Lily Grehan

Lily Grehan never really imagined making music her life, as a little girl she was really into artists like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift and as Lily got older, she started listening to bands like Oasis, The Smiths and the Stone Roses. However, when Lily started doing guitar lessons at 14, it was her teacher who really pushed her to pursue music as a career. 

Lily commented that growing up, there was this perception that girls being fans of a certain band or type of music ruined it but that’s just not the case and people nowadays forget that without girls, bands like The Beatles or One Direction would not have received as much music attention or success as they did. She added that even now girls who are fans of Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter are penalised for liking ‘basic pop girl music’, and this is only because a male dominated society has made up their minds on artists like Taylor Swift and female pop music in general. In Lily's words “It’s just a shame because it makes girls feel ashamed for liking what they like. A lot of people don’t see the misogyny in this, but its 100% is deep-rooted misogyny”. 

Before Lily came to university, she didn’t think there was anything that could stop her from being a musician. However, Lily said that she has always struggled with confidence and finding belief in herself when she’s on stage, and when she came to university that was amplified because she felt that she wasn’t acknowledged or held to the same respect as her male classmates. “I had the same abilities and skills; I just wasn’t cocky, I didn’t show off, I just sat in silence”. Lily openly said in the interview that because of this she temporarily lost her passion for music, “because I wasn’t around people who had an interest in what I had to offer, I felt like I didn’t have anything left to offer the music industry, and I gave up”. 

Lily continued to say that there are many reasons why she hasn’t put in 100% of her effort into music, and she said that she can’t solely direct that blame towards men that are higher up in the industry than her, however, “I think it’s hard being a girl in the music industry because there are certainly times when you won’t be taken seriously. There’s always someone better and more skilled than you”. Lily mentioned that she believes the issue starts with the fact that we don’t encourage enough girls to pick up a guitar, and when we do, we don’t praise them and push them to carry it on. 

During the interview I asked Lily what her opinion is on gender inequality within the music industry. She replied that in her opinion, it's tiring because nothing ever changes, in the last ten years she hasn’t seen any real changes to make the industry a better working environment for women. She stated that she wouldn’t place the blame solely on men but the only way we will ever see a real change is if men working in the industry stand up and do better. “They often are the ones in power, they can change the way this whole system operates”. Girls have just as music to offer as men in the music industry.

Advice from Lily

Some final advice from Lily for any aspiring female musicians….

“I would say don’t do what I did. Don’t overthink. You’re going to make mistakes, just like every successful musician before you did. I would say don’t hide behind men; they might be good musicians but that doesn’t mean you deserve to feel small or beneath them”.