Page 42 - Zone Magazine Issue 006

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Tell me a bit about yourself, about your journey (age, hometown, family etc) Where did it all begin? How did you find music, or did music find you? Who gave you your first big break?
I've moved around a bit, both city and country girl. Lived on a farm near Tuam till i was 8 then moved to Galway City and Loughrea Town for a little bit. Mum is from Cork and Dad from Co.Galway. I’m the youngest of 5. My only sister is the eldest 41 and I’m just gone 29.
So at the young age of 10/11 my sister was home from London after 3 years living there. She brought home some Ministry of Sound cds and some garage nation one I think and loads of flyers from the clubs she had been to. The Gallery at Turnmills was a favourite of hers. I liked the sound of this music! My friend Johnny introduced me to trance when I was 12 when i heard "Chicane-Saltwater" I was in Love! My 1st ever CD or Trance one for definite. I’m sure it was all tapes before this. Then tunes like "Dj Sakin and Friends Braveheart" and "Dj Jean-The Launch" and "Mark Kavanagh-Maniac" all came and had me jumping around like mad! One of my favourite tunes of all time is "Run Dmc- It’s like that" I heard this when i was 10/11 and we learnt all the words and used to try and break dance to it!! I’ve been remixing this into my sets this summer along with "Renegade Master- Friend Within" which is another one of my favourites. The white Cream Cd mixed by Paul Oakenfold was a big influence. It was released in 1999 I think and still sounds great today!!!! At the age of 15 my friend Keith let me borrow his belt drive turntables for a few weeks. Very basic and hard to mix on!
Then for my 16th birthday my mum(best mum in the world) gave me a lot of money towards buying my own set of decks. Money that she really didn't have so I’m very grateful to her for that. Along with money I had saved up from working during the summer. I got brand new shiny silver Stanton 100's direct drive decks and a Numark DMX mixer with effects.
The coffin case was a great idea as I still have them and they are in perfect condition. Djing was only a hobby so i only messed about with them a little in the evening if i was staying in..I remember getting a gig in a very small pub
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down town in Loughrea and few mates came along and I was playing hard house/hard trance to 3 mates and 5/6 farmers at the bar drinking their pints of Guinness!! So funny looking back! Played at one another bar and a school disco along with some other mates that set it up. When I moved into Galway again when I was 17 I shared a 2 bed apartment with my sister Sonia and she had just given birth to my niece Chanell.I started working in Cullinanes Bar and my boss and father of my friend Joe offered his basement as a place i could set up my decks and practise when ever i wanted as my apartment wasn't very big and with a small baby around wasn't the best place to keep them or play them loud. I like my music loud!!!
This is where I set up my own little club night called "Mixology" where my dj mates and myself could bang out some trance and have a good get together! I held a couple of these every few months. The only venues you could here trance back then in Galway would have been the gigs in GPO, Pucan, Black Box every now and then and the Radission nightclub every 2/3 months I think. There were brilliant djs like Eddie Halliwell, John OO Fleming, Lisa Lashes, Fred Baker. I must have seen Eddie Halliwell at least 3-4 times here! He was one of my favourites!!
I never thought I could get far as a dj as Galway had few trance/dance gigs and I didn't have the confidence , so I pursued my career as a make up artist and went to Art college.
Music and Art were my strong subjects in school. I really enjoyed working with make up and still do. When I moved to London 3 years ago I worked very hard in Selfridges serving all nationalities and on my feet all day. It was a very glamours store but I used to come home feeling very unglamours and falling asleep on the tube and train. The 1st year in London was very hard as I tried to get used to the fast pace, long hours and bad relationship. As I moved out on my own and had more time to myself in the evenings I decided to Google female dj agencies and see what would come up.
I came across a new agency called 'We Run The World Female Dj Agency' and decided to send them a mix and see if anything came from it. The owner Dj China L'One called me and said she would love to take me on and guide me in
the right direction. She gave me the confidence to push on and get out there and give djing a shot. The agency help women have confidence in themselves to go for djing as it is a very male industry so it can be a bit intimidating at times. She gave me lots of tips on how to get noticed. It was through her I got my 1st big break. This was at Super Famous Club Pacha in London! I couldn't believe the news!
How did Ibiza come about? How would you compare the scene over there to here? What are your favourite aspects of home & abroad?
Ibiza was always a place i wanted to live after being here 4 times on holidays and always so depressed going home! It was my 1st holiday abroad without family. My friend Sinead and myself let loose in Ibiza when we were 18! After coming out twice last summer and played a few gigs and meeting some workers I said I would come back and do the season myself as it was perfect timing for me as an up and coming dj.
I was going to come alone but I as I chatted to others we formed a group of 8 from London and my buddies from Ireland. We booked a villa from a my mates friend and lived right behind Amnesia for 3 months! It was a huge villa with tee pees and hammocks in the garden. It was a bit too far away from the bars and clubs i played at so we decided to move into San Antonio. I came here with no work lined up. The only gigs that were set up were through Ibiza Trance Family as they made me one of their residents after listening to me play the year before at Tropi and listening to my mixes. Every other gig/ residency I got this summer was through me rocking up to venues and playing for free so I could get noticed and be heard. After lots of unpaid gigs on the island I ended up with 3 residencies in the end. HUSH, EDEN and KANYA. Not too bad for my 1st season!
The Scene is totally different in Ibiza as the major clubs stay open all night and other clubs/ bars staying open till at least 5am. There is always day parties and boat parties so always a great choice of parties with top quality djs! I love to see all ages at a party. You see this a lot in Ibiza lots of older people that are full of life and look like