Women Add To The Mix

I was pleasantly surprised to be mentioned in the Union Tribune July 14, 2006, in this article “Women add to the mix.” It’s truly an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as such legends as Spinderella, Sky Nellor, Sandra Collins, DJ Irene, Misstress Barbara, and Miss Lisa. Rock on! Thank you Gerald!

“Women add to the mix | Colette and DJ Heather transfer club vibe to CD”
The San Diego Union – Tribune – San Diego, Calif.
Author: Gerald Poindexter

Copyright Union-Tribune Publishing Co. Jul 14, 2006
“It’s a safe bet that, tomorrow night as usual, attractive women will occupy the head of the line at downtown’s On Broadway Event Center. Inside, the headliners will also be women — specifically, Colette and DJ Heather, beloved and respected DJs on the global dance-electronic scene.

“House of Om: Colette and DJ Heather,” a double disc released last month, offers an energetic, continuous mix CD from each. “Each CD represents what we do live,” said Colette from her Los Angeles home. “That’s what you want to do on a compilation — capture that feeling of being at a club. When I play live, I go through a wide range of songs. I tried to have that be the main focus of my mix.” Heather’s approach, she explains from her home base in Chicago, was “whatever works, whatever feels comfortable and whatever feels natural. I try to keep that in mind — that fine line between taste- making and groundbreaking.”

Each CD is an hour-plus journey through funky, chunky and techy house music, highlighting their skills not only as selectors but also as artists and producers.

Colette’s mix — like her live sets — prominently features her vocals on several remixes from last year’s album, “Hypnotized,” including “Feeling Hypnotized,” a track featured in the film “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Heather’s mix is a moody and melodic exploration of grooves that includes her collaborations with underground faves Brett Johnson and East Coast Boogiemen.

Both CDs emphasize house music, that post-disco phenomenon that marries an insistent, electronic 4/4 beat with soulful vocals and jazz, gospel, Latin and other styles. This is no coincidence, since Colette and Heather cut their teeth in the late ’90s as club patrons and performers in the Windy City. They’re among many DJs from there, including Mark Farina and Derek Carter, who carry on Chicago’s musical tradition.

“Because house music originated in Chicago, the culture is deeply rooted there,” explained Colette. “You’re exposed to it at a young age, and it’s such a wonderful form of music that it’s hard not to be attracted to it and want to be part of it.”

Colette and Heather are female standard-bearers of the genre, even maintaining their involvement in Superjane, a nearly 10-year- old female DJ collective. But unlike those aforementioned women-at- the-head-of-the-line, their emergence as headliners is attributable more to perseverance than to personal appearance.

“(Looks) can get you in the door, but you won’t get to stay,” says Colette. “For anyone to have staying power, you have to do more than look cute. That’s just the facts of life.”

Indeed, we’ve come a long way from the late ’80s, when the most visible female DJ was Spinderella, third wheel of the rap duo Salt- N-Pepa, or more recently, a celebrity model/DJ like Sky Nellor. Today, turntablists like Sandra Collins, DJ Irene and Misstress Barbara are prolific forces, and locally, the likes of Miss Lisa and Red Sonya come to mind.

For their part, Colette and Heather have demonstrated the proverbial “skills to pay the bills,” while gaining a diverse, worldwide following. So it’s not surprising that their compilation marks the first time Om Records, the San Francisco-based dance label, has given its popular “House of Om” series what it terms “a well-deserved ladies touch.” According to Heather, it probably won’t be the last, either.

“DJ-ing is (traditionally) not known as something that women do, but I’ve definitely seen more women get interested (in that), as well as in making music. It’s all a natural progression in electronic music, and eventually the anomaly of being female will disappear.”

Gerald Poindexter is a San Diego writer and DJ.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
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