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Feast Of Female Voice.
 Heather Frahn is shamelessly passionate when it comes to promoting music: not just her own, but also that of the countless artists that she's encountered along her musical travels, whether from all across this big wide country of ours or those who've taken her aback down the local pub. It's partly her unflagging love of live performance that drives her to gather up a few of her favourite acts each year as part of the Feast Of Female Voice; but her efforts are also driven by the more selfless cause towards gaining greater recognition for female artists and to further strengthen and perpetuate the ever-expanding network she instigated over five years ago.
I caught up with Frahn, along with another Adelaide singer/songwriter, Susie Davis (aka Salty), who together with Victoria's Emma Wall and Sydney's Lara Stephen make up this year's FOFV line up, to get the lo-down on this popular event.
"I was looking on the Internet and found www.indiegrrl.com," begins Frahn as a lead in to the event's background, "which is this massive community and network of female musicians in America. So there's thousands of women who connect via email and say things like, 'I'm going to New York, can I stay with anyone?' and 'I'm going on tour, anyone want to come with me?', 'Does anyone know of a guitarist?' and things like that, you know? It's a real information sharing network. So I thought, 'God! Australia needs something like this, especially between professional independent musicians,' because around that time I was just starting to tour regularly and I needed those contacts and help from people interstate. So first of all I wanted to set something like that up here, but that was such a massive project that I couldn't do it, so I then thought 'why not just start showcasing artists from around Australia, as well as some from here in Adelaide?' So as a musician and a lover of community oneness and connecting with people to build networks, I thought that I could start this event to assist those that are in between being emerging artists and professional but aren't making heaps of money from their music; those people who have performed countless live shows and are mainly selling their CDs at gigs and are good at what they do."
The inaugural FOFV was held in 2000 and over the years has showcased some of the best independent female talent this country has to offer, including the likes of Women In Docs, Jodi Martin, Sally Dastey, Susie Keynes, Andrea rieniets, The Dolls, Raw Honey and Kerrianne Cox. "Something that I'm really proud of is that some of those connections have paid off and some artists, myself included, who met through the event have now played together in other cities - and that's where the WOMADelaide people first saw Kerrianne play and she ended up on the bill."
"I've been to the event a number of times," enthuses Salty, "and I'm really looking to the night, being such a fan of it in general and I've been a fan of Heather's for so long as well, not just for her music and performance but also for her work ethic. She's amazing and I have so much respect for her because I know how hard it is, so now having a chance to perform is great.
"Like, music is probably the most direct way to connect with people and I'm very much the same as Heather in that I want to make something happen inside of people when they hear a certain line and that's why I love doing this and the longer you stay in it the more people you meet that are dedicated. I believe that opportunities will come at the right time and that you're not ready until that time, if that makes sense? I'm not one to push myself into a position that I might believe I'm in, especially in terms of playing at festivals and things like that. First you have to put all the hard work in and only after putting stuff out there you then have to wait for things to come back to you, so it's very relative to the amount of energy you've created. And it's very much about the connections you make with people - and I'm not talking about the business contacts, I mean the actual friendships with people: that's where it all starts from."
You go, girls.
Steve Jones
 | Feast Of Female Voice happens at the Jade Monkey on Sat 5 Nov. as part of the Feast Festival. |
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