Where were you at in your music career when you had your first child? Was there much discussion about how that life choice would affect your career within the music/entertainment industry?

We started the Hillbettys just after Dusty had her child (But she already had a stepchild). At that time, she was on hiatus from playing in a rock band. Kelsey joined, and did not have a child at the time. Alix joined, and her child was the same age as Dusty’s. 

We started this band specifically because we were parents; deciding to step back and have a child head essentially ended Dusty‘s music career for the time being. So there was a discussion about the intention to start a band of moms! When Kelsey later decided to try to have a child, we were very excited for her and encouraged her to do so as we had already set the stage for the possibility of parents being in a band. Johanna was the last addition to our group and also came with two kids so that sort of the nature of our band from the start!

What changed for you when you became a parent in this industry? (or faced when your children were younger if relevant)?  

Having young children definitely changes how available you are, especially in the evening! Childcare that can stay late becomes really important. It also changes how often we’re able to stay out late networking or how often we’re able to go to other bands’ shows, Which can have an impact on building social connections in the industry. Bedtime is a nonnegotiable; Strategizing around how to be out of the house in the evenings is difficult.

It also changes how much time you get to yourself to do things like songwriting and practicing. If you’re going to have young children, and you don’t have a lot of childcare support, practises by their nature have to become very flexible and very accommodating. There are many practises where we get almost nothing done Because of the constant interruptions!

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

In Vancouver, we have a lot of shows that start end earlier, which is great if you need to relieve the Babysitter but is a double edged sword because they’re hard if you need to do bedtime before you go to the show. Being flexible about load-in times really helps, But for the type of music that we play, we are mostly playing things like festivals and farmers markets… Which can be difficult if there are no guest spots, or everyone attending needs to be a paid attendee and the organizers don’t make an exception for our children, since we have so many of them between us! Something that the industry could do to help would be to allow us to bring our children with us at no extra cost! Providing on-site childcare would be a dream, but we’re far from that! Even just having more all ages venues is very helpful so that we can bring our kids along when necessary.

Finish this sentence: “Being a parent in music is…” 

Being a parent in music is so fun, and so exhausting

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

We ask them to join our band, haha! 

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

Hard to think of a good example here 😬 but we have really appreciated any festival, show, or farmers market that allow us to bring our children without having to pay or has kid friendly food on site.

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

As already mentioned above, providing on-site, childcare would be a dream. Definitely allowing us to bring our children and childcare support people for free is necessary.

What advice would you give to someone in music who’s thinking about becoming a parent? 

Get a roster of good babysitters who don’t mind staying late or overnight! It also helps to have a supportive coparent who who understands that your passions and careers are just as important as theirs… Not always easy to find amongst cisgender hetero relationships! 

Think about the logistics of playing shows or touring out of town and start investing in the infrastructure that you will need (such as a camper van etc)

Find ways to practice or song right in small snippets since you won’t get a lot of time to yourself. Cultivate a routine of being up before your kids or awake after your kids so that you get some alone time to be creative, and try to partner with other parents as often as possible in musical roles so that they will be understanding of your situation

Can you shout out another music mama doing great things?

We love No Big D from Quesnel!