For eight years, the LOUD! project has worked to get girls into the band room. This summer, they have both defied the coronavirus and expanded the offer.
/ 14/08/2020 / Kristian Dugstad
Since 2012, young people from all over the country have made the pilgrimage to Haugetun Folkehøgskole outside Fredrikstad. The goal of the journey has been a week-long stay where every second is imbued with creative expression.
LOUD! is an arena for musical development and recruitment of women into a male-dominated industry.
For eight years, the two organizations JM Norway and AKKS have organized the music camp for girls, transgender people and non-binary people. However, this year things looked bleak.
With strict infection control measures and the uncertain outlook for the summer, the easiest thing would have been to cancel. They didn't.
– We held our breath for quite a while. It felt like everything around us was being cancelled, but we waited until the very last moment. Fortunately, says Sofie Søndervik Sæther.
She has been the project manager for LOUD! since its inception in 2012, and works as a program manager at JM Norway – one of the initiators behind the project.
The organization's slogan is "Making a difference through music." LOUD! is just one of their many projects that aim to give young people access to music and culture, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, economy, ethnicity, and background.
I think it might not have worked if we didn't have such incredibly committed people working on this.
Read more about JM Norway: Social change through music for 50 years
Before the summer, restrictions were eased for children and young people. It was still not possible to arrange the traditional camp with accommodation. Instead, the staff threw themselves into organizing regional gatherings. In Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and most recently, last week, in Halden.
– It has been an incredible amount of work, and I think it might not have been possible if we hadn't had such incredibly committed people working on this. Many people have gone to great lengths to make it happen, says Sæther.
It's a fact that the music industry is male-dominated. Among TONO's 34,000 members, approximately 80 percent are men and 20 percent are women. That's just one example of a trend.
Almost ten years ago, debates in the Norwegian public about this imbalance inspired Sofie Søndervik Sæther and JM Norway to start LOUD!.
The band room was for the guys. We wanted to do something about that.
– It was a recruitment project to get more girls into the music scene. Our own experiences reminded us of what it was like to be young and feel like the band offers weren't enough. was for us. The band room was for the guys. We wanted to do something about that.
The offer is for girls, transgender people and non-binary people aged 11 to 17. There are no requirements for musical experience, and reduced prices or free participation are offered for those who need it – in line with JM Norway's philosophy.
For eight years, LOUD! has provided a safe arena for musical expression. And it has succeeded.
– One of the coolest things is that the participants who are there don't know about the experiences we had when we were young. For them, it's natural that they're going to play in a band, and they just take the place they should be. The place we didn't dare to take.
They just take the place they should be. The place we didn't dare take.
Read about the LOUD! band Hudkreft: – Completely without musical experience
The project has also grown beyond band camp It started as, and today is devoting attention to other parts of the music industry.
– We organize elektroLOUD, various courses and training. This summer we had LOUD! remixlab for the first time, so the project has become a whole network. We have also learned a lot from this summer, which we will take with us. Hopefully we can continue to grow and create offers for more and more people in the future.
