1ol1v1a

So I think, for me, a lot of this is about intuition and personal taste. I kind of like allowing the music to breathe and connect, even when varying across genres, tempos, or structures. I actually think that's the best part of a set for me when mixing two things that might feel distant originally, but by finding some sort of common ground, a rhythm is born, and that ultimately ties the selections together.

Almost consistently, the trans experience finds its way into my sets. I've touched on this before, but as a trans woman, I find that music is ultimately the most important piece of self-expression for me, at least artistically speaking. Being able to DJ is like being able to share a million things about my experience that maybe I can't quite express with words, or rather, words don't feel apt to express such emotions, whether that is anger, passion, euphoria, sadness, or happiness. There are a million emotions and a million songs that can convey these feelings.

The other interesting piece is maybe something happened that day, did I get misgendered? Did something really beautiful happen because of my self-expression? Did I meet someone very important to me? All of those things can affect my sets, especially given that I don't plan too much ahead of time, besides a starting ambient song and a dance follow-up, so it ends up being a very live and dynamic practice that is reflective of my life, and how I live it.

I think my eye is always on, like how two songs, first and foremost, are layering on to one another. I do think there are scenarios where you are kind of punching something in, but typically it's like "how does this song on player 2 really fit into the track that's on player 1". And then, once again, it's really all about feel and intuition for me. I try to do what feels right, and that's one of the biggest things is you can't really fight the feeling. If there's a track you want to mix in next, you should probably trust that instinct rather than fight it and come back and regret that decision.

I think CTRL_F came at a perfect time, where I was just starting to DJ out, and I'm still totally new to that, but I wanted to express more outwardly my artistic expression, and starting events yourself really is an amazing way to do this, and has been the case for a lot of people. For me, I was able to control the flow of the night and curate the lineups as well as think about the aesthetic that ultimately we wanted to push and the way that my own personal set fit into the mix.

Another piece was being able to push FLINTA only lineups and the messaging behind the party, which really related to finding yourself, as one finds something with ctrl_f on a keyboard. Dance music, clubs, and DJing have all been super important to me in finding my identity, so trying to share a party that can do that for other people is totally a dream. On top of all this, I got to do it with the wonderful host of tension/release (R-DNA), and building that relationship has been a blessing.

While this isn't an instrument per se, I think just listening and collecting more dance music vinyl and trying to mix on vinyl has kind of moved the needle for me. When you are in the headphones with vinyl, there's so much work going on to get the mix right, and a lot of that work isn't necessarily present with digital, or at least it presents itself differently. So I think it ultimately makes you a better digital DJ, but for me, it feels like I am just more focused on the groove. Also, given that I'm so new to vinyl mixing, I'm sure more rewiring will happen just naturally.