Please can you introduce your name, and pronouns, and tell us a bit about what you like getting up to in your free time?
Hi, my name’s Amina (she/they), and I’m on the final day of the DJ course at Reform Radio.
What prompted you to get involved with the DJ Sessions course?
So a lot of my friends are DJs, a lot of my friends became DJs in the past few years as well. I go to a lot of events in Manchester either in the music scene or the writing scene. I love going out and exploring the city. I went to a bit of open decks stuff and I realised I really liked what DJing was.
What do you love most about DJing?
The fact that I can fully just be myself rather than be a certain type of DJ, I can just do whatever I feel comfortable with in the moment. So, the songs I chose were songs I just had on repeat recently and ones that I knew very well. I thought by choosing those ones, I would be very comfortable mixing them, and I’m not going to be sick of hearing them. I really wanted to create a vibe that expressed myself. So all of these songs are songs I really, really love. Every single creative space I’ve been in has encouraged me to solely express my south asian and muslim heritage. But the teaching style here, with Les, Tylah and Femi I did not feel that pressure at all, they did not put that assumption on me.
How would you describe your DJ set in three words?
Girl boss, dancy and slay. Les described it as Mario Kart and I love that.
Do you have any role models in the music scene that inspire your practice?
There is one DJ called Lotus Phaze (Meenakshi). I remember seeing her a few years ago at a Daytimers set, and she was wonderful. A lot of my friends as well, my friend Teni, she goes by Ten3yes.
Let’s throw it back to your first day at Reform versus now, tell me a bit about your first impressions/feelings/emotions in comparison to how you feel now. What has changed?
I was very overwhelmed the first day. I didn’t know whether I was taking it seriously enough, as I was just doing it for a bit of fun and didn’t know if I would even stick with it. On day one, I had a bit of imposter syndrome and thought, “I should just stick to writing, what am I doing?” Today I feel much, much better than I did then. I honestly can’t believe I even thought like that. It’s really easy to be in this space, and I’m very happy about that. Les, Tylah and Femi are so humble and down to earth. Everything felt so personal and intimate, even though there was a big group of us. It’s one of the best teaching styles I’ve ever had.
What will you take from the DJ course moving forwards and what are your plans from here onwards?
Probably the friendships we’ve made in the course. We’ve set up a group chat, so I’m going to encourage everyone to share what they’re up to, even if it’s not DJ-related. The skills that I’ve taken, all the information about DJing and the decks. Also the confidence that I gained here. I will also see keep up to date with Reform Radio and see if there are anymore courses I might be interested in doing. I do a lot of open-mic events, so look into some open-decks events.
If you could DJ at any festival, event, or place in the world, where would it be and why?
Probably a daytimer’s event. That’s where I first experienced proper DJing, so I think going back to that would be a full circle moment.
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