Featured Artist

Madalyn Sklar – Founder of GoGirlsMusic.com

GoGirlsMusic.com prides itself in being an organization that strives to advance the careers of indie female musicians of all genres. As stated on GoGirlsMusic.com, “Founded in early 1996” [by Madalyn Sklar when she recognized there was a need for a support group for female artists], “the organization works tirelessly to help artists through education, networking, and events like the GoGirlsMusicFest, Invasion of the GoGirls during SXSW, GoGirls @ Folk Alliance and more. Artists who become involved have the opportunity to perform, have their work reviewed, and get involved with a hardworking group of women who ‘get things done’ in the music scene. The only requirement to join is at least one female in a group. We support ALL genres of music!”

The word of GoGirlsMusic has expanded more over the past year and a half since GoGirlsMusic Chapters began spreading across the nation. GoGirlsMusic became an international headquarters when the London Chapter of GoGirlsMusic was created. Anne-Marie Perry is the National Chapter Coordinator and head of the Atlanta Chapter of GoGirlsMusic. In an interview with Anne-Marie, she shares her experience with GoGirlsMusic and how the organization encourages musicians to help each other. Starting GoGirlsMusic Chapters to reach out beyond the Headquarters location in Houston, Texas, Anne-Marie describes “was something Madalyn came up with to help GoGirls connect civically together in their towns because GoGirls had mainly been an online support group. GoGirls has their national festivals, SXSW, Folk Alliance and all of that. That brings a lot of GoGirls together but some members just can’t travel or don’t get accepted to play those things so having Chapters gets all the GoGirls in each community together.”

Over the course of the thirteen years as GoGirlsMusic as the membership continued to grow, the techniques used to promote musicians evolved. “Having Chapters has changed it,” Anne-Marie states, “because each Chapter has a head of their Chapter and we allow every Chapter to do things their own way; that has started more local showcases and a lot of different ideas and brainstorming. It’s helped promote GoGirls tremendously. The membership has grown with all these Chapters.”

One of the greatest benefits that GoGirlsMusic offers its members, Anne-Marie describes is “National exposure. We have GoGirlsMusic Records, we promote on ReverbNation and Our Stage, and we now have a GoGirls Our Stage. We also do compilation CDs every year to promote GoGirls members who make it onto the CDs.” For GoGirlsMusic members who are interested in participating in the compilation, they submit music every year and a panel of judges picks the best GoGirls for that CD. Anne-Marie mentions that “Not every GoGirl makes it on one but that’s just another opportunity. That’s what is good about the Chapters. For bands that don’t make it to SXSW or don’t make it on the compilation, if there’s a Chapter in their town, they have a GoGirls event every month that they can participate in so it’s brought it down to the local level.”

One of the GoGirlsMusic events where all Chapters join together is SXSW which will be held at Trophies the March 20th and 21st. Anne-Marie shares “I like how GoGirls does their SXSW showcases. We do not require badges. It’s a free show to everybody.“ Other sponsored GoGirlsMusic events are the Folk Alliance in February and the GoGirlsMusic Fest which occurs in October and November each year.

GoGirlsMusic is also a strong advocate for charities. “Everything we do,” Anne-Marie stated, “Our SXSW is for Hepatitis C Awareness. For our GoGirlsMusic Festival, we pick a different charity every year. Madalyn is very big on charity events.”

Madalyn also enjoys being an Indie Music Coach (www.indiemusiccoach.com) as her career business. She also started another website called Social Networks for Musicians which is available for everyone to join – not just GoGirlsMusic members.

Though individuals, such as founder Madalyn and heads of each GoGirlsMusic Chapter, lead the direction of the organization, everyone works together. As head of the Atlanta Chapter of GoGirlsMusic, Anne-Marie recognizes that “everybody feels like it’s ‘our Chapter’. It makes it more fun. Everybody feels like they’re apart of something…” Anne-Marie speaks from experience, “Especially being the only female in a band and being a female guitar player, it can get to be a lonely world out there when you’re busy playing your shows and you’re not really connecting with other musicians. You might run across them in a show but there are so many musicians that are competitive. When you know other people that get somewhere, it also helps you. That’s what the Atlanta Chapter is all about of GoGirlsMusic; it’s an organization of support and promoting each other and motivating each other. It’s exploding because people are joining and realizing ‘This is great!’ They’re getting more gigs and getting new fans. We’re just all helping each other and none of us are competitive.” What helps to prevent the competitive nature of the music business Anne-Marie describes is “the support. When we book GoGirls shows, everybody gets their turn. It’s like any kind of support group. You’re rooting for each other. We have a blast. We play for each other. We’re each others’ fans.”

In celebration of the Atlanta Chapter GoGirlsMusic’s first anniversary, they performed at four shows for their first birthday bash during the month of February. There were a mixture of two shows with a rock genre, another show with an acoustic theme, and a Comcast television show at the end of February on Comcast OnDemand channel 24. Each show was promoted more like a party. They had raffles and door prizes. The Atlanta Chapter has over thirty members all of which were given a chance to play at the first anniversary show. The main GoGirlsMusic.com celebrated their anniversary in January in which they also had several events in honor of the celebration.

Anne-Marie shares how the Atlanta Chapter of GoGirlsMusic came to be. “I’ve been a member of GoGirls a long time. That’s how we played in Austin, Texas last year - at a GoGirls showcase. They always had a Houston Chapter because the main GoGirls is in Houston where the headquarters is.” After Anne-Marie mentioned the potential for starting a GoGirlsMusic Chapter in Atlanta to Madalyn, she was enthusiastic and encouraged Anne-Marie to start a new chapter. Based on Madalyn’s guidance, Anne-Marie began holding monthly meetings and search for other female musicians. She just hit the ground running. Anne-Marie stated “I found that it is something that I have a knack for and I took it from there and thought ‘I’m going to go one better, I’m going to try to get us some paying showcases. Word spread and our Chapter’s grown. We’re playing all over the place now.’

“GoGirlsMusic,” Anne-Marie describes that ” One misconception is that people think the organization is just another booking agency. Anne-Marie continues, “But no we’re not. We’re an organization that supports and promotes women in music. We’ve got a lot of ways we go about doing that with just promoting. You pay yearly dues of thirty five bucks but still it’s the best promotion company out there if you need a promotion company for your music - for just thirty five dollars a year and you’re promoted all over. I can’t tell you what it’s done for my band Green Bracelet. I’ve gained a lot of fans through GoGirls.” The yearly fees pay for the running of a worldwide organization such as bumper stickers, business cards, and other forms of advertising as well as the main website. GoGirlsMusic sponsors fundraisers for charities through live shows. Each Chapter of GoGirlsMusic has one or two charities each year. The national GoGirlsMusicFest brings together all of the Chapters to perform in events held in cities all over the world. All of which are charity events.

Anne-Marie’s passion for other bands’ music as much as her own band’s exudes the mission of GoGirlsMusic. She describes ‘I’ve always been a collector of the unusual or the indie artists even before there was a name for it. I’d run across somebody in a local bar. ‘Wow, I’ll buy your CD.’ I just love a lot of different kinds of music. So I’ve always been a supporter of a lot of local artists. That’s basically what GoGirls is. I guess that’s why I was attracted to GoGirls.”

Several bands of GoGirlsMusic from Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta will be performing at a Get Out To Live Music sponsored event on March 28th at the Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Of the elite GoGirlsMusic.com members, Just Jo, Grace Buford, Debbie Watson, The Melinda Kingsley Band, Green Bracelet, Lumbar 5, and Electric Soul will be performing.