Shiragirl
interview by Erika Garcia
We had the chance to speak with the the “musical lovechild” of The Ramones and Madonna, Shiragirl; backstage during the Vans Warped Tour 2018 where all the band’s buses are. Between two of these, we grab some chairs and look for shade. Music is heard from afar and a group of fans is walking down to meet their favorite band. We sit down and Shira takes her phone out to take a boomerang for IG. “That is Warped Tour for you,” she says, and drinks water from her Monster can.
She just had finished her set at her own stage, The Shiragirl Stage, coming back for a few dates on the last Warped Tour.
Speaking of Warped Tour, how do you feel about it ending?
SG: Oh my gosh is so surreal and bittersweet. Warped Tour has been a huge part of my life and it's definitely a chapter coming to an end. Is also really great to go out there on a high note and to be part of the very last one. It means a lot.
And you definitely made history founding your own stage. Tell me where did this idea of playing on top of you pink RV came from?
SG:I was on the tour in 2003 and that's when I noticed there weren't any girl bands on tour, like none. There was a one female-fronted band, Tsunami Bomb, and every now and then there would be a local band but you just didn't see female musicians. I knew they existed because I was friends with a lot of them back at New York.
I approached Kevin and said 'Can we come and set some girl bands and set a little zone to play in the garage tent?' which existed at the time and he said 'Great idea, love it. You know what? Let’s do it next year. It’s the tenth anniversary we got a lot going on.’ and I thought 'Next year?'. I was so young and a year seemed like an eternity. So we just said, 'Okay, we are coming anyway'.
We had a pink RV, we drove in, parked across from the skate ramp and just started playing setting up this little punk-rock PA system. Kevin walked by and we all kind of held our breath. He was so supportive and said 'Shira, alright. So you're on for the whole tour?' and he invited us on and he embraced us which was cool.
We just showed up, set up, did our thing and when the tour rolled through New York, I invited some of my friend's bands, cause I always felt like it was a bigger movement than me. A lot of artist in the scene are just about doing their own thing and I really wanted to create a movement. When I came back in 2005 with the official stage we hosted 300 female bands in 49 cities.
That is amazing!
SG: Thank you!
Did you ever expect to host such amazing bands and some of them that are so famous like Paramore or even Joan Jett?
SG: I didn't expect that. When we started we were all about the emerging bands. We wanted to help the bands that they weren't playing on the radio. Kevin e-mailed me couple weeks months before the tour and introduced me to Paramore's label and flew me down to Orlando to go see them. When I was there, I got it. They were going to be huge. They had a huge management team already and even though they hadn't tour yet, they had a good team put together.
Honestly, when it happened we didn't expect it. Our whole goal was to show the chicks can rock out as hard as the dudes. When I first heard their music they sent me a CD and my first thought was that it sounded like Avril Lavigne. They were like the female Thursday. So I was expecting like a screamo thing.
Was it the CD with the red couch?
SG: It was three songs. It was "Here We Go Again". It was good but it didn't really go with the mission statement cause we wanted 'PAW!, PAW!, PAW!'. We wanted crazy, aggressive and fast because there was this misconception of ‘Chicks don't do that kind of music’ and I knew that wasn't true.
But then when I saw them live I was like 'Oh! They are amazing. They are great performers. The kids love them. We still didn't know how big they were gonna be and they came out and started in the middle of the tour and they had the huge crowds on our stage. It was an honor to share the stage with them. We knew then that they were going to be huge. There was a huge void. There wasn't a hard rock female band at that level getting played on the radio and everything.
You play a big part in inspiring and empowering women and even participating in the Women's March, How is your take on the recent events?
SG: Absolutely. I was at the Women's March. We shot a video for our song "Resist" last year. I recorded this song on Election Day, with no idea how the election was going to turn out. We had no idea that Trump was going to win. As we were recording it, I just got angrier and angrier. At the Women's March, we actually got invited back this year to play and it was super dope. It's really crazy what's happening in the country and how we are just moving backwards. Hopefully, things will change and people will see what's going on this year. We can turn the house. We'll see a good change for the better.
I couldn't agree more. Going back to Warped. How important is it to a girl to be “one of the guys” in this male-dominant industry?
SG: It's so funny that you say that cause I feel that is a very relevant question to Warped Tour. I remember when Hayley started, for instance, she wanted to be one of the guys. When she first started, she wore the same shirt every day, jeans, no makeup, she wasn't into fashion. She hadn't really discovered fashion yet. She didn't want to be treated any different but I think she was kind of sheltered cause she had her team and her label and she didn't realize you can't avoid it. It is what it is. It's gonna be different for you. And then she got older and experienced it and she realized it is different. And then Katy Perry's album came out, "One of the Boys".
“You don't have to be one of the boys to rock as hard as the boys.”
I think you don't have to be one of the boys to rock as hard as the boys. That's my thing. I'm a girly girl. I love celebrating my femininity but I do serve an aggressive stage presence and personality. So I could say ‘I have bigger problems than bigger guys out there’, you know what I mean? Cause when I think of one of the boys, it sounds like you are trying to fade in or something but that is not what it is. You can hang with the boys.
I want to be able to tell girls 'You have a voice'. Use it. You are not just an object. Women in the music industry, a lot is about how you look and your body and how sexualized you are. If that's your thing, celebrated. I am all about being sexy and dressing up cute and I am proud of that. I think it is empowering to celebrate beauty. At the same time, there is not one type of beauty. Your voice matters. It's not just your appearance. People wanna hear what you wanna say.