We love Grass Widow, it’s no lie. Their music keeps us grounded here at LBB and it seems that way for every one else too. Grass Widow is Hannah Lew (who does a lot of the film work for the band), Lillian Maring, and Raven Mahon. The San Francisco artists are creating low-key, post-punk infused, retro grooves and they’re keeping us so intrigued. Whether they’re playing songs for Gorillas or just having a good time with each other, they prove to be a strong band with strong voices. We talked to Hannah Lew of Grass Widow about where they stand with feminism, making music videos, and hotdogs in their practice space.
Lady. Bang. Beat.: We’re excited to have Grass Widow on Lady. Bang. Beat. because you carry a strong voice for women in music. What is the most important thing you’ve learned so far because you are all women in today’s music scene?
Hannah Lew: This question gets asked a lot. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a big emphasis on women’s identity within the music world. I would say I get asked what it’s like to be a woman in the scene way more than any other aspect of my identity. No one ever asks me what it’s like to be a Jewish person in the scene, or a film-maker, or any other identifier. It’s interesting to me that gender is always emphasized . I think all women struggle with society’s idea of femininity. Women are trained from a young age to look in magazines and feel bad about themselves and emphasize their sexuality in order to be validated in society. There are only a few tropes of female identity that have been celebrated in main stream culture, and sad to say sub-culture as well. Those tropes are often caricatures of female types that a girl can look up to you-try to emulate. I’m inspired to see other women, my band-mates included-expressing their individuality and personal version of female-ness. It’s important to me to find ways to further explore ways to express my individuality. My gender is one aspect of my individual personality, but a lot of the time the idea of the female performer is a caricature of a sexualized female-and I’m not very interested in that. The idea of a “girl band” connotes a novelty or emphasis on gender as playing a role in what a band sounds like. Grass widow is a band of three musicians. Amongst us we have many attributes-one common one being our gender.
LBB: What role does feminism & the riot grrl movement play in your music and the way you present yourself as a band?
HL: In the words of Gina Birch: “And you ask me if I’m a Feminist? Why the hell would I not be?!” There have been several movements where women have tried to carve a space for themselves in a male dominated world that would want to exclude us from the audience and sexually terrorize us on our streets. Without these movements-we wouldn’t be in the informed place we are now. First wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement paved the road for us-but it’s up to us to do what we can to make our world what we need it to be.
LBB: Who are your biggest female inspirations? Do you have any giant posters hanging in your practice space of rock goddesses?
HL: We got to tour with the Raincoats last year and were so inspired by them. We’d all three been long time fans of their music, but it was really in getting to know them all personally that I felt truly blown away by their intelligence and grace. We don’t have any posters of goddesses in our practice space, but we do have a jar of hot dogs.
LBB: How does creating the music collaboratively, work out as a band? Is there a secret and special ingredient to a song?
HL: We are always making new rules to how we write songs. We actually don’t have a mode of operation. We just all bring ideas and are constantly talking about concepts, riffs,etc..
LBB: Your songs can be pretty mind-bending and metaphorical. Can you tell us a hidden meaning behind a song?
HL: No.
LBB: We love DIY videos at LBB! Your videos have a cool vintage feel to them. Whose idea was it to shoot with the Gorillas? That was brilliant!
HL: I met Laurel Braitman at a wedding 2 summers ago, and within 15 minutes of meeting-we knew we needed to collaborate. She started a project called Music For Animals: http://animalmadness.com/music-for-animals/
She listened to Grass widow and thought that this specific group of Gorillas might enjoy our music. So we went to Boston and played a show for them. Our friend Aubree Bernier Clark came along and documented and made our Milo Minute video.
LBB: What was the best live show you’ve ever had? What was a time when the band felt collectively ecstatic about a night?
HL: We’ve been a band for almost 5 years and have had almost every kind of show-but oddly our best shows seem to happen in the practice space. Maybe it’s the pajamas. Maybe it’s the hot dogs.
LBB: What does unwinding on a long tour look like? Is there a movie or snack that always travels with you?
HL: We listened to the Bossypants book on tape on our last tour and it was nice. We usually go on youtube tangents to relax. SNL shorts, Man Times etc…
We also eat lots of corn thins in the van. Lily is gluten free-so we eat a lot of healthy snacks. Last tour we made kale chips in Raven’s dehydrator. They came out pretty good. We tend to eat burgers too. One time we ate burgers and shakes everyday of tour and I gained 10 pounds. Never again.
LBB: What advice would you give to a young all-girl band just starting out?
HL: Play with people you love.