Women all across the world are taking over the heavy music scene.
From Amyl and the Sniffers opening for AC/DC to Violet Grohl releasing a punk album that has quickly gained attention, female artists are becoming increasingly visible in genres once dominated by men. But is that momentum reaching Perth?
For local musicians, the answer is complicated.
While opportunities for women in punk and emo are growing, breaking into the scene can still mean overcoming gatekeeping, proving yourself and finding your place in a community that has long been male dominated.
Hannah Gill, lead singer and frontwoman of Perth band Shorehaven has watched the scene evolve since the band formed in 2022.
Shorehaven has opened for Rum Jungle, Drax Project and Pacific Avenue, but Gill says building a name in the local scene has taken persistence. A woman of many talents, Gill’s genre ranges from Indie-folk to punk-rock, but with their exciting rise to success here in Perth, they struggled to make their way in.
“Currently, I think it has undergone some changes, especially in the last three years that I’ve been dipping my toes into it, but it was definitely a very male-dominated scene for a very, very long time and slowly but surely there is more diversity coming in through the scene in both gender and sound,” Gill said.
She believes the scene has become more welcoming, but says barriers still exist.
“The scene is really lovely, but like every scene, there is a culture of gatekeeping. It can be awesome when you get your foot in the door – that’s the hard part.”
As the frontwoman of a young, female band, Gill says confidence has been one of the biggest challenges.
“It’s definitely taken a long time to learn to stand your ground and trust in yourself that you can actually stand up to all of the men because you do deserve to be here, especially not only being a female-fronted band but a young band.” Despite Shorehaven’s growing success, Gill believes there is still plenty of room to grow.
“The Perth scene is both huge and very small at the same time and just when you feel like you’ve kind of levelled up within the scene, you realise that there’s still so far to go.”
With Pop-Punk getting more traction, I let my mind wander to a different sub-genre of heavy music and found myself navigating Perth’s emo scene, and from my understanding, they are worlds apart.
While Gill’s experience reflects Perth’s punk community, AJ Hainsworth has found similar challenges in the city’s emo scene.
Hainsworth is the drummer and one of the songwriters for In Memory of You, a Perth emo band that has toured nationally and opened for Australian stalwarts Gyroscope.
Although she describes the emo community as largely welcoming, she says some groups remain difficult to break into and there is a difference between peers.
“It’s mostly inclusive, I think, but it depends on which group of bands you end up in. There are a couple out there who are quite cliquey.”
“If you’re not doing a certain type of emo music, you can’t play with us.”
Finding where the band belonged also took time.
“It is hard to get into initially, and for us we didn’t have many band friends for ages. There were no bands who sounded like us, but then when we met a couple of bands, it’s then like, are we stuck in a box?”
Hainsworth’s passion for heavy music began with bands such as Paramore and Evanescence, but it was watching American band The Summer Set perform in Perth that changed everything.
Seeing drummer Jess Bowen perform gave Hainsworth the confidence to imagine herself behind a drum kit.
“The Summer Set was the first band I ever saw where it was a female drummer actually smashing the drums, and I was like, that’s cool.”
“It opened the door for me when I saw a woman do it and it was possible, and that is where it started for me.”
For both Gill and Hainsworth, Perth’s heavy music scene is becoming more inclusive, but their experiences suggest there is still work to be done before women enter the scene on equal footing. As more female artists step onto local stages, they hope the next generation won’t have to fight quite as hard to find their place.
Clare Perrott
Clare Perrott is a Journalism and Broadcasting student at ECU with a strong passion for arts, culture and education.
