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What do sound and knitting have in common? You’d be forgiven for thinking not much, but both have been constant companions across the life and career of sound artist and knitter, Felicity Ford also know as Felix.

Join sobel as she visits Felix in her St Leonard’s home to talk about her journey into field recording, soundscape composition and using this skillset to document the process of wool production. Felix also shares her perspective on why celebrating domestic sounds is a feminist pursuit, her maverick approach to disruption traditional notions of sonic art and how all of us can find a little magic in the everyday. In fact, isn’t that what art is all about? Felix would argue.

Felix also runs her own online knitting school called Kitsonik, so it only felt right for Isobel to be taught some knitting while we were there.

LINKS

• Listen to Felicity Ford’s sound works >>
  
  
• Find out more about Knitsonik >>
  
  
• Read Felicity Ford’s PhD Thesis on the Domestic Soundscape >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Feeling stuck in your music production journey? Struggling with self-doubt or tempted to buy more gear in the hopes it will transform your sound? This episode is for you.

In today’s episode of Girls Twiddling Knobs, we’re exploring how visualisation—a powerful mental tool used by top performers—can help you:
✨ Unlock your creative confidence.
🎛️ Overcome the pressure to rely on expensive gear or others.
🎶 Take your production skills to the next level.

What You’ll Learn:
✔️ The science behind visualization and how it impacts learning and performance.
✔️ Why self-belief is key for women navigating music tech spaces.
✔️ 3 easy visualization techniques to start using today.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up, this episode will show you how to use the power of your mind to create with confidence and ease.

FREE Resource
Grab The Music Tech Meltdown SOS Guided Meditation for FREE! Head to girlstwiddlingknobs.com/sos and use the code 'FREESOS' at checkout!

💬 Question for You: Have you ever used visualisation to improve your music or creative process? Share your experience with us on Instagram @girlstwiddlingknobs

📌 Don’t forget to subscribe for more empowering episodes like this.

Sources mentioned in this episode: 

• How The Brain Rewires Itself (Time Magazine) >>
• Mental imagery, action observation and skill learning >>
• Does Mental Practice Enhance Performance? >>
• The Relationship Between Materialism and Personal Well-Being: A Meta-Analysis >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Luckily, there’s far more conversations happening about musicians’ mental health these days. But how might gender impact our experience of things like depression and anxiety? And how might this differ in a music technology setting, specifically? Because, while this is something that’s often touched upon in wider conversations around gender and music technology, it’s rarely fully explored in its own right.

Inside this conversation, Isobel chats with musicians’ therapist and counsellor, Denise Devenish about the intricacies and complexities of being a woman or gender minority in music tech spaces and how this can contribute to burnout specifically. They also discuss what the industry can do better to prevent these challenges, how Denise works specifically with musicians in her private practice and how you can access support if you’re affected by any of the issues we discuss in this episode.

Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Denise Devenish Counselling >>
• Follow Denise on Instagram >> 

Therapy & Counselling Support

• Mind Charity >>
• The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network >> 
• British Association of Performing Arts Medicine >>

Sexual Harassment & Abuse

• Women’s Aid >>
• Help Musicians’ Bullying & Harassment Helpline >> 
• Musicians’ Union Safe Space Scheme >>

Musicians’ Mental Health

• Music Minds Matter >>
• Music Support >>
• Musicians’ Union Mental Health Support Line >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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In a world that’s always online, how do we stay true to ourselves as artists? This week on Girls Twiddling Knobs, we tackle this question with the fiercely original electronic music producer Maria Uzor.

Growing up as a Black artist in a predominantly White area of the UK, Maria often felt like an outsider. But she turned that feeling into a sound that’s bold, raw, and unmistakably hers. Join us as we explore how Maria channels her unique experiences into a blend of basement grittiness and cosmic vision.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

✨ How Maria creates from an authentic place despite social media pressures
🎛️ An inside look at her production process for her album, Soft Cuts
🎤 Why live performances help her reclaim space as a Black female artist
🎚️ The highs and lows of going solo versus releasing on a label

It’s an inspiring chat about resilience, authenticity, and creating art that truly matters. 

Once you’ve listened, share what you thought of the episode in a review wherever you're listening. We’d love to hear from you! 🌟

Check out Maria Uzor’s website >>
Find Maria on Instagram >>

Maria’s live performance gear:
Ableton Push >>
Novation Launch Controller >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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What unique facets of our existence and identity does sound allow us to explore as women and gender diverse artists? This is one of the big questions that emerges inside this conversation with three of the five 2024 Oram Award winners.

Whether it be through choreography, performance art, hacking or design, Lola De La Mata, xname and The Silver Field are all artists who have come to sound through alternative pathways. Inside this episode, you’ll learn about the role that sound and experimental music plays in their practice, how they harness technology to express deeply personal and sensitive experiences and we’ll also listen to some of their work too. 

You’ll also learn more from one of the 2024 judges Dr Mariam Rezaei about the Oram Awards themselves, including the judging process and how you can apply for the next round. 

Find out more about:

• The Oram Awards >>
• xname >>
• The Silver Field >>
• Lola De La Mata >>
• Dr Mariam Rezaei >>
• Girls Twiddling Knobs >>
• Isobel Anderson >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Join Isobel for all the juicy details on what you can expect to find inside of Season 06 of the podcast, dropping on October 24th. 

Listen and subscribe to the podcast: https://femalediymusician.com/podcast

And share the podcast with a friend so we can spread the word, and making music technology a better place for women and gender diverse people.

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Join us for the first ever Live Girls Twiddling Knobs episode, recorded at Towner Gallery on August 2nd, 2024.

inside, Isobel talks with sound and lino artist, Daisy Stewart-Darling about her new project Lino Waves: Soundscapes of the Living Coast, which documents the changing East Sussex coastline through field recordings and large scale lino works.

We touch on critical acoustic ecology, recording non-human voices, combining sound with visual mediums and how to present this democratically in a gallery context all with sound examples from the project. We also take a tour of one of Towner's current exhibitions, Rising Tides, Melting Ice by Emma Stibbon, and discuss the synergies between this and Daisy's project.

This epsiode is sponsored by our fabulous Knob Twiddler merch, of which all proceeds go towards us making and sharing the podcast. Get yours here >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Following last week’s epic binaural finale episode, Isobel is back for one last music tech chat to bring Season 05 of Girls Twiddling Knobs to a close.

This final wrap up episode is the perfect way to get a whistle stop tour of any episodes you might have missed and glean any final little golden nuggets from the last few weeks.

This season, we've had some of the most amazing guests including NYX, DJ Paulette, Cathy Lane, Josephine Zwaan and many more, and they've all shared their skills, expertise, music and immense amounts of personal vulnerability and insight.

We've also covered some really important topics through my solo deep dive episodes, including the power of community over confidence when it comes to women using music technology and choosing the right software for you.

All together, these episodes make a powerful statement of women taking control of their own path in music and sound.

And while this is the end of another season of Girls Twiddling Knobs, this final wrap up episode also reflects on 2023 coming to a close, and our intentions and hopes for the New Year ahead.

Thank you for listening to Season 05 of Girls Twiddling Knobs, we have some really exciting plans being hatched for the podcast next year, and we're looking forward to sharing more with you soon.

See you in 2024!

GTK HQ xx

You can pre-order DJ Paulette’s book here >>

And you can check out all of Season 05 (and all the previous seasons) here >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Ready for a binaural sound adventure?

We’re wrapping up S05 of Girls Twiddling Knobs with an extra-special episode where, together, we take an immersive binaural deep dive into the ecosystem that is NYX.

NYX are often described as an electronic drone choir and are a group of women and non-binary vocalists and non-vocalists who use music technology to create dense, musical creations and performance experiences with artists such as GTK alumni Gazelle Twin, amongst many others.

Recorded live at Hidden Notes festival in September, Isobel accompanied the collective over two days to document not just their use of music technology, but also how this is informed by a deep personal connection and somatic practices.

This episode also required a different editing approach than usual, so expect to hear lots of sound design and soundscape composition throughout!

We’ve got an hour of immersive sonic goodness waiting for you - which is of course, what we’re all about here at Girls Twiddling Knobs - so sit back, relax and remember to grab some headphones for the best audio experience.

You can check out NYX here >>

You can check out Hidden Notes festival here >>

Featuring the voices of NYX: Sian O’Gorman, Philippa Neels, Alicia Jane Turner, Ruth Corey, Phoebe Pimlott, Shireen Qureshi, Cecilia Morgan (Cil) and Laura Misch

Recorded, edited, produced and narrated by Isobel Anderson.

Additional composition and sound design also by Isobel Anderson.

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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Have you ever questioned the way that music technology software is designed? And how the tech tools and gear we use might look and feel completely different if they were designed by different humans (i.e. not just predominantly white, cis, heterosexual men living in the West). Well, this question didn’t just bother today’s guest, producer and researcher, Josephine Zwaan. It led her to write a masters thesis that totally reimagines how a DAW could behave through the lens of African philosophy, exploring ways to ‘decolonise the loop’. 

Josephine is a multifaceted, creative force who uses research as a tool to challenge and rethink existing frameworks and practices and creates music under the moniker of Suzooki Swift. She also co-founded rosetta, a Netherlands based initiative supporting female and nonbinary music producers, with an emphasis on education and community building. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
{00:00} Intro
{03:25} Josephine on her alter-ego, SUZOOKI SWIFT
{06:06} Josephine on her track SWIMMIN’
{12:56} Josephine on discovering her strengths in collaborations
{15:49} What brought Josephine into music production?
{20:15} Josephine on setting up her platform rosetta.
{22:15} Inside Josephine’s research on decolonising the loop
{57:10} Episode Summary

Check out Josephine's Website >>

Connect with Josephine on Instagram >> 

 Check out Josephine's platform rosetta >> 

rosetta on Instagram >> 

Suzooki Swift on Instagram >>

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Girls Twiddling Knobs is hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey.

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