Debbie Knox-Hewson has been a fully-fledged band member of James for eight years. Before joining the Manchester-based band as their drummer, she toured extensively with Charli XCX and was part of Nasty Cherry, an LA girl band that had their own Netflix series.
Debbie had her first child in December 2025 and was touring throughout her pregnancy. Speaking a few weeks before the birth, Debbie discussed the lack of visibility of pregnant women or new mums in music, which raises the question: is there any support and infrastructure in place for women during pregnancy in the music industry?
Interview: Gemma Hill. Photos: Elly Lucas, Ehud Lazin
Do you feel like James came along at the right time for you to make other decisions about your life around drumming, such as family?
“It did. I wasn’t giving too much thought to family eight years ago, not because it wasn’t on my mind, but mainly because I just didn’t really know how to make it work. Aside from you and Ciara (co-hosts of the Drummer Mamas podcast), I don’t know many drumming mothers. I wasn’t sure how to approach it and sort of brushed it under the rug.When I turned 30, I started thinking more about it. As a professional session player, getting good gigs feels like the pinnacle. I’ve always been really happy with my career, and I didn’t know how motherhood could be incorporated into that. A few of the guys in James are granddads now, so it felt like a safe space to begin to think about it. James is very much for the long run; we have things in the diary two or three years in advance, which I’ve never had before. I met my wife as well, and we really wanted to start trying”.
When did you tell the band that you were expecting a baby?
“I waited until the 12-week scan. Usually, you can wait longer to tell your employers, but our industry is unique because you’re getting tour dates booked in advance and I really wanted to let them know as soon as possible. I was juggling all of that pretty much the second I got the positive pregnancy test”.
I can think of two drummers who I’ve seen performing live when they were pregnant; one is Sarah Jones for Harry Styles at the Grammys. The other is Colette Williams, who plays for Blossoms, and I know that her waters broke when she was on stage at a festival. It’s still rare to see pregnant women touring. Why do you think that is?
“There are gigs I’ve been on in the past where I’d probably have been fired if I just got pregnant. I think it really does shake things up and the management and the artist needs to feel confident that you’re going to stay around. They invest in you. It’s so different to any other industry.
If I had a non-music job, I probably would have started maternity leave a bit earlier but it’s hard when you love your job! We were on a North American tour for six weeks towards my third trimester. That was tough, but it also felt important to show that that’s what we have to do in our industry. Unless you retire early or take two years unpaid leave, you do have to jump through it. I don’t see so many people doing it because it’s scary to think, ‘will the people I’m playing for keep me? Will I still get hired by all the musical directors? Am I still going to be the name that people put in the ring?’. I wouldn’t have felt safe to start a family if I wasn’t in a band that really valued me and that I want to be in for as long as I can be. If I was session-ing and just taking quicker gigs, I don’t think I’d trust that I’d be the person people would recommend anymore. That’s not the way with male session players. I know loads of guys that have kids”.
How has your pregnancy news been received by the band and audiences?
“It’s played out exactly as I had hoped. James are really attentive; they’ve offered extra help if I’ve needed it and it’s felt very safe and supportive. The fans have been amazing too! I came back from the States with a suitcase full of baby clothes and children’s bedtime books!”
How has it been for you physically, being on stage? How have you looked after yourself?
“I’ve been really lucky with this pregnancy. The gigs are really physical for me; there’s a lot of dancing involved! I’ve got a drum kit and a percussion rig, but then there’s some guitar stuff at the front and I normally crowd surf. The first few weeks, I would go for it as much as I could, but I had to think about how to change my movements and what energy I had. The goal was to just get the gig done and feel well rested. I’d normally sightsee, go on a hike or find galleries, but I just didn’t do anything except rest”.
Have you noticed extra movement from the baby when you’re playing? Is it affecting the way that you play drums?
“It’s not affecting the way I play drums. The baby’s a huge James fan; there were some songs in the set where he’d kick a bit more.
I’m 33 weeks now and I had a recording session last week. Because I was in the studio, I was playing really hard…that kind of focused drum take after drum take. I did feel a bit nervous then about disrupting him too much. But surprisingly I didn’t have to move the kit around to be more comfortable. I thought I’d have to shift things more than I did”.
Have you had to change your plans, compared to what you thought you could do at the beginning of the pregnancy?
“Yes. So, I remember actually saying to you that I was going to South America in week 34. The other members of James are all on their flight over there now, and I’m sitting in a cafe down the road from my house. Legally, it was already dubious if I was allowed to be there in the first place but also, with the long-haul flights, you just get so achy. It’s all aspirin and blood thinners. That’s really difficult for musicians because that’s our income so I’m very lucky with James that they’ve helped out with things I’ve had to miss”.
Have you become aware of any support that there is for pregnant musicians in the time that they can’t play?
“No. There’s a huge lack of support in general, though, again, James has been great. But there’s also systemic issues to think about; is there going to be prejudice for being pregnant or for having children? I feel like that really does exist”.
How did you feel having to hand a gig over to someone? Had you got something set up already?
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s one of my closest friends, Hannah Feenstra, who I really trust. We actually met when we were at BIMM. We were two of the four girls in the year”.
When you’ve had the baby, do you feel like you will want to continue touring exactly as you have been?
“I’m very lucky that my wife’s work is remote. The plan is we’ll sort of just go on our own tour alongside the James team and there’s talk of having baby rooms on the rider. I think the biggest hurdle is going to be how I’m going to need to book things way more in advance than management can confirm they’ll happen. I’m going to have to take a bit of a risk, just kind of booking them as if they’re going to happen 100% how they look in the diary at the time.“
Is there anything that you would like to see for the future, or differences that can be made by the industry for women who are pregnant so that they can have more support?
“Supporting females in the music industry also needs to come with supporting life changes and what those stages look like to us, because, if you’re the birthing parent, it’s not just seeing your family when you’re off the road. It’s bringing them with you. What does that actually look like if you want to support women to be in bands? It’s not just taking up those spaces on stage in a two-dimensional way; it’s everything that comes with it.
It’s not to say that all women want to have kids, and I certainly wouldn’t have discussed wanting to have kids in a band I was in, because I would be worried about what they would think and how that affects them and their project”.
It seems a taboo subject that women don’t want to even tell other women about within music…
“I think you’re right. They don’t want to share that because it’s a small industry. Is that going to get back to the people I work with? Or is that going to affect your likelihood of putting me forward for a gig if you need me to step in? It feels like the exceptions to the rule that can make it work. It’s not systemically supported”.
Where have you realistically planned to and from after the birth and are you having a few weeks break?
“We’ve got an arena tour in late March/April, and the baby will be three months old at that point. That feels like a good
time to get back into it. From there, the summer…I’ve no idea what it looks like. I’ll be relying on the support from my very supportive wife. My mum said she’s going to come out for a couple of gigs on that arena tour as well, so it will be very much on the shoulders of everyone helping to think that I’ve managed to pull it off. It feels wonderful to be in a project that’s so supportive”.
How have you planned your income for this gap?
“It’s a bit of planning in advance. You can have a few tours and make that stretch over the months that you’re not working and I’ve always been okay to sit in that uncertainty. I’m good with money and I just make it work. I don’t know whether I’ll feel so chill about it when I’ve got a baby”.
Do you think the industry can change to be more supportive of women during pregnancy and motherhood?
“My personal experience has been really positive, but there’s not actually any infrastructure to ensure it works. You could never get fired for having a kid in another sector but in music, I genuinely think you could. ‘Lucky’ is a word I’ve heard a lot from my female musician friends: “You’re so lucky that it’s worked out”. It shouldn’t feel lucky, you should feel really supported in it. I think that generally, there aren’t the people that are visible and there isn’t any support that seems to be available. It’s an unknown situation, which I hope changes with the more Rihannas and Beyonces that have kids and go on tour… and you hope that those women think about what they can do for their touring bands…how to facilitate women in music who are making the same decision. Maybe that’s the way; maybe it just needs women in music to make a start”.
Gemma Hill is co-host of the Drummer Mamas podcast (available on all podcast platforms), is a former editor of Drummer magazine, and now works for GEWA Music.
