What is one change (big or small) within the industry that could make a positive impact for working parents?

Childcare. I feel like some festivals have started to step up and offer onsite child care for the children of performers. When my daughter was younger we would always take turns within the band to entertain her during set up and sound check, but performance time is a totally different challenge to tackle when there isn’t a tour manager or someone else on the team to help. I’m going to add onto this and say evening or nighttime child care is a need across the board as far as I can tell. During my daughter’s younger years, I played over 200 shows a year all within a three-hour radius of our home so I could go home after the shows and wake up with her in the morning (I was also her only food source for the first six months so if she wasn’t with me at a gig, I would need to be relatively close by). Piper’s father and I split when she was a year old and he was able to help a bit with some of the late-night childcare issues I had but I found that REALLY hard to navigate. I mean, I wasn’t the only person working late nights… What does everyone else do when they work late and have children? We didn’t live near family that could help regularly so this was a major stressor. I wish daycare facilities were also “night care” facilities.

How do you find support and community with other working parents in or out of the music industry?

I feel like the industry has changed so much in the last 20 years and I no longer feel alone in the world as a parent in music. It was a lonely chunk of early years and online connections weren’t there like they are now. That helps a lot I think. Most of my band mates now have kids and my tour manager is a super mom. I had a bass player band mate for a while who had a toddler we took on the road with us and I feel like being able to help facilitate that for her allowed me to vicariously live through some of my own story again and re-write the ending in some ways. I wish I had that support when my daughter was younger. I can’t change the past, but I love where we’ve grown as a community of parents in music. I have some great pals I’ve met along the way who’ve helped me feel less alone as a parent in music. The community continues to grow and support each other more and more, I feel.

What’s one specific example of an organization/venue/company doing something great to help support working parents?

The Unison Fund in Canada absolutely saved my butt during the pandemic. My husband left me, I lost my house, my daughter lost her home of ten years, I couldn’t work to make things better… it was really, really terrible. The Unison stepped up and helped so many of us with financial assistance during the pandemic and it was a huge blessing during a very dark time.

What could a music event (festival, conference, etc.), do or provide to make it easier for you to participate?

Childcare are now more common at festivals and that’s a massive huge help for anyone travelling with younger children.

Can you shout out another music mama doing great things?

Anna Ruddick! She’s an amazing bassist, music superstar mother of three and we’ve toured together with her first daughter Leni (flights and car seats in the shuttle vans! A real adventure!)