Girls Rock! Canberra inspiring next generation of girl rockers

Posted on 23 August, 2019

Sarina Talip talks to some of Canberra’s aspiring—and some experienced—female rockers, headed for the Girls Rock! Canberra rock camp program.

Scarlett McKahey was one of the very first campers at the Girls Rock! Canberra rock camp program when it launched in January 2016.

And the Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers guitarist says she still draws on “pretty much everything” she learnt there.

She made “a good first four batches” of band T-shirts using skills she learnt at the screen-printing workshop. Ditto band posters, which the band members have “always” made themselves, a talent Scarlett picked up at the zine workshop.

Scarlett McKahey.

She also loved the songwriting workshop with acclaimed Melbourne singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett.

“There’s stuff that I still use to this day that she showed us,” Scarlett says. “Pretty much everything that I can remember I still use—everything was so useful.”

Scarlett was an intern in 2017 and 2018 and this year will return as a “band coach” for the fourth annual camp, held during the September school holidays at Ainslie Arts Centre.

The camp is open to girls, trans and gender diverse young people aged 10 to 17, with full and partial scholarships also available.

Scarlett McKahey at Girls Rock! 2016.

Tonight, UC Refectory will throw a fundraising party to help raise money for the spring camp, including for scholarships. There’ll be performances from The Buoys, Cry Club, Lady Denman, Lucy Sugerman, Peach Lane plus Zines, market stalls and exclusive merch.

Over five days, the aspiring rockers choose an instrument to learn, form a band, and work up an original song from scratch to perform at the end of the week for family, friends, and supporters from the Canberra music industry.

They also get hands-on in creative workshops such as DIY music, improvisation, screen-printing band t-shirts and making zines, and boogie to lunchtime live music performances from local and interstate artists.

Scarlett will be a friendly, experienced face for new campers.

“I’m really hoping that I’ll help them get out of that really nervous, scared-to-make friends thing that I had when I was there,” she says.

“And because I’m in a band myself I feel like I can give some tips and tricks for performing and working as a team.”

Scarlett formed her all-girl band in Year 9 and says that attending the camp was inspiring and empowering.

“I hadn’t been in my band for very long and I didn’t realise that there were so many amazing, powerful women in music until I went to the camp and I actually got to see it first hand,” she says.

“And just having that leg up to start off with, it really just gave me a sense of community and to not be scared anymore, because it is such a male-dominated field.

“Like trying to book gigs, we were constantly on all-male rosters, and it just felt like we were the only [all-girl band] around, especially being 15, 16 at the time, so it was just incredible having all these amazing women be like, ‘We’re all doing it as well.’”

Scarlett says the band has moved from pop to alternative rock—and that the school of rock had a large part to play.

“When I first attended I was in the peak of my grunge phase and I wore a Nirvana shirt every single day to camp,” she says, laughing.

“But because we went through so many genres, I saw that wasn’t the only way to do it, and so I started to expand what I was listening to.

“And because I wrote all the songs at the time as well, I changed what we played – it definitely had a huge impact on everything that we did really.

“It shaped the way that we wrote music, and shaped the way that we performed. Knowing that those different genres are really cool as well really influenced me.”

The 18-year-old says being in an all-girl band is “the best thing ever.”

“Because not only are they all girls, but they’re also my best friends, the whole world, so it’s just amazing to be able to do all this stuff together,” she says.

“And especially now that we’re touring, we have the best time—we’ve never really had any drama.”

Program coordinator Phoebe O’Leary says she can confirm some other exciting mentors and performers for the five-day workshop.

“Queer pop dreamboats” band Sportsbra, Sydney experimental pop artist PRINCI, Melbourne country and soul singer Chitra (who recently played at the Triple J-supported Drop Festival), and Canberra rocker Dog Name, with her stripped back vocals (and otherwise known as Eadie Newman), will all be on hand to give the girls a hand.

Left to right: Chiara Grassia (Director) Phoebe O’Leary, Amy Coughlan; Benedicte O’Leary Rutherford.

Phoebe says she wishes something like the camp had existed when she was a teenager. She and her friends played instruments, and talked about starting a band.

“We even had a band name and talked about album artwork but we never made any songs together because we all listened to emo music by heaps of guys,” she says.

“It seems silly to think that you need to be able to see people doing what you want to do in order to do it, but when you’re an anxious teenager who has low self-esteem it’s hard to do those things without role models.

“It’s easy to play guitar in your bedroom—it’s a lot harder and takes a lot more confidence to be in a band and write music together and perform with other people.”

Lily Morris is one such camper who found her confidence improved from attending the camp.

She now plays lead guitar in “dream pop indie rock alternative post-punk” band Powder Blue, and in garage punk outfit Deputy Chief Wardens.

Lily Morris. Credit: Charlotte Jenkins.

She’ll perform with Powder Blue at the Smokey Horse in Braidwood on September 8 as part of another fundraiser gig to help pay for a girl from Braidwood to attend the rock camp.

The 17-year-old Dickson College student was a “camper” last year and this year will return as an intern.

“It definitely gave me confidence socially, being able to talk to people that I had not met before, and also musically—it’s a really good experience to play with people you’ve never played with before,” Lily says.

“I love being able to collab on ideas and create songs, and I love playing live, it’s always the best thing ever.”

the essentials

What: Girls Rock! Canberra
When: Monday 30 September – Friday 4 October, 9am-5pm, with a showcase on Saturday 5 October, 1-3pm.
Where: Ainslie Arts Centre, 30 Elouera Street, Braddon
Cost: $500 for the week, includes instrument use, all workshops materials and daily morning and afternoon tea. Financial aid (including full and partial scholarships) is available on a needs basis.
Apply here: girlsrockcanberra.com.au

Feature image: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. Guitar: Scarlett McKahey, Drums: Neve van Boxsel, Vocals: Anna Ryan, Bass: Jaida Stephenson.