Rock Talk with Sommer: Conversations with Women in the Music Industry Sommer Sharon

Margo Z. Nahas is the only female she knows of that was doing album artwork when she was creating cover art for bands like Van Halen, Stevie Wonder, Seals and Crofts and others. Together with her husband Jay Vigon, they’ve worked with and helped to create some of the most iconic music artwork including the cover of Van Halen’s 1984 album cover (the smoking baby), the braille-like cover of Stevie Wonder’s Secret Life of Plants and logos for Tom Petty and Prince’s Purple Rain album cover and film. She shares the story behind the iconic Van Halen cover, and many others including the crank dildo on the set of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers photo shoot.
Find out more about Margo Z Nahas
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Recorded at The Barnum Factory
Sound engineered and edited by Dustin Miller
Intro music by Jen Edds
Artwork by Casey Bridgham

Mindy Abovitz is a drummer and the founder, publisher and creator of Tom Tom Magazine, a print magazine based out of New York dedicated to female drummers. Its purpose is to raise the awareness of female drummers all across the world and to inspire females of all ages. It’s distributed across the world, and is the only magazine in the world dedicated to female drummers. A few of the well-known drummers who have appeared in Tom Tom include Kim Thompson (Beyoncé), Sheila E., Janet Weiss and Liv Marsico (Cold War Kids). Mindy and other representatives of Tom Tom also participate in events and panels to discuss and promote feminism and the representation of women in the media. They are on the forefront of making changes in the way females are perceived, promoted and treated as musicians.
Find out more about Tom Tom Magazine
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Sound engineered and edited by Juan Pablo Perez
Intro music by Jen Edds
Artwork by Casey Bridgham

What happens when you combine two sisters who’ve been through some tough times with aggressive rock n’ roll? You get empowered, feminine, primal rock! New-ish on the national scene The Scars Heal in Time are a female formed band (Tayler on drums, and her sister Kayla on vocals and guitar). In Your Flame is their newest song — you’ll get a peek listen — and is about being with someone who brings out the worse in you. They are releasing a new EP, produced by Justin Rimer (12 Stones, Saving Abel) and their music video was directed by Jon Vulpine (Backstreet Boys, Saliva, Lil Wayne, Drowning Pool). In this episode we also remember some of those musicians we lost in 2017, and talk about the latest going on in the music industry including Taylor Swift and streaming services, Spotify going public, a new David Bowie documentary, the release of another Jimi Hendrix album, 2018 music world predictions (some #MeToo focus), Green Day getting political, Bono being disappointed women have ruined music and Radiohead suing Lana Del Rey.

Imagine a place where females and other underserved individuals dreaming of a career in the music industry had a place where they could get the training, support and resources to do so. The fact is less than 5% of the people working in the field of music production & recording arts are women. Songwriter, composer, recording engineer, and producer Terri Winston founded the Women’s Audio Mission in 2003. And since they’ve been working to change those numbers. Through WAM 400+ women have been placed in paid positions with Google, Pixar, SFJazz, NPR, Comedy Central, Animal Planet, Electronic Arts, and others. 2,000+ classes have been given to 8,000 women/girls over 14 years. The Women’s Audio Mission’s has the only professional recording studio in the world built and run entirely by women. Women’s Audio Mission has produced and recorded albums for over 150 artists from 21 countries, including Grammy award winners.

Eleanor Tinlin knew the standard orchestra model wasn't for her. Imagine her excitement when she started working with Parallax Orchestra, a new-ish collaborative orchestra that last year worked on a show with Bring Me the Horizon and this year were part of a sold-out Alter Bridge show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They’ve got more projects in the works! You’ll want to hear about their past work, including their history and how they work collaboratively with other artists.
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Recorded at The Barnum Factory
Sound engineered and edited by Dustin Miller
Intro music by Jen Edds
Artwork by Casey Bridgham

Susan was more than Prince’s engineer, she considered them friends, a friend she gave her life to for several years. “Married” in a sense to Prince with his heavy demands. But that’s not all Prince was to her, this is a man she had a deep respect for. Susan’s path eventually led her to Berklee, where now she’s a professor as well as a researcher. It’s been an interesting, thrilling journey for Susan Rogers.
Find out more about Susan Rogers
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Check out The Midnight
Recorded at The Barnum Factory
Sound engineered and edited by Dustin Miller
Intro music by Jen Edds
Artwork by Casey Bridgham