SAMANTHA SLATTERY
AS HEARD ON ...
THE NYLONS
DILLY DALLY
SAMANTHA SLATTERY
Founder & Executive Director , Women in Music Canada ( WMC )
AS HEARD ON ...
SAMANTHA SLATTERY ( FAR LEFT ) MODERATING A CMW 2016 PANEL
Listen to the full interview on the May 25 , 2016 episode
The pay gap between men and women is a hot topic right now . Where does the Canadian music industry stand on this issue according to your research in the report , A Profile of Women Working in Ontario ’ s Music Industry ?
Claude Morrison of
THE NYLONS
PHOTO : GRANT MARTIN
Slattery : … Rather disappointingly , our industry is even worse in Ontario [ compared to the U . S . average ]. We ’ re at about 73 per cent , and that is 73 per cent on the average . Our research firm , Nordicity , looked at it as a global number , so they went and got everyone ’ s salaries and said , ‘ Women make 73 per cent of the average salary .’ So if you took women out of that 73 per cent , it ’ s actually even worse because women are in the overall statistic . So , if you actually put it as men against women , it ’ s even worse . So there ’ s a very big gap in the Ontario music industry between the genders .
According to the report , women in the Ontario music industry tend to be overwhelmingly white at 89 per cent . Do you have any theory as to why this is the case ?
Slattery : It is grossly disproportionate . I would also highlight that it is also not just the women , but for men and women it is grossly disproportionate . I hate to speak to something that I have not experienced , as I , myself , am not a visible minority , so this is sheer speculation from conversations with peers and friends and colleagues . But I would say it is somewhat similar to the challenges women face in general . If you ’ re trying to aim for a career path and there are not people who look like you on that path , it ’ s really intimidating to create a career in a place where you don ’ t feel like you have a lot of camaraderie or a lot of people you can relate to . I think that would speak to it to a large extent …
Listen to the full interview on the April 27 , 2016 episode
Looking back at your nearly-40-year career with The Nylons , are there one or two moments that stand out most to you ?
Morrison : There is a moment , and some would argue it ’ s all made up , but this really happened . We were doing the first of our shows at the old Ontario Place [ in Toronto ]… We would do three shows a summer there and pack it right out . In those days , it was the infancy of [ wireless ] mics and we were fairly close to the CN Tower so our mics were getting a lot of interference . The show was heading towards being a disaster , technically and musically , and it was like , ‘ Oh my god .’ So we put the mics down and made everybody be quiet , because the sound of 10,000 people being quiet and holding their breath is , in its way , a very loud sound . We said , ‘ We ’ re going to put down our mics and sing into the air while we fix this problem so you ’ ve got to keep quiet .’ So we sang “ One Fine Day ” by Carole King in the air and at the end of it , people just exploded . It created this moment , this tension that everybody was sharing .
Katie Monks of
DILLY DALLY
Listen to the full interview on the June 1 , 2016 episode
Before you guys released your critically acclaimed debut LP Sore in 2015 , you scratched an entire other album . What happened with that ?
Monks : The thing was that everything kept getting scratched . Everything kept getting scratched and important members left the band . That ’ s another reason why the record is called Sore , too , because we ’ d just been denied so many times and been shit on so many times and had weird , sketchy stuff happen . It was about constantly going back to the drawing board and being like , “ No , I ’ m not going to go start another band and I am not going to give up on this .” Liz [ Ball , guitarist ] is a person who I think the two of us have definitely believed in it together . All of that stuff happening around us has been painful and hard and I think our trust in each other and confidence has driven us forward .
18 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN
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