Tamara Schlesinger

“There’s a lot of ageism, with women in particular as well. I definitely felt as I got to a certain age and had children that my career was stalling a little bit and it was really frustrating for me.”

For the last two decades, Tamara Schlesinger has been writing and performing her own music, whether that being in bands or as a solo star under the moniker of MALKA. Unfortunately, that also means for the last two decades, Tamara has had to face with the sexism and misogyny that comes with the glitz and glamour of the music industry.

“When I left the band and went solo, this huge management company contacted me to manage me. They found out I had a kid, they found out my age and then just disappeared and they never took me on. I’d also have people say they’d want to manage me, and then they’d just take me out for a drink. I don’t suppose I really realised what was going on at the time, I just thought they were going to manage me.”

Through her experiences, and thanks to her “shouting” on social media, Tamara developed the idea of Hen Hoose – an all-female collective who have just released their debut album ‘Equaliser’. In such a short space of time, Hen Hoose have achieved huge successes with some of their work being featured in Hollywood movies, Netflix shows, and recently the Scottish Government vaccine campaign.

“It’s been an amazing experience, and now we are writing for TV ads. It’s become its own entity I suppose. I guess the whole point was to make a change in the industry, and I think we’re starting to do that. It’s a weird situation in that there wasn’t a long-term goal with it but it has become something that can grow into more than it was going to be.”

It’s clear to see the passion Tamara has for this subject and the inequality female musicians face as she provided me with some staggering statistics:

“In terms of the writing PRS (Performing Right Society) registration, I think it’s like 17% of women. Which means only 17% of writers that feel like they have a chance of making any sort of money. The major record label stats are only 25% of women signed to major labels, and publishers I think 20% of writers are women.”

“I think the problem is you can think ‘that person hasn’t sold as many records as this person’, but if they’re not getting the record deal then how do they sell as many copies and how do they get the visibility if you don’t give them the chance? There’s a lot that feels like there’s a lot of competition because there’s so few festival slots and so few record deals for women, which is horrible. And I think that’s why Hen Hoose has been so amazing because it’s like the absolute opposite. We just support and cheerlead each other and it’s an amazing feeling.”

You can listen to the new album 'Equaliser' by Hen Hoose here:

https://www.henhoose.com/

Hen Hoose Instagram - @hen_hoose

Hen Hoose Twitter - @Hen_Hoose

Tamara's Instagram - @malkamakesmusic

Tamara's Twitter - @MALKAmakesmusic