The Girl to Woman Festival spoke with RachAel Kane, singer songwriter of the Girl to Woman song about the Recent release of her full length album, in Full BLoom.
Your relationship with music and producing music has changed since you first started out in the industry, how was it at the beginning of your career as a woman in the Australian Music Industry?
Absolutely, my relationship with music has changed incredibly – thank goodness, as it really needed to!
When I decided I wanted to have a career in music, I felt like I had this huge mountain to climb. ‘Making it’ in the music industry was literally my Mt Everest. Talk about putting all my eggs in one basket! I put ALL of my focus on making a career out of music and so many other very important things in my life like my relationships with people, my friends, my family, my work, my financial situation all suffered, because I was fixated on ‘making it’. I was naturally very disciplined, but I used this to drive myself to achieve a narrow goal – a very unhealthy way to live, with no balance and I got quite sick at two different points during this period where I was hospitalized.
I realise now that I was like many young girls and women I see; profoundly influenced by what I felt, saw and heard around me while growing up. I was a sponge for all of the images and role models of women in my life and in the media that I experienced around me daily. These images became so ingrained in me that I thought I needed to be this to be accepted and loved in the world.
The music industry was very cold and hard back then, as it still is today. It’s based on seeking recognition and making money and not about people. When you are the flavour of the moment, everyone will bend over backwards for you, and when you are not, you are essentially left out in the cold. As a woman in the music industry I felt pressure to have an image that would get attention and stand out from the crowd, that meant not really being myself. In my experience as an artist I really got to feel how superficial the industry can be. After being in constant contact with the record company I was with for about a year, they completely severed contact with me when my album didn’t re-coup the balance. There was no conversation, no goodbye. It was such a ‘hand break’ moment, such a blessing for me to really see the industry clearly, and what it was all about.
When I decided I wanted to have a career in music, I felt like I had this huge mountain to climb. ‘Making it’ in the music industry was literally my Mt Everest. Talk about putting all my eggs in one basket! I put ALL of my focus on making a career out of music and so many other very important things in my life like my relationships with people, my friends, my family, my work, my financial situation all suffered, because I was fixated on ‘making it’. I was naturally very disciplined, but I used this to drive myself to achieve a narrow goal – a very unhealthy way to live, with no balance and I got quite sick at two different points during this period where I was hospitalized.
I realise now that I was like many young girls and women I see; profoundly influenced by what I felt, saw and heard around me while growing up. I was a sponge for all of the images and role models of women in my life and in the media that I experienced around me daily. These images became so ingrained in me that I thought I needed to be this to be accepted and loved in the world.
The music industry was very cold and hard back then, as it still is today. It’s based on seeking recognition and making money and not about people. When you are the flavour of the moment, everyone will bend over backwards for you, and when you are not, you are essentially left out in the cold. As a woman in the music industry I felt pressure to have an image that would get attention and stand out from the crowd, that meant not really being myself. In my experience as an artist I really got to feel how superficial the industry can be. After being in constant contact with the record company I was with for about a year, they completely severed contact with me when my album didn’t re-coup the balance. There was no conversation, no goodbye. It was such a ‘hand break’ moment, such a blessing for me to really see the industry clearly, and what it was all about.
What was the impetus for a change in direction for you?
I was deeply hurt by things not turning out the way I had hoped they would. I always thought that if I worked super hard at something that it would come off. So I was a bit shocked really and then I had to come back to reality and feel why I was so hell bent on ‘making it’. Why I didn’t feel enough just being myself. An absolute blessing, although I didn’t realise it at the time.
Performing on stage in front of crowds of people could be perceived as a nerve-wracking experience, how has it been for you?
Really awful to be honest, performing has very often been an uncomfortable experience for me. I tried to get on top of it by creating a personae to hide behind, but it didn’t work, because I couldn’t lie to myself, I knew I was hiding underneath. The only way I have found is to truly be myself and to remove any barrier between the audience and me. I am just starting to enjoy this now.
Where do you draw your inspiration for music writing today?
Much of my inspiration comes from observing girls and young women, the changes they go through and the challenges they face to be themselves in the world today, and of course I also know this from my own experience growing up. I feel that girls and young women are generally not supported to nurture their deep innermost qualities. There is a lot of pressure and focus on achieving, winning, comparing to each other, looking perfect, being popular, but very little supporting girls to look within, to know how tender and beautiful they naturally are on the inside and that it’s very possible to let this out in the world as they grow.
In music, there is also very little that supports girls by reflecting their innate beauty back to them. So I am always inspired to write music that supports this.
In music, there is also very little that supports girls by reflecting their innate beauty back to them. So I am always inspired to write music that supports this.
With the Girl to Woman Song being just one of many on the new album that celebrate young women for how truly precious they are, what do you feel is really going on for young women in the world today?
When a girl is very young, 2, 3, 4 years old, she knows how deeply precious she is, there is a natural confidence that comes from within her. But as she grows she learns that life rewards people for what they do and not for who they are. So sadly she begins to bury who she is in favour of what will fit in and be liked and accepted in the eyes of the world. Young women know how absolutely tender they are on the inside but find it hard to show it when there is nothing around them supporting them to do so. So changing themselves to fit in is what they tend to do and this affects their health and well-being greatly.
To find out more information on the album In Full Bloom and to listen to sample tracks visit the website www.rachaelkane.com
