0:00 It got to the point where it was like, we got to stop complaining about it and doing something about it. And that that's when it comes down to you. You can't really complain about it unless you're actually trying to try to fix it, and you can't try to fix it unless you know that it exists. 0:22 Good. Canada's music industry still has a long way to go to achieve equality. Well, it may not seem that a problem exists in the industry, given the fact that our top 10 is filled with female artists nowadays. What about the behind the scenes positions like producers, engineers, masters or mixers. According to a 2015 survey by Nordisity, only 6% of women working in Ontario's music industry are working in production. When Canadian electro pop star Lights began making music about 10 years ago, she was disappointed in how few women she encountered in the industry. In fact, this discouraged her from producing her own music. 1:08 There's only there was only literally a handful of women growing up that you could see and know that was made by a woman if you were to look at any any hit song, any number one song any of your favorite song, you look at the producer guarantee it's probably not a woman. So you know, knowing that as a young girl getting into music, just subconsciously knowing that was like, well, that's not a picture of me, I don't want to work my ass off to get good at something where I won't even get hired. Right? That's that's just a subconscious thought process that humans make. It's like, well, if I don't I don't see anyone like me there. So why would I bother even trying? It's not like, oh, cool. like there's there's a girl there and a girl there and a girl. That's something I can do. It just it's just one of those things that if you see it you can be I really believe that. And so I have been producing for years, but without the confidence to really follow it through all the way until like the more recent year because it's hard when you just don't feel like the opportunities are there. And the reality is, is we have to if there's musicians or artists out there who are choosing to work with people for their next record or getting opportunity to get into a session with someone, you have to kind of go your way to find the woman to create opportunities for them. 2:28 Alyssa Ross also noticed the lack of female producers and sound technicians when she entered the industry 11 years ago, Alyssa is a teacher at the Harris Institute a school for music industry education, and she's the technical director at the mod club, a concert venue in Toronto. Alyssa who identifies as non-binary is an example of someone who defied the odds and paved the way for herself in the music industry, despite feeling like she didn't belong. Unfortunately, she very quickly found out just how male dominated the industry was, 2:55 When I started in the industry, even just going to school in Paris, I was the only woman. So that was kind of the first thing to hear. I was like, Oh, that's strange. Didn't really click in really until I started trying to volunteer and like shadow people. And all of them were men. And then just as simple as the term sound guy, like it's just kind of a default is you're always going to be encountering a sound. So that was the first indicator. And then as I started working in the industry, I very quickly realized that I kind of stuck out, it became problematic for me. 3:32 I did want to talk about the the role of the sound man or the audio engineer in that you are the guy that's behind the scenes making a lot of it happen. Producer, a producer oversees the overall production process. He usually gets his project from the record label. In many cases, the producers...it's hard enough being a sound man...the sounds are really, really jumping. 3:55 Sounds like it's just hard because there's no other women like there's a lot of discrimination. And yeah, harassment, sexual assault. It's a lot worse than a lot of people realize I almost quit in my first like year or two because it was so bad. I've been I've been in the middle of setting up tables and like running microphones and stuff like that, and have musicians ask, also who you're with? Or like, what do you mean? They're like, are you like a girlfriend of one of the band members? Are you playing? I'm like, No, I'm your your soundcheck. And so it's been a lot of that and I made in my first few years it was it was even worse than that, like there was a lot of sexual harassment and sexual assault and even rape. 4:51 For Lights this problem isn't just one women entered the industry though. It goes much further back. As someone who has a five year old daughter light said that she takes into account what kinds of toys are advertised to young girls, as opposed to those advertised to young boys, she has noticed that girls aren't driven toward the science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or stem base games like boys are, this means girls aren't even being shown that tech oriented jobs are for them. 5:17 It also goes back to sort of STEM leaning stuff marketed to young girls, I think that there's a lack that in a big way, and I think people are working on that. But just to bring awareness to even just like a tech oriented job, because there's a lot of those elements in engineering and mastering in producing, you have to know how to work these programs, like there's got to be a desire to get technical. And there is so much of that in the hearts of young women, it's just not tapped. Because they're not shown in all these little games they're playing or advertisements that are being targeted at them, they're not being shown that that's something for them. 5:55 Now your secrets are safe with the new Barbie magic diary. Only you are able to open it. This is the password journal is only a result of your voice. And now you can record your own messages and intruder alerts. What's inside? 6:18 And that's like my huge call to anybody in the industry that's making games or apps for young girls, or, you know, creating advertisements and toys like make them more techie, make them geared towards these interest so that kids learn that that's a thing because like these are young, impressionable kids, and if they don't even know that, that thing, there's no way they'll even want to, they'll ever care to get into it. It starts from the ground up for sure in that situation, too. They just have to know what to be aware. Yeah, they have to be aware that these industries exist, and that it's for them. 6:47 That is why she's working hard to show women that they can succeed. And these behind the scenes roles, Lights has decided to stop complaining about the male centric industry and instead take matters into her own hands. She's making sure that her music is providing opportunities for women 7:00 You can complain all you want, but unless you're creating opportunities, you're not fixing the problem. You're not hiring women. So any opportunity I get now, I I'm trying to find a woman to fill the role. Like with my last acoustic record, I produced an engineer the whole thing. But when there was one role to hire out is for mastering and I and there's this amazing master named Aya Merrill out in New York. So we hired her, and she's smashed it. And it's a really cool talking point. Because every time I get to say in an interview that this was mastered by a woman, that might be one random girl out there that hears that and goes, Oh, that's a rule for me. You know, I could do that. 7:34 Versus experiential recordings with those and it was a new a new thing for me to new challenge from because I was producing it all I was engineering it all, or farming it all mixing it all. The only thing I didn't do was master it. Which this really cool badass chick Aya did out of New York, just trying to highlight women behind the scenes and music because even when people work with women just behind the scenes music, they don't usually call them out. So Aya Merrill killed it on the mastering. Yeah, so yeah, I have brewing stuff in my head, I've got a lot of ideas going, I know what a big part of it's gonna be making sure that, at least I've sort of vowed that like my next record, at least 50% of it can be worked on by women. And I think that's a commitment that a lot of people should be trying to make. And people will say, well, that's not fair. Because there's men that work hard towards a goal for now, we need to do this, when even Don't talk to me about not caring about it. But you know, right now, we actually need to make an effort. 8:27 Given her negative experiences a solution for teacher and sound technician Alyssa Ross is educating the next generation. She is doing what she can to inspire and encourage young women who are just entering the industry. Well, bringing to light this issue in hopes of ending the cycle of discrimination. 8:43 I think that my generation and the generation that came before me, it's really important that we pave the way for other females. For the women's class will be it's really important to show his students that not only are there women out there doing successful, and here's how we get around those hurdles, here's how you, future generation can help you continue this progress. I mean, I'm actively teaching my students like, how to approach these situations when they happen. If you're a guy and you hear the guys talking about a woman that you're working with, like how to how to approach that in a way that isn't gonna cause any like major head butting, but is still gonna let that person know like that you can talk. You're a woman like, how do you do deal with this situation? 9:35 licen Alyssa are now using their platforms to make sure other women entering the industry don't feel the way they did when they begin their careers. Well, the Canadian music industry is clearly still a place where women encounter sexism and discrimination. with people like lights and Alyssa things are slowly beginning to change. Women are encouraging other women to embrace their technical sides and create a place for themselves and what Alyssa would call a boys club. 10:05 (Song}