Want to interview a performer or organizer? Email gatasyvatas [at] gmail [dot] com.
An Interview With Aeon Fux
By Trent Moorman
Sept. 17, 2015
Out of the ether of the northwest flux comes doom-soul singer Aeon Fux. She is Olivia Hatfield (AKA Elytra), a 23-year-old music and Afrofuturism student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. She’s currently working on a futuristic gospel and beat album called Aposematic that’s going to be released before the monarch butterfly overwintering sometime in early to mid fall. Some beats produced by Olympia’s Oak Body were made from sampling the sound of beetle wings.
Gatas Y Vatas promotes solo female artists, and they welcome trans and cis women, as well as genderqueer and non-binary people.
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Testing Space For New Music: Six Years Of The Gatas y Vatas Festival
By Joe Cardillo
Sept. 22, 2015
When Becki Jones picked up her first musical instrument, being in a band wasn’t part of the plan.
She began learning violin in the 3rd grade, and soon afterwards taught herself to play the piano. Somewhere around eighth grade she started listening to punk rock, and asked her grandma to buy her a guitar.
For a few years after that she experimented on a semi-regular basis, but it wasn’t until last year that she started actually making music on a regular basis, and playing in bands.
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on the importance of spotlighting female musicians
DENVER WESTWORD
By Bree Davies
Sept. 18, 2014
… Bree Davies: Coming from working on a similar-minded women-centered event like Titwrench, I know what it is like to be asked “why” we would put on a music festival. I feel like that isn’t something big corporate music festival organizers ever get asked; it’s like a given for them. How do you deal with the “why” question?
Marisa Demarco: The answer for Gatas y Vatas is pretty clear. … It was mostly guys at the show and on the stage. … But I kept running into women around town who would say things like, “Oh, I totally play music. I’ve been playing for twenty years… at my house.” … I guess that I never asked why they didn’t perform, but I think there’s a valid point too, which is that not everyone who plays an instrument wants to be on stage. But it was just crazy meeting so many women who had that experience. All the women were playing at home and all the dudes were on stage.
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Gatas Sing outside the box
WEEKLY ALIBI
Sept. 19-25, 2015
By Rebecca Gonzales
“In conversations with other gatas, I’d gotten the impression that most of us are performing in other groups that are all male or predominantly male, and from feminine perspective, we’ve pushed ourselves to the back,” Donne Lewis said. “This is a great opportunity to truly shine and push to be better performers. I know I’m always trying to be in the back, but here we’re out front.”
Since 2010 the fest has evolved and grown. This year 35 performers are expected as well as a larger audience. Gatas’ organization was originally done one-man-band style … . But it’s now managed by a team of six gatas, and the event has expanded to include facets like visual art, live screen-printing and the creation of collaborative zines meant to be a sort of “Gatas yearbook.”
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risk-taking at gatas
PYRAGRAPH
By Antonia Montoya
Sept. 17, 2013
… Whatever you think it is, it’s weirder. There is paradigm-shattering creativity thumping through the veins of Gatas y Vatas. I’ve seen many instruments played: guitar, bass, keyboards, mechanized homemade percussion instruments, pots and pans, contact mics that pick up the performer’s heartbeat, and random electronic devices controlled by knobs. I’ve heard the voices of women bring syrupy melodies, high-pitched screeching, wailing, deep rumbling sounds, comedic banter and rapping. The performers climb up on stage alone, expose their creativity, and the audience makes it the safest place for that creativity to be exposed.
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gatas y vatas: A new mexico-based outsider festival for female solo performers
GETFESTY.COM
By Adam Lehrer
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.. That is not in any way to say that there aren’t some more established acts playing Gatas y Vatas. Among them of course, are Demarco aka Bigawatt herself but also Tahnzzz, aka Tahnee Udero, another experimental/noise musician from the land of Breaking Bad. Udero played the Brooklyn noise extravaganza Ende Tymes in May of this year, and her support of Ende Tymes helps bringing this underrated music festival some juice in the underground music community.
New Mexico noise/performance artist Tahnzzz is a regular at Gatas y Vatas
Despite all the mystique of uniqueness surrounding this strange little music festival that could that is Gatas y Vatas, what really makes it special like all the great festivals of the world is a dedication to displaying a unique range of music and performances.