“What is happening right now, the changing landscape of the music industry, it’s really good to see this progress happen now. Every day I celebrate the progress that women have made in music, and I’m really proud of be active in the current landscape.”
As rock fans devoured the highly anticipated lineup of Australia’s inaugural iteration of Download Festival, social media lit up with an all too familiar discourse surrounding a lack of gender diversity on the bill.
Melbourne based heavy-rock band High Tension are one of three bands on the bill containing at least one woman, alongside Arch Enemy, Make Them Suffer and Clowns, while Bad Cop/Bad Cop are the only all-female band to perform at the festival.
Though it’s easy to jump on the bookers and say this is frankly not good enough, High Tension’s frontwoman Karina Utomo – who comes from a family of demographers – wasn’t quick to judge, and considered the data before agreeing to be part of the festival.
“It’d be impossible to have a 50/50 lineup on a heavy music festival. Splendour in the Grass, it’s totally possible because it spans across genres, but considering this is a genre that is so male-dominated, I think the lineup is a step forward,” Utomo says, stats on hand.
While covering Lochlan Watt’s position hosting The Racket, triple j’s heavy rock show, Utomo took a critical eye to the lineup, and contacted the booker personally to query him on the lack of diversity, and thankfully she was pleased with what she found.
“I had a really close look at the lineup, and yes women make up a really small percentage. But having said that, it’s a really small percentage of women who have released music in that album cycle, because that’s usually the way it goes as far as contemporary emerging and established artists, for the punk and heavy scene. There are only a small handful of women to choose from. There are so many layers to putting together a huge festival like that,” Utomo says.
Though striving for equality and diversity is something that Utomo is passionate about, she’s aware it’s a difficult balance to navigate.
“We can talk about diversity in lineups, and diversity in the scene, and taking affirmative action, making sure there are enough women represented. I do believe that’s necessary because it’s not an even playing field. But from a personal perspective, my first and foremost approach is to be proud of the work we do, and to do the work, to be able to execute what we want to do. And to get better with every album.
“And being well aware that as women, we have to navigate the scene in a certain way, and that’s a given. That’s not exclusive to the heavy music scene or the music industry, it’s specific to daily life. But my personal approach has always been that I never want someone to give our band attention because there’s a woman. My approach has always been the work, and doing the very best work we can.”
Since the shift in High Tension’s lineup, which saw new members Mike Deslandes and Lauren Hamme, alongside original members Utomo and Matt Weston, they’ve been working well to achieve the goal of making the best music they can. It was a well-needed shake-up for the band, and a refreshment of the formula, Utomo says.
“I feel like it was a reset, at least after we finished the work on the new album. It definitely brought a new direction, a much heavier direction, to the band’s sound. Which I felt was an organic manifestation of what we’ve been working towards over the past two years, but the lineup change has been a really significant part of that new direction. If you look at my previous releases, they’re getting progressively heavier, so I’m really excited with what we’ve got to show for this new cycle,” Utomo says.
‘Heavier’, of course, is a very general term, Utomo acknowledges, but the word has a wide applicability to the changes in the band. Emotionally and sonically, the heavy rock band has shifted a shade or two darker.
“Sonically, it sounds different, because Mike experimented with some hybrid tunings specifically for the band. But emotionally also, it’s darker in terms of,” Utomo pauses to think, as she often does mid-sentence. “I feel like for this release, I was less afraid to confront more challenging references.”
There’s perhaps no more of a challenging reference than the subject matter of the band’s new single Ghost to Ghost. The track, a reference to her historical trauma and heritage, is based around subject matter she cannot talk about.
“The good thing about having a band like High Tension, and singing, if you call it that, these extreme vocals, and executing vocals in that way, is that it’s a bit of a guise. High Tension is the medium to communicate all of my true feelings and anger and rage without having to go into specifics about what it is. I’m actually not in a position to go into specifics about personal heritage because there’s still present day implications to me sharing that story. Which is really frustrating,” Utomo says.
However, that is the power of her music, to still tell a story within the parameters that she’s allowed. Something she confesses has been extremely cathartic.
“I think that that’s why heavy music is such a powerful medium for a lot of people, for a lot of artists. You can communicate on that level, you can push your boundaries and address really confronting things. I feel really safe communicating in that medium. However, if I were to publish a paper, or make a documentary, or something like that, on this topic, there’s present-day implications for me and my family,” Utomo says.
If you’ve not watched High Tension perform, do yourself a favour and look them up. Utomo’s performances are mind-numbing, in the best possible way. Utomo has a gut-wrenching power with her delivery, it feels as though her entire body must shake as she sings. The sheer physicality of her performance, let alone the emotional side, appears completely exhausting, but Utomo has found a balance that keeps her energised.
“Some days, it can be really emotionally draining. Particularly if there have been things that have triggered any of those fears and anxieties that are constantly on a loop. But I think it’s a combination of physical preparation and mental preparation that allows us to honour every performance with the original intention. It would be such a hard job if I felt like I was reliving trauma every time we played. I feel like it’s more necessary.”
