Success of girls’ rock camp spawns sequel for women
Girls just wanna rock — forever.
Last year, Susan Blackmer watched her then-13-year-old daughter Claire on stage performing Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation at the annual Rock Camp for Girls+, hosted by music community organization Girls+ Rock Ottawa.
“I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation, I’ve never been afraid of any deviation,” goes the badass feminist anthem.
“It looked like so much fun,” Blackmer said.
So now, like Jett sang, “it’s a new generation.” From June 23 to 25, the Hunt Club-area mom’s rock ’n’ roll fantasy will become reality when she participates in the first Rock Camp for Women+.
The three-day event — and there are still a few spaces open — will give up to 20 participants the chance to take lessons on bass, guitar, drums or keyboard from professional musicians, form a band, then perform live for an audience at a showcase concert.
“This gives you a chance to try it out and have the experience. You can jump in and try it,” said Blackmer, who’d love to crank out something by the Ramones or Green Day on electric guitar. “We’ll all be in it together.” It’s happening as the result of popular demand generated by the teen camp, volunteer Bianca Oran said. Girls+ Rock Ottawa has been around for a decade.
“We received a lot of feedback over the last few years from women who were interested in what the girls were doing and said, ‘I wish we had something like this for us,’ ” Oran said.
“We wanted to give women an opportunity to learn an instrument, something they’ve always wanted to do, with other women in a really inclusive fun environment without judgment, meet new people, and hopefully come out of this experience continuing on (playing music).”
The rock camp weekend — which is open to all 19-or-older selfidentified women and those who identify as non-binary — starts with orientation at Bar Robo in Chinatown, moves on to two days at Capital Rehearsal Studios and wraps up with a showcase concert at Arts Court.
Proceeds from the camp’s $400 registration fee go to support events such as the flagship Rock Camp for Girls+, which is next up on Nov. 3 to 5 and operates on a sliding-scale fee so no one is turned away.
It aims to foster confidence, acceptance and a sense of community in 13- to 17-year-olds through playing music while showing participants they could be musicians, promoters and engineers in what has traditionally been a maledominated industry.
This weekend’s rock camp also includes a panel discussion on women in music with the likes of Erin Benjamin, the executive director of Music Canada Live; Elaina Martin of Westfest; and Aisha Wickham from the Ontario Music Fund.
Oran, a veteran of Toronto’s music industry, said that while women have a way to go toward equal representation, “we’re getting there.” Remember that new generation? Teens Max Hughes, Helena Karabatsos Tsakalaki and Ella Rigley go to different schools but met at rock camp, bonded over Bikini Kill covers and just played Club Saw this past Saturday as part of the Ottawa Explosion Weekend.
“It’s a really great way to meet people and learn new music,” said Hughes, 16, who had played tenor sax in a high school band but hadn’t picked up a drumstick before band camp.
“I didn’t know how to play the drums, now I have my own set.”
Their band, Preemptive Eulogy, is billed as “some messy sounds made by some young radically queer folks just trying to do their best.”
Hughes thinks there are still stereotypes to be broken down, noting that women in music can be dismissed as tokens when playing with men or as “girl bands” when they play together.
“When there’s a band full of women, it’s a girl band,” Hughes said. “When a band is full of men, it’s not a male band.”