Girl Noise Matters

There is a problem in the music industry and the numbers make it hard to ignore. Women make up 19.5% of songwriters, 6.5% of producers, and 94% of popular songs have no women producers. Industry pledges have come and gone without moving the needle, but for Simone Lipkin, waiting around for change isn’t an option.

Girl Noise is a women-led music festival series in New York City built on a simple but radical premise: that women's music and community matters. Less than a year old, Girl Noise is already drawing from the political energy of Lilith Fair and the Riot Grrrl movement, to the urgent cultural moment we're living in right now. Every show is a fundraiser, every ticket a direct act of support, and every lineup a deliberate curatorial choice rooted in diversity and community.

On March 29th, Girl Noise is hosting their second ever show at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn featuring eight artists: BuffChick, Caitlin Starr, Father Koi, For Opal, Leyla Ebrahimi, Spreedrun, Abbiiza, and Simone herself. All proceeds benefit the Lower East Side Girls Club, a nonprofit offering free creative programming to girls. I sat down with Simone to talk about what she's building and why it matters.

Girl Noise is less than a year old, but it already feels like it's filling a real gap in the NYC music scene. What was the moment you realized this needed to exist and that you were the one to build it?

I started percolating over the idea at the end of 2024. I was reading a lot of memoirs and biographies about the 90s and happened to fall into this rabbit hole of these more political initiatives that were going on in the music scene. Like Lilith Fair, the all female music festival, and Rock for Choice, which was an abortion benefit concert series that rock bands did, and Riot Grrrl– just all these really awesome things that were happening at the time. I think reading about them and seeing how some of the biggest bands were a part of these made me feel like, “Oh, this really isn't happening right now.” Especially with the political state now, it was like, “Oh, this is so interesting that we've kind of reverted to the opposite– we're doing less and less political, you know, we're becoming more and more divided.” I just feel like, especially our generation, there is this sense of every person for themselves and there is really that lack of community. I was just like, how can I combine my love for music and women with this kind of creation of community and activism. 

Drawing inspiration from all these really cool movements, like Lilith Fair and the Riot Grrrl– how does Girl Noise borrow from that legacy while carving out its own identity for this generation?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing, especially with Riot Grrrl, was doing a lot of research about what the criticism was at the time. Specifically with Riot Grrrl, there was a lot of criticism about the lack of intersectionality. So immediately that was something that was my priority- diversity and making sure we have all types of voices, all types of genres, all types of women. It's not feminism if it's just for one type of woman. At the core, what they were trying to do was really important, which was to highlight women's voices, create a safe space for women, show that it was possible to have these spaces, and show how impactful it could be to women and future generations. There's so many things that women in music wouldn't have access to, or maybe wouldn't have gotten access to at the time if it weren't for these movements. So that's super inspiring and there's a lot of different things I take from it, for sure.

You've put together a lineup of eight artists for the Sultan Room show. What was your curatorial process and what does it mean for an artist to feel right for a Girl Noise stage?

I do a lot of digging as far as different playlists and seeing different showcases around the city. Since our last show in June, I was able to spend six months just looking around to see who is releasing music- who is coming up in the scene. And also, luckily, we get a lot of nice messages from people who are interested in playing. I think for me, it's people and artists that feel aligned with the mission and are making music that feels aligned. I think that's really important to us because what's equally important is the community between the artists that play the shows. 

The last show, what was so exciting was just how nice everyone was to each other and how wholesome the green room was- seeing everyone hanging out and continuing relationships outside of the show and continuing to support each other, that's really important. And what's really great about the show is that everyone who's playing it is really just playing it because they believe in the cause. I think that really helps build a connection up front, they hear about the cause and they want to be a part of it, which is really exciting.

For someone who has never been to a Girl Noise show before, what would you want them to know before they walk through the door on March 29th and what do you hope they're thinking about on their way home?

I hope that people know that I want Girl Noise to be more than just one night. I want it to be a community outside of the events and for people to feel like they're supporting something bigger than themselves. I want people to know how incredible it is just the fact that they bought a ticket and that ticket is going directly to charity and how awesome that is. Also we have a really amazing women-owned clothing vendor that's going to be selling clothes and things like that. We just want people to engage in the activities, feel excited about that while also being able to support these women. I want people to leave feeling hopeful. That's what I felt after the last show- seeing the excitement, seeing how passionate people were about being there. I feel like it's so, so easy right now to feel helpless and to feel discouraged, so I definitely want to be kind of a beacon of light, even if it's in a very small way. I want people to be able to feel like they're doing something that matters and a part of something that is for them, supports them, and sees them. 

All proceeds from this event go to the Lower East Side Girls Club. Can you talk about why that partnership feels so intentional and what it means to connect a room full of performing women with the young girls those proceeds will reach?

Yeah, we are committed to supporting a different charity for every show. The Lower East Side Girls Club- we were very lucky that one of their volunteers actually reached out to us after the first show and told us about the organization. We connected about it and immediately were so inspired by the work they do. We got to visit their space and it's this wonderful, huge kind of like a school. They have a fashion studio, a production studio and a planetarium. It's all these amazing things that they give young girls access to for free. I was saying, like leaving the show feeling hopeful- I left that building like, “Oh my god, I can't believe this exists.” It's so beautiful and so incredible. For me, growing up in New York, I had so many amazing opportunities to be involved in creative stuff that nourished my hobbies and passions. Because of that, I was able to discover myself and discover what I liked. So the fact that it exists and is giving access for that to young people, I've seen firsthand how important that is. So that's really meaningful to me. It's a very small thing we can do to help uplift them and keep that alive. It's so beyond the music.

I think there's always a community craving for groups like this. It's often unpaid, necessary work. I get to see and be a part of similar initiatives and collectives in Chicago, so it’s so special to see how it’s going in New York. It’s so important! 

Is there anything else that you want to plug or mention to promote the show?

At the show HeadCount is going to be there doing voter registration. And we have this organization, Tone Shift [Collective], that is tied to Gender Amplified, another women in music organization- they're going to be there talking about their organization in their community. We're super committed to uplifting just other women-led initiatives in New York. And yeah, the HeadCount thing is super exciting, too, especially with the midterms coming up, we definitely want to continue that activism.

Get tickets to Girl Noise’s March 29th show.

Photo and graphic credits to @ffrenchvanilla