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Interview by Ellier English
How long have you been spinning?
I’ve been DJ’ing since 2018, so about 8 years now. I didn’t start DJ’ing seriously until about 4 years ago, though, which is about when I started regularly booking gigs. My relationship with DJ’ing hasn’t been linear, and it wasn’t until I had a bad break-up about 6 years ago that I really leaned into my craft.
What's new in your current spin rotation?
DJ JM-Shoplifting — I heard this in Bapari’s monthly NTS show and thought the way it sounded was soooo good. I feel like the longer I DJ, the quality of the sound becomes a lot more important, so it’s exciting to find releases that hit everything I want in terms of sound, arrangement, and overall feeling.
The Rave 2 The Grave record label has really great old school rave remakes - I love using a song or two in my mixes. Anything by Tatyana Jane - she’s a genius! Her sound is so fresh and interesting.
Favorite places to DJ/best places for DJs to work?
I just DJ’d Bikini Lounge for 602sdays two weeks ago - what a great, legendary party, it’s always such a great crowd! Otherwise, I love a good warehouse party - or nothing beats a crowded house party!!!
What music/movement is influencing you this year? And do you think it'll catch on in Phoenix?
I’m really excited by the cultural exchange happening between Latin America and China right now via electronic music!!! NAAFI has a series on NTS called the CDMX Tapes, and they featured this DJ called LUXIXI last Fall - through keeping up with her, I’ve found some cool labels and compilations.
There was a cool compilation released by this label in Shenzhen (D1S) called LATINO VISA. A lot of cultural exchange is inhibited by travel restriction, so I loved that this label commented on this on the description for the compilation, in a comical way:
“WITH US, YOU CAN SECURE YOUR VISA WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT STUMBLING BLOCKS SET UP BY THE AMERICAN EMPIRE. NO NEED FOR A U.S. VISA TO EMBARK ON YOUR LATIN ADVENTURE! I KNOW THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PLOT TWIST IN A BAD MOVIE, BUT HEY, WHAT’S NORMAL ANYWAY? THE U.S. VISA? PFFT!”
I think we’re actively seeing the decline of the U.S. Empire, economically and culturally, and that will continue to extend into the arts, I love seeing other scenes flourish in other countries.
The monopoly on ticketing by TicketMaster in the U.S., for example, has made it harder for artists and small venues to survive. It’s also why it costs $1,000 to see Beyonce, or $40-100 to see an indie band. Is this something that’s going to be resolved in the U.S.? I’m not so sure. Seeing how other scenes are flourishing, and persist in their cultural reproduction, is really cool and inspiring, though.
The monopoly on ticketing by TicketMaster in the U.S., for example, has made it harder for artists and small venues to survive. It’s also why it costs $1,000 to see Beyonce, or $40-100 to see an indie band. Is this something that’s going to be resolved in the U.S.? I’m not so sure. Seeing how other scenes are flourishing, and persist in their cultural reproduction, is really cool and inspiring, though.
What's your favorite song to reset the dance floor?
I love getting into higher BPMs and then blending into a song that’s half-time. I do this often by blending drum and bass or a hard techno song into reggaeton. Or, playing something with a weird vocal chop or a fucked up edit of a crowd favorite. For a while, I was closing sets with this NASTYYY edit of Return of the Mack. I feel like ‘reset’ can mean giving the crowd a little break if you’ve been going hard, or it can mean playing something that really catches peoples’ attention, so it really depends on what I’m feeling from the crowd!
How's your experience been curating and teaching at GIRLS DONT SYNC? What are you hoping to cultivate with these sessions?
It’s been great! It’s funny - the name is actually a rip from this girl DJ group in the UK. I saw the name a couple of years ago in Mixmag or something and it stuck with me.
I think back to when I first wanted to get into DJ’ing, about 9 years ago now, there was a guy who I really admired in the scene - he also DJ’d at the time. I remember asking him if he knew any women who DJ’d who weren’t straight and/or white, and he couldn’t think of any. At the time, a lot of the lineups I was seeing were all-dude lineups. This was the era of DJ Mag listing only a few women DJs among their top 100 DJ ranking - I mean, there’s still an issue of equity there along the axis of gender, even today.
It took me so long to realize I even wanted to be a DJ - all the male DJs on Mill when I was in college, or even the tíos that would DJ family parties when I was younger did make it harder to imagine myself even doing something that resembled that. I definitely wasn’t on FruityLoops making beats when I was 14, like some of my male peers.
Recently, a male DJ who was before me on a line-up tried to explain to me how CDJs work when I got in the booth to plug-in my USB. After a DJ set for a Women’s History Month event a few years ago, a male DJ tried to bait and switch me for money to receive photos he had taken of me during the show.
This isn’t wholly an issue of representation, but I do wish there had been more examples of women who were DJ’ing when I was younger. I wish mentorship was easier to access for women. A lot of the dudes I know who DJ, were taught by a friend, who was also a dude. A month ago, I was scrolling on a tutoring site for Ableton. They were all men. It’s still bad, y’all! Even worse when we get into the production side of it.
Photo by Aaron Folio
Learning about Discwoman, a collective and label who was active around that time (2017-ish), was really what opened my eyes to how vast DJ’ing can be as a form of artistic expression. Through that collective, I learned about women who were true architects of a sonic experience on the dance floor (Venus X or Juliana Huxtable in New York, for example). This made me start to fall in love with DJ’ing and electronic music, and I learned of people like K-Swift in Baltimore, or K- HAND in Detroit- which taught me that women have always been part of the fabric of nightlife and DJ culture.
Running the class portion is equally important to open decks, to me. I really want to emphasize the basic technical skills that DJs hold - sometimes it can be hard to learn, or the aspects of what goes into what a DJ does can be obscure. When I book a regular party, I will not book anyone that I don’t think is technically ready to perform, especially for peak time sets. If you’re putting in the work, it will be reflected in your sets.
So, I think it’s important to have an environment where we foster a love for the craft, as much as we provide an opportunity to play. Be confident, but also develop your skill! The party name is also a reference to my dislike of the ‘SYNC’ button. We don’t need it! Just be bad, so you can try to get better. I’d rather hear a transition that’s slightly off than one that’s suspiciously perfect. I mean, we can already see the BPM on any DDJ or CDJ, which is basically easy mode compared to vinyl DJ’ing. I’m not perfect, but I do believe DJ’ing is a skill as much as creative expression, and it’s a skill that can be learned, and should be practiced. Either way, GDS will remain a place where non-men can learn and practice their DJ’ing, whatever way works for them, regardless of what I think is the best way to go about it. :)
Go back to music
Learning about Discwoman, a collective and label who was active around that time (2017-ish), was really what opened my eyes to how vast DJ’ing can be as a form of artistic expression. Through that collective, I learned about women who were true architects of a sonic experience on the dance floor (Venus X or Juliana Huxtable in New York, for example). This made me start to fall in love with DJ’ing and electronic music, and I learned of people like K-Swift in Baltimore, or K- HAND in Detroit- which taught me that women have always been part of the fabric of nightlife and DJ culture.
Running the class portion is equally important to open decks, to me. I really want to emphasize the basic technical skills that DJs hold - sometimes it can be hard to learn, or the aspects of what goes into what a DJ does can be obscure. When I book a regular party, I will not book anyone that I don’t think is technically ready to perform, especially for peak time sets. If you’re putting in the work, it will be reflected in your sets.
So, I think it’s important to have an environment where we foster a love for the craft, as much as we provide an opportunity to play. Be confident, but also develop your skill! The party name is also a reference to my dislike of the ‘SYNC’ button. We don’t need it! Just be bad, so you can try to get better. I’d rather hear a transition that’s slightly off than one that’s suspiciously perfect. I mean, we can already see the BPM on any DDJ or CDJ, which is basically easy mode compared to vinyl DJ’ing. I’m not perfect, but I do believe DJ’ing is a skill as much as creative expression, and it’s a skill that can be learned, and should be practiced. Either way, GDS will remain a place where non-men can learn and practice their DJ’ing, whatever way works for them, regardless of what I think is the best way to go about it. :)
Go back to music