Photo by Lise Axelson
The Swedish School for Rock Chicks
By Nikki O'NeillImagine a college program that's devoted to women in rock, where you learn instrument skills, songwriting, record producing and gender studies in the music business. ROCKRGRL went to Sweden to check out the Ella rock program, for women only.
Ella is part of a college in Gotland, an island off the Swedish coast filled with ancient trade history, medieval ruins and breathtaking nature. In the summers, Gotland is jammed with live music and visitors that dress up as King Arthur during the island's 'Medieval Week.' Gotland is also a paradise island for women in rock, where chicks with guitar cases and studio savvy are changing the face of their regional music scene.
I visited the Ella rock music program in March, invited to guest teach clinics in songwriting, pop composition theory and guitar gear. Being a freelance musician and journalist, I was also asked to talk about publicity, indie networking, and to share my experiences of being a female musician in New York City.
I'm born in LA, but I spent most of my life in Stockholm, Sweden. I studied jazz and classical music at a performing arts high-school there, but loved rock n roll more. I worked in guitar stores, and was an editor-in-chief for a hard rock magazine, but I dreamed of being a performing musician. I also wanted to see the world and live in a place with greater cultural diversity. So in 1998, I moved to New York City. Since I speak fluent Swedish, going to Gotland to teach was a great way of building a bridge between my old and new country. And to do it at a rock school for women just exceeded my wildest fantasies!
All Ella applicants have to audition on their instruments, and go through an interview process. The program accepts guitarists, drummers, keyboard players and singers. What about the bass players? The singing students actually have to play bass in the ensemble classes and take individual lessons on the instrument.
My three days at the school were an incredible experience. My main students were 15 women, ages 18-25, and most of them lived at the school campus during the one-year program. Some were huge metal heads, inspired by Angela Gossard, the front-woman for Swedish death metal band Arch Enemy. Others were digging alt-country, mod pop or other styles. Many of them play actively in multiple bands, record and produce music, and work as mentors for teenage girl musicians. Some even host their own clubs and work as DJs.
Everybody has their own stories to share about the sexism, ignorance and opposition they face simply for choosing to play rock instruments. They've traveled from all over Sweden to study at Ella, because this is an obvious profession for them, a natural thing. Through Ella, they get the resources that have been available to male musicians for ages: musical education, training opportunities and peer support. To me, and to many other female musicians who've had to go it alone and struggle to access knowledge and find positive mentors when we started out, this place is like a glimpse of a better future!
"It's very important for young women to be able to make obvious career choices, like playing drums, writing songs, working as an engineer or producer, or running your own label," says Ella founder/director Lise Axelson. "There are as many women listening to music as there are men, but the situation is very different when you look at who is providing the music, and how women are presented. It's an important democratic issue to change these conditions."
Axelson's vision for a rock education for women started in 1998 with two projects, aiming to get young women into playing in bands and working in the recording studio. Five successful years later, she presented her idea of a one-year rock and pop program to the college Gotlands Folkhögskola. The board of directors was hooked, and the first group of Ella students began their studies in the fall of 2004. Support for the program continues to be very enthusiastic, and Axelson is becoming quite an expert in researching and receiving funding for it.
"The first projects were financed through a number of investors," Axelson says. "Funding came from government authorities, labor market subsidies and the European Community. The former official authority on equal rights in Gotland also gave us her support. Today, we have a new recording project, called Soundsister, which is headed by the Gender Institute in Gotland. Thanks to our affiliation with them, we are able to apply for funding for that project as well."
Ella's goal is to provide a broad musical foundation for its students. This includes private instrument lessons, ensemble playing, music theory that can give them the tools and inspiration for songwriting, and fundamental skills in audio engineering and recording. With these essential skills and insights, the students can be in control of their music and careers as much as possible.
Gender Studies is another essential part of Ella's course curriculum. The students learn about gender politics and its goals in Sweden, the European Community and the United Nations. They also look into media and the music business, do research projects on rock magazines and their portrayal of female artists, survey the number of female writers and reviewers in metal or guitar magazines, and study how reviews of a female band differ from male bands, etc.
My main purpose at Ella was to teach a three-day workshop in songwriting, which also included theory for pop, rock and metal songwriters. I started off with the blues and showed how rock harmony evolved from there, going chronologically into the Beatles, the British Invasion with Clapton, and later on Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. We checked out Santana's Latin song structures as well. Every day, the students partnered to write songs on the spot. They were given 30 minutes to come up with a verse and a chorus that included certain concepts I'd just talked about in class. My purpose was to demystify the songwriting process, emphasizing the craft involved rather than the inspiration. I wanted to show how some of the great songwriters in rock and roll came up with their ideas, so that the students could get tools to expand their creativity, or have some tools to use in case they got stuck (as we all do!). The theory clinic ended with a metal special, exploring the odd rhythms and detuned guitar mania of Korn and Slipknot. Our three days became a rock and roll history class, but based in the evolution of rock songwriting.
I also discussed amps, tubes and effects pedals, and had a chance to demonstrate pedals to the Ella students and a group of 14 year old girls, who had just started playing in their first bands and recorded their first demos. To have the opportunity to talk to all these young women, and share my story of how I moved from Sweden, where I grew up, to New York City to become a professional musician, was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
The 14 year olds mostly listened to me talk, since they were starting out. When I looked at them, I remembered when I was 15, hiding out in my room with my Ibanez guitar and my Santana records, quietly singing my songs into a little tape player, since neither my teachers, parents or girlfriends understood or supported my dream. If I could time travel and visit myself when I was that age, I would tell this girl how her destiny would unfold... that she'd be living in New York City, teach rock guitar for women at a university there, be a front woman/singer/lead guitarist for a band and even have Courtney Love tell her she liked her songs. Instead, I got to meet these girls and realize how my life had come full circle in a way.
Not even my horror stories of poverty and sexism in the industry discouraged them. One girl said: "it's so inspiring how much you can accomplish... I feel like I have my entire life ahead of me."
The older students shared their stories of all the bullshit they put up with from guys in guitar stores, sound techs and band auditions. But they still kept playing, and now they have support from their classmates and teachers. They also act as mentors for the 14 year olds - that is actually a requirement at Ella.
I teach guitar privately, and I have many female students that struggle with fears of self-expression. Plugging instruments into amps is a scary thing, especially since you're handling volume. For some, even holding a guitar pick is intimidating, because it makes you play louder. It's just so cool that all these young women in Sweden are going for what they want and expressing themselves, without asking for anyone's permission.
For me, the whole experience of teaching at Ella not only reminded me of my past; I also got to experience a greater future for women in rock n roll.
(An edited version of this article is published in