Sad Grrrls Club is a collective of non-male musicians and music industry professionals based in Australia. Their aim is to promote gender diversity in the local music scene by giving non-males a helping hand to create music and get that music heard.
Founded in 2015 by Rachel Maria Cox, the Sad Grrrls Club collective started as a tour and festival which saw Cox, alongside “freak-folkie” Ess-Em, perform with local acts in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong and Brisbane, building up to the first ever Sad Grrrls Fest run over two days in Sydney. The project received a huge amount of positive feedback, but the question everyone was asking was “what’s next for the Sad Grrrls?”
Never one to take a break, RMC immediately started work on Sad Grrrls Club Records, a DIY record label that would help bring together not only non-male musicians, but also recording engineers, producers, mastering engineers, photographers, graphic designers, videographers and artists to create an ongoing project that could help promote gender diversity in the industry.
We caught up with Rachel about the upcoming Sad Grrrls Fest in Sydney which Studios 301 is a media sponsor.
How does it feel to be in your second year of the festival?
It’s very exciting to see how it’s grown from last year. I’m really glad we’ve almost doubled the number of artists involved, and it will be cool to take it to Melbourne for the first time. I feel like I’ve watched my baby growing up. I’m really proud of everyone who’s put work into it to make it what it is.
Being an artist yourself what do you think the biggest challenge in getting your music out is?
The biggest challenge I think is with so many avenues you can pursue to share your music, choosing which ones are going to be most effective. There’s so many different options and platforms and especially if you’re just starting out, knowing where to begin can be daunting. It really helps if you have someone a little more experienced guiding and mentoring you, and of course there’s no substitute for playing live and quality music.
Where do you see yourself and the festival in years to come?
I would really like to see the festival gradually become a nationwide event. Personally, I’d be very happy if I could make Sad Grrrls Club my full time job and use it to share my own and other people’s’ music.
The lineups for Sydney and Melbourne were just announced.
Check out the Sydney lineup below.
