I had a crazy busy week since my last post– our main sound person had to drop out last minute, and one of our collective members, Melanie, stepped up and offered to do it, then got horribly sick with the flu and couldn’t do that or perform which was so sad. She put so much effort into the mini fest for Signal Flow that it was such a bummer she missed it completely. But then we had the issue of no sound person aside from me, and I was performing so late in the night that I didn’t wanna do the whole event alone. Because we are a female and trans only collective we couldn’t rely on any of our friends outside of those identities to pick up slack and we pulled it together and I trained a couple of our members how to do sound the day of, which was a little terrifying but it worked out in the end. The event was from 6PM-2AM and I was running on 4 hours of sleep, and my nerves weren’t helping, but I knew we were capable and that it would take a lot but we could do it all!

The show went so well, and I had many people show deep appreciation for having an event that featured and was run by women and trans identified people exclusively. It was also my very first set with visuals made for me, and I had many good responses afterwards, which is great because my friend Krysta who made them wants to continue to collaborate. I was so nervous when I went on, and while I usually allow part of myself to relax by having a drink and letting my intuition sense the room and guide parts of my set, this time was different; I had a set that was completely pre-determined by order and to the minute, and I was having a hard time (which has happened often) letting myself be completely open and knowing how to be a performer while playing other people’s music. I decided about 2 songs in that making eye contact with the audience would help, remembering when someone commented once that he wished I had looked up at the audience so he could show me how much he liked this particular song I had played. I looked up from my gear and down to the audience, and the floor was filled with people – way more than I thought would be there – and I started to see familiar faces throughout the crowd, all smiling and beaming and dancing beautifully. I especially was getting some good energy exchange with Krysta, after all the work we put into that set, like mental hugs and high-fives. Pretty awesome and unique experience. So it clicked right there, and my body relaxed. Not only that but I also was able to smile and laugh with friends down in front while I was playing music for them.

Because of the weight of the recent shooting that a cop inflicted on two young black men, the week had been really heavy, in addition to the stress of trying to coordinate this show which was a few days after the shooting. I had wondered if the show would be a good place for people to let some of that heavy energy release, and before the show, one of my friends who was performing expressed the same sentiment, but more assured than I was. Afterwards, I had that reflected back to me from other people as well, and I felt lucky to have been able to provide a show for people to do that, and a set for people to physically release some of that to also. It felt actually pretty spiritual, and the next day when I finally woke up, the energetic release from everything leading up to the show was palpable in my body. I am so grateful to my friends and to music for allowing that to happen.

I also finally got my pictures back from Don’s camera, and was able to see my first exploration with black and white film while (mostly) in the Bay:

Jesse after we saw Shlohmo at Berkeley

Kinsey, one of my temporary housemates in Oakland with her dog

Victor, one of my oldest friends from Olympia!

Oakland beach time! It’s safe to assume all these people lived in Olympia

one of my closest friends, Hannah

best buds in Oakland

these ones again! (now back in the PNW)

my coworker and new good friend Jessie

first self portrait with my Minolta

As mentioned in my previous post, I have a show coming up on Saturday May 23rd at Obsidian that I have been working on in one way or another everyday. There are more than 10 performers to consider, and my collective has been incessantly working through emails and meetings to figure out what each performer needs for their stage setup, who is gonna do sound, who is gonna set up and break down gear in between sets and how we are gonna pull it off in the time allotted. (Not to mention the things that have already thrown our plan off course.) The other side of it is that I’ll be performing during the late part of the event, so I also have my DJ set to practice now that I’ve prepared it for/with the visuals my friend Krysta has created for me. Plus, I have been exchanging texts, emails and meeting up with her to discuss new ideas and show each other what we have thought of since we last spoke. I’m excited to have a DJ set where it will be more of a concept performance piece than a traditional DJ set, because I have planned every song and the order of songs specifically to go with the visuals, and will not be leaving room for change as I usually do. Since there will be visuals, and it’s not a typical dance set that I will be playing, I am curious to see what it feels like for myself and the audience.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing my friend John K, one of my favorite DJs who goes by Rap Class and lives in Portland; of course, he used to live in Olympia and went to Evergreen. We spoke on the phone for an hour based on 4 main questions/prompts, and at the end, he turned it around and asked a question of me which was fun. Also, he happened to be playing a show that night with Garlic Man & Chikn, my friends who I apparently can’t stop raving about! I would like to transcribe the entire interview, but since we spoke for so long I will try and make a concise summary that hopefully does justice to the conversation.

Rap Class at the turntables

My questions:

1. How often do you perform each month?
2. Do you get paid for every show you play/is that something you are looking for when you play?
3. Do you have a planned trajectory for each set before you play?
4. DJ Spooky says the DJ is more than just an entertainer; that the DJ manipulates time, subjectivity     and memory. He talks about songs as constantly becoming…because you’re taking it and putting it in a different context and it becomes something different. For me I think the DJ’s role is to create an atmosphere.  Do you identify with that or not? How so?

Answers from Rap Class:

1. Between 5 and 10 times
2. It is…like tonight if I think it’s gonna be fun and a good experience, I’ll just be like ‘yeah whatever’ ya know? But like if it’s something for a stranger…I like to work for money…also I won’t say yes to something if it’s uncertain if I’m gonna get paid or not and I know that I am not 100% wanting to do it.
3. Yeah I mean you have your technical skills and when you’re playing out at least once a week, twice a week…and I’ve been DJing with turntables for 10 years, you kinda have an idea of like ‘yeah this is gonna work together’. I think that every DJ  that plays a set in a specific genre, no matter how many different genres or whatever you wanna call it you play out, um, they’ll cycle through 4-5 different mixes of a certain set within like a 12 month period or something. You have your songs and then you’re slowly adding throughout the year, I slowly add…you have a solid mix and then there’s variations of that mix…I really do think it takes a couple months to really understand the power of a track in your set.
4. I do identify with that…in that DJ Spooky quote. When you’re taking the songs out of context…and you’re turning people onto it [therein] lies the artistry. One of my big goals when I go out to DJ…I just look at the scenario, I look at what’s going on and I try to play the songs that hopefully…you know if they’re gonna ask me for Snoop Dogg– well, I’m not you know necessarily gonna play Snoop Dogg, but I’ve figured out that that’s what they’re sorta into and the songs I have– hit that area for them. And theres nothing more satisfying. This happened the other weekend, someone came up and was like “I don’t recognize one song you’re playing but I’m completely into the vibe that you’re putting down.” To me, that’s what it’s all about!

Find Rap Class on Facebook or at:

http://www.droppinggems.com/rap-class/

his vibe

I got back to Olympia on May 3rd, and went right back to Seattle again for the event I played there before at Maxim’s. My friends Lizzy and Karl of Garlic Man & Chikn were having their bi-monthly show and my coworker Jessie AKA Night Fox was playing, so I went up wit her to see the show. I brought my Minolta that had a few pics left on the b&w roll I had been using in the Bay and finished it off there. Like I said in my other post about them, Garlic Man & Chikn were so fun as usual, and Jessie performed a great set despite being extremely tired from an event the night before. They had raffle prizes there this time and I won a Garlic Man & Chikn patch and sticker, and various odd items that I’ll leave up to the imagination . . .

me, Karl and Jessie in Seattle

Every day since then I have been working on two related projects; the first is a DJ set for a show I’ll be playing at Obsidian on the 23rd this month, and I’ve been working closely with my friend Krysta to have visuals to accompany my set. When I say working closely I mean she comes up with all the ideas for visuals and works on them in her studio, and I incessantly text and email her my opinions based on what she has told or shown me, and discuss the songs I’ll be playing with her to let her know what I’m interested in and why. When I saw her last and saw her visuals, they were above and beyond what I expected, and I had anticipated that I would be happy with what she came up with, so I’m very excited about this collaboration.

The second project I’m working on is the show I’m performing at on the 23rd, because I’m also organizing it with my friends who I’m in a collective with. We are a women and trans collective called Signal Flow, and started in order to promote women and trans people in the electronic music and technology scene. So far we have had one mini fest and one workshop and this will be our second mini fest (we are all busy people!). We have had meetings and many email exchanges in between meetings to discuss details and figure out who will be playing, when, who will be doing sound, etc. Last night we finally figured out the lineup and set times and since we want as many people as possible to see the show, we are having it start early at 6PM and will be all ages until 10:30 PM, which is when I and other DJs will round out the end of the night with a dance party for the older crowd. I’m really excited about this show, because we have people from Oakland, Olympia, Seattle and Vancouver (Canada) coming out to Obsidian to play our show, and I’m genuinely excited to see every one of them play.

I finished reading the essay I was reading that I mentioned by DJ Spooky, and I was really inspired and validated in reading what he had to say about DJing. My question about what the DJ represents in the music scene felt like it was put into words in the quotes I had posted before this one, and I’m going to reach out to some DJs I know to see if they can maybe expand on my question and add some points of view I hadn’t thought of yet. I also have been searching for places to live in Oakland or San Francisco and have a promising lead around the time I was wanting to move, so I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to talk to my old DJ mentor in LA about all of this and get some advice from her about what I should be asking for in terms of my rates when I do move.

Until the Signal Flow show this month, I’m expecting to be rather busy preparing for it as I try to make plans for graduation and my move.  Here’s one more of my favorite quotes from DJ Spooky on DJing and the endless changeability/possibilities available from mixing songs:

“…my work…describing its presence in the art objects (some still call them songs) I create would be to see that they focus on “art as potentiality” with regard to a state of being-as-void, or continuous becoming.”

I got back to Olympia on May 3rd, and went right back to Seattle again for the event I played there before at Maxim’s. My friends Lizzy and Karl of Garlic Man & Chikn were having their bi-monthly show and my coworker Jessie AKA Night Fox was playing, so I went up wit her to see the show. I brought my Minolta that had a few pics left on the b&w roll I had been using in the Bay and finished it off there. Like I said in my other post about them, Garlic Man & Chikn were so fun as usual, and Jessie performed a great set despite being extremely tired from an event the night before. They had raffle prizes there this time and I won a Garlic Man & Chikn patch and sticker, and various odd items that I’ll leave up to the imagination . . .

me, Karl and Jessie in Seattle

Every day since then I have been working on two related projects; the first is a DJ set for a show I’ll be playing at Obsidian on the 23rd this month, and I’ve been working closely with my friend Krysta to have visuals to accompany my set. When I say working closely I mean she comes up with all the ideas for visuals and works on them in her studio, and I incessantly text and email her my opinions based on what she has told or shown me, and discuss the songs I’ll be playing with her to let her know what I’m interested in and why. When I saw her last and saw her visuals, they were above and beyond what I expected, and I had anticipated that I would be happy with what she came up with, so I’m very excited about this collaboration.

The second project I’m working on is the show I’m performing at on the 23rd, because I’m also organizing it with my friends who I’m in a collective with. We are a women and trans collective called Signal Flow, and started in order to promote women and trans people in the electronic music and technology scene. So far we have had one mini fest and one workshop and this will be our second mini fest (we are all busy people!). We have had meetings and many email exchanges in between meetings to discuss details and figure out who will be playing, when, who will be doing sound, etc. Last night we finally figured out the lineup and set times and since we want as many people as possible to see the show, we are having it start early at 6PM and will be all ages until 10:30 PM, which is when I and other DJs will round out the end of the night with a dance party for the older crowd. I’m really excited about this show, because we have people from Oakland, Olympia, Seattle and Vancouver (Canada) coming out to Obsidian to play our show, and I’m genuinely excited to see every one of them play.

I finished reading the essay I was reading that I mentioned by DJ Spooky, and I was really inspired and validated in reading what he had to say about DJing. My question about what the DJ represents in the music scene felt like it was put into words in the quotes I had posted before this one, and I’m going to reach out to some DJs I know to see if they can maybe expand on my question and add some points of view I hadn’t thought of yet. I also have been searching for places to live in Oakland or San Francisco and have a promising lead around the time I was wanting to move, so I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to talk to my old DJ mentor in LA about all of this and get some advice from her about what I should be asking for in terms of my rates when I do move.

Until the Signal Flow show this month, I’m expecting to be rather busy preparing for it as I try to make plans for graduation and my move.  Here’s one more of my favorite quotes from DJ Spooky on DJing and the endless changeability/possibilities available from mixing songs:

“…my work…describing its presence in the art objects (some still call them songs) I create would be to see that they focus on “art as potentiality” with regard to a state of being-as-void, or continuous becoming.”

“The mix speaks to you…it shows the inexplicable mutability of sound as different people share the memories brought about by the same songs. It demonstrates the uncanny power to metamorphosize, through audio alchemy, the passage of sound into a kind of unspoken story, that like its predecessor, the oral tradition, can pass on “tales” of songs.” -DJ Spooky

The night after my show in SF, I played in downtown Oakland at a Bar called The Rock Steady. The event was put on by an old friend Isador who wanted to have the night be female and/or femme identifying DJs only, and they (Isador) called it Hard Casual. Aside from Isador and myself, there were three other acts, the openers being a pair of DJs who did a back to back set. They went by the names MegaLow and Pariah Carey, and are in a really good band together called Silver Shadows, who I had seen play over the summer when I was in LA. One half of the duo was Margot, a good friend who I’d shared a practice space with in Olympia, and seriously one of the best musicians I’ve ever played with. We were in a Runaways cover band together roughly 5 years ago. Megan, her back to back counterpart that night I’d met just very briefly in LA, and I had heard that she used to DJ with producers and DJs in LA who I have been really excited about at events called Mustache Mondays and Night Slugs. Her and I got to talking throughout the night, and realized we had quite a bit in common with our musical interests, and when she found out I was thinking about moving to Oakland she told me I definitely should. After my set she explained how she is part of a people of color DJ collective called Browntourage (love that name) and said she would be interested in starting a monthly event with me if I moved to the Bay. She also offered to try to connect me with the aforementioned DJs and producers in LA which I can’t explain enough how exciting that is even if it doesn’t pan out! Those people are some of my absolute favorite artists right now. Needless to say, both of my shows were so incredible positive in feedback and opportunities. Plus it was great to see a group of old Olympia friends show up to see me play.
I was asked in a comment to describe my process for preparing a DJ set so here goes:
I consider several things before I even look through my music selection–

• Where am I playing? (venue, house party, all-ages space, bar)
• Who will my audience be?
• Who asked me to play?
• Who will I be playing with and what is their style?
• Do I need to match my style to the other performers or not?
• What is the vibe of the venue space, and the particular night that I am playing? What kind of music usually is played there?

I do that research, and often ask these questions to whoever I am in contact with about playing the show. If possible, I talk to the other DJs as well. Then I get an idea of what type of music I want to play and I compile a playlist that is often at least 3 times longer than the time I will be playing for. I

I work through that playlist by doing practice sets with minimal arrangement, though sometimes I do start out with a good chunk of songs I know I wanna play and have ideas for their placement in my set. Eventually, I am able to eliminate songs that will not work for the set. I often start recording my sets during this part of the process so that I can listen to them when I am driving or walking somewhere to see how they sound to me when I’m only listening and not actively mixing songs. After that, I come up with a series of songs I know I want to play, and I think about the flow of the songs, so I start to think about what order they would sound best in. Then I put those together and leave at least an extra hours-worth of songs in the playlist that I can use if those songs don’t all get played how I planned, because a huge part of DJing is reading the crowd, and intuiting what they are responding to. Maybe I have a solid set but the audience loses it over the song I play halfway through my set and suddenly I know that theres this other song they would like and it wasn’t planned but I throw it in next and go from there.

That’s what I did for my shows in the Bay, but I do that for every show, to an extent. Being in school and working part time sometimes doesn’t allow me to go as deep into my process as I would like to, but all those parts are always there. How much I practice is really the thing that changes from show to show.

One last thing is that I’m reading an essay in Audio Culture: Readings In Modern Music that really resonates with me, and reaffirmed my need to refine my research question to this:

What does the DJ represent in the music scene?

The essay I am reading is by Paul D. Miller who is famously known as DJ Spooky (also sometimes known as That Subliminal Kid). The intro to this essay is kind of ambiguously written, I think the author of the entire book wrote it about Miller, but it perfectly encapsulates what Miller does go on to say in the essay: “…the DJ is not merely an entertainer but an information handler who selects and guides the flow of audio data. The DJ’s mix is a composite of fragments drawn from a heterogeneous array of temporal, spatial, and cultural locations. Hence, according to Miller, the DJ regulates not only data but also the construction of time, memory, subjectivity, and experience.”

The two quotes I posted speak to me in that I think heavily about the journey/story I am telling through the tune selections that I make and the order in which I make them. This is excluding the technically able part of DJing that is also important to me, but in all honesty, is secondary in importance. When I DJ I think about how I am creating an atmosphere for people in which they can sit and talk, get up and dance, fill the awkward silences with, and bob their heads to. Especially when I am not playing a dance party setting, I really think about what kind of atmosphere I will be creating so that it is just engaging enough to include my audience (that whole thing about the construction of time, memory, etc. applies here) but not in a way that overpowers their ability to engage with each other and have a good time.

(See media page for my latest mix which I submitted to a radio show right before my trip)

Yesterday was what I had been preparing for this whole quarter– I had gotten asked by my friend Jenna Riot to DJ her party called Switch SF which is a queer women’s night in the Castro part of San Francisco at Q Bar. I basically spent all day working on the set (not to mention the practice I’d put into it before arriving to California), and then took the BART from Oakland where I am staying to my friend CJ’s house in SF. We grabbed some food and then I just went back to practicing until it was time for me to be at the bar for soundcheck.
I hadn’t seen Jenna since I’d been on tour 7 years ago when we played in SF, so it was really fun to get to see her DJ and hang out. She started the night out with a 45 minute set, then I followed, then her DJ partner DeeJay Andre. We swapped posts a second time around so I was able to close the night out when the bar was busier, and I played another 45 minute set with some heavier dance music to suit the mood. DJing at Switch SF was a blast, Jenna, Andre and her friends were all so friendly and fun to hang out with. I also got paid more than I ever had before for DJing which was nice.
Something that I have been wondering about is where I can move to after I leave Olympia that would allow me to have a sustainable DJ career, and I have been fortunate to have many friends here who are willing to hear what I want and give great feedback and advice on what might work best for me. I even got some helpful advice and support from Jenna and her friends who I’d just met last night! One person who bartends at Q Bar told me she really enjoyed the music I was playing, and went on to explain that in addition to bartending she also puts on events; she asked what I charge for my DJ services (to which I had no answer), and told me that if I did decide to move to the Bay, she would hire me often for her events! That was one of the best moments of the night, to know I can reach people beyond my friends and that they are responding well to what I do and want to collaborate and support what I’m doing with what they are.
To change gears a little, I want to comment briefly on the architecture of San Francisco: It is a compressed city and there’s lots of people, but the architecture is so appealing to me that it somehow seems to make it a little better than other congested cities. There are so many homes/apartments that are all different kinds of colors and shapes and sizes. Another thing I love is that there’s so many different little shops all over the place; a little sushi place next to a shoe repair shop with a great sign and a thrift store on the other side…a store selling watches, and San Francisco tagged items like shot glasses and shirts. Things like that so that you don’t have to go to one boring corporate store to get the one-stop shopping experience and everything is always the same. I love that about bigger cities.
I’m going to play a show here in Oakland tonight with a several other DJs, two of whom are friends who used to live in Olympia. I’m learning that the connections I have made with the transitory population of Olympia makes for a great time in other cities while visiting for various reasons like what I am doing. My friend Isador was able to throw a show together for me at a bar that has other notable shows, and she wants this one to be the jumping off show for a series of other ones she would like to throw. Since most of my friends live in this area of the Bay I’m excited to know that more of them will be able to make it out to this show.
Oakland, like SF, also has very diverse architecture and I have been trying my best to think about what is different. So far I have only come to the more obvious conclusion that Oakland is far more spread out than SF, and there’s some homes in SF that are so particular to that city (think Full House) which I haven’t seen here in Oakland. But there are some victorian buildings here as well, and again, as a lover of signs there’s some really great ones here too which I’m trying to remember to document when I can. I will do my best to post some good pictures of it all!

So the last week of our class, I ended up in Seattle twice:
The first time was Monday the 6th, my friends who used to live in Olympia just started a bi-monthly event in South Seattle at this bar Maxim’s. They’re in a rap duo called Garlic Man and Chikn and are my favorite friends to play shows with, as they are always so entertaining, right up to their matching outfits and choreographed dance moves. I opened the first night of the event with an hour long DJ set, which I was treating like a practice for the upcoming show in San Francisco that I will be playing at the end of the month.
Then I headed up to Seattle again for a show put on by Soulection, one of my favorite labels from Los Angeles. One of my favorite producers was playing and although I usually dislike when a producer does a DJ set rather than play their own music, he (ESTA) nailed it, and there was not a dull moment in the entire set. I was at the front and seriously thought I might melt from the heat of the room. There was a breakdance circle going on near the back of the crowd, which I got a great view of when my friends and I accidentally walked right through it. Everyone was smiling though, so no harm!
Unfortunately I got sick coming back to town the following day, and have been fighting off a cough for the better part of the week now. Because of my work schedule and being sick I might have to wait till I get back from the Bay to go check out Portland, but in the meantime I will be reading my books. So far I dove into Pink Noises, and have been loving reading all the interviews with everyone from DJ’s to renowned experimental musician Pauline Oliveros, who currently is a professor at Mills College where a couple of my friends go!
Right now I’m working on two different DJ sets: one for a radio show in Canada, and the other for my show in San Francisco, so I think I’ll get back to that before I run out of time!

Make online academic journal.