guest mix: She / Her / Hers

photo: Hailey Lamb

Growing up, neither of my parents were really into music outside of listening to the radio on their morning commute and I didn't really have a whole lot of friends. So when I started really getting invested in music in middle school I struggled to find bands. As I imagine is true for most people, the vast majority of bands I discovered were fronted by men, most of them didn't have a single member who wasn't a straight white man. It took years for me to realize that was true, and to understand how big of a problem that was. So while there are lots of bands that I love and respect that I would love to throw on this mix, I really want to highlight artists, big and small, that centered around women and non-binary people's voices and experiences.

We still have a big diversity problem in the scene, I think it gets better all the time, but my bands are still constantly asked to play shows or fests that are completely dominated by men. Looking back over this playlist after making it, I can't help but notice how overwhelmingly white it is, I'm sure that's a product of my own biases and talented bands with POC being overlooked in favor of whiter bands in the scene. I'm trying to make a more conscious effort to address that in my own listening habits, and in my own scene as well.