The F-List founder, Vick Bain, and its new president, legendary post-punk musician Brix Smith, have spoken to Headliner about the organisation’s mission to make the music industry more inclusive, Smith’s plans for her new role and the upcoming release of her first solo material in 30 years.
Launched last year, The F-List is a not for profit directory that lists over 5,000 professional musicians and is designed to make it easy for the likes of festival organisers who want to promote female artists to discover a vast range of talent outside of their own network. It is also a key resource for venues, bands and other industry organisations looking to be more gender inclusive.
It was recently announced that US artist and musician Smith, who was formerly a guitarist and songwriter in The Fall and his since led bands such as Brix & the Extricated, would be taking over as president of The F-List following the completion of previous president Anoushka Shankar’s one-year term. “I have been a female in the music industry for 38 years, since the age of 19 when I joined The Fall as a guitarist and songwriter,” Smith said on her appointment. “If you look at my hands you will see the scars from punching the glass ceiling. “
Here, Bain and Smith sit down for a chat with Headliner about their hopes and ambitions for The F-List, the need for music festivals to be far more inclusive and what to expect in 2022.
Thanks very much to you both for joining us. It’s been an incredibly eventful year for everyone, but particularly the music industry. How have the past 12 months been for you?
BS: It’s been a tale of peaks and valleys. Nobody expected any of what has happened over the past couple of years and it has affected every single person. For me, there have been some great things and some awful things. On the good side, I have been able to write and record a new album remotely with my producer Youth over the last year. I set up a little studio in my bedroom, taught myself how to use it and we were sending files back and forth. That record is due out at the end of next year and it's been super exciting. Making music during the first and second parts of lockdown really saved me.
I did, however, experience some immense tragedies. I lost my father, my younger brother died – both in America – and I couldn’t get back there to my mother. I became very depressed and quite despondent. But I got through it and it was music that really saved me – writing it, making it, singing it. It filled my soul with joy and gave me the hope to carry on.
We need to be really aware of everybody’s mental state. We are all fragile, we are all humans living with the same vulnerabilities and fears. We can all get through this and we will. We have to look for positivity.
How has it felt to be making music at this point? Has the pandemic given you a creative surge, or has it stifled inspiration?
BS: For me it was kind of fabulous having no distractions or peripheral stuff to deal with. We had such busy lives, so when everything stopped you needed to look at yourself and re-evaluate what is important to you as a human being – what you love, what you don’t love… it crystalised what is important. But fear can be a real disruptor of creativity, so it’s about finding that space where you can create and just shut down the fear.
How has it been for you, Vick?
VB: It’s been a real roller-coaster. It’s been fantastic in many respects – The F-List was my lockdown project. I had lost all of my work in the first few days of the first lockdown in March 2020. I was feeling like everybody else, absolutely lost. Then The F-List organically emerged, and we did the official launch last November. Since then, we have been mega busy. Thousands more women have signed up, we ran 14 online events this year with over 400 musicians in attendance, we’ve partnered with loads of industry organisations, and we have loads of really exciting announcements coming up. My feet haven’t touched the ground, even though most of it has been done from my kitchen! I’ve made the most amazing relationships digitally. It’s been the silver lining in what has been a very difficult time.
For those who may not be familiar with The F-List, what can you tell us about it and the work that it does?
VB: Because of The F-List directory, women in music in the UK will be able to start and sustain their music careers for longer, because commissioners, festival bookers, journalists, promoters, orchestral fixers and other musicians will all be able to find female musicians very, very easily. It’s a directory with over 5,300 listings, which is made up of 300 companies that represent female musicians, nearly 1,500 bands with women in them and nearly 4,000 solo artists/musicians covering all genres of music. It’s a searchable directory so anyone can go on there and find a female musician, sign them, book them and commission them.
What has the response been like from the industry? Particularly from festival bookers, promoters, and those looking to diversify their line up.
VB: I’m still building those relationships. We started an initiative called Doing The Right Thing, which is a list of festival and venue promoters who we are collaborating with and celebrating, as they are either doing the right thing already or they are trying to do better and using The F-List in order to do that. At the moment, they are tending to be the smaller to mid-size festivals and venues. Where we really want to reach out to next year – obviously not too many events took place this year – is to the bigger festivals and we want to see some real improvements. Some of the line-up announcements we’re starting to see, it’s like ‘do they not know any female musicians’?! We really want to celebrate those who are doing the right thing but there are festivals out there that need to be doing better.
