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Girls Get ’Er Done

Pink Mafia’s all-female DJ tour offers up some serious cred and skills
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Cutting Edge DJ Betti Forde is just one of the musicians coming to town to perform in the Pink Mafia's Get 'Er Done tour

What: Get ’Er Done Tour

When: Thursday, July 3

Where: Maxx Fish

Tickets: $__

“A sweaty, grimy, balls out tour. With chicks. But not in the Lilith Fair/lesbo way. Not in the Spice Grrrrl Power Way. And certainly not in the Vice Guide to Girls way.” With a hook like that, it’s hard not to be intrigued.

Anna Von Frances is tour manager and founder of the Pink Mafia, a promotional company that does it all — bookings, PR, event planning, and much, much more. A quick glance at their website tells you all you need to know about this company — they’re young, hip, savvy, they love to party, and they’re coming to Whistler.

“We are an army of girls that hate being talked down to, but find it still happens a lot,” Von Frances said with a laugh.

Von Frances actually came up with the idea for the Get ’Er Done tour after talking to another DJ and realizing the barriers female DJs face in the industry.

“There is definitely, especially in DJing, a boy’s club, and it’s pretty heavy,” said Von Frances. “It’s not like they shut us out on purpose — it’s so imbued in them that they don’t even realize they treat us like less.”

One of the problems in the industry is the fact that girls are almost always the minority on tours. Usually, when they’re brought along, it’s as tour manager or to handle the merchandise, or as an opening act. Von Frances said it’s pretty rare that they’re given headlining spots, even if they are extremely talented.

“I watched male counterparts to DJs I work with all the time be pushed forward by the group over and over, while girls are kept in opener slots, and they can’t get more money, and they can’t get more access, and then when they do, it has to be about the fact that they’re a girl,” she explained.

“…I watch these DJs come up and they start off local, then they get a track and they get big and tour across the country, and I listen to their stories about broing down and I want that, and I can’t have that, because I’m a good-looking, smart girl in a miniskirt, it will never happen for me.”

So Von Frances took matters into her own hands. She decided to coordinate an all-female DJ tour. Well, it’s not entirely female — Wax Romeo is joining them for the Calgary date of the tour, and Von Frances spoke to Smalltown DJs about getting on the bill — but it’s pretty damn girl-centric.

“This is an opportunity for girls who have been sort of just doing their own thing to get together and meet other people who are doing the same thing as them, just in the exact same way that every guy DJ gets on a tour,” Von Frances said.

Now, this isn’t your typical girl show — the tour has an amazingly strong lineup, with each of the performers boasting about a decade of experience in the business.

Mama Miche and Kenzie Clarke are the ladies of the DJ duo, Bitchin’. Since their inception in 2004, this talented twosome has thrown down their blend of funky breakbeats and tech stylings to create a sound that is guaranteed to get any dance floor moving. Based out of Calgary and Victoria, respectively, these two somehow manage to keep their act in tact, DJing and promoting regular club events, touring, and hosting a weekly radio show out of the UK every Sunday.

Want to know what the music of Fierce Helder, aka Violca Yryku, sounds like? Well, she recommends plugging your ears and saying “umf, umf, umf.” Seriously, try it — you get the picture. Thumping baseline infused with touches of ghetto tech, classic house, electro and disco. Helder has played alongside some big international performers, like Joakim, Deep Dish, Deadmau5, and VNDLSM.

Last but not least, there’s DJ Betti Forde (real name: Maren Hancock). Truly the queen of Vancouver’s underground music scene, Forde incorporates all styles of music — and I mean everything from hip hop to disco — into her own unique electro-funk sound. She’s a resident at Celebrities Nightclub, 23 West Cordova, and Sonar, to name a few, and tours internationally. On top of all that, Ford is the recording MC for the electro-rap band, Stinkmitt, and has opened for some big names, like Diplo, Peaches, Chromeo and Keoki. She’s not just a talented musician, either — Forde is a feminist academic, musicologist and activist, achieving a B.A. (Hon.) and an M.A. in Women’s Studies & Gender Relations.

She’s been on tour with some big names, like Peaches, and as a member of Stinkmitt, she’s done the all-female tour before.

“It’s way better being on tour with women; they don’t smell, and there’s always someone to borrow a tampon from,” Forde said with a laugh.

When she heard Bitchin’ and Fierce Helder were also on the lineup for Get ’Er Done, Forde jumped at the chance to join, especially since it meant she wouldn’t have to coordinate her own summer tour.

“We’ve been on the scene for a while — we’re super psyched,” she said.

As someone who has established herself as a mainstay in Vancouver’s underground scene, Forde said gender is definitely still an issue in the business.

“It’s not so much an issue for girls as it is for guys,” Forde said. “Guys are still really sexist and really threatened by women. They don’t want to help women out, even guys that are your friends and you play with, and you think that when the time comes… that they’re going to hook you up, they totally don’t.”

Eventually, Forde came to the realization that you can only count on yourself, and it looks like that mentality has been working for her. But she hopes the new Get ’Er Done tour will help prove how much potential these female artists have, and inspire other female DJs to take initiative and become more ambitious.

“I’m always trying to mentor female musicians and female DJs,” she said, adding that she hosts The Broadcast, a weekly radio show in Vancouver, to show people that women make all kinds of music, and are involved in all aspects of the industry.

“I do that, too, just to show people that women make all kinds of music and they’re involved in all aspects of music — they’re not just singers, they’re producers, engineers, instrumentalists, they’re turntablists,” she explained. “…Women can lay claim to the title of musicians and DJs for just as long.”

But before you get it in your head that these ladies are bra-burning man-haters, Von Frances is quick to point out that first and foremost, they’re just talented musicians who love to have a good time, and are sick of being stuck in opening spots. The fact that they’re all girls is “just the cherry on the cake.”

“It’s really important to me that it doesn’t become girls for girl’s sake. Like, you can’t get on this tour just because you have a vagina — that’s not good enough for me.” She said they need to have the skills and personality, too.

Von Frances said the managers, labels, bookers, sponsors and other people in the industry have been extremely positive about the show, but she is curious to see what kind of crowds they end up drawing. She hopes people come to the show for the talent alone, and hopes the “girl” element of the show becomes secondary as the tour evolves and grows.

The tour has been easy for her to book, because all of the members have toured before, so they’ve gotten involved and helped to organize all aspects of Get ’Er Done.

“They’re all so used to handling their own careers that they all threw in and it came together so easy that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she said.

All of the members of the tour are stoked to network with other DJs, promoters and industry professionals along the way, showing them what they’re made of.

“These girls on this tour are the biggest partiers I know, and I’m definitely worried about going across the country with them,” Von Frances said with a laugh. “They can hold it down.”