Maria Brink: The problem isn't her, its our reaction to her.

[the_future_modernes]

I was drawn to Maria Brink's astonishing screaming abilities at a time when I was looking for women who screamed:

IN THIS MOMENT - The Gun Show (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

But she is not only know for her killer vocals, but for the fact that she dresses in what is considered a sexy manner. And thus she is the subject of much angst and reduction of her undeniable talent to the fact that she adheres to what is conventionally sexy at the moment. This kind of anti-feminist rhetoric is coming both from the fanboys and from women who are supposedly critiquing her clothing choices from the perspective of woman empowerment in rock. Whenever the question is sexy women in rock, is it a problem? She is called up as exhibit 1. In my opinion, however, the problem is not with her. The problem is with the culture deciding that women can only be part of rock bands if they are sexualised. The society wide issue with making the pratice and ideas around sexuality so inherently oppressive to women needs to be changed. It is quite fine to find her sexy. What is not fine is to let that facet of her be your overriding view of her.



IN THIS MOMENT - Prayers (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

IN THIS MOMENT - Beautiful Tragedy (HIGH QUALITY)

I love the way her angst is expressed in her screaming.

IN THIS MOMENT - The Promise (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

The problem in rock music is that women are forced to be sexualised whether they want it or not in order to have a music career. And this happens because record companies want to make money, and society has indicated that many people are willing to buy cds if women are heavily sexualised. Calling women sluts and and otherwise critiquing them for dressing in a way that conforms to what is aceepted as "sexy" is not going to help the situation. In fact, that is a classic example of victim-blaming. Changing societal attitudes about expression of sexuality and encouraging diversity so that women in rock aren't just represented by Maria and the European gothic progrock front women in pretty dresses; and can be represented by conventionally ugly women who play every instrument with every different method of expressing themselves will solve the problem. And that requires each fan to do some work. We claim that we value talent over looks. We need to walk that walk. We also need to stop allowing ourselves to reduce people from full persons to simply sex objects. Everyone, from the fans to the music magazines to the record companies to everyone else in the music industry, has to form the habit of seeing women as fully human. Yes, Maria Brink is sexy. We can celebrate that sexiness respectfully, as well as her talent, her intelligence, her perserverance, her tattoos, her thought and ideas etc.

In This Moment - Forever

So instead of focusing exclsuively on her looks, lets get to know Maria as a human being:

Interview with Inked Magazine

A couple of years after moving from Albany, New York, to Los Angeles, In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink almost gave up on her dream. It was mid-2004 and she was living alone, had no friends, hated her day job, and none of the groups she called to audition for would call her back. But instead of following her judgment, packing up her car and heading back east, the singer drove to a local tattoo shop and had the words “We Will” inked on the underside of her left wrist and “Overcome” on her right one. The phrase, once the slogan for the civil rights movement, became a mission statement for the tenacious singer. “Another time when I was down and frustrated, I had the word ‘Believe’ tattooed over my knuckles, which was the most painful thing ever,” she says from the table of a cozy coffee shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, between sips of a soy latte. “I did it for the same reason; to give myself motivation. It’s visually in front of me all the time, pushing me on.”

For Brink, a self-admitted romantic and fan of The Secret, “belief” isn’t a marketing slogan to spit out between royalty checks. It’s a means of survival, a force that has sustained her through childhood abuse, teenage pregnancy, severe depression, and frustrations as a musician. It has also given her the strength to persevere.

...Throughout Beautiful Tragedy, Brink whispers, coos, groans, shouts, and growls, expressing a range of emotion from tender vulnerability to raw-throated rage. Her schizophrenic style complements the band’s music, which combines elements of thrash, numetal, and anthemic rock. As seamless and natural as the amalgam sounds, it was achieved only after hours of begrudging compromise between Brink and chief songwriter and guitarist Chris Howorth.
Me and Chris are so brutal and we fight so bad we sometimes want to kill each other,” Brink says, hands clasped like a child in prayer. “We’re both Sagittarius and we’re really stubborn. He’s the metal crazy dude, and I love all the heavy stuff, but I also love U2, Ani DiFranco, and Death Cab for Cutie. So when we write, there’s some intense, psycho shit going down with all this yelling and throwing things. And, neither of us get what we originally wanted. But in the end, that’s what makes our music different.”
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Maria Brink of In This Moment @ theywillrockyou.com

What’s the general writing process for the band? I know you write all of the lyrics but how do you all come together as a band?

Everybody writes for the albums. For example, I wrote “A Star-Crossed Wasteland” on piano and then everyone else came in and brought music to what I wrote – or the opposite, they’ll come to me with music for a song and I’ll start putting the lyrics and melody to that. Sometimes we’ll use pieces from different ideas and pull it all together into one song – so we all contribute when it comes to the writing process, everyone is involved.

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You’ve said that within all of your music, you like to tie in some theme of hope – even if the songs are dark – why is that so important to you?

I think for me, that’s just how I live my life. I’ve been through super dark times and hard times but I always have to focus on something positive because you don’t want to be left in some pit of black despair with no hope. We also have so many influenced kids who write me all the time who have gone through suicidal times or have fallen on dark times and that really impact me. I won’t shy away from writing about dark things, you have to write for yourself inevitably, but even when things are dark I like to focus on the fact that there’s still hope. Something positive always seems to come out of the dark anyway, somehow or someway.MORE

Maria Brink Interview Part 1

Maria Brink Interview Part 2

In This Moment - Call Me (Blondie) (Video)