Singer-guitarist Ana da Silva and bassist Gina Birch founded pioneering post-punk band The Raincoats in the late 1970s, as students at the Hornsey College of Art in London. Over the decades, the band has fully embodied the spirit of the genre by questioning the establishment and embracing an experimental ethos.One of the genre’s most venerated all-female acts, they’ve had a lasting influence on artists such as Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and the late Kurt Cobain, who once wrote that their debut album, “made me happier than playing in front of thousands of people each night, rock-god idolization from fans, music industry plankton kissing my ass, and the million dollars I made last year.” In 2023, da Silva and Birch shared their 10 rules for life, creativity, and activism as part of our Manifesto series.
