We spoke to a collective of three women DJs from Trieste about why it\u2019s important to play together and how they experience their music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I started out with a collective called La Jazzera, which was an online radio station. We were a small group of about ten people. I\u2019d already done a bit with CDs with friends, at friends\u2019 parties \u2013 you know, birthday parties. I started out with CDs for the first ten years and then moved on to vinyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I started in 2023, when I was working as a waitress in a bar in Trieste. Once a month there was “Smart Hangovers”, a collective that plays indie music\u2026 I had loads of records at home, because I\u2019d always listened to vinyl with my uncle and my dad; I grew up a bit with that vibe. I had the same sort of music at home, so I thought: \u2018Why not try playing something with them?\u2019 And they were really welcoming, in the sense that they encouraged me right from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got started thanks to them, then I was lucky enough to meet the two of them, Cree and Loden. And well, I felt much more at ease. Obviously, being accompanied by two DJs with more experience than me, and women at that, makes you feel much more at ease, at least the way I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I started out in a bit of a carefree sort of way, shall we say. Back in \u201995, at the former OPP, the psychiatric hospital in Trieste, they used to hold parties inside one of the buildings, the P. It had these huge halls and they\u2019d organise these evenings with live music; most of the bands were from Trieste. It was great, because there were loads of people, it was always packed, there were even people sitting on the floor in the corridor, but there were also patients inside, so it was all mixed together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, from \u201996, I worked for Radio Fragola. Before clubs and such, that was something I kept at a bit of a distance, or perhaps I\u2019d support someone else, always with the vinyls. I\u2019d go out of Trieste if there were gatherings, like Vespa or Lambretta meets. But I always organised evenings with DJs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few years ago, the Trieste Affair started, and from then on everyone was like, \u2018Come on, get back into it!\u2019 \u2013 the more you ask me, the less I do it. The moment they stopped asking, I thought, \u2018Actually\u2026\u2019 From then on, I\u2019ve always been organising nights with another friend of mine. Then I wanted to do it with them, but specifically to bring the whole DJ thing back into the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d organised a gig and decided I wanted to put on a show featuring them. Barbara Loden and I have known each other for ages; she was pretty much a must-have, and I really wanted her to be there. I met Sbandee later on and I really love what she plays. Perhaps Loden and I are the ones who click a bit more musically, but Sbandee\u2019s tracks fit in too, and everything changes when we\u2019re a trio. In the early 2000s, there were more women playing vinyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like working with them because I feel we\u2019re keeping alive a genre we enjoy, not just following trends. The various genres we play are more niche, and it\u2019s great to maintain this identity in a scene dominated by electronic and house music, which is becoming increasingly widespread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a woman, you always feel\u2026 I don\u2019t know\u2026 As a woman making a name for yourself in this scene, you always feel a bit\u2026 I don\u2019t know how to explain it. It\u2019s having to prove yourself. Especially compared to the other male DJs, you feel a bit\u2026 I can\u2019t put it into words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Underestimated; you feel you\u2019re underestimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, exactly. That you\u2019re doing something without really knowing what you\u2019re doing. Sometimes I\u2019d be playing music and their mates\u2014who might be sound engineers or something\u2014would come and fiddle with my mixer without me even knowing them. But\u2026 not with the men? It\u2019s a bit of a sexist thing, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s as if you\u2019re not capable of handling that mixer, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It feels a bit like a paternalistic situation. And then being booked in certain contexts, it sometimes feels more like a marketing ploy or pinkwashing. I mean, I want a female DJ just because she\u2019s a woman, not because she has good taste or I like her set. It really feels like\u2026 \u2018I\u2019ll put her on because she\u2019ll draw a crowd\u2019. So yes, I\u2019ve felt that way at times too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that I am absolutely convinced we live in a male-dominated society and that patriarchy rules, and therefore I am firmly convinced there is no parity or equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having said that \u2013 and this is fundamental for me \u2013 I have to admit that, fortunately, at least the collective I started out with, and indeed the people I was surrounded by \u2013 male DJs \u2013 were clearly and firmly supportive and shared my views\u2026 and then the venues where I played music were always places like squats, community centres, and self-organised parties. I have to be honest: I started playing music with a lad and we were a regular duo for years; he was my absolute partner in crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My relationship with sound engineers, on the other hand, has always been terrible. I\u2019m absolutely delighted when I see, quite recently, girls hanging around behind a mixing desk; in fact, if I could go back, I\u2019d want to be a sound engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So many times, in situations where I\u2019ve needed a sound engineer, it\u2019s been absolutely mad. They see a woman, and that\u2019s it\u2014she doesn\u2019t exist. That business of coming over to fiddle with the mixer\u2014in reality, it\u2019s something they probably wouldn\u2019t dare do with a bloke. This happens, I mean, absolutely. It\u2019s rare, it\u2019s rare, that\u2019s true, but it\u2019s still something you just don\u2019t do. At the very least, you could give me some advice, couldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a certain point, I became really interested in it, even going to places like Tetris and Etnoblog, trying to figure things out on my own, practising, understanding, and being able to build my own console. I\u2019ve also always played music in settings where nobody else was doing it for me. But for me, it\u2019s always been a priority to be able to fend for myself and know what I\u2019m doing, because you really have to earn respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right from the start, though, where I began, it was actually quite an equal environment, so nobody ever\u2026 Or rather, no? There was perhaps even a bit more fairness at times. At gigs, for example, the ones I go to, if you\u2019re a woman you\u2019re almost handed everything on a silver platter<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the spinning platter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There have been moments when one thing goes wrong, another kicks in, and so on; there\u2019s always been mutual collaboration. I haven\u2019t noticed, at least not in my own experience, this\u2014let\u2019s call it, in inverted commas, \u2018difference\u2019\u2014but probably because I was the one organising and consequently\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the technical side, with the other lad, we now have a mixer that\u2019s completely different from the standard one. So every now and then we\u2019re like\u2026 How does it work? It\u2019s happened to me too, at recent gigs, to see three hands on the mixer at the same time \u2013 belonging to three lads who were playing with me for an event. And at one point I said: \u201cOh guys, how many hands?\u201d. Are you doing this because you\u2019re giving me a hand? Because I\u2019m deaf in one ear, I can\u2019t hear the bass, I don\u2019t pick up the external sound. I\u2019ve seen when it\u2019s a friendly intrusion, where I\u2019m helping you because I know this thing, or when it\u2019s…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve seen situations \u2013 not so much here in Trieste, but elsewhere \u2013 where female DJs always had someone else there with them, not like we do amongst ourselves, where when one plays music the other stands nearby, talks to her, and there\u2019s a supportive interaction between us, but there\u2019s almost a\u2026 sense of control. As if they didn\u2019t know, right? It seems a bit of a paradox, because I\u2019m the one asking you to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, I think when girls see a woman playing records, they\u2019re happier because it\u2019s a bit different, and the lads end up being happy too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a sort of amazement from some people. Sure, well, a little bit \u2013 maybe they\u2019re a bit reluctant\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s because the figure of the DJ is somewhat mythologised, so in reality the DJ always attracts…<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve seen more amazement in certain situations, not so much because there\u2019s a woman, given that fundamentally it\u2019s something people enjoy\u2026 It\u2019s the vinyl itself that draws people in so much. There\u2019s a sense of wonder about vinyl among both the little ones and the older crowd. Vinyl really stops people of all ages in their tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe lots of people buy them but then don\u2019t share them; I like the idea of sharing things I enjoy. Maybe not many of the tracks I play get people dancing, but I\u2019d like other people to hear them, to listen more during the evening, whilst many others might just sit down, have a drink but not listen to anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It obviously depends on where you\u2019re doing the DJ set! There have been times when someone comes up to you and recognises the track! So then you think, OK, this person is listening to the DJ set, they\u2019re enjoying it, they\u2019re really into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The audience sometimes takes it badly, especially the more experienced ones \u2013 musicians or DJs \u2013 who know how to mix, because we don\u2019t actually mix; we just play one track after another, fade in, fade out. Sometimes the crowd asks, \u2018Why aren\u2019t you mixing?\u2019 I\u2019ve been criticised for this more than once, but these aren\u2019t genres where you can mix because the songs have completely different BPMs from one another, so you can\u2019t mix them. However, loads of people don\u2019t get it and expect a DJ set like those in electronic or house music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As Sbandee says, there are still beats, things that aren\u2019t always mixable. If I loop five ska tracks, I could mix them if I wanted to, because they\u2019re all in duple metre. But if I start playing a Northern soul track and then a ska track, there\u2019s that sort of break because we\u2019re switching to different time signatures. In my opinion, though, that\u2019s precisely the beauty of vinyl: when you listen to vinyl, you already have that pause. It\u2019s not that we leave pauses between one song and the next\u2014in fact, they\u2019re all very tightly packed, they do overlap\u2014but there isn\u2019t that interplay of…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, it\u2019s not all continuous. But that\u2019s part of its charm; it\u2019s a very authentic thing<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Staying on my feet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee will come and get us, and we\u2019ll tell her what to play! Ten years might seem like a long time, but it isn\u2019t. When it comes to organising events, I\u2019d love to keep working with the people I\u2019ve worked with before, but also with new people; if new situations come my way, I\u2019m all for it. But also the fact that there are three of us women and keeping it going, and doing something more with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge is also to keep going with these genres and find venues that still host these nights. We\u2019re in a city where venues close down all the time; there are fewer and fewer spaces where we can get involved with our own ideas because, quite simply, the ones who get the spotlight are the electronic DJs who bring in huge crowds\u2014that\u2019s what\u2019s trendy\u2014and, unfortunately, it\u2019s a capitalist world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barbara Loden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nina Simone, because she led a wild life and did some incredible things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy Winehouse, who I had a teenage crush on \u2013 even though I was anything but a teenager when I discovered her \u2013 she was just incredible to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kim Gordon because in the 90s I was mad about Sonic Youth and when she fell out with her husband and broke up the band, she made three albums, each one better than the last. She remains a legend to me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then I\u2019ll add her last, otherwise I\u2019ll end up looking like a mainstream Madonna fan. Because, in reality, Madonna remains an incredible figure and, however pop she\u2019s always been, she\u2019s the very example of a woman who probably went through a lot of shit in 1980s New York and yet, in the end, she did what she did<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was on the anti-Madonna side; I was Team Cindy Lauper<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well then, let\u2019s throw Raffaella Carr\u00e0 in there too! She was certainly outspoken on issues of homophobia as well. She\u2019s always been a vocal advocate on social issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One band I often listen to is Le Tigre; their lyrics are definitely social and systemic critiques. As for the American scene, I listen to the Lambrini Girls loads, and I think their latest album is one of my favourites; they\u2019re proper badass feminists and always fly the Palestinian flag at their gigs. I also listen to Dry Cleaning a lot, with their singer who has a beautiful voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m learning loads from her!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sbandee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sprints, who have this amazing female vocalist \u2013 they\u2019re all up-and-coming bands with female vocalists, and it\u2019s great in a scene that\u2019s mainly made up of male band members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MorganCree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I follow a certain scene and have always been into a particular musical genre, so I can name a well-known one, like Blondie. There are examples across different genres; if we look at oi or punk, for instance, where loads of women were singing about social issues, not just something more superficial.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":983,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"resource-category":[13],"resource-tag":[29,30],"class_list":["post-982","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource-category-created","resource-tag-interview","resource-tag-music"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen did the three of you start working together?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s interesting what you were saying earlier, about feeling more at ease with them.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Do you notice a difference in the audience when you play together?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What do you think will be the biggest challenge you\u2019ll face as a DJ in ten years\u2019 time?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Could you put together a sort of playlist for us, naming three women or bands who\u2019ve inspired you?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n