Interview with Anthea

Just last weekend Kreg and I were chilling out at the Mount Nelson Planet Bar pretending to be semi-famous when a real celebrity walked in… As luck would have it, she was a close friend- so we invited her over to bask in the MyCityByNight coolness for a drink or two and got to talking to DJ Anthea about music, DJ’ing and declarations of ever-lasting love.

MCBN- So Anthea, you’re a fully fledged international DJ… When did you start playing with knobs?

Anthea: Hahaha I wouldn’t say international at all! Maybe one day Played a couple of gigs outside South Africa but otherwise just trying to develop myself and my brand within this country. But ye it’s mad to think that I only started learning to play literally about a year and a half ago! Sometimes I forget how busy I’ve been over that time!

MCBN- Your DJ style reminds us of some of the more old school big room progressive DJ’s like Seb Fontaine and Ferry Corsten- how would you describe the type of music that you play??

Anthea: Really? Ferry Corsten?? Never thought of it that way! My style is a bit diverse, ranging between Tech House, Tech, Progressive…. I’d probably say the best way to describe my sound is Progressive Tech. But I’m a little raver at heart so always love to drop a couple of new tech remixes of older classics (no cheese though!!!). It’s tough sometimes as there is a lot of pressure in this market to go quite mainstream (cue.. Akon!), but I’ve managed to stick to my guns with a more underground sound, and it seems to be working pretty well so I’m stoked!

MCBN- Can you please explain to us what the hell minimal, progressive tech is? Because we certainly don’t know. J

Anthea: Hmmmm well Minimal is very much as its name describes! It is quite a striped down version of tech, generally with little or no musicality involved in the track. Unlike with most other genres of Dance music, which have very obvious breakdowns and build ups, minimal builds up very slowly to what you think will be a breakdown, but never actually reaches that point… minimal is more of a soulful and introverted style than getting everyone’s hands in the air kinda vibe..

Progressive tech is my baby, my best style to play. The term progressive is very diverse, from more dreamy, chilled tracks to the harder more euphoric tracks. Progressive tech has a very big techy element and is generally quite hard relative to other prog, but still has big melodic build ups and breakdowns. Very very fun style to play, lots of energy!

MCBN- Sadly, we don’t see enough female DJ’s banging out the beats locally… What was your inspiration for becoming a DJ? And will we see any production from you in the near future?

Anthea: I know there aren’t many! I think the beauty sleep element of a girls life dies out when they start DJing.. so many start and then don’t follow through which is a pity, and others just play more as a hobby than anything else.

I guess inspiration for this work came from a few angles…. from just loving electronic music from when i was much younger, to my hard house days when I used to just stand behind the dj box and watch what they were doing, to all the mad parties with top djs i went to when i lived in London. Production, Im still learning, just gotten my studio all set up its SO sick!!! But ye still a long way to go but definitely coming :)

MCBN-You were the only girl headlining at the Synergy Outdoor Musical Festival last year- Big ups on the girl power!!! Do you ever find it difficult being a woman within the DJ industry as there is often a bit of negative sentiment around girls who cant mix for shit, getting by on looks alone (wont mention any names)?

Anthea: Yoh that was a mad party!!! Easily one of my best gigs ever! Started playing to an empty floor and by mid-set it was packed I was in my element!!

It is tough being a female in the industry I wont lie. People often have this idea that because I’m a girl I’ve gotten where I am because of that or some other reason not related to music. Which sucks. Because i work SO hard and go through lots of frustrating times when the industry gets the better of me and I wonder what the hell I’m doing in it. But I’m confident with where I am because I have worked that hard. I refused to step into a club before I knew how to mix properly, which I think is very important. In terms of girls who can’t mix, its comparing apples with oranges. For some it’s more of a marketing thing, which is great if done properly, and people want to watch them more for the show than for musical education if that makes sense. But to get by on just your looks? Hmmmmm how is that for the love of music?

MCBN- Other than being a DJ, what do you occupy yourself with during the daylight hours?

Anthea: During the day at the moment it’s modelling. I quit my dayjob because I want to focus more on my music. And after a year off from varsity I’m actually carrying on with my studying now, … ugh Accounting…. boring but helps :)

MCBN- Awesome, we were worried there for a second that you didn’t have a real job J

Anthea: Haha life’s tooooo short for 9-5’s!!!!! One day I’ll get back into that I guess…. hehehe

MCBN- Even Stevie Wonder could see that your stellar hotness combined with your DJ’ing-prowess might attract the odd male groupie or two. Do any of your followers and the attention you get from them, ever get too much? Because we have seen some rather strange posts on your Face book fan page about declarations of ever-lasting love and the sacrificing of ginger cats.

Anthea: Haha I get some RANDOM things said to me. A guy asked me last Sunday to marry him.. it happens sometimes but this guy wasn’t taking no for an answer! .. and then there was that girl at Synergy….. she wasn’t taking no for an answer either!! But generally it’s all really great, everyone is really cool to me. High fives always make my day :) Only sometimes it will get a bit much, especially while I’m playing and someone is trying to tell me their lifestory… ALWAYS happy to listen but not while I’m in the middle of a mix!

MCBN- You’ve played alongside crazy acts like Goldfish at the Submerged Sessions at La Med- is there one gig that stands out for you as being the MOST memorable?

Anthea: I love my gigs with Goldfish.. and they’re such rad guys so always have a lot of fun when I’m touring with them. Submerged has been great over this summer, always packed, such a mad crowd response!

My best gig was when I played Earthdance in Kenya. I can’t tell you how amazing that was!! Up on the stage, 3000 people and everyone just going crazy. What was so special about it was that I heard that Kenyans are VERY into their Hip hop R&B. Which made me a little nervous with my hard tech. But it was so well received; I woke up the next morning with over 50 friend requests on facebook! Have to go back there one day….

MCBN- Where can we expect to see you play over the next couple of weeks?

Anthea: Definitely Goldfish at La Med.. If you haven’t been there yet this season definitely go! Otherwise will be playing Tropic Thunder at La Med this Friday which will be rad.. and then the MIXTAPE party which is gonna be insane! Such a rad concept, I’ll send u a link to the fanpage… the first party was on Friday 22^nd Jan at Bang Bang.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MIXTAPE/239105767683?ref=ts

MCBN- What is your favourite track right now? (be weary of all the tune stealers reading this, hehe)

Anthea: Anything by Mario Ochoa…. LOVE that guy!

MCBN- Being the totally serious blog that we are- we like to ask totally serious questions…

Would you rather watch two 120kg plus hairy men go at it in a 1 hour long green jelly wrestling match???

Or alternatively be forced to watch Jean Claude Van Damme’s box office hit “Double Impact” from the last millennium on repeat for a least 3 times- Etv ads included?

Anthea: NO Van Damme!!! Would watch those sexy wrestlers over that any day… nothing beats a fat man in a pile of Jelly…. Especially if its green…. mmmmmm….

Thanks so much for taking the time out to have a chat to us and allowing everyone to think we only role deep with celebs! We’ll definitely catch you out and about soon.

Anthea: Thanks so much guys!! Well done on such an awesome blog

You can find out more info about Dj Anthea by joining her Facebook Fanpage

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