AN INTERVIEW WITH DJ NECRONANCER

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Submitted Date 10/04/2019
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How did you become a DJ? What were some of your influences?

I started playing piano when I was three so I've always been into music. When I was 12, my mom used to get upset at me not excelling faster so she would be abusive towards me. So there's a lot of emotions attached to that. I use music as a way to heal myself, and to be happy. There were so many dark things about music. I tried to turn it into things I wanted. I found dance music I was in college, 19 years old. I was living in L.A. at UCLA. I started going to some parties.

I met Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

I went to their Halloween party and that was a life changing event for me. I was watching DJs there, Trey Parker dressed as the E man and wore a purple velvet suit. He had all of these pills on his belt and was passing them out. I remember dancing to this music I had never heard before.

I remember being so bewildered and thinking, this music is beautiful.

I think it was just melodic trance. But it was my first time and I thought this is so weird, I'm intrigued by it. That got me interested into music more. Then we started going to raves and I met some people. I met a guy who dated my friend and had turntables. When we'd hang out they'd be upstairs having romantic time. I asked if I could play these two records together. It was kind of impromptu. I was trying to mix two records together for three hours. I remember them saying, "Nancy could you play a different song?"

I was playing the same two songs for three hours. I was trying to make them mix. And then finally, I got them to mix. From there I was buying records and trying to mix records all of the time. It was about mixing for me, I wanted to mix and pick my own songs.

 

What genre were you drawn to when you first started playing?

Progressive house and trance. I really liked the stuff from Global Underground at the time. This was 1999. I'm wasn't as cool as the midwest kids here who were into playing Skinny Puppy and the industrial stuff. I didn't like a lot of trance, I thought it was kind of silly. I got into darker house stuff. I'm drawn to darker stuff and I think my upbringing with my mom is where my dark side comes from with music.

 

When was your turning point to playing techno?

I had always bought some techno. It was mostly trance but then I met Ian Lehman over myspace. He sent me his whole music library over myspace. I thought, what is this stuff? I had never heard anything like it, it was amazing. And then we were in a relationship and he was teaching me about music. I moved to Minneapolis and I learned a lot from people like JoBot.

 

Is music why you moved to Minneapolis?

I think it's half love half music. I don't think I would have gone if it was just the relationship. The music definitely made me stay even after our relationship was over. I like the community here. I like people's understanding about music here.

 

When you were in LA, where did you get your records?

I can't remember a lot because this was back in 2000.I used to go to all of the stores on Melrose. There was Wax Records. I went to Vinyl Fetish because my boyfriend worked there. I met a guy there who was a DJ. I started djing with him. That's how I started playing out at raves. The first gig I had was over 400 people. I had played a few times at my friend's house in college, but that was my first large audience. I was very nervous in front of all of those ravers.


What's the largest audience you played for to date?

Probably Even Further. I can't say how many people were at the camp. It wasn't at the big stage or anything. In LA I played at this event called the Circus and there were a couple thousand people there.

 

You've been to Minneapolis for 14 years. What are some of your favorite record stores?

I don't buy a lot of records anymore because they're expensive. I play a lot of mp3s now. I buy mp3s off the internet. Like Juno or sometimes or Beatport. If i buy records I buy a big bunch and share the order with friends because of shipping costs. It's usually coming from Europe.

When I first moved here there was Let it Be and Vityl Vinyl. I never find records anymore unless I'm at a Cheapo. But that's not a source for new things.

 

What are you playing these days?

I like dark techno now. I've been playing for Dark Energy. I've been finding a lot of cool underground bands that are dark wave or goth industrial type dance music. Body of Light is one I saw recently. It was magical. Xeno & Oaklander was another band I played with. I like dark wave minimal synth stuff, I felt a wave of new stuff would be coming. Black Asteroid is another great example.


What part of music are you are you most passionate about?

I love discovering new music all of the time and sharing it with friends. It's all about the music, always. Being part of it makes you feel like have more of a meaning in life. Throwing parties and playing shows is a treat for me. It's a blessing. I feel like I'm doing something good that people can be inspired by. I always love being part of the community.

 

What's the next gig you are playing?

Dark Energy in October. I also have an event called SpaceseX. I made up the name in lieu of Elon Musk and his inspiration in the world. I also feel like I might be an alien. I love anything electro and techno at my event, or basically anything that is not radio friendly. You can make it weird and I like it. It can be spacey ambient live stuff. I've been doing that event about once a month except for when my dad was sick. We do the events at The Kitty Kat Club.

 

For someone that is this kind of starting out in collecting vinyl what would you what would you give for advice?

Go to Discogs. You can buy anything and it's a catalogue. For DJing go to Clone.nl, you can find a ton of stuff in dance genre. You can go to Bandcamp. There's blogs like Secret Thirteen to check out as well.

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