Journalist Amy Raphael talks to 18 incredible women about their experiences as musicians and the music industry with fascinating and illuminating results
'Fascinating and illuminating' STYLIST
'Perceptive and candid' IRISH TIMES
'Wide-ranging, deep-dive, soul-baring interviews, full of candid, intimate, spiky meditations on inspiration, artistry, sexuality, race, love, self-doubt, abuse, defiance and everything in between' OBSERVER
'Variously optimistic, troubling, joyful, illuminating, fierce and thoughtful' GUARDIAN
INTERVIEWS WITH WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE OF MUSIC
Writer and critic Amy Raphael has interviewed some of the world's most iconic musicians, including Courtney Love, Patti Smith, Björk, Kurt Cobain and Elton John. In 1995 she wrote the critically-acclaimed Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock, which included a foreword by Debbie Harry.
More than two decades on, the music business has changed, but the way women are regarded has not. In this new book, A Seat at the Table, Raphael interviews eighteen women who work in the music industry about learning to speak out, #MeToo, social media, queer politics and the subtleness of everyday misogyny.
Featuring interviews with:
CHRISTINE & THE QUEENS, IBEYI, KAE TEMPEST, ALISON MOYET, NADINE SHAH, JESSICA CURRY, MAGGIE ROGERS, EMMY THE GREAT, DREAM WIFE, NATALIE MERCHANT, LAUREN MAYBERRY, POPPY AJUDHA, KALIE SHORR, TRACEY THORN, MITSKI, CATHERINE MARKS, GEORGIA, CLARA AMFO
Many women interviewed for this collection - including the eloquent Kate Tempest, gender activist Chris (AKA Heloise Letissier from Christine and the Queens), a feisty Alison Moyet and wise woman Natalie Merchant - argue that it's not just about whether you 'get your tits out', but whether you get respect and recognition for your work. 'I've been in this industry for 35 years . . . I've never felt the need to conform to one shape. No one has ever really claimed me,' says Moyet. 'I've never been cosseted, nor have I been someone's muse. And [that] really saved me.'
Moving words indeed
