Earlier this week, Ra-Ra Rebel creators Sofia Krutikova and Kennady Quille hit up our inbox with Ra-Ra's second issue. A page criticizing Hulu for canceling the Zoë Kravitz-starring High Fidelity reboot caught our attention, and so we asked them to tell us a little more about their zine, what's so great about High Fidelity, and what's the latest in Seattle's music scene.
CHASE BURNS: First up, I need to bring up Zoë Kravitz in Hulu's High Fidelity reboot. I was also surprised they canceled it! What do you think worked so well about the series?
SOFIA KRUTIKOVA and KENNADY QUILLE: EVERYTHING!!!!!
High Fidelity was a masterpiece. It worked so well because it explored a niche that hasn’t had a place in the mainstream media. We have had a lot of shitty record store experiences and it’s really nice to see such a new perspective, even if it’s just on TV. We loved seeing the story redone and the contrast between the original High Fidelity movie. The movie is great but it’s so male centric (like most media about music and the music industry) so it was so refreshing to have the TV storyline center around a queer, Black femme.
There was one specific scene that stood out to us, the scene where Zoë Kravitz’s character is getting the Beatles mansplained to her. This moment in the show stood out to us because so many femmes in music have gone through this exact interaction. We had never seen this dynamic portrayed so accurately on screen. This made the show real and relatable! Zoë Kravitz’s character is loud and angry and messy and so are we!
We only know of four record stores that have women working at them out of the almost 20 in Seattle and this has definitely led to some… interesting interactions as a femme. Our goal is to eventually be able to have a femme, queer-run record store of our own to serve as a safe space for femme, queer and gender non-conforming folks to enjoy music without judgment!
So what do we need to do to get Hulu to reboot it?
SK & KQ: Yell at them! Just kidding but we feel like having dialogue about the show and creating a lot of love/art around it will hopefully convince them to do a second season. It’s probably our #1 show recommendation for people, we absolutely will not shut up about it. In the meantime we are manifesting that Hulu will bring it back!!!!
You're both active in the Seattle music scene. With venues shut down, how have you connected with local musicians?
KQ: I’m hopelessly addicted to social media however this turned in my favor during the pandemic! I was able to reach out and network with all of my friends and other local musicians through Instagram and Tik Tok. It’s been super cool to get to include and spotlight local musicians in our zine because we just get to sit down and chat with them. I think it’s really important for femmes working in the music industry to band together, uplift one another and validate each other's voices and ideas. I’m also a DJ and sub for Audioasis on KEXP so I get to connect with these musicians and then gush over them on the radio, it’s my favorite thing ever. Local babes are always welcome to send me music—Kennady@KEXP.ORG!
SK: Going off of Kennady’s answer, social media has also been the biggest way that I have been connecting with local musicians. I have been on social media since I was 12 so I learned to navigate the internet from a young age and now I know how to use its power to connect with artists. I have also been emailing as many people as I can and I have been getting connected that way. A lot of my friends are musicians so it has been really fun being able to spotlight people that I love and care about for the zine! I am a DJ as well and I reach out on my Instagram and ask people to send me their music that way so I can play it on the radio on 90.TEEN on KEXP and Ride the Wave on Rainydawg.org. I want everyone to send me their music; I wanna hear it!! Email me Sofia@KEXP.ORG!
Anyone you want to spotlight?
Here are some artists we want to spotlight: Artms, King Sheim, Mirabai Kukathas, Mia Day, La Fonda.
Speaking of Seattle and Riot Grrrls, did you know about Carrie Brownstein directing a biopic about Heart for Amazon? How do you feel about all these figures from different decades of Seattle coming together?
SK & KQ: We think it’s super rad—we always need more femme identifying people in these art scenes and having creative control over big projects putting women in positions of power is so needed and necessary. We love Carrie Brownstein and Heart! Glad to know this collaboration exists and excited to watch the film. It is so fun seeing Riot Grrrls thrive and come together to tell the history of grrrl involvement within the Seattle music scene. Grrrls can literally do anything, our power is endless.
Final words?
SK & KQ: If you have a story to tell, we wanna hear it and if you create art, we want to see it!
Our submissions for Issue 3 are closed but we would love for you to contribute to Issue 4!
You can always email submissions to RiotGrrrlRecords@gmail.com or find us on Instagram @RiotGrrrlRecords. You can also reach out to us on each of our Instagrams, Kennady’s is @ALivingHumanGrrrl and Sofia’s is @SofiiakMusic.
Ra-Ra Rebel is run by Sofia and Kennady.We are Riot Grrrls from Seattle who have been involved in the music scene for a while and wanted to start a femme record store and a zine! We assemble the zine, make the zine pages, edit, publish, and distribute it monthly.
Our first issue dropped in March, this April Issue is our second. We get submissions from our friends, from people in the music scene, and from anyone who wants to submit! We take submissions at riotgrrrlrecords@gmail.com. We post a lot about it on our Instagram so we get a lot of submissions that way too.
Our next issue comes out May 15! People can find more info about the zine via Etsy and Instagram and email.
