Hey Hannah! Tell us a little about yourself, and what you do.
Hello :-) I’m a DJ and run a little record label in Naarm called The Space Between Us.
How would you explain your style of music?
Hmm this is tricky… I feel like it’s always changing! I guess at the moment I’m very inspired by 90s/00s progressive house, tech house and trance. I also love a lot of ambient and downtempo from this era.
Tell us a bit about your record label, The Space Between Us. What inspired you to start your own label?
The Space Between Us was actually first created as a platform for music publicity which is wild to think about now.. mostly because looking back I didn't enjoy publicity work all that much lol. Over the years it has evolved as I've found myself being drawn to different parts of the process of releasing music and working with artists. The Space Between Us organically morphed into a record label which mostly focuses on releasing music from friends and/or local artists. I loved the community feel that this brings, and I felt more connected to the music this way.
Not only are you running the label The Space Between Us, but you are playing all over Naarm and hosting your radio show, Full of Air. How do you find balancing all of your projects?
To be honest, it’s something I’m continuously working on - trying to find a healthy balance between everything. I also work four days a week at a non-profit so I have to work around that too. Especially during the pandemic I’ve found that despite having more time (being able to work from home), I’ve also been more unproductive and disorganised than ever, lol. I guess lockdown wasn’t exactly an easy time to form healthy habits :p This year I’m hoping to have a bit more structure in my day, which will hopefully allow me to manage my time more effectively and feel less stressed out at the end of the day :)
What is your take on the current music scene for young DJs and artists? Do you think it is a smooth ride, especially for womxn, gender-non-conforming peoples, and BIPOC?
A smooth ride is unfortunately not how I’d describe the journey for these groups in the music scene currently. I do feel that gender diversity in lineups has come such a long way in our corner of the music scene. The standard is quite high now, which is amazing. I still think there is much work to be done in terms of gender diversity in the less audience-facing roles at events such as music production, audio and tech roles. There’s also no question that BIPOC are seriously underrepresented in many facets of the industry, both front-facing and not. However I feel that there is much more awareness about this than ever, and I hope to see it change over time.
What would you like to see more of in the Naarm industry over the coming year?
I’d love to see more womxn, gender-non-conforming peoples, and BIPOC leading the charge in all facets of the dance scene.
Have you got some exciting shows or sets in the works? Where can we see you over the next month or so?
There’s so much exciting stuff coming up this year!! Unfortunately a couple of shows this month have been cancelled (Neurocrank x Lucid and Unrestricted Purpose parties) due to the recent increase in Covid cases and density limits in venues being reinstated :’( The upcoming parties that are still currently going ahead (fingers crossed!) are Handle @ Gaso on 23 January, BTHC 6th Birthday in Brisbane on 29 January, Higher Ground @ 24 Moons on 4 February and Realm Riparia (a camping festival in NSW from 11-13 February.