One hot Ember

Ember Swift is a righteous babe.

Now I know that sounds like a reference to Ani DiFranco (whose indie label is so entitled – Righteous Babe).  I also know that, were she the brutish type, Ember would smack me upside my shaved head if I were intentionally making such a reference.  Ember sounds nothing like Ani, but the fact that they share many commonalities – female, singer/songwriter, funky hair, big queer following – means such comparisons have often been made.

I’m not making a comparison. She’s just righteous, that’s all.  I’m just sayin’.  I was first introduced to Ember when I wrote about her many years ago for View Weekly, and I’ve had the pleasure of staying in touch ever since.  As a musician, she impresses with her incredibly versatile voice, interesting and off-kilter songs, and some killer musicianship (and not just her – bassist & multi-instrumentalist Lyndell Montgomery has serious chops).  As a person, what impresses most is her commitment to her politics and her causes, yet she hasn’t a drop of that long-faced dourness that can sometimes be found in the leftie set (spoken, by the way, as an avowed leftie).  And while righteous, she’s not self-righteous, which is another possible trap.

Ember and I spoke recently about something I think is completely and utterly righteous, if I may over-use the word – her upcoming trip to Beijing.  As you may know if you’re read more of my blogs, I’m a Japanese music aficionado (if that’s the proper use of the term) and the idea of researching music in Asia appeals to me.  This is some of what she had to say about her trip, the focus of which is to research the situation for independent female musicians in Beijing.

JT:  Do you know much about the scene there at the moment?

ES:  I think I have a basic idea but it’s from various sources.  I actually have some fans in Beijing, who are regularly keeping me up to date on what’s happening in the music scene.  What I’ve learned through them is that there aren’t as many women who are doing this business, this life performance thing, and that women are still generally relegated to vocals when it comes to the contemporary music rock scene.  Still, ther eare a few.  The scene is really divided. There’s definitely an ex-pat scene, a western music scene, a Chinese music scene…

JT:  So you’ve done plenty of preliminary research.

ES:  I’m really just taking all of that information and just sort of filing it, and not making any conclusions about what the scene is like until I actually get there.  I hope to pick up some gigs, etc., so I can meet musicians.  You know the first all-girl rock band came from Beijing and they came out in the late ‘80s.  So it took a long time before women were given some international recognition for being musicians.  Late ‘80s…that’s incredible.  There’s so many factors that contribute to that.  The gender divide is different – not necessarily broader, but it just has a different character.  In some cases, it’s a broader, but in other cases it’s just felt in different aspects of society.
JT:  Have things changed in China due to technology, the way they have here in the west?

ES:  I’m noticing that the internet and releasing stuff just on myspace or youtube has made a complete difference.  For instance you know in China there’s quite a ways behind in terms of gay and lesbian rights, so it’s still not acceptable to be out.  Yet the very first ever Chinese lesbian artist released a song on youtube - but released it outside of China. There’s never ever been an out lesbian artist from China until things like youtube became possible.  That’s an example of how maybe she has aspirations to launch her music outside of that political climate, but is unable to do so within it.  It’s hard to say, and perhaps she has released it since in China, and I’m just getting old information on the western side.

JT:  I suppose it’s going to be quite an amazing journey, you’re going to meet some amazing people…

ES:…I’m going to meet so many amazing people and find so many amazing stories.  I just think women’s voices, regardless of sexual orientation, they have been traditionally been muted in all societies.  We’re just finding that amplification at different rates across cultures.  It’ll just be interesting to see where that really plays out.  What can I learn in a short three-month span?  I’m going to have to be really vigilant and active and try to find information and meet people and ask for interviews and all the while trying to work on my language skills.

JT:  What about the idea of collaborating with some artists there?  You could wind up with an album’s worth of material.

ES:  It would be great but I also don’t want to co-opt what they’re doing to become what I’m doing, you know?  I have to be really carefully about that.  I’m walking in there with all this electronic equipment and yeah, everyone else may have that same equipment, but then, I’m leaving.  I don’t’ want to take from that rich culture, I want it to inspire me to create on my own as well.  So unless I met someone who really wanted to do a collaborative project and then we moved it from there, I’ve got to be really careful of that.  There’s just so much appropriation already.

Ember Swift plays the Pepper Jack Café Friday, March 9th