dB readings and the graces
Three earsplitting female musicians are making predominant marks on the west coast radar. Mya Mayhem is an activist and the grindcore vocals of Violent Restitution and former lead on Life Against Death. Bina Masterbeater is an artist and the powerhouse on skins with sludge rockers Mendozza. Anju Singh, when not coordinating uncompromising noise events, she is the solid force on the kit, vocals and the other creative half behind the noise and drone of AHNA. The distinctive quality of these three women is the intersection of art, activism and the intensity of their extreme music/anti/music.
This overlap is clearly illustrated by the breadth of the involvement. Mya is very engaged as an activist working with Food Not Bombs promoting a vegan, cruelty free lifestyle and recently co-founded the Black Pawprint Collective which is an all vegan anarcha-feminist collective focusing heavily on animal rights and environmental protection through radical protest and the “issues that we are fighting are vivisection, the fur trade and the Enbridge, Kinder Morgan pipelines” explains Mya. Along with her bandmates they walk their talk as vegans and vegetarians. She plans to return to school in the fall to become a wildlife rehabilitator and “I work as much as I can with animals, helping abused or neglected dogs and cats through rescue and rehabilitation.” Bina is a practising mixed-media artist and describes it as “I work with real insects bones and natural elements.” The connection with music is that “I see art through tragedy much like doom and heavy music. There is beauty in tragedy for sure.” She is called Dissectinsect and can be found on etsy.com. Anju's work as a noise artist is well defined trait with all her projects. She is organizing and performing in the Vancouver Noise Fest July 20-22 and will be playing at the Victoria Noise Fest August 24th. Her solo project "varies between pedal noise and violin-drone” says Anju. On August 23 to 30th “I'm joining Chicago noise project, Winters in Osaka for their West Coast tour dates” she adds.
Summer schedules will be quite busy for these three. Bina is “still active with Mendozza” she says, but keep your ears to the ground because she is starting an all female doom band and working on a new project in Victoria. When asked about her role, “ya still drumming, a little back up yelling and writing riffs too” says Bina. However, Mendozza plans for vinyl in the fall. Mya's political grindcore band called Violent Restitution has just released their first self-titled LP. They have a cross Canada tour to Halifax in August. This band focuses on animal rights, eco-defense and social justice and “we are also totally dedicated to standing up against oppression and are working hard to create safer spaces within the Vancouver punk scene.” says Mya. Anju is describes her work with AHNA as “a project that challenges me a lot and that I put most of my energy into.” Apart from all the festivals this summer “we will work on releasing old recordings with AHNA from 2009 with Lana Leitch on vocals as “she's someone I admire a lot” says Anju. They are recording a LP on Choking Hazard which is coming out in the fall, also a split twelve inch with Bridgeburner coming out in August as well as a seven inch. Anju also plays drums in Dead Terror.
Violent Restitution will kick off the tour August 2 and August 4th for Open the Cages Tour Animal Rights Show
Mendozza will be in Vancouver September 16 at Rickshaw Theatre with Jucifer and September 21 in Victoria at Logan's Pub with Ancients
AHNA with Bridgeburner in Squamish, Vancouver and Kamloops Aug 1, 2, and 3rd.
- More Betty
