Celebrating the Women that are Shaping Copper Feast - March 2019 Copper Feast Blog

Celebrating the Women that are Shaping Copper Feast

This month's blog was written to the sounds of PUMMELED by Stegosaurus. Released in 2015, PUMMELED features Levi Ellingwood and Pat Bonner of Right Shitty alongside frontman Stuart Buckley. Fans of Right Shitty and PUP, check this out ASAP if you haven't already.

PUMMELED - Stegosaurus

So as you may be aware, this Friday the 8th March is International Women's Day. This is a day that in an ideal world shouldn't be necessary, and yet women, and particularly those from minority backgrounds form a terribly underrepresented and underappreciated group within the alternative music scene. As such, I'm going to use this blog as an opportunity to demonstrate that while yes, I am a straight white guy, this label has been shaped throughout its as-yet-short life, by an array of talented and incredible women.

An obvious place to start with this would be to mention my girlfriend Carys, who's been here behind the scenes from the start, making sure I don't fuck things up. Seriously though, this label simply wouldn't exist without her. That's a fact. Back in late 2017 we were discussing things that we wanted to do in the future and I mentioned that it was a long-held dream of mine to set up a small record label.

Now, to do this, you need a little bit of money, which I proceeded to save up over the following 5-6 months. Anyone that knows the housing market in London knows that it's dead expensive here, and I'm sure most people would have encouraged me to save that money towards a house, and not speculate it all on a small band from the east coast of Canada - yet here we are, all thanks to Carys for pushing me to follow this little dream I had.

God knows I didn't pack these all by myself

Not only that, but she's lent a hand at every step of the way so far this year, whether it's been waiting in for delivery of Foot's Buffalo or helping package up all those Polygondwanaland orders.

On a broader note now, in terms of the music that we are aiming to put out, this has been massively influenced by a huge range of artists, many of whom are women, and all of which should be listened to as soon as you can!

The first person is the one and only, the incomparable Mia Zapata, frontwoman of The Gits. In a city and time when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains were getting most of the plaudits, if you'd ask me, I'd tell you that The Gits were the best of all of them. Racing through unforgiving punk rock Mia was never afraid to be who she was, and blazed a trail for women in punk rock at a time when all eyes were on the men. Listen to their album Frenching the Bully and you'll get what I'm talking about.

Mia Zapata

Unfortunately it seems that her talent and the sheer quality of her musical output is all-too-often overshadowed by the horrific circumstances of her death, however I'll leave you with this. If Mia Zapata were still alive today, I have no doubt that people would talk about her in the same way they revel in the likes of Hendrix, Cobain and McCartney.

I also have to thank the amazing women in bands that we are working with and those that we will work with in the future.

Copper Feast will always be a place for inclusion and opportunities regardless of background, and it was a very proud moment for me to be able to welcome T-Rextasy to the label. Yes, they’re a band with an entirely female line-up, formed from the frustration of a lack of women in the alternative

music scene, but that only paints a tiny part of the picture of what T-Rextasy represent.

These punk rockers are at the forefront of discussing issues faced by many millennials growing up, whether they identify as LGBTQ+ or otherwise. T-Rextasy are blazing a trail, as other bands in the punk rock scene just don’t have the knowledge, experience or expertise to tackle and therefore do these issue justice in their music. They are a band that so many people in this divisive world need to hear, simply as a means of an education in tolerance and understanding and it’s therefore why I am proud that they’re having a hand in shaping what Copper Feast Records is becoming.

Click above to pre-order our pressing of Prehysteria!

So moving forward, we more or less have our release schedule all planned out for the rest of 2019, and fuck me, is it looking good! Not only that, but I have a few other suprises in store which will all be revealed to you when the time is right. But for now, just know that it’s going to be a busy year here at Copper Feast. So buckle up and enjoy the ride with us.

Thanks for all your support so far. Every single order, like, view, subscribe and retweet is massively appreciated!

Callum

#vinyl #music #gender #women #internationalwomensday