Women in rock: Jiggy Burd’s tips on becoming a rock musician

Ex-screamer of the Dirty Burds (RIP), current screamer in The Swankers, the rockalicious Jiggy Burd tells you how to become a rock singer and what to do with the swathes of skinny indie kids dying to kiss your hand when you come off stage…

Name: JIGGY

Career title:

Singer with the Swankers (ex-singer of the Dirty Burds)

Full-time/part time: Full-time

How long have you been doing this: All my life…

Qualifications and/or training duration:

To be a properly rocksome singer you have to have a huge gob

Skills: Screaming. Yeah!

Job perks:

Meeting skinny indie rock boys, of course…

What made you want to go into this profession:

The chance of meeting skinny indie rock fans.

How physically or mentally demanding is the job:

Hmm. It really depends on how many skinny indie rock fans you succeed in pulling.

Long hours? See above 🙂

Downside of the job:

All that screaming means you’re gonna end up with a sore throat, one way or another.

Most hideous career moment to date:

Well, my most hideous career moment to date – that I’m willing to admit to – was playing with the god-awful ‘Ten Minutes With My Dad’. Ten minutes on stage with them was ten minutes of complete and utter shite. I don’t care if they read this.

Do you meet interesting people and if so, who was the most interesting?

Do I meet interesting people as a rock singer? Oh, believe. Iggy Pop, The Hellacopters, Turbonegrom, The Hives… a whole chain of rawk bands. Part of the perks, definitely.

Is there a danger factor in being a rock singer? Definitely. So far I’ve got:

1. Knocking teeth out with mic
2. Nearly breaking my ankle doing a stage dive
3. Knocking out a member of the audience with my mic stand. Way to go!

What to wear?

I have a collection of stage outfits. I don’t go to the corner shop looking like I do on stage – unless I’ve had a really heavy night out.

Do you meet romantic potentials in your line of work?

I can’t stress this enough… if you become a rawk singer you will meet sexy young fans. Lots of them. So they’d better be the kind of fan you want to meet and hang out with, or you’re in trouble…

What advice would you give young women who are interested in this career path?

Shyness won’t get you on that stage and off it, night after night, in one piece. So don’t be shy!

Photo: The Dirty Burds rocking out in Shoreditch