RUPA
she/her
soundcloud: rupa_anurendra
As part of a series focusing on emerging female and non-binary DJs in the Naarm scene, Demure speaks with Naarm DJ and graphic designer Rupa Anurendra, about her music, the industry, and what she has coming up as Naarm heads out of lockdown.
Hey Rupa! Could you tell us a little about yourself and your music?
Hey! Thanks for having me. I’m a graphic designer from Malaysia based in Melbourne. I’m a DJ on the side, I play a range of stuff. I’m really bad at labeling things into genres and I think it’s a bit of a wank sometimes but my taste has been described as quite ‘eclectic’ on a few occasions.
How did you get into djing? Have you found it a smooth road as a woman entering a very male-dominated industry?
I got into DJing as an excuse to keep in touch with an ex, lol. He taught me how to DJ when we were together but I never really got into it until we’d broken up. Then I started getting gigs after I put up a profile on Floss and Sarah’s WIP website and I was kinda pushed into it or something. It’s been a smooth road so far in the sense that I got a lot of opportunities as soon as my name was out there, but I took them all with a grain of salt. A lot of them felt very tokenistic; like they were just ticking a box. I appreciate the need to be inclusive but I think it’s not really done in a genuine way sometimes.
When my profile was first up and I was up there as Rupa Anurendra, DJ, Designer, someone reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in playing a gig at Fairfield Amphitheatre. I was so upset because at this point I didn’t even have any mixes released, I had never played out, and some stranger had seen my face and based only on the way I looked, decided that they wanted me to play. I found this so weird and insulting. Now I mainly stick to doing gigs and mixes for people that actually know me or have a genuine interest in my music. It’s really easy to tell the difference.
Do you find DJing in Naarm to be a positive and inclusive experience?
Ummm… I don’t know, sometimes? There’s definitely a lot of divisions from what I’ve seen, and I don’t even really consider myself much a part of the scene. It’s tough being a woman in the scene for sure, I think there’s quite a double standard. I feel like men don’t have to put as much effort into how they present themselves. I was playing a gig once and the organiser came up and said, ‘you can smile, you know?’ and that really rubbed me the wrong way. I probably wasn’t smiling because the decks were too high and I was standing on my tippy toes for an hour!
Whatever it is, don’t say shit like that.
I feel like women are expected to jump around or something and be a hype girl. Then I think about all of the male DJ’s and producers I look up to, who are admired for looking serious and concentrating on what they’re doing. I think some men are pretty resentful about the way the scene is becoming more female dominated; they’re not getting booked to play because of it.
I remember before I was a DJ, when C.Frim played at Meredith someone said to me, ‘she’s only up there because she’s a black woman’. I remember taking that in so blindly and being like… ‘yeah!’ and actually saying that to someone else. I feel so embarrassed and ashamed of that, and it comes back to haunt me now, cause at a lot of the gigs that I’m asked to play, where I’m so obviously there to just tick a box and my music doesn’t suit the party itself, I stand up there and think that everyone is thinking ‘she’s only up there because she’s a brown chick.’
There’s a huge sense of imposter syndrome that makes releasing mixes and playing out so stressful to a point where it’s just not that enjoyable anymore. I’m always second guessing myself and thinking, ‘why am I here?’ I feel like as a female DJ there is a huge pressure to be perfect and not mess up at all, to prove myself, which is good in a way because it’s pushed me to try really hard to fight for my place, just like most women in any area of work they’re in. Proving people wrong is definitely a driving factor in everything I do, as a designer as well. So, facing adversity is kind of a good thing if I don’t let it get to me too much.
Can you give us an idea of your sound, and how it may have transformed over the past year?
I feel like I got into dance music really late, cause I was kind of scared of delving into it; it took me a long time to be confident with what I considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but now I feel pretty comfortable trusting my taste. I think I was initially making mixes that were all along the same genre but now I like mixing a lot of different things; just a combination of songs that I’ve been listening to and songs I’d like to play out. I’ve always been really afraid of making a mix with songs that everyone already knows, I don’t know what that’s about but when I’m digging I only listen to songs that have very few listens or something. I wonder if I’ll let go of that insecurity and not just play songs that I’ve ‘heavily digged for’ but songs that I just really enjoy. I feel like I’m probably missing out on some really good universally loved songs, but I feel like I’ve always been like that. Genre-wise I’m super into trip hop, IDM, leftfield house, old electro and dub. I also really like emotional dance music. I find it so cool that songs with no words can be so tender they make me cry.
Not only are you a DJ, but you’re also a great graphic designer on the Naarm scene. Do you feel like your other creative work connects to your music? Or are these separate outlets for you?
It definitely does. Before I was DJing I still felt part of the music scene as I was making a lot of posters for events. My design work centred around music has always felt the most natural. Musicians usually give me complete artistic freedom and don’t ask for many changes so it’s super fulfilling, and music is such a huge part of my life so it’s always been easy to create work with meaning behind it.
Do you have a highlight of your DJ career so far?
The first thing that comes to mind was my set at Musica De Gaso. It was the first time where I felt super confident with what I was doing cause the crowd was having such a good time and my friends were there hyping me up. It was so much fun. Someone held their phone up and it said ‘play Blue Monday’ which was funny.
Are you looking forward to playing more as summer comes around, and do you have anything in store we can come listen to?
I am looking forward to it! It’ll be a bit freaky but I’m sure I’ll just be doing bar gigs with friends so it’ll be chill. I’m playing at a friends’ farm party soon which I’m very much looking forward to. In terms of mixes I have one coming out on cassette soon so stay tuned.
Interview by Lucia Morris.