DJ Profile- DJ Dazy

Wake up at 6am. Call the airport to make sure the flight is on time. Get ready and finish packing. Kiss the cat goodbye. Get to LAX by 8am. Cargo-check luggage (but not the records!) Call the promoter to make sure someone will be at the airport to pick you up. Make it through the metal detector (and the funny looks from awed airport security who exclaim, "I didn't even know they still made those things!") Sit back and think about your set, whether or not they'll dance, and who you'll run into tonight as the plane wings its way to New York. Get to the gig. Meet the other DJs, exchange hellos and hugs, pleasantries and business cards. Your set starts. They dance! And then, it's over as quickly as it began - and you're on a plane back to Los Angeles.

Dazy started DJing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and got her first club gig in 1992. In 1994, she packed her records, two turntables, her clothes, and her cat, and moved to Portland, Oregon. Dazy's DJ career flourished in Portland; by the time she moved to San Jose in 1997, she was a resident DJ at two Portland clubs and had played at most of the others.

In 1998, Dazy moved to Los Angeles, where her career really took off. Today, she spends at least one weekend a month traveling, and has played in Thailand, Canada, and most of the major cities in the U.S.

In 1996, Dazy started Sisterdjs.com, a closed mailing list for female DJs. Today, over 300 women subscribe to the list. "It's like a big sister list," said Dazy. "Many of the women on the list are the only female DJs in their town, so it's been a great support group for them." Despite her unfaltering support of the female DJ scene, Dazy dislikes being labeled a "girl DJ." She doesn't believe that being a DJ who happens to be female should be leveraged as cultural capital, and avoids the circus-like "all-girl parties" often promoted by men, which capture their audience based on the gender, rather than the skills of the turntable technicians performing.

Dazy's goals for next year include producing her own records and traveling more. She is in the process of building a PC-based, all-digital studio, and plans to put out a few records of her own by the end of next year.

If you're in Southern California, you can check out Dazy at Tropical, where Dazy is now a resident DJ.  For further information about her upcoming shows, visit www.djdazy.com.