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Music, in all its guises, is a passionate interest for Katie and has been since she started piano lessons at the age of seven. She learned saxophone, clarinet and drums and played in her high school jazz and concert bands. From this time too, she was composing music and this extended exploration of the structure of the musical form has given her firm foundation to push on into the more free-form realms of electronic music. A perceptive friend, who figured she was really interested in playing records, after she repeatedly broke his needles and blew up his speakers, gave her the basics. Now you know how to do it, he said, please dont touch my stuff again!
DJing has been her creative expression ever since. Happily, and almost immediately it began paying dividends. At the age of 19, Katie walked into her first residency at Room 680 in Hawthorn and has had solid and constant residencies ever since. She found out from the moment she stepped up in the Melbourne house scene that she had something of a point of difference. Being female is somewhat of a novelty in a heavily male dominated industry but it has only ever been positive for me, and it is great to see the numbers starting to balance out a little.
The role of the dj, she says, is to keep exploring. You've always got to be thinking and trying new ways of creating interesting, dynamic sets. I love blending and mixing, interchanging genres and using records as an instrument to create interesting sounds.
Four years along and with current residencies at Q Bar, Mink, Robarta, Der Raum, OneSixOne and Circus, Katie says her favourite style right now is trying to marry different styles together and to surprise people. As a musician she has a knack at keeping the music flowing unobtrusively and revels in the marathon gigs where she can create her own groove for the entire night. Katie has the added credentials of being the editor of the infamous dance music and lifestyle website thescene.com.au which gives her a hold on the other end of the music industry. And has had mixes played multiple times on triple j, triple r and is a regular guest on kiss fm. Katie cites her influences to be as diverse and as widespread as Billie Holiday and Charles Orf to Felix da Housecat, Derrick Carter and DJ Shadow. Katie would typically classify what she plays as house but with all the genre walls slowly eroding in electronic music finds it hard to pinpoint her exact sound. From smooth flowing deep house through jacking westcoast disco to slamming mainroom killers, Katie's sets are always fun, always dynamic and always spectaclularly interesting. |
