Equalizing Music in Dublin: ELLLL & Umfang
As Dublin continues to churn out emerging electronic talent and encourage women to get involved in mixing and production, Smirnoff Sound Collective are hosting a whopper event with Discwoman’s Umfang and Gash Collective founder ELLLL at the Wah Wah Club in Dublin this Saturday.
But before the night-time festivities begin, a series of workshops will take place during the day for budding female identifying artists who want to learn more about music production and DJing. MOTZ attended the most recent workshop in Dublin back in September, have a read here to see how we got on.
Championing diversity in the electronic music industry, ELLLL aka Ellen King is behind the initiative with Smirnoff, who heard about Discwoman through the female:pressure network but discovered Umfang through her releases on the 1080p label. After hosting multiple production and DJ workshops in Dublin, Galway and Cork, Ellen has curated nights throughout Ireland to empower women and non-binary DJs in electronic music. Over the last year, the producer has seen a progressive change within Ireland’s scene: ‘It’s a slow and steady process. GASH started in April of 2016 and we’ve been continuously running events and workshops around the country since. It was never going to happen over night, but gradually people are becoming more and more aware and making a conscious effort regarding event programming and inclusivity.’
Solidifying her role as a stalwart for equality in techno, Umfang will share the bill with ELLLL for the first time. As a newcomer to Dublin, Umfang isn’t hugely aware of Irish female electronic artists navigating their way into music. Talking to us she admitted: ‘I don't know much at all about the scene in Dublin and I think the only artist I know of is Cáit’. But hopefully that will change after this weekend, as ELLLL has shared with us a handful of flourishing Irish artists cropping up at the moment: ‘Everyone has their own individual thing going on but that being said, I’m pretty excited to see how artists like Gadget and the Cloud and BBY develop, both as producers and DJ’s. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard so far.’
With a secure network of support thanks to Gash Collective and Smirnoff welcoming more female identifying artists in the Irish scene, the Discwoman collective - founded by Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, Christine McCharen-Tran and Emma Burgess-Olson aka Umfang - became a formidable group of forward thinking artists after forming in 2014. Umfang explained to us the ethos behind the collective, which soon became an agency: ‘We founded Discwoman to showcase the women in our scene. When we became an agency, we brought on people we saw really going for it in their own way and people that we felt were beyond ready for bigger bookings. It's exciting to us to find people that have created their own path and identity.’ But has there been an obvious change in the amount of female artists being booked and encouraged to mix - both in New York and elsewhere - since Discwoman launched? ‘Yes, but I think it's important to point out that they were likely there before, just not so much in the public eye. The problem is largely representation. More festivals are being held accountable for their historically male lineups and making an effort to include emerging artists with more diverse backgrounds. It's a group effort, we aren't the only ones pushing for change in the system we operate in.’
How will both of these artists, one from Cork and the other from New York, continue to change the system and embolden many producers and selectors (who are no doubt bubbling away all over the world) to release their creations and develop the confidence to play outside their comfort zones? ELLLL will continue to work with her own collective Gash: ‘We’ve a party happening in Factory in Galway on the 29th of this month with Endrift, Cáit and Lolz, definitely one to put in the calendar. We’ve also some more workshops lined up for early next year, and of course, our ongoing monthly mix series on Raidió na Life which highlights a variety of female identifying and LGBTQ up and coming producers and DJ’s from around the country.’ As support for burgeoning Irish artists looks to be in safe hands, Discwoman has plenty of plans for 2018 as Umfang reveals: ‘We will be launching our new website, adding a few new names to the roster, working on some new merchandise and working on getting our artists more world wide bookings.’
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