How did you get into deejaying?
I started scratching in 1996 at age twenty, when DJ Faust and his turntables moved in with me. He had seen me playing drums and thought I would be a natural at deejaying. I've been a turntablist since.
How do you do what you do? Describe your process.
I practice and perform scratching regularly. I experiment with different sounds, styles and forms of music. When I'm putting an album together, I create a bunch of ideas for songs, work on the songs, then my concept evolves and I use the concept to tie everything together.
How many people are involved in what you do?
As far as production, I do everything myself most of the time. I would never hire someone else to produce a beat for me to scratch over; I would rather just do it myself. When Faust and I perform, we perform as a team, so we are both dependent on each other then.
What do you like/dislike most about deejaying?
I love traveling, making and playing music, meeting new people and performing for thousands of kids. It is also very fulfilling to make a living off what I love. I dislike the politics, sexism, racism and how unstable and controlling the money is.
What was high school like? Were you into deejaying?
I hated high school. I was only really good in art and music. I was really into music and followed the Grateful Dead & Phish throughout high school and college. I played percussion in the band and snare drum in the marching band. I was usually the only girl in whatever I did and was a major tomboy (I still am). The worst thing about high school was that there were too many cliques and stuck-up rich kids. My family was poor and my high school was full of middle- and upper-class kids. I had a lot of friends in different "groups," but a lot of the time I felt out of place.
What other kinds of things do you do? What else would you like to try?
I have my black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a degree in graphic design and computer animation. I make a lot of graphics. I love combining audio with visual. What I really want to do is make and arrange music for movies.
Tell us about your song "Shortee's Return".
On "Shortee's Return," lyrics were 'scratched' in, line for line. Some people don't realize it's tons of different voices because I used the computer to manipulate the pitch and tone of each so they sound like one person. Check it out.
