Femme Synth Workshop: Guest Column by Juliana Clark
Posted on June 22, 2018
This guest post is written by Juliana Clark. She attended the FeM Synth Lab Workshop, which is, according to the group’s website, “a low-cost recurring monthly night for womxn and non-binary folx to learn how to use hardware for electronic music production, meet others, and make music together.”
On May 24th, I attended a FeM Synth Workshop at the Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW). My name is Juliana Clark. I am a twenty-two-year old woman, who has just relocated back to Los Angeles after finishing up my Bachelors at Barnard College. Now, as a disclaimer, I do not consider myself a musician by any means, but I am a writer, and I am keenly interested in sustaining a creative life in adulthood, which often comes at the cost of maintaining financial security. For this reason, I was initially attracted to the Women’s Center and their mission “to cultivate LA’s feminist creative communities and practices.” This space was created to form connections and build community particularly for femme artists. According to UC Santa Barbara’s student run website on human sexuality, SexInfo Online, a femme can be defined as “an individual who identifies physically, mentally, or emotionally as feminine.”
Image Source: @Moogfest Twitter
Creation can often feel like a solitary process, but it does not have to be. Often times, the end goal of mastering a craft can be both overwhelming and intimidating. Community and support is vital in pushing an artist forward in their career. For this reason, spaces like WCCW are vital to the growth of both femme artists and the feminist community of Los Angeles as a whole. I think that this phenomenon is amplified for femmes given that they encompass a group that has often been marginalized in social and cultural spaces. There has never been a shortage of creative, compelling, and innovative femmes inclined towards writing or electronic music production. However, men often retain the dominant voices in these industries.
So, I suppose the obvious question is, ‘Why was I drawn to learning about audio production in the first place?’ Part of my interest stems from working at a radio station in college and being surrounded by musicians as well as having to learn how to edit audio for the News and Arts Departments. Another aspect of my attraction definitely relates to my love for Grimes and the simple knowledge that she exists and has been able to exert so much creative control of her work while maintaining her commercial success. Learning that she does the writing, production, engineering, instrumentals, and album artwork for her songs really made an impression on me and what I thought was possible for femme artists.
Image Source: FeM Synth Lab
I had tried to attend the FeM Synth Workshop a few months prior but forgot to RSVP. I was notified when another workshop was available, so, with interest and nerves in tow, I decided to purchase the three-dollar admission ticket for the “Intro to Ableton Live” class, designed to be accessible to absolute beginners. Tickets were purposefully kept at a relatively low price. On the listserv, the founders noted that no one would be turned away for lack of funds. After all, the cost of software, equipment, and classes often stands as a barrier preventing novices from becoming pros in music production.
When I arrived at the center, the room was filled. Almost all of the white folding IKEA chairs had occupants with the exception of a few. Introductions had already begun when I walked in. (I had underestimated the time needed to find parking, a common Los Angeles plight.) All participants were stating their names, pronouns, and experience level with synths and/or Ableton. One person even responded, “I’ve heard of it” (i.e. Ableton) as her experience level. I found this confession soothing, knowing that I was not the only femme in the room without any production expertise.
Image Source: Tanja-Tiziana
Coming into a synth workshop as a woman is a risk. Electronic music and music production has long been dominated by white, cis-gender men. Kora Colasuono, one of the instructors, echoed this sentiment when she mentioned her reasoning for using Coursera, an online resource with introductory tutorials on music production, when first learning about Ableton Live. “It’s great because some videos actually have a woman teaching them, and you won’t have to deal with all the EDM bros,” she said. The other participants affirmed this statement by nodding their heads and murmuring, “Yes!” amongst themselves. Funnily enough, none of us were truly alone in our feelings of being isolated by men in music production, but it took all of us coming together to articulate that feeling. For me, this moment really demonstrated that the founders of FeM Synth Lab are responding to a clear need for fem empowerment in music. I was automatically inspired by these instructors who had noticed a problem in their field and chose to respond to it by fostering a community and giving femmes the tools to make change.
Once the round robin had completed, Kora, clad in her white overalls and yellow nail polish, began explaining how to navigate through the program and what certain symbols meant. Everyone began furiously typing in their “Notes” applications or physical notebooks. I was compelled to do the same and kept trying to recover how I used to take notes on computer programs back in my ninth-grade Computer Skills class.
From the beginning, I knew this workshop would provide me with a roadmap for Ableton, but it would be up to me to piece together all of the knowledge I had acquired. It would take time before I stopped seeing Ableton as this unknowable program with endless knobs and buttons but, instead, as a tool directly connected to musical expression. I knew making that connection would be another obstacle to overcome, but I wanted to push forward.
Image Source: Tanja-Tiziana
Back on the projector, I watched Kora’s mouse slide up and down and across the screen. She started playing around with sounds, shortening and lengthening tracks, at first, individually, and then a group of them at the same time. I felt like I was in a trance, listening to these strange bops and beeps emanating from the large black speakers parallel to Kora’s Mac at the front of the room. I continued taking notes but was forced to stop a number of times when part of the lesson went by a little too quickly for me. Even though we were all in a safe learning space created by femmes for femmes, I still found myself feeling shy, but I knew that I was not alone.
A certain question came to my mind: What really constitutes a safe space in which everyone is able to have the fullest experience possible? There is no easy way to answer this question, but it is still important to consider, especially when thinking about gender.
But, I did notice that no femme was trying to take up a space or a title that did not rightfully belong to them. Even Kora did not feel that she would not refer to herself as a “pro” in regards to her Ableton abilities. Additionally, I heard a number of apologies from femmes who were worried that they had blocked another participant’s view when we all gathered around the laptops, manipulating the programs ourselves. There is a level of humility, unique to femmes, that I find beautiful and inspiring, but what are the costs of such humility?
Image Source: FeM Synth Lab
Next to the black speakers, there was an open window, and I could hear the rumblings of a nearby train interact with the sound waves escaping out into the night’s darker shadows. The sky had deepened, its color changing to a shade of sapphire blue, and I felt uniquely at home in the hills of Los Angeles that night.
Ultimately, this workshop left me with excitement for the future and a sense of feeling grounded in my creativity. I want to learn more, do more, and be more than just who I am now both as a woman and a creative. I am still intimidated by all I would have to learn about Ableton, that part has not changed. But, I am comforted knowing that there are badass, dynamic femmes in my city with the same desire to use their available resources to make strides in the world.
Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW)
2425 Grover Place
Los Angeles, CA 90031
www.womenscenterforcreativework.com
FeM Synth Lab
Located at WCCW
femsynthlab@gmail.com
The hosts of this workshop are producers Natalie Robehmed, Sophia Elliot, and Kora Colasuonno.