Kaitzy - DJ
November '23

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Interview Transcript (edited for ease of reading)

Hi, I'm Ginny Koppenhol. I'm a photographer and DJ from near Lancaster, and I'm doing a personal project at the moment, interviewing local DJs, producers, event organisers, venue owners, shop owners; anyone involved in the local electronic music scene and also taking their portrait.

So I'm hoping that this helps to inform us about where the scene is right now, but it's just really interesting to find out what brought people to the scene, and there's all sorts of different reasons. This interview is with Kaitzy, that's her DJ name. Caitlin is somebody I met at the end of 2022, and she got in touch with me to ask for some advice and any tips or contacts of people she could connect with, which was absolutely brilliant. That's always something that I promote, that people just have chats, go along to events and it's absolutely the right way to do things. I was really impressed with her because I think she was only 16 at the time and had already been DJing for quite a few years, with massive support from her parents Ali and Ruth. They went along to every gig and meeting with her, and I was in awe of their collective approach and support. It was absolutely amazing to see.

The following year I did a portrait project with Kaitzy and her family, showing a month in the life of her starting out on her DJing journey (or more her gigging journey). So I got to know her even more and had to involve her in this project of course. So I interviewed them over the phone. I can't remember why we couldn't meet face to face, but it this was actually the end of 2023. So another older interview. And I'd love to repeat it soon because Kaitzy's now studying music production and so I'd love to get her updated perspectives.

So it's a really interesting insight into someone starting out gigging and some of the opportunities and challenges, especially in a local area like Lancaster and Morecambe. What's helped? What's hindered? However, I hadn't asked her my usual first question about how she got into DJing, because I'd spoken so much to her about it for the previous project, that I thought we could add it in in a different way, but anyway I changed my mind and decided to ask her to record that section.

So that's the first bit you'll hear and it's a fantastic story. Then we go straight into the the interview, as I say, that was done over the phone (that's why I sound like I'm really far away!) I just love her perspectives, her tips and I love her interest and connection with the 90s and that's credit to her parents, her dad in particular, who was a DJ and really has introduced her to the spirit of the 90s. She talks about how she would love to find opportunities to connect with that now. We talked about all sorts of things from how DJ's are perceived now to the use of phones within clubs. The other voice that you'll hear on this interview is Ruth, Kaitzy's mum, who I've got to know through the previous portrait project and brilliant to have her input too. Have a listen and enjoy.

Kaitzy

So I first started DJing when I was about 8 years old. Growing up, I'd always been surrounded by dance music. My family always had music on in the house or in the car. I never had that normal child experience of listening to the childish songs and whatever I wanted to hear. It was always what Mum and Dad wanted to hear, and I fell in love with dance music at a super early age.

My dad was also a DJ and so I was used to growing up and seeing him performing at local festivals or local gigs, and I just absolutely loved following him around. I didn't start trying it until I was eight years old, but I would always sit and watch him and there's lots of photos of me literally sat behind the decks watching everything that he did and just being absolutely hooked into what he was doing. I absolutely loved that.

So I first then had a go when we had a house party back in Yorkshire, and I was about 8 years old. I just fell in love with it. To start off with I was pretty bad at DJing and I didn't understand the whole concept of mixing properly and doing proper transitions, but over time I taught myself and I learnt what worked and what didn't work. I just absolutely loved playing on on the decks.

For a while, after I only ever really played on the decks when when my dad did gigs and I'd have a little go and see what I could do, and each time I would teach myself something new. Then he set them (the decks) up for me when I was about 11 or 12. He set them up in the living room and said I could go on and whenever I liked. From then on I just spent pretty much every single day, for a good couple of hours each day, practising and just seeing what what I could do and where I could take it. I just absolutely fell in love with working out how mixing worked and doing all kinds of different effects and transitions and just getting lost in this amazing world of music.

When lockdown hit, it was perfect because that just meant that I could spend every day, all day practising. Without that, I don't think I'd have been at the level that I'm at now because if I didn't have that much time to practise, I wouldn't have learnt what I've managed to teach myself, and learnt off tutorials and just watching other DJs. I've always been a massive fan of watching DJs online and really watching what they do and thinking to myself 'How can I do that myself? How can I change it? How can I adapt it?'

I kept practising for a very long time and I got to about age 14 / 15 and decided that it was definitely something that I wanted to do long term. It was a dream of mine to be like all my favourite DJs such as Hannah Laing, Overmono, Fred Again. There are so many people that I'm super inspired by and I wanted to be exactly like them. I knew that this was something that was unusual and something that was my calling, and I just decided that this is all I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

For me, there was just nothing better than seeing a whole group of people, whether that's at a house party that I've thrown at my place or playing in public, just seeing people react to the tunes that I play and everyone sharing that love for music. There's just nothing better than seeing that, and I absolutely adore being able to perform and controlling the music and the crowd, and just seeing how people respond to different tunes and watching everyone just have the best time ever.

What is good about being a DJ in the Lancaster and Morecambe area?

I really like the vibe that you can get in Lancaster and I like the closer-knit people. I will go out and I will see people I recognise Ruth - and people recognise you.

When you do have a busy night, lots of people come out that you've seen before and it feels like it's friends in that way. Yeah, I just like the people. So I really like, obviously, Summer (Jenkins) and Matt (Thiss) who's are all super supportive.

Ruth - The DJs also really supportive of each other.

There's no competition. The other week when I was playing at Sherrys, we met Mikey North. He was lovely. So I'd heard of him and been following him on Instagram for a bit but had never met him and he was just so lovely. We ran over his set a little bit. I was meant to be finishing at 10, but he was like, "no, let's carry on together and do back to back". You know, there was no "right. It's my turn. Move off the decks", you know. It was really nice that it just seems to be like that.

And what about the downsides?

It's the unpredictable...

You think it's going to be a busy set. We were expecting Halloween to be really busy night and it was quite quiet, and it just it's unpredictable. You don't really know what night it's going to shape up to be. There's been other gigs where I've not really looked forward to it or I felt like it's going to be really quiet, and it's one of the best gigs I've had.

Ruth - It's quite a small scene

Yeah, it is a small scene and you will have the summer time, which is obviously really busy and then times like now in November where it's just dead quiet. I know it is probably like that in bigger cities as well, but it just seems that in Lancaster it's much more noticeable and you'll sometimes play to 5 people.

What are the difficulties with it being such a small scene?

I think the costs like entry fees. And when you've got small name DJs, obviously if they're local DJs that are well known within the local community and people know that they're good, people will be prepared to pay to come and see them. But it just seems to be that if you're not as well known as, say, like someone like Summer (Jenkins) is and it's £15 to get in or

even a tenner, you're taking a chance there. I'm guilty of it myself, of going out somewhere and seeing somewhere that's charging £10 or £15 entry and it's names that you've never heard of. You're taking a risk and you don't know if the DJ is going to be any good or not, especially when you can go somewhere free.

Ruth - like the Crafty scholar don't charge

Yeah with the cost of living crisis, everything's going up. And the drinking puts people off. I've played a couple places where it's been for a round of 3 or 4 drinks for close to £30, just for one round of drinks, and that's not a even big round.

If it's too much money for the drinks, many people see going out as drinking and if they haven't got a lot of money anyway, then they'll obviously pick and choose their nights, and will probably go for the bigger nights, like when Escape Events did the Halloween Haunted night.

I suppose it's then hard for smaller promoters to then build up a night because you don't necessarily get that critical mass of people willing to pay those fees initially and then you can't build up and invest in bigger names, who can then support the local DJs by having them on the bill too. You get stuck in a plateau perhaps?

Ruth - It's something that Ali and I have spent quite a bit of time mulling over, because we're chaperoning her at all these events, and one of the things that we're noticing is the student crowd is different from when w e were at university. People are not going out in the same way, staying on campus or staying in their own student homes. And there are a lot of young people in Lancaster. I suspect that if you looked at the average age, it's really low when when you've got all the students in, but they don't seem to come out. And maybe that's something to do with the fact that when I was at university, we didn't have to pay fees.

So you've got all this added financial burden. It costs people more each year to be doing stuff and and paying for their accommodation and living and also you don't want to mess up your degree by partying all the time because you've spent all that money on your fees that you've got to pay back. I think that's changed the student culture quite a bit.

Lancaster is very campus based and other unis are more integrated. So yeah, that's something that's regularly come up in my other conversations as well.

Yeah and the campus is quite a way away as well.

Ruth - And then our other thought, has been about the availability of new music and on Spotify and the way that you can listen to music at home, and sound systems are so much better at home.

Because they're not necessarily thinking, "oh, we need to go out and hear what the latest music is because we can look that up ourselves or we can access that really quickly ourselves."

Ruth - As you can see, we've discussed this at great length!

Because there are days when I do get quite down about it and these are the reasons why. I can see it easily through anyone else's eyes, that it is a risk to go out and you don't know the DJ and you're spending a lot of money. So I completely understand that, but it's still hard obviously.

To build a scene back of some of those challenges. Yeah, absolutely. And then, like you say, actually, it's the motivation for you to keep going with it in that context. It must be hard.

So one of my questions actually links to that.

Have you always thought you'd want to progress beyond this area? And I guess the answer is 'yes' from what you've told us and is that something you're feeling already?

Yeah, definitely. For years I've wanted to be a DJ and I've always known, even before I started going out, that Lancaster was not the place. It was always "I want to DJ in London or in Manchester, or even further afield like Ibiza". And you know, it was never just in Lancaster. Obviously I've had some really good nights in Lancaster, but it's motivating me to try in other places. I'm already looking at some. I've just done quite a bit of research over the past week or so of clubs and bars in Manchester and a bit in Liverpool. I'm just going to do what I did a year ago, where I emailed off my Mixcloud links to people 'cause that's how I ended up getting in contact with Sonny (Wharton). I got in touch with him through Jess Bays. You know, it's the right thing to do because that was a really positive outcome. I'm getting ready to just send a few emails and DMs, to some small places obviously, not the Warehouse Project. I've got a list of about 20 clubs or bars and that's just in Manchester. Even if I just get one 'possible' I'm happy with that, because that's one chance and these things do tend to lead onto other things.

It's just it's getting my foot in there a little bit early because I want to go to Manchester and London next year when I've finished my A-levels and so instead of just thinking, "Oh yeah, I'm going to go to Manchester and I'll leave it until next year," I thought I might as well start at least researching and having a look at what I can do now to get a head start.

And when do you turn 18?

I turn 18 in February. I'm really excited for that because I can't wait until I can apply for more opportunities. The other day, something popped up on my Instagram saying, "Do you dream of playing big festivals? Enter our competition and win the chance to open the main stage." I can't remember what festival it was. Then I read in the small print: entries must be 18 or over.

But this 'pre 18 part' has been a really special story as as well because not many people would have done how much you've done before you're 18, and with such support of your family too.

Oh, it definitely has been. I'm a bit sad to obviously no longer be able to say, "Oh yes, I am 16 and I'm a DJ."

Being 18 and a DJ, that's still obviously really young, but I'm no longer that child DJ anymore haha.

Do you think it's important to stay connected though to the local area?

Definitely.

I've met so many lovely people here. Me and dad were saying in the car the other day that even just a year ago, we'd never dreamt that we'd have met so many lovely people. And I don't want to ever be, "Yeah. Bye, guys" and never talk to them again. I want to constantly be in touch with them. People like Summer, who has been massive for me. She's so lovely.

I would never want to forget about everything, you know? I always want to stay connected and come back and do some nights in Lancaster. It's probably my dream to have a main stage at Highest Point Festival, as it's my hometown.

Or put on an event myself, maybe in further afield places, but I always think I'd love to give something back, linked to home and have everyone that I've met, and the DJ's to come and do it with me. That would be a really nice thing to do, one day in the far, far future, obviously.

I like that you're thinking like that and working out how are you going to stay connected.

What's a local highlight in your career so far?

It'd be the first Highest Point I played. That was a big standout moment. It didn't feel real. I wish I could go back and relive that day again, to really appreciate it even more. It was obviously the start of everything really. I really enjoyed that. That was definitely a highlight for me.

I think just doing nights for Summer. One particular was the Highest Point After Party from this year. I think that was definitely a highlight because that was really busy. That was the one where I ended up getting kicked off the decks. I was upstairs in Kanteena and the bigger DJ was playing downstairs. And, she was playing to five people, and I had to come off the decks and But I took that as a compliment, but was also quite gutted that I didn't get to finish my set. But still it was that was definitely a highlight for me. Both Highest Points and then in particular this year, the After Party.

And what about wider than Lancaster? What have been your highlights?

Solfest was definitely a highlight for me. I started off playing to 10 people at about 5.30pm. It started off really quiet and I knew it was one of the last festivals I was going to do this year. And there was a bit of an issue with the CDJs as well, which freaked me out because I was playing on two Pioneer 2000s and two 3000s, and I'd never played on a mix of the two before. And my USB was playing up a bit because it didn't like the 3000s because I've got an old version of Rekordbox so it wasn't reading my tracks, but I stop panicking and I was alright. Then it started raining which really helped me.

Loads of people came in, but then I thought it was only a short shower and that people were going to go back outside again, but actually lots of people just ended up staying after that! I managed to keep quite a full tent, especially for that time of the day. I was really pleased with that. That was definitely an achievement.

Then the next DJ didn't turn up. It was Phil who booked me for Solfest, and he said tell you what, we'll just do a B to B (back to back set) together. So I ended up playing an extra hour which was really good. He brought an MC on as well, and it was just it was just one of those moments. That was definitely a highlight because, I mean I don't know what DJ doesn't, but I do love a big crowd of people and vibing off their energy.

And in all respect, there's been so many times that, I've played to 5 people but those 5 people have really gone for it is still nice to see. But there's nothing better than seeing a really big crowd.

Another highlight was Nozstock,and that was really good because I was going to a different region (of the country).

It was so funny because at the hotel we were staying at, Mum mentioned it to the bar staff about me being a DJ. Before we knew it word got round the whole bar. Maybe people thought maybe I was a bigger DJ, I don't know, but it was quite funny that that was what happened.

It was really good those two festivals.

And what are your feelings about the dance scene as a whole?

It's mixed, but I'm definitely feeling positive about how much more female DJs are about 'cause even just in the time that I've been DJing, it's been a really big noticeable change in how many female DJs there are. When I was really young and talking to Dad, I remember thinking that there aren't any female DJs.

So some of that has become more mainstream, and that's because obviously I'm looking into it and trying to find them. But there are more mainstream female DJ's that you can name. So I'm definitely feeling better about that. It could always obviously still do better. But it's even in the last five years, it is really positive and the other day I was looking at a big festival, I think it might be Forbidden Forest that had been announced. I counted up the female DJs on the line-up and got quite a high number, still a lot less than the male, but it was positive to see that.

Ruth - There are definitely more mainstream female DJs in the charts.

Definitely. I really like the sort of the music that around now because back in the 2010s, there was techno and stuff around but there was a lot more EDM type music. I like my hard drops and really banging songs. Whereas back then there was less of that. I need to learn a bit more about the 2010s because I've looked a lot into the '90s in early noughties, but it just feels to me that there was a lot of EDM and that was the birth of people like Avicii and Martin Garrix and some sort of quite E DM-ey mainstream music.

I don't know how to describe it. At the moment there is more drum and bass, obviously garage as well. But yeah, the hard house... I don't know how to describe it.... more Tech House, because obviously that's my favourite, people like Hannah Laing who has the really banging (tunes). You're more likely to hear that than you are to hear more 'EDM' type tunes. So lately I've been reading up a lot about the 90s. I mean, Dad's always talked about it to me, but what were we watching a few weeks back?

It was really good. It was a documentary and it was on YouTube.

Ruth - I'll go and ask Dad...

A philosophy A-level class had someone come in from the 90s who had been to these raves. He was he was describing all the free parties and stuff and he was showing all the the bad press that they got.

Ruth - It was called Everybody is in the Place.

It was really good. So ever since then, I've wanted to read up more about it because it was so bad how much bad press it got when really it was just people wanted to have fun and just celebrate life!

I'm reading a book at the moment all about it, and the author phrases it really nicely. He said, "How can it be considered evil, dancing all night long to a really nice like bass drum or something and just loving everyone and celebrating life together with complete strangers?"

Ruth - It's what tribes have done for thousands of years.

Exactly, he also said, which was really quite humbling, "People didn't care who the DJ was then. People just turned up to have fun and listen to music. They weren't bothered who was on the decks, and the DJ wasn't the star." Like, you know they wouldn't come out or dressed up and it was about the music. It was always about the music.

It was different to concerts because it was almost like you were part of the performance. It didn't feel like you were just watching a singer, you were part of the performance. I think the book is called New Rave World or something (the writer used to write for Mixmag). Note: Rave New World by Kirk Field.