as began their occupations at 18. Also The X Factor, which at a time was the among the most watched shows on British television had an over +25 group (this year this age bracket has been raised to 28) and all of us considered that team as being past it, their stories always reflect on this being their last shot.
Not a day goes by where I do not consider my age as potentially limiting me, as well as do not let me begin on the idea of having kids. I understand there have actually been times where had I have actually walked right into the studio 10 years more youthful the power would certainly have been various. Inevitably excellent tunes, great group, whatever age you are need to be enough, I still feel 21 to be sincere.
What does this track symbolise about you as an artist and also an individual? Do you feel like you are finally regulating the story of your job as well as just how liberating has that been for you?
Light up symbolises a lot for me, my new journey of confidence, seeming like I’m no longer in something that restricts me both on a personal level and in my job, to be straightforward I have actually never ever felt a lot more totally free. At the start of Flownn I knew I wanted to make a pop record that you can dance to, it’s the songs I pay attention to and also not enabling the sector to make me really feel as though my age wouldn’t support this, if anything my writing got better, I understood what I wished to claim and exactly how I desired it to sound even more than ever in the past.
I signed my very first major record deal at 20, I was constantly made to seem like I had a voice in that huge building when I really didn’t, I had money coming in for songs I hadn’t written yet, it was wild but I was vulnerable. Today I am absolutely liberated daily, I am authorized to an independent label, I possess my tracks and also I get to deal with an amazing group. We are primarily constantly aligned on the things we produced, I have complete innovative control. It takes a town as well as my village is banging.