Pinned to the walls were snippets of music memories obtained throughout the years. Australian musician, Nick Cave, took centre stage with its poster's neon pink typography catching the attention of anyone who walked through the door. Miniature vinyl covers from 80's artists Donna Summer and Violent Femmes accompanied Booker T. & the M.G's black and white quirky sleeve design for their single, Green Onions. Numerous slightly creased concert tickets and CDs in polybags, help up by multicoloured pins, filled in the space in amongst the memorabilia, nearly hinding the blue backdrop of the pinboard behind.
The room injected with life is the office of 52-year-old Music Reader, Dr Abigail Gardner, a profession which she describes as a "professor in training". Working at the University of Gloucestershire for nearly 15 years, she has turned her workspace into an eccentric and comforting environment which projects her love of music and resembled more of a student's room than an office "I’m quite happy to age inappropriately" she laughs. Chatting about everything from music (as expected), advice for those currently in academia and her experience as a female academic, the passion behind her words that drift through the cold air is palpable.
Gardner has always had a strong passion for music "I have always been into it and travel to gigs, I've played keyboards in bands and stuff, I was a bit of a teenage goth" she chuckled. Surprisingly, however, Gardner didn't choose to pursue music as a degree and instead decided to study Japanese. "I was going to do French and German at university, but I didn’t want to carry on doing that, I’d seen a film with David Bowie that was called Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, and it was about Japan so I thought I’d do Japanese." It's clear that music has always had a massive influence on Gardner's life, even if it sends her down an entirely different route.
Like many of us, Gardner has her favourite artists from PJ Harvey to Ezra Furman "he's a Jewish gender fluid Punk rocker, he's great I'm going to see him again in Bristol in May, he wears kinda fancy pencil skirts on stage." From the posters in her office, Gardner prides herself in her quirky music taste "I've never been into pop, I was really snobby about it when I was growing up because I was a goth, so I was really into post-punk - Joy Division, The Jam, all that kind of stuff." When asked about the concerts she has been to, her eyes lit up, gesturing with her hands, so her black nail polish caught the light, she retold the story of going to see Gorillaz. "Mike Smith who works with us is from Gorillaz; he plays the keyboard, so he got us free tickets, so we went to see them. There were about five pop music students and me, and I took my oldest two kids, and we went to Brixton Academy on the night of the election, we saw mike gallivanting on stage, and we were backstage partying."
As well as being a Music Reader, Gardner has published a series of books, from Rock On: Women, Ageing and Popular Musicto her PhD, PJ Harvey and Music Video Performance. "I was going to do it just on women and music, but my supervisor was a film theorist, and she said why don’t you look at her music videos, so I literally spent about eight years looking at 6 minutes of footage, it’s ridiculous" she laughed while shaking her head. "She’s got a copy of the book, but I think she’s just using it as a doorstop". Surprisingly, Gardner isn't a huge of producing books "I hate writing; I hate it, it's really hard work, academic writing you know, it is torturous, torturous". Going into further detail, shes explained the stages of writing for an academic journal. "You have to go through what’s called peer reviews, so two other people who are anonyms will pile into your work and tear it apart and say you need to do this, this and this" she exclaimed. "Everything's just got to be so supported, if you say something authentic there has to be a debate about it, so you’re lucky to be in journalism."
With her many years of experience, Gardner shared some of her tips for those, like me, who are currently at in university, going into academic careers or researching music. "Never throw anything away, always keep everything. Network like crazy and don’t be scared to talk to people, and don’t get weirded out thinking other people are better than you cause that’s what they’re thinking about you and if they’re not they should be" Garnder giggles once more. "Oh and always make the tea, seriously, always offer to make the tea - that will get you far."
Following the multiple women's marches that have happened across the world in recent years, Gardner also spoke about her experiences being a women in music. "Sometimes it’s a bit like 'Ugh god there’s a woman talking about music cause she’s a woman, bit boring' and you think yeah I'd quite like to do something else, but you get a USP, you get a niche, you get known for something. When I played the keyboards nobody ever thought I was the keyboard player; they always thought I was someone’s girlfriend, which is boring after a while." Focusing in further, she also shared her encounters of misogyny in the workplace. "Always check you’re being paid the same as the man in the job you are doing, cause at one point I wasn’t, I was being paid about £7000/£8000 less [for the same job] don’t be scared to ask about money."
More recently Gardner has been involved with an Erasmus+ project on digital storytelling. "Working in Hungary, Sicily, Austria and here, it's for different institutions of four various secondary schools and a few kids are doing storytelling about food, family and festivals. So it will all go to a website, and the Hungarians will learn about the English etc, so it's about diversity and cultural understanding. It’s just a simple idea like simple ideas usually go the furthest so don’t overcomplicate things." Turning around to the map behind her, she pointed at a few of the photographs which were pinned up in different countries showing they were from the European project. "Off the back of that, we got the next project which is about media and literacy for low-skilled migrant women. We’re working with the Gloucestershire refugee association, and they are from Syria and Sudan and Guinea which is West Africa, so I can see that being a lot different."
Looking to the future, Gardner exclaimed what she would like to accomplish in the next ten years. "I'd like to become a professor, I’ve got this new book to finish by December, and what I’d like to do is produce a documentary to do with music and kind of migration. I want to go back to communities I’ve worked with and ask them and talk to them about music, oh and keep this office" she said laughing while looking around her, admiring the posters and vinyl sleeves on the wall.
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