How did you first get into DJing? 

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In 2018 I was lucky enough to be living in a sharehouse with two very supportive guys called Mitch and Sebastian who are both musically talented. I wanted to be able to play my dream set of bangers at my 21st Birthday and they helped me make it a reality. The next couple years was just a continuation of me playing fun and ludicrous sets at friend’s house parties up until I had my first club gig at Revolver Upstairs in 2019. It was daunting but super fun as I was going B2B with one of my best friends Asha who had been behind the decks with me at parties and helped me practice. I’m very lucky to have such supportive people in my life who have actively helped me get better as a DJ and supported me from my early mixing days which couldn’t have been easy to listen to at the level of expertise they were at lol.

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You gravitate towards percussive and bass heavy sounds in your mixes, stuff that’s impossible not to dance to. Who are your musical influences and what draws you to these types of sounds?

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You get me! “Stuff that’s impossible not to dance to” is probably 95% of my tracklist. When I hear drums or a heavy bass drop something is ignited inside of me and I struggle to not move my body or head in some kind of way. I’ll sound like I’m on a dating show or something, but I really do feel a genuine connection towards the genres I play. The musical influences that have probably shaped my sound today are Black Coffee, Honey Dijon, Nicola Cruz, Yazzus, DJ EZ and Ke$ha (Animal forever).

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2020 was a major year for reflection and slowing down. How has it affected you as a DJ and what have you been getting up to in your downtime? 

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Despite the world slowing down my time spent DJing sped up. The inflation of mix series, online radio platforms and listeners couped up at home resulted in me getting the chance to record a lot of exciting mixes. Even though I struggled to stay passionate and motivated for a lot of my other creative outlets during lockdown DJing at home was and still is my biggest constant. As to how it’s affected me as a DJ I think it has resulted in me developing my sound at a swift pace. My earlier period of DJing was mostly centred around hedonistic classic hits with the odd Afro House track. Post COVID, after spending so many hours at home (soberly) listening to music I’ve reached a point where I know who Afrodisiac is and what kind of sound I want everyone to know me by.

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Has a lockdown changed the type of music you’ve been listening to? 

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Not really, I’ve been pretty consistent, but my knowledge of producers and artists has changed by way of expansion for sure. One way that it has changed is that I try and actively monitor the artists I’m supporting and listening to and whether or not they’re an artist I want to give more royalties. These days I like to think that the music I’m consciously listening to isn’t produced by disgraced abusers and appropriators. Additionally I'm putting more effort into searching and listening to music that is increasingly more diverse in terms of the artist’s race, gender identity and sexuality.

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You’ve recently come on board as one of the masterminds behind WIP, an online database of female, non-binary and GNC artists in electronic music. Can you tell us about your role in the team and why this project is so important and relevant for our music industry? 

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I have and I’m loving it. I really admire Floss and Sarah for the powerful changemakers they are in this industry and I’m so excited to be on board. ‘Media Coordinator’ is my role and it’s focusing on admin and content creation across our platforms. Sadly, there’s a lot of gaps in the industry when it comes to diversity on line ups for gigs, mix series, labels and event management. There are still a lot of individuals and collectives who are comfortable continuing the narrative that they book “off talent” but if you’re creating something that is supposed to engage with a community it doesn’t make sense for it to not reflect that community. Currently, Australia’s gender pay gap is still at 14.0%. In 2021 with men still having higher salaries it isn’t that surprising that they hold the monopoly when it comes to funding venues, equipment and events. The WIP Project aims at preventing the stale excuse of “I don’t know any women, nonbinary or GNC artists that play/produce/design/ ______”. Anyone with a WIP profile can also join our Facebook group giving them direct access to collaborate and communicate with the community which is a few legends away from hitting 300.

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‍You’ve started delving into the world of music production, putting out a killer remix of WAP last year. Do you have any other productions you’re working on? 

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For sure and they’re all tracks one would expect Afrodisiac to play out on a dancefloor! I definitely plan to release them this year. I just haven’t reached a point yet where I can flawlessly balance working for rent money, DJing and staying home to produce. Since restrictions eased, I’ve found myself getting distracted more than usual but I’m getting better at allocating ‘creating’ time each week.

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Favourite BPM & Why?

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Probably 130pbm as it’s that sweet turning spot from laidback grooving to 100% dancefloor turn up.