What is new on the horizon for you?

One thing is that I’m always interested in teaching friends or acquaintances how to DJ – it’s just what I do, share the wealth and knowledge. Not everyone who finds out I do that and has me give them a few lessons actually pursues it. But I like to share with them how it all works, so even if they are “just” fans of the scene, they have more of an appreciation of how DJing works. So there are a few people I have learning at various levels in the wings. Maybe I’ll do a mix with one or two of those folks soon!

Also on the horizon is getting out of Buffalo and WNY for some gigs, which I’ve done sporadically before. As much as I love to travel, I also love my down-time, my alone time to nap, read and hang out with my dogs. So that’s part of the reason I never pursued DJing all over as my full-time thing. But now that I’m older and my life is somewhat in order, I’m looking to find some worthwhile gigs (that’s a whole other question… what’s a “worthwhile” gig at this stage in time) that will get me out there, meeting new people who challenge me as a DJ and that I can learn from, whether it’s to learn about new artists, new ways to use my DJ equipment, or just to see a new place. What I’m definitely not doing right now is hosting my own parties. I did that for a few years and it was great, I learned a lot, but I just don’t like throwing my own parties. I mean, obviously I love the party part. But it’s the finding a venue and all the shit work that goes into planning a party that’s hard to do unless you have a really stable, responsible crew of people to help you put it on how you want. The parties I threw were always small and intimate, but even those kind of parties, when it’s just you or you and a friend throwing them, it can be tough to lug equipment out on a monthly basis and not get sick of the shit that goes with it (noise violations, shitty venue owners, etc.). But I sure love playing other people’s parties!

I’m also looking to record more mixes like this one – busting it out with just one recording and not that much specific planning, just general reliance on my constant curating of tracks. Whether that’s getting them posted on friends’ sites, like Daisychain from Alicia Greco in Chicago, or for you guys in Rochester at Signal > Noise, or my own Soundcloud.

I’m finally excited and confident about playing digitally on CDJs and just having to bring flash drives to a set vs. a box of vinyl that’s gonna kill my back. Of course, I still have all my vinyl in my house and I’ll certainly play it again at some point, but it’s just kind of packed away with my turntables for a little while. I’ve actually been sitting on 4 bins of unsorted vinyl (I have an extensive organizational system that takes me quite some time to sticker each record) so those have just been sitting there as I’ve been digging into digital tunes the past couple years. It’s ironic… when everyone else went digital in the mid-late 2000s, I was getting totally psyched about scooping up lots of vinyl. Now that vinyl’s “cool” again, it’s right when I’m getting into buying more digital! Maybe I’m inspired by all the female/queer/non-binary artists that are being loved and supported lately into trying something that’s new to me? I feel like there are so many new, non-mainstream DJs on my radar lately, and that is definitely inspiring. Ten to 15 years ago, before SoundCloud and other Internet things, it was hard to feel like you weren’t alone in the scene as a female trying to learn DJing. So I am really vibing out on that inspiration and trying to harness that energy to keep digging deeper.