Who
What
Where

It's one thing to have the ideas, but to
make them reality takes committment!

"The word VENOM flashed in my mind and we just
ran with it!"
- Lisa Hayle

We are the
articulate voice in a
noisy revolution!

"Women are expected to sing sweet beautiful
music, and have been
for a long time.
We are not expected to sing loudly, bang on drums, and plug in.
Voice Is Venom is not fighting male rock,
we are challenging the status quo by creating a vehicle for women.
Men in rock music and
the industry don't need support, they have been well represented."
- Lisa Hayle

What better way to encourage female
musicians than to provide proof of existence?

Who Are We?

Voice Is Venom is a handful of girls in Oakland, CA with a passion for promoting women in music. We have our words, our energy, and our computers to shake up the scene! It's easy to be angry and complain... about the lack of female faces at open mics and on stages at rock shows plugging in and making some noise... its harder to roll up our sleeves and do something about it.

The word VENOM came out of a conversation between Denise Mauro, Lisa Hayle and local musician Katherine Sawyer (Wire Graffiti). We'd been discussing how women musicians need to band together and make some noise, saying that maybe they'd hear us if we all raised our voices.

From that day, we were spinning our wheels trying to come up with a clever way to promote bands and at the same time provide a resource for any girl who wants to break into the music world...
we came up with a Web Zine: Voice Is Venom!

Denise logs more hours in front of the computer screen than anyone else here. She is the co-founder, web-mistrix, web designer/coder, pixel pusher, marketing mastermind behind the project - and musician.
Lisa is a singer, songwriter and performer who lends her writing and elbow grease.

With a little help from our friends and rockers...

Angelique X , the rock diva of successful local band Venus Bleeding, is a columnist and regular contributor.

Liz Pisco - singer/songwriter who performs regularly with her self-entitled 5 piece roots rock band. In her spare time, she books, promotes, manages and is a perfoming member of "circle of songs", tours for female Bay Area songwriters.

Val Esway is the singer, songwriter, guitar mangler, publicist, and booking freak for the Bay area atmospheric pop group, Ramona the Pest. Since 1995, Ramona the Pest has put out 8 independent releases and numerous self produced tours.

What Are We Doing?

It would be great if there wasn't a need for Voice Is Venom ten years from now! If we weren't working to further the progress of women in male-dominated music genres, it would be because we didn't have to and we could concentrate on promoting an important part of our music scene... imagine girls walking into musical instrument stores and buying electric guitars from female salespeople.

Loud instruments wouldn't be just for the boys anymore. Girls would make noise and start bands because they'd have more role models who wrote and performed meaningful powerful music. Women would really have a place in music, rather than just be the pretty face of music. Until that day comes, we have a lot of work to do; there are so many women and girls out there who need to be heard from!

More than just a Web Zine, Voice Is Venom is a Bay Area resource network committed to the advancement of women musicians through information, events, and visibility.

Where We're Going...

To say the internet is a 'handy tool' is a gross understatement. The internet is as revolutionary as the printing press. The virtually limitless amount of information humans can share now has transformed our culture. Voice Is Venom would like to grow beyond the San Francisco Bay Area and tap into music scenes across the US and abroad. Eventually, we'd like to link up women in the arts all over the planet.

Co-founder, A & R, marketing,
tech-head, musician and artsy:
Denise Mauro

Contributing:

Co-founder, writer, singer-songwriter, musician, artist:
Lisa Hayle

Contributor, musician, writer:
Jayde

Contributor, musician:
Katherine Sawyer

Guest Writers:

Writer, musician, artist:
Angelique X

Writer, musician:
Liz Pisco

Writer, Mistake Magazine for
Burnt Ramen Studios:
Melinda Zapata

Writer, musician, booker:
Val Esway [Ramona The Pest]

Check out Joan Jett's
BITE on the subject!