Rock Talk with Sommer: Conversations with Women in the Music Industry

Mindy Abovitz is a drummer and the founder, publisher and creator of Tom Tom Magazine, a print magazine based out of New York dedicated to female drummers. Its purpose is to raise the awareness of female drummers all across the world and to inspire females of all ages. It’s distributed across the world, and is the only magazine in the world dedicated to female drummers. A few of the well-known drummer...

What happens when you combine two sisters who’ve been through some tough times with aggressive rock n’ roll? You get empowered, feminine, primal rock! New-ish on the national scene The Scars Heal in Time are a female formed band (Tayler on drums, and her sister Kayla on vocals and guitar). In Your Flame is their newest song — you’ll get a peek listen — and is about being with someone who brings out th...

Imagine a place where females and other underserved individuals dreaming of a career in the music industry had a place where they could get the training, support and resources to do so. The fact is less than 5% of the people working in the field of music production & recording arts are women. Songwriter, composer, recording engineer, and producer Terri Winston founded the Women’s Audio Mission in 2003...

Eleanor Tinlin knew the standard orchestra model wasn't for her. Imagine her excitement when she started working with Parallax Orchestra, a new-ish collaborative orchestra that last year worked on a show with Bring Me the Horizon and this year were part of a sold-out Alter Bridge show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They’ve got more projects in the works! You’ll want to hear about their past work,...

Susan was more than Prince’s engineer, she considered them friends, a friend she gave her life to for several years. “Married” in a sense to Prince with his heavy demands. But that’s not all Prince was to her, this is a man she had a deep respect for. Susan’s path eventually led her to Berklee, where now she’s a professor as well as a researcher. It’s been an interesting, thrilling journey for Susan R...

Despite her difficult past involving heroin addiction, Davina is the lead singer, pianist, and all around mastermind behind Davina and the Vagabonds, a jazz blues band with a distinct sound one can’t completely classify. She’s a strong woman. Her path to becoming a full-time working musician will inspire you. She’s toured the country and internationally with the band. We talk about her one Prince conn...

Welcome to the show! Find out what Rock Talk with Sommer is all about. A new podcast from music journalist/promoter Sommer Sharon. Working in the music industry since 2011, Sommer saw the untapped need to give females an outlet for promotion, as well as a place to discuss issues unique to females in music. Through this podcast, she'll talk to some amazing women in the industry as well as share thoughts on music news, current events...