Written by Thea Martynska
We had a coffee with Rose, a 21 year old DJ who was born and raised in Elephant and Castle. She still lives there with her family and values south London as an important part of her life. Most of the people and crews that she works with are from South London and a lot of the events she works in and attends are South London based.
She got into mixing during the end of lockdown, that weird period of time when we were allowed to meet friends but only 6 and only outside. She went to meet a friend who had turntables and that evening wen’t onto Ebay to look for some! It took about two weeks to get them but once she did she started mixing everyday.
Rose tends to only mix vinyl and when asked why she told us ‘You don’t learn to drive automatic before you learn to drive manual!’, she believes learning vinyl is the best way to learn to beat match and that it’s actually more fun. Luckily for her the decks she bought came with a load of vinyls, all D&B and Jungle, a lot of not so good stuff but also some really rare finds. She’s also found some great places to dig for vinyl.
Talking about working as a female DJ in a male heavy industry Rose mentions that its important to make connections with other female DJ’s early on, and establish a community of girls who will have your back.
Recently Rose has played for Hardcore hangin at Venue MOT in Bermondsey , which was one of her favourite events she’s played at, mainly because she felt like everyone was there to appreciate the music which created a great atmosphere. Her favourite club to play at is Corsica, she loves the sound, the space and the fact that it’s in Elephant and Castle! When she DJ’s she hopes to educate people on the music, and where it came from .
Being in a male centred industry always comes with a lot of bullshit for women and DJing is no different, when talking about this subject Rose mentions that you have to be your favourite DJ, this doesn’t mean you think your the best but that you should like what your playing best. sometimes people think she’s coming across cocky, she questions whether a man would get the same response, a question women ask themselves often.
Rose is looking to focus more on production in the future, she’s actually been producing for longer than she’s been DJing. She learned to produce at ELAM where she went to college, although she thinks that the way producing is taught is very male centred so women are less likely to get into it.
We can’t wait to see what Rose does next, we know it will be great!
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