September 10th, 2017

5 Questions With... STEALING SHEEP

We have been quite literally OBSESSED with this band for some time now, so naturally we were over the moon when they agreed to chat to us about their journey and their take on being women in music!

#1 Stealing Sheep was formed in 2010, it would be really interesting to find out what you were doing musically prior to this?
 
Bex was studying music in Liverpool and was part of an improv experimental collective called HapPytap. Emily was studying illustration at uni and playing bass as part of an all girl band called Bexy Sitch and her own surfy pop prog solo project too...called Emily and the Faves. Lucy was playing sit down kit in an all girl gypsy rock group called the Long Finger Bandits and playing her own solo, gentle jazzy experimental stuff on nylon acoustic guitar with a few other friends. All of us played regularly together in these other bands at The Kazimier and at an anti pop / alternative style cafe venue called Mello Mello. Both the venues were ran by our friends and there was a lot going on at that time, it was the beginning of a lot of people meeting and starting collaborations! 


#2 You are based in Liverpool, we are based in Leeds! What is your take on the Music Scene up in Liverpool compared to places like Leeds, Manchester and London? 

It feels like each city has their own pocket of subversive artists and musicians and these groups kinda move like waves, having a big swell at sum point and then settling in again. We're quite connected to Manchester's islington Mill lot. This is kind of parallel to Liverpool's art crowd now spread out between the Invisible Wind Factory and the Royal Standard / Baltic area. doing similar kinds of projects but in a different way.. we're close enough to collaborate which is really cool. There's a space called The Total Refreshment centre in London and a lot of artists based in darlston with a concentration of similar wave length artist like Snapped Ankles, Joey Four and Deep Throat Choir...most of these artists tend to come out of squat parties or areas with low rent or utilising abandoned or run down warehouse spaces like we do in Liverpool and these kinds of places are quite transient and usually threatened by urban development. We don't know much about the Leeds scene...what's going on there? 

#3 PRS have recently confirmed that only 16% of their members are female! Does this statistic reflect the music industry that you know?

It doesn't surprise us, it's hard to have the confidence to put up with rigid view points in the music industry and it's mainly masculine attitude. It can be an oppressive and challenging game. It's hard to get your voice listened to and to be taken seriously, you don't need a male affirmation for what your doing but it can be hard to be confident and for others to be confident in your work with out it because of the major imbalance of men higher up in the industry and in the marketing and media teams. We have always been magnetised to other women in the music industry...strength in numbers! There's a girl band in Manchester called Pins who we toured with and we have been supported by Gwenno (a Welsh solo electronic artist who played many of her shows heavily pregnant), we have collaborated with Deep Throat Choir too and they're a female super group making original choral arrangements of pop hits and original material too. 
Our label and team are really good but again, mostly men. They're all feminists and think a lot about our message and what we're trying to do, they do not try and dominate us or sway our decisions, there's no real gender inequality with them. They wouldn't dare fuck with us anyway. We feel very respected, trusted and supported by our gang which is extremely important.
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#4  As a women in a very male dominated industry, what advice can you give to other women in music trying to make their mark?

DONT BE AFRAID

#5 What are you listening to at the moment?

Really into sum Gorillas tunes right now and a new band called SuperOrganism!! Tiga, Uffie, The Weekend also SOPHIE has got sum cool ideas going on. There's a lot of Major Lazer inspired raggaton dancehall pop going on that I can't help loving (even though there's way too much sameyness going on!!) oh yeah...and you guys (Park Fires).


Socials;
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/stealingsheep
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/stealingsheepofficial