GIRLSCHOOL is a celebration of women challenging the status quo.
Anna Bulbrook has been playing music her entire life. She is a trained classical violinist and is best known for her work with The Airborne Toxic Event. She has recently started her own project The Bulls, with Marc Sallis, bass player for The Duke Spirit. The Bulls is Anna’s outlet for her own songwriting and vision.
Two years ago Anna volunteered at the Los Angeles Girls Rock Camp and says she had a “ mind-bending experience of seeing women use rock’n’roll to encourage young girls to take risks, grow, and be more themselves in a really utopic, positive, and very thoughtful all-female environment. The experience changed my brain. The relief of connecting to a community of positive and pro-active musical women hit me like a wave”. Once Anna got a taste of what she calls “Utopia” she knew she had to do something to keep that feeling of community alive and continue to grow it. (This is exactly how and why SoundGirls.Org was started). So she started GIRLSCHOOL.
GIRLSCHOOL is a music festival that celebrates women-identified-fronted bands and women artists. After spending a decade as a “sideman” in the alternative rock world, where you really don’t see a lot of other women around—onstage or on your crew—I started to really miss and crave the camaraderie of women. I mean, growing up in classical land, I saw women players everywhere and had a million girlfriends who also played instruments. It wasn’t this segregated thing.
SoundGirls recently talked to Anna about Life on the Road and GIRLSCHOOL 2017.
GIRLSCHOOL is expanding this year–what is in store for this year’s festival?
First, we have some REALLY exciting headliners that I can’t announce. It’s just going to be a freaking amazing lineup. Second, we are adding a lot more educational and community programming that will doing the boots-on-the-ground work of literally creating opportunities for women from across the music industry to meet, connect, learn, and maybe get inspired to try something new: panel discussions, mentoring events, informative talks, Q&As. That kind of thing.
What are your long-term goals?
I’d like to grow Girlschool to be a traveling or pop-up festival around the world. I’d like to build the platform to celebrate and connect and share the work of more and more amazing women from across the music industry. And I’d like to hear from women who are in music or are interested in music to hear what would be most helpful to or inspiring for, YOU, so Girlschool can try to answer those needs as we go forward.
More on Anna and GIRLSCHOOL
