Wollongong music duo Cry Club want to carry the flag for the LGBTQI community and gender diversity but don’t want to be pigeonholed at the same time.
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Post-punk and pop musicians Heather Riley and Jonathon Tooke have been on the touring circuit since forming six months ago and noticed the industry still commands so much change.
“Women or people of colour or queer ... there’s this attitude that people think certain groups that are considered marginalised can’t sell tickets,” Tooke said.
He welcomes festival promoters who have bowed to pressure in recent years by add more women to their lineups but said they were still so dominated by “dude bands” with party songs.
“There’s the issue of a bill that’s somewhat split but you’ll see anyone that’s not a straight white dude being earlier in the day,” he said.
If you look at festival lineups it’s so dominated by dude bands that aren’t really saying anything ... that's actually contributing to conversation in a valuable way.
- Jonathon Tooke
Riley added the music industry needs to become more open to accept LGBTQI acts for what they are – for example a pop or rock group – rather than labelling them because of their sexuality.
Cry Club are about to release their first single Walk Away, which was written during the height of the 2017 marriage equality plebiscite.
“I had coffee with my aunt who was like ‘you know I love you, but I’m absolutely voting no’,” Riley said. “If they meant that, they wouldn’t be acting like this.”
Stanwell Park artist Bec Sandridge’s song I’ll Never Want A BoyFriend was released at the time and really helped Riley through the tough time.
“If someone can hear something and relate to it like I did with Bec, then that would be really cool,” they said. “We all need that support and people need to feel heard.”
Cry Club will play Rad Bar on June 22 and at Beaches Thirroul on June 29.