Mizeyesis: Championing Jungle, Community, and Creative Freedom on the Virtual Sessions 8/14/25

In this vibrant Virtual Session, The DJ Sessions host Darran Bruce connects with Mizeyesis, a Boston-based powerhouse in the drum and bass scene, to discuss her latest achievements, creative philosophies, and the importance of fostering supportive communities. Mizeyesis shares the story behind XII, a 12-track compilation celebrating the 12-year anniversary of the D&B Girls collective. Featuring contributions from talented female producers, the project also supports UK-based charity Fem House, reflecting the group’s dedication to both artistry and advocacy.

The conversation explores Mizeyesis’s production journey—from her early experimentation and self-teaching days to taking professional courses and embracing technology like AI as a learning tool. She speaks candidly about the challenges and rewards of leadership within a global collective, emphasizing openness, collaboration, and creating opportunities for others. The discussion also covers her performances at renowned events such as Rupture in London, Respect in LA, and upcoming appearances at Submersion Festival.

Beyond music, Mizeyesis shares her views on sober and daytime events, the healing power of sound, and the role electronic music can play in social awareness. She reflects on personal health challenges, how they shaped her resilience, and her current focus on balance, creativity, and growth. Whether on stage, in the studio, or mentoring others, Mizeyesis remains a passionate advocate for diversity, representation, and authenticity in dance music culture.

About Mizeyesis -

(DNB Girls | Repertoire | Omni Music | Hexagon Digital | Elm Imprint | New England Junglists)

A true force in the global Jungle and Drum & Bass scene, Mizeyesis brings decades of passion, precision, and powerful energy to every performance. Based in the Northeastern U.S., she’s not just a DJ and producer — she’s a movement. As Co-Owner and U.S. Manager of the influential DNB Girls Collective and a longtime member of New England Junglists, Mizeyesis has carved her legacy through electrifying sets, deeply musical productions, and unwavering dedication to the culture.

Since her debut in 2004, launching Threshold Sound in Connecticut, she’s become a fixture in both national and international DNB communities. A relentless trailblazer, she has toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad, playing legendary nights and venues like Respect (LA), Rupture (London), Renegade Hardware Weekender (London), Elements (Boston), DrivenAM (NYC), Black Box (Denver), Mechanix (Minneapolis), Rufuge Nights (Florida), Tao of Amen (Grand Rapids) and major festivals including Outlook, FractalFest, Winter Music Conference, and Tribal Gathering. Her resume is lined with sets alongside titans of the genre — LTJ Bukem, Remarc, S.P.Y., Digital, John B, Jumpin Jack Frost, Total Science, Ray Keith, Remarc, Double O, Outrage, Loxy, Paradox, Sam Binga, Dj Flight, Double O, MSDOS, Breakage, Liondub, Empress, Reid Speed, Armani Reign, TRAC, Valliant MC, Sofi Mari, Zed’s Dead, Doctor P, Flux Pavillion and many more.

Mizeyesis made her production debut in 2015 with her discography reflecting her sonic depth.  Her first release was with  the "Sea Jah EP" (HEX002), a collaboration with Skru released on the UK’s Hexagon Digital. She followed that up in 2016 with the "Convergence EP" (OmniEP106), a deep and atmospheric collaboration with AwakeFM on Omni Music, showcasing her versatility as a producer. That same year, she began crafting the "Seven Systems" EP, a seven-track journey that dropped in 2017 via Faction Digital, further cementing her unique sonic signature. Her discography continued to expand with standout contributions including "SoundBwoy Haze" on YESKA Beatz Unlimited, and "Salvation" on Junglist Resistance, a 31-track international jungle compilation aimed at raising funds for charities fighting violence, hatred, and discrimination. She also made waves with a powerful entry in JungleWars 2017, and a lush, emotive collaboration with Rainforest on the "Rise of The Warrior" EP for Guidance (2018).

In 2020, she contributed "Call to the Ancestors" to Repertoire’s Streetlight Volume 1, and "Sultry" on JustBe followed by, "Warmth" (2022) on YESKA Beatz Unlimited — a track that blends introspection with her signature rhythmic intensity.  In 2025, she co-curated and released the groundbreaking DNB Girls XII Compilation alongside Jams, featuring her tracks "Ease Up Junglist... Feel Nice" and "Return to New", with more new material on the way. This compilation not only showcases cutting-edge talent across the DNB spectrum but also supports Femme House, an organization dedicated to equity in electronic music. She has more productions scheduled for release in 2025 and 2026. 

She’s been featured on the Bellyman Show (Origin UK), hosted her long-running show The Aural Report on Jungletrain.net (2011–2018), and appeared on platforms hosted by Hospita

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions.
I'm your host Darran, and right now I'm sitting in the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington.
I guess they're not really virtual, but they are physical.
But coming in all the way from Boston, Massachusetts, we have none other than Mizeyesis in the studio today.
How you doing Mizeyesis?

(00:26):
I'm good, how are you?
I'm great, it's great.
It's been a while since we caught up.
You know, I had my hiatus, I had my time off, you had your time off, and now we're back in the shows, we're back in the biz again, and it feels great.
How you doing?
I'm good, how are you?
You know, after doing this show for 16 years, being in the game for 35 years, last year I hit a wall, and you know, as it happens, I felt like I hit like a creative block, a writer's block, a producer's block, I guess is what you'd call it.

(00:55):
I don't have writer's block, I don't write stuff.
AI kind of helps me out with that now.
I'm good, I'm good.
Yeah, shame, shame.
It's all my own original content, because we're actually really doing the interview.
That being said, no, just came back with a fire, with a passion, and getting that reorganization really helped to unlock some things that I wanted to do for a really long time, but just didn't have the bandwidth to do, and now I'm back.

(01:21):
So, you know, and I know that you've been doing some awesome stuff, and we're not here to talk about me, we're here to talk about you, you.
So, you just put a compilation out, in April.
Yes.
Tell us all about that compilation, what was around, what surrounded that, what spawned that project?
Sure, so, you know, about 10 years ago, we're going on 10 years ago?

(01:46):
No, 12 years ago.
12 years ago, I joined German Based Girls of Canada, which became DB Girls of America, because I was brought on board to start the US chapter of the organization.
And, you know, as part of us being a group for 12, 11, 12 years, one of the things that Jams and I were discussing was some of the great ways that we can create, you know, a commemoration of, we've been doing this for this long.

(02:17):
And, you know, we brought on some new members, Jen Cemetery, Queen Amina, Remedy out in Toronto, and many others, you know, who are excellent producers, you know, and it's not just myself or JF Killer or Iris, you know, there's plenty of others.

(02:38):
So I said, you know, we're a bunch of really awesome, creative women, why don't we do a compilation?
So this is something that, you know, we've kind of been working with for a few years, and then it finally came together.
And it came together at the time where we could finally say, okay, we're gonna show this to the world in April.
And that's what that was about.

(02:58):
It was about, you know, we've been doing this for 12 years, we've had the group, we, you know, there's a lot of mystical things around the number 12, but essentially it was a celebration of the camaraderie that we have as part of this group, and some of the creative, you know, paths that we have chosen, and to inspire others.

(03:19):
And there are 12 tracks on there.
You know, it's a release that is also to help benefit a group out in the UK, Fem House, because it's a charity, and we wanted to show support to another team that was doing something awesome like we were.
So that's what XII is about.

(03:40):
And, you know, I have two tracks on there.
I have Return to New, and I have Ease of Jungle is Feel Nice on there.
And I'm pretty proud of that release.
That release is awesome.
Now, was that put, was that also put through your own or a self-released label, or were you working on that?

(04:02):
So it's a release that we've all worked together on.
It's under D&B Girls, who obviously is hosting it.
However, one of our members, Arietta, she has a label called Amina, and we were able to piggyback the release on her label, and it's on Bandcamp.

(04:25):
So people can, you know, go to the D&B Girls page.
It'll be there.
You know, I'll try to reshare it.
It's also, you know, through, you can go to our SoundCloud, you can go to the buy link where you have the release, and it'll bring you right there.
So, you know, we have different avenues of finding it.
And I know the internet can get very, very confusing.

(04:45):
So, you know, if you go to my link tree, which also you have, I have the link there, you know, I'll try to post it again for everyone so that none of the lines get crossed.
But yeah, there's, you know, one of the cool things about the release, you know, and I love playing it.
We all, oh, by the way, we also have an official DJ mix from Juicy Jungles, who's one of our newest members.

(05:06):
She's down in Florida, amazing DJ.
She's actually gonna be doing some work with Deacline out in the UK.
And that's another thing, I'm very, very proud of a lot of our team members.
Like, you know, I was one of the first, me, myself, Iris, and a few other members were some of the first to start doing international gigs.
And now you have other members who are doing international gigs like Jen Cemetery.

(05:27):
She does play it out in Canada.
We have Juicy Jungles is going out to the UK.
You know, that's one thing with what I hope is that we inspire others to reach different levels in their career.
And through our networking and people that we know, it helps them achieve those goals.

(05:47):
So, you know, that's one of the things I can hope for, co-running this awesome collective is that people grow from it.
Absolutely.
You know, that's one of the things, we were talking a little bit about that pre-show about getting out there in the world and not being so stuck in your environment or where you're at.
An eye-opening experience for me a few years back was going to ADE, well, going to Europe for the first time and going to ADE for the first time, and then coming back and going to ADE a second year.

(06:14):
And then the third year, I went to Berlin last year and, you know, met some phenomenal people.
I mean, I got to go to the Riverside Studios, tour that with Martin, be on the Riverside Studios float and be around their internal people, their crew.
I just found the difference in, I should have done this so many years ago.
You know, I look back and go, what was I doing?

(06:35):
And I was like, it's like, yeah, I should have been going out of state or out of my environment instead of trying to do the show here and focus on just a local show.
Not to say that it's not a bad thing for people to do if they're unable to do that, but traveling the world, getting that experience.
You mentioned the food in Johannesburg.
Now I want to go get food in Johannesburg.
You know, I want to see what's in Johannesburg.

(06:57):
I've never been to Bali.
My friend was in Bali last year.
I want to go there, you know, I want to go to Thailand, you know, and I want to experience stuff.
So, you know, definitely traveling and getting out and helping people expand and grow.
I mean, that's one of our core fundamentals of the DJ sessions is basically giving a platform that people can come and we can share information with the rest of the world.

(07:17):
Yeah.
And also too, we have 31 members in D&B Girls in five groups in Canada.
And, you know, if members independently want to network with other members and collab, that opportunity is in there as well, you know, or collaborate with other groups.
We have members in our group who are part of other collectives.
I'm a part of another collective as well.

(07:37):
I'm part of New England Jungle is here in New England run by Dig Dug, you know, and occasionally I do work with them as well, you know, and there's always that openness.
It's not a closed off crew.
And I've been a part of crews like that early, especially early on where, you know, the person who owns the crew only wants you to do things with them and no one else.

(07:59):
And in order to be successful, you can't necessarily do that.
You just can't, you know, you should network with people who you're like-minded with.
And, you know, eventually I broke off from, you know, such restrictive environments that eventually show themselves to be toxic.
But I want to foster an environment where people don't have to feed into that toxicity and feel that, you know, they're supported and they can be as creative as they want.

(08:26):
That was always one of the, again, another founding principle of the DJ sessions was exactly along that line was, it'll always be open decks, always has been, always will be.
You want to come play with us?
Great.
You want to be a resident DJ with us?
There's a few little terms and caveats that nothing that's going to lock them down and says you can only, I want people to use us as a part of their resume to go get better or bigger gigs and opportunities.

(08:51):
And they can use this as a resume plug to say, hey, I'm here, I'm here, I have a residency here.
But if somebody were to go, oh, well you're with them and I can't work.
It's like, that's not what this is about.
I think that's, again, pigeonholing it, too much control, too much of a toxic environment.
And back in the day, 20 years ago, when MySpace was there, okay, great.

(09:11):
That was kind of a lot of people's entry point to having a webpage online and exposing them to people in other states saying, I got a MySpace, or somebody found you on MySpace and talked about it.
Nowadays, you don't have to be in such that local bubble to be heard around the world.
And you can network and collaborate with people from around the world very easily now.

(09:35):
And that's- And that was one of the things I did early on, and I'm sorry to interrupt you, but that was one of the things I did very early on, even with MySpace.
I was meeting a lot of guys in the UK solely because I've always been someone who has been very much about a specific sound of German bass.

(09:56):
And there's not many people that play that sound worldwide, even still to this day.
And we all always find each other.
And we all tend to have the same sort of thoughts.
We all tend to like the same music.
And some of these guys, like the Rupture guys, I met them 20 years ago, 20, 25 years ago through MySpace.

(10:16):
Theory, Breakage, Equinox, Phasic, most of the people, Technicality, Christian Perspective, I met them all through MySpace back in 2024.
And I had a mix-up, and they were like, you're an American German bass DJ, and you look like this, and you play music that sounds like this, how?

(10:37):
Who are you?
Where are you from?
And then we find out, hey, my family just lives in the United States.
I still have the same background, the same interests, almost the same upbringing as you.
It's just a cultural thing and a location difference.
Really, it is.
And I go over there quite a bit, and I fit right in.
And same thing with them.

(10:58):
When they come over here, they hang out with family members that they have in Brooklyn or Connecticut or what have you.
And it's the same thing.
It really, really is.
So I've come to accept the fact that this sort of sound that I've been infatuated with with German bass is just a circumstance of the frequency that I carry.

(11:18):
And I see that with a lot of other people too.
A lot of people will have a different sound from me, and that's completely okay.
Some individuals like jump up, some individuals like more dance floor jungle, some individuals like that bass heavy jungle or bass influence, Ivy Lab sort of German bass.
And there's a place for that.

(11:39):
And you look at where they've come up and it makes sense.
And they tend to gravitate towards individuals and movements that have that same sort of spice that they exude, you know, sort of thing.
And then speaking of sounds, and you're gravitating to your sounds or having your unique sound, you just released three tunes, three tracks with a fourth one coming up.

(12:02):
With a fourth one coming out, yes.
On Hangry Records.
Yeah.
And you're working on more music as well with the new computer system in the background there.
Yes.
New stuff.
I have so much going on.
And like, you know, it's really hard for people, for me to talk about it and for people to really, really grasp the magnitude of what I'm trying to accomplish right now.

(12:26):
You know, I've been, I first got into music production back in 2010 and I didn't really understand what I was doing.
You know, I had friends that, you know, were trying to teach me to understand key bass and it went over the head.
I had friends who were producing at the time.
They were using Acid Pro, which is Fruity Loops.

(12:47):
We all know now.
Someone installed Pro Tools on one of the laptops I had back in the day.
I didn't know what I was doing, dude.
I really didn't.
I didn't know.
And there were no, back in the day, back at that time, there were no tutorials or anything, you know?
So like, I remember I was watching on YouTube Grimes.
She used to have like a whole YouTube channel and Deadmau5 used to have a YouTube channel.

(13:11):
He used to occasionally show what he was doing.
And I would just watch them and, you know, I was goofing off.
I was goofing off.
I'm not going to lie, I was goofing off.
From 2010 to about 2013, I was goofing off.
2013, I went to the UK and I had to DJ at Rupture for the first time, which is Double Low and Mantra's Night.

(13:34):
And they both sat me down and said, you know, you're a good DJ.
You're very passionate about this.
But if you really want to start taking yourself to the next level, you got to produce me.
You got to come with the tunes.
And so I'm working on it.
So when I went back home, I actually did diligently sit down and really, really studied.
And I didn't really tell many people this is what I was going to do, you know, because I spent so much time goofing off on it.

(13:58):
You know, I was dating a guy who was very much connected to Hollywood and music and all kinds of stuff.
And he loves seeing me fall and fail.
So he would exploit it like, oh, she doesn't know what she's doing.
She doesn't know how to produce.
So, you know what?
I played on that.
Yeah, I don't know how to produce.
I really, really don't.
I don't know what I'm doing.
You know, and I didn't tell them.

(14:19):
At that time, around 2013, there started becoming more tutorials online.
You had Masterclass.
You had all kinds of people, Coursera.
Things were starting to pop up.
So it was very easy for someone to not have to go to a formal school in order to learn music production.
Granted, it's not like how it is now.
Now, you know, you can just go on YouTube and you can formulate yourself a whole beginner's course on whatever DAW you want to learn.

(14:49):
And there are a million different DAWs now.
It's not just Ableton, Logic, Reason, and Cubase.
You have Bitwig.
You have Studio One.
You have Songkick.
You have all kinds of stuff.
It's great.
It's awesome now.
So I really, really learned.
And during the pandemic, I took two different courses.
I took a music business course with NYU.

(15:11):
It was just, you know, it wasn't really serious and I don't even think I have credits for it.
But then I did education and bass, which I learned a lot from that program.
I really, really did.
That's run by Outrage, who's Signs and Metalheads, old friend of mine.
You know, I met him back in 1999.
I watched his career go.

(15:31):
He brings on DJ rap, digital, you know, and they're mentors.
And these guys will listen to your music and critique you and give you feedback.
And I've learned so much.
With the advance of AI, I've used AI as a learning tool.
Some people use it as a co-producer.
I'm not gonna do that.

(15:52):
You know, I didn't spend all this money to buy all this equipment for a computer to do it for me.
You know, like I'm going to sit there and learn.
But if the computer can tell me, hey, you need to do a high pass filter at this hertz and teach me why, I'm gonna utilize that to its fullest potential.
And that's what I've been doing.

(16:13):
You know, my first release that I did sort of by myself, which was Seven Systems, I did it at a time where I was working on another release and I took the information that I learned from that and applied it to my own.
And that's what I've always done.
You know, music production is something that is not a linear cycle.
It's not like you're going to learn everything all at once.

(16:36):
That's not how it works.
And sometimes you forget.
You really forget that you learned something and 10 years later it comes back and you're like, why do my drums sound flat?
And someone's like, you need a parallel compressor, mate.
And you're like, oh, what's parallel compression?
And then you do it and you're like, why does this look familiar?
And then you go back and you listen to one of the tunes that you did and you're like, oh, I put parallel compression on this tune.

(17:00):
Why did I forget that?
But you realize that it's something that you constantly have to do so you don't lose your skills.
So I spend a lot of time producing.
I really, really do.
I really, really do.
And I spend a lot of time reading about it.
And I realized that in order for me to take myself to another level, two things need to happen.

(17:22):
I really need to have a setup wherever I lived in order to really, really hear it outside of headphones, which I've successfully have finally done, successfully.
And I needed to finish my undergrad.
So that's the next step that I'm gonna be doing.
Well, and speaking about ongoing education or education in general, you just did two classes at BAMS Fest in Boston.

(17:50):
Tell us about that.
Now, did you deliver the classes or did you take the classes?
So I have maintained a good relationship with Kiana Coachman, who runs the Female DJ Association out of Connecticut.
And she invited me to assist her with her workshop that she was doing for BAMS Fest and doing two production walkthroughs.

(18:15):
And I was very excited.
I said, wow.
I said, is this something you can do?
I thought to myself, I said, yeah, this is something you can do.
You can do this.
You're gonna have to learn how to do it.
You got this.
You can talk about every little component.
And when she approached me, I sat there and I said, is this something you can do?
I said, yeah, this is absolutely something I can do.

(18:36):
So I started writing an outline of the two tracks that I just completed and some of the other tracks that I've written, the emotions that I was feeling in order to inspire the tune.
What did I use to write the tunes?
Did I use samples?
If I use MIDI, what VSTs did I use?
What VSTs in general did I use?

(18:59):
All kinds of stuff.
And I walked through step-by-step and it was great.
It was great.
It was very, very inspiring for me and the people that came to my class.
Nice, nice.
And you're always, I find myself after 36 years, I didn't just drop the camera when YouTube came out and said, oh, game over, everyone can do it.

(19:22):
Or when podcasting came out and like, oh, anyone can do it.
Or the iPhone came out and now everyone has a video player and camera in their hand and oh, the world's changing.
And I- I know, I know.
I had to adapt to what's going on.
And it's funny you actually say that.
I had a gig a few weeks ago and there was a young woman there and I've never met her before, but she said, you better be careful because AI is gonna take over.

(19:46):
I said, I'm really not worried about AI.
I really am not.
And a lot of other producers feel the same way.
A lot of us that make a niche sound in electronic music, we're really not worried about what AI is gonna do to our industry.
Now I can understand if you're doing commercial work, possibly if that studio decides that it doesn't want to have artists there and it wants to just have AI make all this music, fine.

(20:11):
But a lot of the things that you learn from a music standpoint, AI can't replicate that.
And I'm not worried about it.
I really, really am not.
I really am not.
Absolutely.
I've toyed around, I was in an interview earlier this week with Thomas Dat and we were joking pre-show about making, could an AI avatar replace me and do interviews?

(20:35):
Like an AI avatar interview with you.
And I go, oh, we go back to the Max Headroom days.
If you remember that show.
I do, I do, I do.
And then he showed me, he goes, Darran, there's this website you can go to and create your AI avatar.
I'm like, well, I wonder if I could make an AI host or AI fan of the show that could pre-program with questions and they would pop up and go, all right, Ms. Isis, I'm like a Max Headroom kind of thing.

(20:59):
And then ask a question.
Oh, we got my AI assistant knocking on the door.
He wants to ask a question and pop him into the show or pop her there, pop it into the show, you know, and have it pre-programmed.
I was like, that'd be kind of cool.
You know, I mean, I wouldn't have it do the work for me, but the thing I talk about sometimes off camera, I'm not trying to stoke any fires or get any hate mail or anything from anyone on, is, you know, I like the fact that I know that our interviews are real.

(21:27):
Like, this is a real interview.
I'm really talking to you in the interviews.
And I know a lot of places out there, publications, they'll just send questions and have you fill out the questions.
I love getting those because I'll give them a thesis.
I'll give them 10,000 words and say, you sent them to me, you didn't say keep the response.
But I've even seen responses, things come back to me that are completely AI generated.

(21:52):
You know, like, oh, I can tell because there's one little telltale sign and this is a hint for anyone out there.
If you're trying to use a hyphen and it's a double hyphen, it's probably AI generated if you look through the text.
And so, you know, it's those little things you can kind of like spot.
And like, I know publications I work with and they're like, we know writers for 20 years have been submitting these articles they've written.

(22:17):
And now we get their articles and we run them through AI.
And it says, this article has been 100% generated in AI.
And it's like, whoa, you know, like, whoa.
So I like the fact that people know they're getting a real interview from us.
Even though I'm using AI to go make my transcripts, AI to make my show notes, that helps.
But it's still from the original content.

(22:38):
You know, I don't think I'm gonna be replaced.
I don't have that fear like you mentioned as original content providers.
And the one thing I heard that was a big thing in 2023, 2020 or 2022, 2023 ADE, I was asking a lot of artists is, are you worried about that?
Like, no, because it won't have the soul.
It won't, it won't, it won't.
You know, and I've heard some of the drum and bass that is made from AI.

(23:03):
It's so generic.
It's very generic.
It's very, you know, let's make the most worship, worship type of drum and bass song that we can.
More worship than what they're doing.
You know what I mean?
So it's like, I don't make that sound.
I don't make that style of drum and bass.
The style of drum and bass I make is so underground.

(23:24):
It's so like niche that you really have to love drum and bass in order to really like the stuff that I make.
It really is.
And I'm okay with that.
I'm okay.
I don't think that, you know, some of the music that I make is going to have that place where everyone is going to like it because it's so silly and goofy.

(23:46):
You know, I don't think that, you know, I come from a jazz background.
I studied classical for a very long time.
I consider myself an auteur rather than, you know, just your extravagant performer, you know, and like when you're an auteur, your music comes from a place of what you're feeling and what message you're trying to convey.

(24:10):
And maybe I take a longer time making those tunes.
Maybe I don't want to be a part of every single show that's out there or go out all the time.
So I'm just a little more sensitive.
And maybe a lot of people don't think that of me, but I feel that what I'm doing now is going to showcase that.

(24:30):
I think that a lot of misconceptions that people have had of me as an artist moving forward, a lot of people understand who I am as that individual.
Yeah, you know, you brought up a good thing that you have your jazz and your classical background, obviously has some understanding of music theory.
And, you know, I think in that new realm of being able, the barrier to entry is so zero now, pretty much to say.

(24:58):
I can go to Guitar Center.
I can download a software program.
I can, you know, I can use the sync button, all those things that are out there.
And now I can use AI and be a musician.
Do you think it's still, do you think it's very important for up and coming producers to learn about music theory in this day and age and understand what the hell's going on?

(25:19):
As opposed to just do it and throw it out there.
Yeah, it's cool because, okay, you know, you have an idea, you can tell it.
And maybe you can sketch something cool for you.
But is it always going to have the right timing?
Is it always going to have that swing?
Swing is one of the things, one of the most, is one of the hugest components in any sort of foreign dance music.

(25:41):
And that has been since the 20th century.
So beginning of the 20th century, you know, when you look at ragtime, that one, two is a swing.
And you listen to house, you listen to German bass, there's that underlying swing.
Look at, listen to waltz.
That three, four is a swing.
Reggae, that three, four, you know, that downbeat is on a swing.

(26:03):
And I find a lot of AI can't really replicate that with the soul.
It might be able to make the rhythm, but it's not going to have that groove, that soul, that breathing room.
And if it does, it's going to sound too perfect that it's not human.
You know what I mean?
So I'm not really worried about AI.

(26:24):
And there are laws to protect a lot of artists and a lot of consumers from, you know, the copywriting with AI.
So suppose, you know, and I believe we have 10 years, there's like 10 years of that.
So, you know, 10 years from now when that's null and void and a lot of artists that have used AI modules to make music, you know, they're not going to be able to copyright and make money off of it.

(26:52):
They're not going to be able to quantify that art because it's public domain.
It's not you.
You know what I mean?
And for me, if, like I said, if it means that I take a longer time to make the sound that I want, I'm okay with that.
I'm okay.
It's going to be okay.

(27:13):
We'll get there at some point.
And, you know, it's funny you brought up the fact that it would be too perfect to hear.
It brings me back to my choir class in seventh grade.
I was 12 years old and the music teacher, he was also the band teacher for the middle school.
And, you know, drum machines were just entering the market in the mid 80s, mid 80s, you know, the synthesizer revolution of that 80s pop sound.

(27:37):
And he would say, oh, I can tell fake drums from real drums.
You know, well, yeah, at that time you probably could, you know, but nowadays, ah, you know, no, you really couldn't.
And, you know, I could tell there was this inkling of the old school analog musician been in his whole life.
And that had always been percussion and strings and woodwinds and all that down this route in this new electronic age of music coming into play.

(28:06):
And it was that Harold, that's not real music.
That's not, you know, duh, duh, duh.
Don't know if the guy is still alive anymore because that was 38 years ago and he's probably in his 30s, 40s then.
But, you know, see electronic music do become so, or electronic computers, technology becoming such affluent in music production now, that you can even have an analog set that's still gonna be put into something like Qbase, Logic, Ableton, it's still gonna be mastered and put in there for digital distribution.

(28:40):
So, you know- What's his name, Jason Joshua.
Jason Joshua.
I don't know if you've ever heard of him.
Amazing, amazing master engineer, right?
And you think about when you send music to a label, someone like that is gonna put it through Pro Tools and what they're doing is they're extracting frequencies to make it a better mix.

(29:01):
It doesn't matter what kind of recording you're doing, that's what a master engineer is going to do.
So eventually your music is going to get run through a computer, whether you like it or not.
Yeah, yeah.
It is, it has to.
It has to get run through a computer in order for it to become a digital file so it can get put on Spotify, so it can get put on the CD, so it can also get put on the master plate so it can be cut on a lathe and made into vinyl.

(29:32):
It has to be made digital.
So at this point, there is not really the analog, no one's working with eight track, no one's working with the tape anymore.
It's too expensive.
You can do it, and it's time consuming.
You can do it at a fraction of the time now.
Yeah, absolutely.
And speaking of that, I grew up with four track and eight track recorders in my brother's studio that I played with synthesizers and rack mounts and kind of got me into my technical thing.

(29:58):
I'm not gonna lie, I wish I learned that stuff, but you know, I'm going back to school and I will be learning all that stuff.
I was eight years old, nine years old, 10 years old.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
I was just twisting knobs and playing, making noise, and the other kids in the neighborhood were out riding bikes and playing with RC cars or doing whatever.
I'm in the studio going, look at this, I can make these sounds.

(30:18):
This is cool.
I have family members, you know, growing up in New York City, that was one of the cool things, especially in the 80s.
And, you know, having family members in the Caribbean that were part of steel bands.
I did that, you know, one summer when winter, when I went down to the Caribbean, I was like seven years old.
I was playing in a steel band, you know, and I have some family members that were part of soca bands and like burning flames and stuff like that.

(30:44):
And other family members in the UK who, you know, sang on house records and stuff like that.
So I've seen inside of studios when I started to do music production, the need for, you know, the tape and the dat, that wasn't there anymore.
Now, do you ever make music completely out of your own genre that never gets released?

(31:08):
I have tons.
I have tons of stuff.
Sometimes, you know, you just made stuff.
Like one day, and this was like three weeks ago, I just woke up and I had this keyboard.
I have two keyboards.
I have that red thing back there, the Axiom 49.
And on my desk, I had the Novation Launchkey 49.
I had the Launchkey on my bed with the laptop.

(31:29):
And I just started going like this.
And I made this like, you know, the binaural beats.
I made a binaural beat track.
I made a seven-minute-long binaural beat meditation track.
And it's absolutely beautiful.
Will I ever release it?
Probably not.
It's fun.
Do you have any aliases that you release tracks under?
No, I'm thinking about it because some of the other stuff that I do like making is like your meditation music.

(31:51):
I do, you know, and that's probably why I want to go back to school.
I love scoring.
You know, I want to do more sound design stuff and working on film and cinematic stuff.
So I do really enjoy that.
Like Hans Zimmerman is one of my idols.
He really, really is.
He's awesome.
I love learning what he's doing, you know?
And, but I also love lo-fi music.

(32:13):
I really, really do.
That genre is really cool.
And it's making lo-fi beats is really, it's like so easy in comparison to jungle and drum and bass.
Drum and bass is probably one of the more technical forms of electronic music that you can get into because it's so, in order to get all those different frequencies to work together, you really have to know your stuff.

(32:35):
You have to know your mix down, your mixing, mixing processes, where to put that low pass filter, where to put that high pass filter, when to side chain, when to gain stage.
And you should always gain stage when you're first starting making your tunes.
That's the first thing you should be doing anyway.
But you know, these are little things that you're constantly remembering as you're making drum and bass.

(32:57):
Whereas something like house, you might not need to be as technical.
Lo-fi music, you don't need to be that technical.
And that's the beauty of it because there's so many imperfections in the distortion of it.
Whereas drum and bass, unless that's what it is, it's a little bit more polished, but it's the polishing that makes the distortion what it is, so to say, if that makes sense.

(33:23):
Like it's a lot.
It really, really is.
And that's why you spend so much time learning about it.
And switching gears here just a little bit from production to stage, to playing out and playing shows.
You know, you played a lot of different festivals and events out and about.
And is there any that really you look forward to playing every year or that you have a favorite that you play at?

(33:50):
A couple.
Like, I wouldn't say necessarily a residency at a festival, but one that you're going to this one and playing it.
One of my favorite events to play at is always going to be a rupture in London.
You know, and that's just, that's like home for me.
You know, I say it and it's, there's really not much I can do to describe what it's like being in that environment.

(34:12):
And Double and Mantra have come over to the United States quite a bit.
And every time they're here, I go and see them because they bring that energy.
And it's something I look forward to.
They were here not that long ago.
And, you know, I met up with a bunch of other amazing drum bass and jungle producers and DJs, and we had a blast in Brooklyn.

(34:34):
We really did.
You know, that's one.
Elements here in Boston, when Lenore calls and, you know, I can do it, I'm there.
It's a fun time.
You know, I've made a home here.
There's a lot of people here that, you know, and it's a smaller scene.
There's a lot of people here that really love drum, jungle and drum and bass and have for as long as I have, you know, and they're working professionals and it's really cool to be able to go 15 minutes from my house and go into this club and then go right back home.

(35:07):
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
I look forward to it.
Respect in LA.
That's one of my favorite places to DJ.
I always have a blast.
You know, I've DJ there twice now.
Rob Machete, he just, if you ever get to go to that, he has his own club now and he has his own sound system.
So it's like you're DJing on top of the basements and you feel everything.

(35:32):
And it's amazing.
And then there's a new night in Florida, Ruffage in Tampa, run by Rat Galactic and DJKS and C-Black.
And that night is awesome.
Oh yeah, there's one more.
I forgot.
There's so many.
There's also Mechanics out in Minneapolis co-run by, you know, a whole bunch of people.

(35:56):
I know Jen Cemetery's involved and Mark Woodbury and, you know, the Minneapolis crew is great.
And then Detroit, I really enjoyed.
I got to DJ with Mark Moss and then DC, our nation's capital.
I will always play in DC when they call.
I really, really will.
So, you know, I've been fortunate enough to, you know, have those places and those spaces to really spread my wings and fly and be accepted.

(36:23):
I am playing a larger festival this year in October, Submersion.
They are one of the up and coming premier drum and bass and bass music festivals on the East Coast.
And that lineup is crazy.
We got break, bunching, turning sound.
Like, I don't even know.

(36:44):
You know, like it's absolutely ridiculous and I cannot wait.
I'm actually working on a lot of music to showcase at that.
You know, and some of the stuff that I've been working on that I've not shared clips of or anything like that.
You know, some of them that are being shopped by labels, larger labels that I've sent off as demos, you know, I will be showcasing at that event.

(37:07):
And I'm really excited.
I'm also gonna be DJing with Neversoft who's part of D&B Girls and Lovelace is also part of D&B Girls.
We're doing a D&B Girls takeover at the festival.
Nice.
It's always good to get out and like traveling and being out there and in the scene, in the mix, feeling the- Another festival, Jan Cemetery and Remedy just DJed at Future Forest.

(37:31):
That's up in New Brunswick, I believe.
And then there was Shambhala and we had several members that did a takeover at Shambhala festival in British Columbia as well.
So we're all over.
Nice.
Yeah.
Soon to be with the DJ sessions.
I wanna be all over the world and have people on the ground in different cities doing different stuff, but that's down the line next year stuff.

(37:54):
You know, dance music is known for its like hedonistic vibes.
You know, do you think that it can be used for a social awareness or political messaging at times?
Absolutely.
So, you know, I'll be honest, you know, part of growing up, like when I first started with electronic music and going out, I was a raver.

(38:14):
I went through my hedonistic stage.
I really, really did.
I got tired.
I got tired and, you know, friends die, people have addiction issues.
You see clubs fall apart.
You see lives fall apart.
You may have fallen because of your own crazy habits.
I got tired.

(38:36):
The last five years have been spent with me really, really healing, doing a lot of shadow work, breaking cycles, breaking bad habits, pushing bad habits, separating myself from a lot of negative people in toxic environments.
And, you know, one of the things that helped me heal was really my love of music.

(38:57):
At the end of the day, I remembered, you know, those moments where I felt really down and out and what that sound did for me.
So if that sound did that for me, how can I do that for other people?
Then, you know, you have meditation music, binaural beats.
You have the whole music therapy curriculum is popping up everywhere.
You know, there's an artist out of the UK, her name is Rhea, and she does music therapy.

(39:22):
Digital does, you know, therapy, I believe.
I believe he went back to school for psychotherapy, but I believe music's involved in that as well.
There's plenty of other DJs and music producers I know that are therapists.
And, a big part of that component is the music, you know?
One of the things that I would like to do in the future is to help foster some of that.

(39:46):
You know, I look at my life and some of the things that have helped me come out of bad cycles and bad habits.
This thing, this thing that you really, really can't touch, that means so much to me, that I'm willing to spend all this money and time fostering and dedicating my life and time towards that have brought, that essentially has brought me out of darkness.

(40:07):
It has given me a greater awareness of who I am as an individual.
Absolutely.
You know, it can totally be used as a vehicle to help, you know, with depression, anxiety, all kinds of ailments.
There are sober events popping up all over the place, you know?
And I think also with a lot of people who loved electronic music in the 80s and 90s, becoming older, it's going to become more acceptable or accessible in restaurants or, you know, at daytime festivals with families and stuff because, hey, everyone wants their house music or their drum and bass or their breakbeats.

(40:46):
It's not just about the ravers anymore.
We're older now, but we still love that music and we can enjoy it without being hedonistic about it.
Absolutely.
It's interesting you mentioned the sober parties because literally all my to do this up here, I'm going down the road of doing sober events.
One, two, my events that I do and put on, whether it's our mobile sessions, our rooftop sessions, or our silent disco sessions, they're all done basically as daytime events.

(41:14):
That's awesome.
Our mobile sessions are six to 10 p.m. Our rooftop sessions are, you know, usually in the early afternoon and our silent discos are daytime, like 12 to noon.
And, you know, it's not because I'm getting older and I don't want to be out in the nightclubs till four or five in the morning.
It's that, you're right, that 80s, 90s generation, those people that are growing up, they're like, they have families, but they don't want to, and the thing I like about it is usually they're family friendly.

(41:39):
Our mobile sessions, probably not so family friendly because the kids probably wouldn't get inside of a big loud stereo bass boom, concert grade truck and want to have fun.
Although they do.
I actually picked up this mom and a girl.
They were on the street and she goes, can we get in there?
And we put her daughter and she's probably like six, seven years old.
And the daughter just had a blast.
And we drove around the block with them for a few minutes.
They had a fun time.
But our rooftop events and our silent disco events, they definitely are family friendly and kids under get headsets for free.

(42:09):
And we want to make that something in the daytime that you can bring your family to, can expose them to the music.
And it isn't so loud that it's going to damage.
They aren't taking their kids to a concert and having to wear the head moan and all that fun stuff to expand upon that because you're right.
People are looking for things to do during the daytime.
And also again, sober events.

(42:30):
I think that's a huge, there's a huge market there.
It is.
And you know, a lot of us, like I haven't drunk alcohol in three years.
When people see me, they may see a Corona bottle, but it's Corona zero or Heineken zero.
Again, it's zero.
Like I really have not drank alcohol in three years.
And there's a lot of us, we don't like to drink alcohol anymore.

(42:50):
You know, there's mocktails, there's non-alcoholic beers, there's juice, like, you know, there's a whole evolution in this happening.
A lot of people, individuals like edibles.
That's fine.
You know, I'd rather people eat edibles rather than eating something like acid or what have you at a event where there's a possibility of harm reduction needed.

(43:15):
You know, nowadays you don't know what you're getting.
So keeping it, you know, holistic is great.
And you know what?
Maybe sometimes this music is supposed to be in a more healing capacity rather than something so hedonistic and self-destructive.
Maybe there's a healing vibration from it that we're all missing, you know?

(43:35):
And that's one of the things with sound system culture.
Why is it that reggae makes everyone feel good?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, Thomas Statt, I interviewed him earlier this week and he went through a whole healing transformation and a lot of what he's doing, even with his album of channeling his whole self and that energy he's putting behind it, he's huge into that mindset and pushing that type of mission statement out in the culture of it shouldn't be it.

(44:05):
Back in the day when we grew up, it was sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Oh yeah.
You know, and I mean, there's still the, I guess there's probably still sex, drugs, and EDM.
There is, but you know, I think with a lot of the scandals and like I said, a lot of us, we have so many of our friends and our homies that have passed away untimely due to addiction or, you know, getting bad stuff and, you know, the jail and, you know, nights getting shut down and what we went through in the nineties, we just don't want it to happen anymore.

(44:34):
We really, really don't, you know?
And like, there's so much more than, you know, going out and not being able to wake up the next day because you've spent, you know?
No, you're preaching to the choir.
I mean, that's one of the things is, you know, I kind of am not partying right now and realizing, you know, when I go out on vacation, I don't want to go to New York and have a great time, have a great night out and then wake up in the morning and be like, oh, now I got to drag my ass out of bed.

(45:10):
I want to be out.
I want to be in a city that never sleeps and never sleep in the city and not have to want to go to sleep because I'm like, oh, I'm faded now.
It's in the morning.
Well, you know what, and I went to, I went to Nowadays, funny you say that.
I went to Nowadays to see Double O and Mantra and they did a, they did a three hour set.
Yeah, they did a three hour set.

(45:31):
So they were done at like nine o'clock in the morning.
Wow.
And I stayed a little bit longer and then I caught the bus back and I got back into Boston probably about one and I slept on the bus, but I was, when I got home, I went out, I went for a walk.
I went for a walk and I was so happy.

(45:53):
It was so happy.
I was like, that was great.
Well, again, I have all these places I want to see around the world.
I don't want to spend half of it or even just, even if I took and I had three extra hours a day to go see something out there or eat some food or do something awesome, but I'm laying in bed hung over or sitting by the pool hung over or just like, oh, I'm burnt out.

(46:15):
I'd rather be burnt out from exhaustion of walking and seeing so much stuff and full with a fat belly, like, oh, I already added this little thing that I got going on here.
Give me another give or gut or something or something over here, but I think that that'd be the experience and I think it's really awesome.

(46:36):
A question for you though, when you're out doing these events, after doing this for so many years, do you become a different person when you get on stage?
Are you different off stage or have you gone through a transition of where it was, I got to be prepared and I got to look like this and be like this on stage and now it's like, no, I'm decisive.
I walk up, bitch, you're getting me.

(46:58):
It's really interesting.
It really, really depends and I'll be candid.
2020, I started to get really, really ill again and 2021 was some of the first gigs that I had with CyberGroove.
And I got booked in Ohio and I think I got booked in Indiana, but the gig in Ohio, I'm on a plane, going there, I ate something that really reacted with my system horribly.

(47:33):
And when I got there, I just would not stop puking.
I would not stop throwing up.
And the only time I did not throw up was getting on stage to play this set at all.
I puked right before I got on stage.
And then right after I got on stage, I was like, hold on, someone's coming to me.
They're like, yo, that's so awesome.
I was like, one minute.

(47:55):
And I know, I know for a fact, everyone thought, oh, this girl is doing drugs.
She's fucked up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
No, what unfortunately happened with me was adenomyosis, endometriosis, and fibroids.
And things like that would happen again.

(48:16):
And I went through time periods within my DJ career, where I had these weird sickness things that would come up and I'd be overly tired because I was anemic.
Yeah, at the same time I'm drinking, at the same time I'm partying.
So people are like, oh, well, she's on a lot of drugs or whatever.
But I also wasn't taking care of myself and presenting myself properly.

(48:41):
So, you know, I deserved a little bit of that.
But this time, no, I was really, really sick.
I just hit it.
I didn't really want a lot of people to know because people judge you and people can be very, very mean and very, very intrusive, especially when it comes to something like that, to have to go through it again.
And explain to people that this is what's happening and everyone's like, um, so I really kept it to myself.

(49:07):
And last year, it just, it blew up in my face.
And around April, I had to get surgery.
I had to, and I'm glad I did.
Mass General Brigham Women is a great, great facility.
I am 100% better.
I feel great.
You know, I'm not as tired as I used to be.
And, you know, I think me just being cranky now is just because things suck.

(49:33):
when I was before, like, man.
I would have to calm down.
I would just have to say, you know what, Stace, be quiet.
Be quiet.
This person doesn't hate you.
You know, I'd have to remind myself.
But, you know, that's when you're dealing with autoimmune conditions and hormones, like, or you have a quiet sickness or you're disabled.

(49:55):
People really don't understand.
Sometimes you're in pain a lot.
I was in pain a lot, you know, fighting nausea, fighting fatigue, fighting irritability, you know, having to do these DJ gigs, having to travel, having to make money and not really having the time to really, really rest and be myself.
This year, finally.

(50:16):
Nice.
You know, finally.
And that's why there's all this music coming out because I'm able to sit there, heal, heal even more, you know, really, really do some awesome therapy for myself and really heal even more, really, really cut out things I don't need in my life and balance all of this.
And as a result, all this awesome music's gonna come out.

(50:40):
I can relate to that 100% about, you know, you don't, the one thing was, is not letting people judge you or being cut out or people putting the, oh, they're not gonna be able to hang because they are in a certain state of mind or even, you know, I had that happen with my back for three years.

(51:00):
People didn't know why one day I went, I mean, if you saw it over the course of three years, I used to be out on the dance floor and I'd be up standing and networking and hanging out to where towards, you know, towards the end, you know, six, about a year towards the end, I'd pull a stool up and put a stool in front of the DJ booth and I'd sit on the DJ booth and have my drinks.

(51:21):
I might get up and go to the bar and I'd come back and sit on my stool next to the DJ booth.
And clubs that would allow me to do that, obviously, you know, so, you know, and it hit it.
People didn't believe me.
That was the worst.
Yeah, they never do.
And I'm like, I can't fake an MRI.
I can't fake a CT scan.

(51:41):
I can't fake an X-ray.
They can see all this stuff and all the stuff I was doing, the lack of sleep, getting two hours of sleep, I had sleep apnea on top of all that that I didn't ever have diagnosed.
So I didn't know why I was waking up four times in the middle of the night, but then you wake it up in pain, trying to shift.
Yeah.
And then you put, you know, drinking on top of that.
Oh.

(52:01):
So I'm not getting any bait away sleep in the sense of things.
If I'm partying or hanging out and doing all that fun stuff, you know, it just wasn't conducive and it wasn't healthy and it sucked.
And yeah, finally, I just finally got my surgery and was like, whoa.
I know.
I know.
It's so crazy.
Really?
And then while I was healing, I was like, I should be in pain.

(52:23):
I was just tired all the time.
But I remember after surgery, I was like, shouldn't I be in pain?
Shouldn't this hurt?
And it was really weird for me to not be in pain anymore.
It was really, really weird.
And I had to work psychologically through that, the therapy with my therapist.
I'm sure you can understand.
Oh yeah.

(52:43):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It was no, I still for a while, even now, I mean, I still had like secondary and tertiary things going on, but still would walk into a club and immediately find the first place to sit down.
Yep.
Because I felt good, but what if it started hurting?
But if I could prevent that by sitting down, then I would not realize it.
Wait, I can walk again.

(53:05):
I can stand.
I can do other things.
I can rise.
It was fun.
I felt alive again, in a sense.
We're getting close to the end of the episode here.
I wanted to drop in and said you have, something I want to chat about.
You put in your notes is, you have the second edition of All Cruise coming out later this year.

(53:27):
What is All Cruise about?
So, All Cruise is a book.
It's a huge book.
It's basically a reference guide of all the crews that have contributed towards jungle and germ-based culture.
And, last year, might've been the year before that.
Might've been two years ago.
Brian and Brian, Brian Belfortune and Brian, he runs a couple of labels and the Everyday Junglist podcast.

(53:54):
He's also helping Brian Belfortune, the guy who's writing this book.
They approached myself and Jams.
Jams is the other co-owner of D&B Girls.
She runs a Canadian group.
And we did a series of interviews about how we came together and how we formulated D&B Girls and what our role is because we're going to be featured in All Cruise.

(54:17):
What they have done essentially before that, if you follow either or, there's a blog.
There's an All Cruise blog.
And what they have done is list, you know, different crews around the world.
I know right now they're on Italy, I think, but different crews, different artists around the world and their contributions to germ-based.
We're not in that blog.

(54:37):
We're in the book.
Yeah.
We're in the book.
We're in the book.
So, you know, there's also a chapter, unfortunately, some of the dark things about being a DJ and being a woman and being a woman of color is misogyny that you may have to deal with.
And I have done an extensive talk about my experiences with this misogyny and harassment as a DJ and as a woman of color within the scene.

(55:05):
You know, to sort of give a voice to it and to help stop it.
This doesn't need to happen anymore.
Did you ever see, I don't know if you were in it or not, but I remember seeing this in 2017.
They actually premiered it at an event here in Seattle.
There was only three places they premiered before they released it.

(55:26):
I think it was called Empower Her.
Yes.
I remember that.
I wasn't in it.
I wasn't in it.
I do remember some of the women that were promoting that.
And I believe that was more on house music, but still I thought it was great.
And it really, really, really pushed ahead.
I think that that really started, in my opinion, after seeing that, that started the push for more equity on lineups and festivals.

(55:56):
You know, that was a very important film, I feel.
Because what I saw that film do was then there was a push for a lot of festivals to be more equity compliant, more lineups.
Like, why are there only white males on this lineup?
When this music came from Black and Latino culture, women were involved in it.

(56:18):
It's a worldwide thing.
So why aren't we really representing that?
And it caused people to look at, am I really, really doing this music and this scene justice by only focusing on one demographic when we should be focusing on everyone?
So that when people look, they say, hey, this is a place for me too.
It's not about excluding anyone.
If anything, we don't wanna do that.

(56:39):
You know, of course you want everyone with talent.
Talent is first and foremost, but you also wanna make sure that it's balanced here.
You know, and when someone looks, they're like, oh, there's no Black people, or no Latinos, no women, no gay men.
You know, you don't want people to feel that way.
You want people to say, oh, oh, this is a place for everybody.

(57:01):
Cool, all right.
That's what kept me in the 90s in here, so.
No, I just literally got shivers, tingles, goosebumps, just remembering that movie, the first time seeing it.
I was like, I was really on that mission.
I'm like, yeah.
I mean, I had even been, actually back in the day, I wanted to do, I noticed the same thing on the DJ sessions.
When I was inviting all the people to come over and play, it was like, you said, pretty much all white males.

(57:26):
And maybe, you know, a few Black gentlemen in town, maybe some Latino, but men, men, men, men, men, boys, boys, boys, men, boys.
And I came up with this idea once here locally.
I said, you know, I'd love to do it all female.
Like, let's get the girls together.
Let's do something.
I think it'd be cool.
And I got hated on for that idea.
A certain individual in the scene, which could spark controversy down the line.

(57:51):
I'm like, and then all of a sudden I see them in a part of an event where this person put up, but in order to get around the canceled, it wasn't even canceled culture at the time, they put one guy on the lineup.
Or there was another promoter out there that wanted to do ladies, like put the lady girl DJ night, and they came at him and just attacked him.

(58:11):
And one of the girls, phenomenal DJ in town, had to bow out her position so they could put a guy on the lineup.
So it was just all female.
You're exploiting female.
And it's like, no, it's always male, male, male.
And you're standing, and you're against somebody doing that?
It wasn't for the exploitation.
It was that it's always a male, they don't get a chance.
And if they do, they're in earlier spots.

(58:31):
They're not being put next to the headliner, disenfranchised, and it's like, whoa.
One thing that we have to remember within our scene is that we see things through our lens and people outside of that, they don't see it our way.
And when I meet a lot of individuals and they learn I'm a DJ, the first thing that they think, oh, you have to spin dancehall, or you spin hip hop.

(58:58):
And they're like, I'm like, no, I don't spin hip hop or dancehall.
Like, oh, what do you play?
I play electronic music.
Oh, you mean like EDM?
No, I play a niche electronic music called Jordan Bays.
And when I explain it, they're like, wow.
They're like, people who look like you do that?
I'm like, yeah, plenty of people who look like me do this.

(59:20):
And I think that that's where we have to think.
If you want people from out there to start appreciating what's in here, you have to start thinking like them and you have to show them that people who look like them are involved in this, period.
And we have to stop thinking, oh, well, it's tokenism.
It's not always tokenism.

(59:40):
It's not, it's called representation.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Mizeyesis, it's been a wonderful pleasure talking to you, talking with you, hearing about everything else that's going on.
One thing I wanna know, what do you like to do when you prefer to, when you're taking a break from all this music stuff, what do you like to take time off doing?

(01:00:01):
There's a couple of things.
I do like writing music a lot.
I really do.
I love martial arts and will be restarting Muay Thai and Krav, which I've casually have studied here and there.
I was also a professional dancer for a very, very long period of my life.

(01:00:21):
And just for ha-has, I brought a pair of tap shoes last year and will be taking a few tap classes.
And I love cooking and I like working out.
And I also love watching movies and reading.
Spending time with my friends and family, if I'm not being a hermit.
I've been in hermit activation mode for a while.

(01:00:45):
Sorry.
Yeah.
It's funny being in entertainment.
A lot of people think that I'm an extrovert and I'm out there and I gotta be out there.
And I'm like.
I spend a lot of time by myself.
I really do.
Especially this year with healing and really, really rebalancing and really reintegrating some of the teachings that you've fortified for yourself and the different life paths that you're trying to set up.

(01:01:09):
I have school coming up.
I'm applying to.
Just waiting on one more thing, but I'm almost there guys.
I'll formally announce it soon, but you've heard it here first.
And I'm gonna be isolated even more for a little while.

(01:01:29):
And I just want people to understand that there's a reason for that.
It's not because I'm depressed.
It's because I'm just upgrading.
No, I get it.
I can relate.
I just, like I said, I was telling you pre-show, I took eight and a half months.
And people are just like, where did Darran go?
There he used to be.
Post, post, post.
Something's up.

(01:01:51):
And it's so sad.
We always assume the worst of people.
Yeah.
I mean, at least.
I mean, I was checking in.
I go, hey everyone, I'm still alive.
But you know, my food post.
I mean, everything front facing of me social wise was still had back in stuff going, but there was, but I didn't want to come down and sit at this desk.
I didn't even want to listen to my favorite internet radio.

(01:02:12):
It's just trauma, PTSD, everything that was going on.
I figured it was going back into that molasses phase.
I can totally relate.
I can totally relate.
And I, sometimes I will look back and I wonder if it was something astrologically going on.
Cause it wasn't just, it wasn't just you.
And it wasn't just me.
It's a lot of people that felt the same way.

(01:02:32):
Yeah.
Was it, was it maybe like a post fighting post-mortem burnout of COVID and finally coming back and go, Oh, now that it's actually, I'm out of that phase.
It's subconsciously cleared from the mind and the body and the soul.
Not just, Oh, we're back to business.
You know, and she still just wasn't clicking yet.

(01:02:53):
And then.
I think a lot of us didn't have a period of time where we were able to process everything.
Yeah.
That really was it for me.
I didn't have time to process half the things that have happened in the last four years until recently.
So, you know, it's been cool to reintegrate all of it.
You know, and if people want to find out what you've been reintegrating and putting everything together, where's the best place for people to go and find that out?

(01:03:18):
They can go to my Linktree.
It will have all my links, the right places to add me and just add me there.
You know, you can even email me from my Linktree.
I put my email address right there.
All right.
I'm making sure that's M-I-Z-E-Y-E-S-I-S.
Yes.
Linktree, right there.
Check it out.
Anything you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know about before we let you get going?

(01:03:42):
No, I have a lot more stuff in the pipeline.
Follow D&B Girls, follow myself, you know, and love Peace and Jungle Beats.
Oh, and I'm DJing at Submersion, again, with Neversoft and Lovelace in October.
And I might be in Grand Rapids in September, so.
Nice, nice.

(01:04:02):
Well, again, all of that and more at Mizeyesis's Linktree.
Check that out.
I'm going to drop that one more time here just to get that out there.
Linktree, Mizeyesis.
Awesome.
Oh, wait, I got one question for you.
Monty's going to kill me if I don't ask this for you.
If the Mariners play the Red Sox, who's going to win?

(01:04:23):
Oh, come on.
Well, I'm not, okay.
So I'm from Brooklyn.
Okay.
We're just going to get that out the way.
I tell everybody here from Boston, listen, I'll be respectful.
You will not see me wear a Yankees hat while I live here.
But do understand, I've been a Yankees fan since I was three.

(01:04:43):
All right?
So as far as what I see happening with the Red Sox this year, I'm going to say Mariners.
I'm sorry, guys, don't come for me.
But it's just, that's what I see.
All right, there you heard it first from Mizeyesis, Mariners over Red Sox.
Thank you again for coming on the show.
Hi.

(01:05:04):
On that note, don't forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com.
Find us on all the socials there.
We have over 700 news stories, 2,600 past episodes, past interviews with Mizeyesis, and more at thedjsessions.com.
We're launching a new music section.
We have our VR nightclub.
We got our site-wide radio player playing, all that stuff, and more at thedjsessions.com.

(01:05:28):
Check it out.
I'm Darran coming to you from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington.
That's Mizeyesis coming in from Boston, Massachusetts for the DJ Sessions.
And remember, on the DJ Sessions, the music never stops.