Meet Joelle Guymon of Femme Shui in Central Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joelle Guymon.

Joelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been interested in music since I was a young child. I learned early that I could get attention as the fifth child by performing for my family and their friends. I had a natural affinity for singing so I began singing around the age of 8yrs old. I joined my first rock cover band when I was 14 and began teaching myself to play the guitar and bass. In high school, I continued my musical learning by joining the band program and playing percussion. I continued to play in cover bands throughout high school and college in the Cleveland, OH area. As an adult, I moved to Nashville, TN with one of my bands to try to pursue music and that is where I met my now wife, Rona Guymon. She was a percussion student at Vanderbilt University. We began playing music together and as our relationship developed we moved to Phoenix for other career opportunities. Rona is from Phoenix and went to South Mountain for Performing Arts and has musical connections here from her past. It’s in Phoenix where we met our current guitar player, Jody Broaddus about 15 years ago. The three of us started our cover band about 15 years ago and we were called Hookah at the time. Seven years ago we changed the band name to Femme Shui and started gathering musical momentum and followers. About five years, Rona reconnected with a high school bandmate named Rhonda Wooder, who plays bass and sings. She joined the band and has helped elevate our band in many ways. Today we play over four hours worth of music and have over 500+ local followers. It is common for us to pack the bar to capacity while we play songs that everyone can either sing or dance to. We strive to provide an excellent fan experience by having contests to win band swag (free) including shirts, hats, stickers, guitar picks, chap stick, etc. We focus on making sure our fans have the most fun possible!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Playing music for a living is difficult but we also learned it’s valuable to play music as an outlet and to have it as a way to connect to other people. As working professionals, it is difficult to be able to schedule enough practice time or to book gigs due to everyone’s hectic work schedules. We often get requests to play that we have to decline due to scheduling conflicts. There are also internal struggles each band has to deal with which include picking songs that are appropriate for the band and the audience and that will drive fan engagement. A healthy band works through all of those issues to continue to see the value in playing together and offering a great product to the bars that book us and to our fans.

Please tell us about your music.
Our band is known for bringing a party atmosphere to every show. The T-shirts we give away say “I partied with the band” and have our logo on them. We focus on ways to get the fans engaged through our social media accounts leading up to the gigs which helps to drive attendance. When picking songs to play we have two general rules: the fans need to be able to sing the song or dance to the song. This is how we keep our fans on the dance floor. We also ensure we have multiple contests for the fans to win prizes during the show. We typically have trivia questions, or dance contests, or costume contests. The band swag certainly sets us apart from other bands in the valley. Lastly, we focus on keeping drinks in the fan’s hands to help promote the party atmosphere. We promote the drink specials of the night but also promote “Holler and Swoller” in between songs. You won’t find a more engaging fan experience than at a Femme Shui show.

Is there something we can do as a city to improve the outlook for businesses like yours?
Live music in Phoenix is tough. There aren’t a lot of venues for cover bands and then there is a lot of band competitions. The pay scale for live entertainment is also difficult in Phoenix which makes it more of a hobby for many people. We focus on partnering with key venues that value the crowd we bring in and provide a reasonable pay scale in return.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 4803071335
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @femme_shui
• Facebook: @femme.shui
• Twitter: @femmeshuiband
• Other: snapchat: femmeshui

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