Who are you? What do you do?

I’m Alisha, I’m 23, I live in North London and have done for most of my life. I’m a DJ, and my more career focused mindset, whatever you call it, is a producer.

Oh you produce? I didn’t know that.

Yeah! Well, not like a music producer like a… media producer. I want to produce [music] I have a textbook next to me that I have not opened, that’s very clever, but one day maybe.

How long have you been DJing for? Because you were involved with OnBeatZine…

Yeah do you want to know the story of OnBeat?

Yeah!

Ok cool, so its essentially a society we started at Leeds Uni in my second year and the other two girls who founded it with me were in there first year. Together we made a collective for creative people of colour and non-binary people of colour to come together and have some fun essentially. At the time there wasn’t much… many spaces that welcomed us in the same way or gave us the freedom we wanted and this was essentially an answer to that to create some room for people. It started off when I was… like 19/20 and we did magazines we did events we did all that good stuff and I very quickly like asked [my team] if I can have a radio show and produce it all under OnBeat and they were like yeah cool go ahead. So from there…

Did you not have DJ experience prior to that?

None. Not at all. I was just like yeah let me start a radio show for OnBeat I love music how hard can it be? I make playlists all the time! *Laughs* And you know, I chat for days. Essentially, I used it as a bouncing off point for me to explore loads of different genres and interview loads of different people for the show. Luckily, while I was doing that in the little studio, there were DJ workshops going on and I was like “Oh! Whats that! That looks like fun” and they were just putting on free workshops for people to come and listen and learn. I signed up. It was alright!, maybe I can do this. But what really happened was is that I met Ora, who is now the founder of the amazing Sable radio in Leeds, and she was doing a workshop that, I think, was council founded at the time? To support people to learn how to DJ and I went along to that bare nervous! Not sure what was going to happen and it turned out to be me, her, her friend and a bottle of wine! So this was like a one on one session. I was nervous, but I learnt a lot and just being taught by a black woman with experience was invaluable and just so chilled with it. From then on I started to learn a bit more, still not taking it seriously until January 2020 and … thats when COVID was looming. I found myself with a controller and a lot of time so let me just do this.

In a way, in a blessing, it gave you the time and opportunity to take this more seriously.

For sure, it was even more than just a blessing, it made me stop and think what I actually want to do and even though it was a horrible horrible time and still kinda is it made people realise what they want to prioritise. I’ll never regret having that moment and thinking what I want.

Yeah I remember having just worked at a few radio stations previously, I realised it wasn’t really for me and I’ll probably won’t do it again. That introspection was nice.

A lot of journaling, a lot of therapy! A lot of me realising what do I actually want? Parts of OnBeat which are like… I don’t want to do this anymore I’m just doing this for the sake of doing it. I’m not that interested just let me not? That changes a lot too.

Have you closed the chapter for OnBeat?

No… never could. It’s like a child for me. For what we’ve agreed for now we’ve passed it down to like people who are in Leeds and they’ll continue passing it down. In terms of what we’re doing, wherever we’re based, I’ve been really clear and kinda said im down to do events and DJ focused ones but really outside of that I’ll give advice, I’ll do some socials, its not really me. That’s my job and I don’t want to do that outside my 9 to 5. So yeah… That’s probably not ideal.

Who is someone you really look up to in Dance music?

I could not pick one person… where do you even start! So I’ll start with the people I always always have to state, everyone at Daytimers., Ihadadream, grazie T, all of those people, they’re like basically the only brown people I see in music *laughs* for the most of time I knew the scene. I remember when I did a production course All Hands On Deck who also deserve a shoutout, I did one for a month, just felt like an after school club and be on zoom for a couple hours. They’re great! I remember posting a ten second clip of some terrible terrible piece of music I made and they were like yay keep going!! It was silly small things with people who make music properly, like record labels, when they support you for someone who’s just starting. So… yeah, shout outs to all of them of course. And then… outside the collective space, theres a couple of producers I really really love that I won’t stop talking about because I’ve literally DM’d them “I love you! I love your music so much!” Conducta, basically brought back the garage scene and made it cool again because it just wasn’t for awhile and no shade to the old school garage ravers… no shade whatsoever. I just remember putting out a tweet and saying “someone please bring garage back” and then I found it in 2014 its just been conducta with kiwi records and everything they’ve done is great.

Yeah you are a garage head through and through right

Yeah sure but I’m a springboard. I’m discovering a lot more music now even though garage is my heart and my home, UK Funky is slowly taking over my soul. I really do wanna stretch a little bit more and find what I can find but so far that has been my home. Yes.

Yeah I think, No shade to you, but DJs that have like a diverse music taste are the best. But thats just me, I don’t think I love just one genre enough to exclusively play that.

There was this whole twitter debate about how multi genre DJs and whether they’re a good thing or a bad thing. And I was like this is ridiculous!

I do remember that, it’s a privilege to be a multi genre DJ

To be honest soon as I saw that stuff I just thought let me just mute all this… I don’t want to see this! People should just be able to play what they want! And if they’re booked, they’re booked for their experience. Theres so many more opportunities, creatively, if you’re not just confined to one genre.

Open to whatever!

Yeah exactly! I think its just silly to restrict yourself, to be only this and I’m only this! Theres only so much you can do, I think. Garage is my home, but it will just be a landing point for sure.

So you grew up in London but went to University in Leeds, so what was your favourite event/time in either of these cities?

Let’s talk about Leeds because, lets be honest, it’s better. Like… the club scene and the music I’ve just found its so much better in general. Not saying London doesn’t have its spots, its just…

It’s just different, its not as dance music oriented as other northern cities

Less community focused, which just makes it completely different. I would struggle to find the vibes you find in Leeds down in London. I think the best events I’ve been to have been subdub, Leeds West Indian Centre. What I love about it is.. it’s always pure chaos, you always arrive and theres no queues and just a crowd pushing their way through a door and when you get to the front you’re not met with some aggy security guard who abuses their power. You’re met with local West Indian people who are making jokes with you and laughing with you… obviously they’re searching you and making sure its safe but they do it with calm, assertive, humour. I just respect them so much! And once you’re past that point they essentially hand you a pair of earplugs, like “yeah take care of yourself.” cause… its like no volume I’ve ever experienced before in my life! The sound systems are crazy! Everywhere you see people from actual Leeds enjoying themselves you see people of all ages, you see the students, so… yeah I think Subdub is the best event. I’m pretty sure its been going on for many decades and… I really hope nothing ever changes I hope the West Indian Centre gets to stay because for awhile nothing was happening there.. some incidents happened. So yeah.. I hope it goes on.

I’ve only been to Leeds once in my life, for a festival. Inner city electronic.

Was it good?

Yeah good, I went to this one club called Church

Oh yeah Church, yeah I don’t like Church

Yeah the bouncers were really really aggressive, a bit too much.

The people who go there are only there to pull and that’s a bit it. Every time I went there I never felt comfortable or felt like people enjoyed themselves. So I went there like twice.. never liked it. No community vibe.

Whats the worst thing about DJING?

You know what’s funny, and im not sure if I can answer this wholly yet, because and this is on record… I’ve DJ’ed a few gigs in real life but because I started taking this seriously just before lockdown I’m yet to experience the “slog” of doing all the club nights all the time. From what I know so far, I don’t like the admin of it, but whos going to like the admin of it? That’s such a boring answer. Aside from that, I guess theres two areas of conflict I have with it, 1) Being pretty active on social media all the time, and for ages I was just like let me not care about it but the only way people get bookings is if you’re always doing something, doing mixes all the time for **free** is exhausting! And as a much as I want to support these shows of people I respect highly and they gave me opportunities, if im doing these mixes for free I want people to recognise that and it translate into bookings and I get to do what I love. Otherwise I’ve probably done a days worth of mixes for nothing… So yeah it forces me to stay on my toes and loads of other things. 2) Maybe this is something of the past, but the expectation to sort of be like... at a club night drinking, taking part of that side of it as well? I’m trying to curb away from that kind of that stuff and try and stay sober as much as I can… and I felt like sometimes doesn’t lend itself to those people which I think is a real shame. I think most of the people I know would never force it upon anyone, never would expect it from somebody but it does worry me you know. How am I supposed to do a 5am set if I’m not completely off my face? I’d be in bed by 10pm in my bed! Thats who I am!

I agree, absolutely.

Yeah… don’t get me wrong I love the feeling of getting ready and its night and I love that magical weird time when only dance stuff is happening its such a strangely cool pocket of the day invest their time into I just think personally I cannot cope with the after effects of it! I think it makes me a worse person the next day, so for that to be so ingrained into the hobby I adore and love is challenging! Also I don’t want to have to turn down opportunities because I want to live the lifestyle I wanna live! Yeah, its just interesting. Its not necessarily the worst thing about DJing. By far the worst part is the admin, I don’t enjoy that, but also closely followed second is the social media and how it affects my… I hate this term… self care? Just looking after myself. It is just looking after myself! Thats the only way you can phrase it!

So lets end of something positive! What would you say is your favourite thing about DJing?

My favourite thing, no surprise to anyone, is the community element of it. I’ve said the word community about fifty times already *Laughs*. But yeah, that’s what it is. It’s so interesting, I love learning about the history of it, how communities have developed over time, I love its been one of those things that really marginalised communities in particular, black community, LGBTQ+ community, they deserve all the credit for where dance music is now. And I think watching it evolve and spread out is amazing, I think it was the Daytimer’s 24 hr livestream of basically dance music and a few other things imbetween, and it was in support of the farmers protest in India and I literally stayed on that livestream as long as I possibly could, woke up to the livestream listening. I remember at one point I cried! I’ve never been in a room whether it was online or whatever where there are so many people who look like me and care about me. When someone drops a tune everyone is like “whaeeeey” its not people off their face its people who who all care about the music and all come to this because we love it. Community is by far the best thing in the world and genuinely not to be cringe… it’s my life’s calling! To be part of community joy, I don’t think theres anything better than it and theres nothing I want to pursue more than that. Aside from the admin!

I think thats a lovely answer and not cringy at all. Thank you for talking to me Alisha.