Brooklyn DJ Illexxandra is a resident DJ at New York’s long-running breakbeat party Vitamin B and at DC’s Tropic Of Bass. She’s played all over the world, from London to Japan to Burning Man, and now she brings RVA Mag an exclusive new mix called Anatomy. We got the scoop from her about her career as a DJ and her transgender identity, which plays into the subject matter of the Anatomy mix. Read all about it below.
Tell me a little about your DJ name and what it represents to you.
Illexxandra represents my past and my future. It includes my real name, and there’s a reference to femininity hidden in there, plus… I’m ill! Digger culture — the relentless pursuit of records, funk and hip-hop in particular — informs every set I play, and I want everyone to know it’s in my blood. It also references my much-beloved former performing alias, Barney Iller, a hilarious but under-appreciated joke on the popular 70’s sitcom Barney Miller. The opening [theme] song is widely recognized as having a sick bassline. My grandfather wrote the show’s theme song, and my dad was the studio guitarist for the session.
What is your history as a DJ and producer?
I’ve been a musician all my life, and I come from a family of musicians. My initial attempt at a career was as an opera singer. When the business and lifestyle behind opera and theater stopped appealing to me, I took some time off and indulged my latent musical passions. I went wild at New York’s many records shops, many of which have long since closed. I’m interested in most kinds of music, so I found myself playing every kind of party out there. Eventually I started making tunes. Crafty mashups at first, and then I blossomed into all kinds of breaks, bass music, and then especially global bass. Eventually things took off, but I was never as in-touch with myself as an artist as I hoped to be, so a few years later, I took some time away from production (but not from performing!) and now it’s all finally come back around. I’m in the zone and ready to rock.
Who has influenced your sound as a DJ, and in your original productions?
Luke Vibert, DJ Zinc, Toddla T, Deekline, Remarc, Marvelous Cain, Featurecast, Teddy Music, Disclosure, Mr. Scruff, DJ Rashad, Kanji Kinetic, Bassnectar, DJ Fresh, Seiji… I could go on forever and ever. I mourn that I have no women on this list. I admire lots of amazing women DJs (and rappers, and singers), but there aren’t many women producers I know of whose music inspires me. There are a lot of social factors tied up in that. I don’t even remotely think it’s because women aren’t good producers. It’s a bad state of affairs and I yearn for it to change. Also, a lot of the most well-known women producers on the scene make music I consider technically excellent, but musically boring. I love love love DJ Rap, but other than that, the women producers I’m the most inspired by are probably… Ana Sia and Maya Jane Coles.
What other current producers do you admire and are influenced by?
Symbiz, Munchi, Bondax, SirOJ, Tropkillaz, WBBL, DJ Sliink, Sharps, DJ Reaganomics, Thornato, Mr. Jennings, Chong X, Ckrono, Top Flight…
What is the significance of this mix in particular? And tell us a little about the cover art on this mix.
I’m a transsexual! Hurray! The mix tells the story of my first year and a half since facing up to my gender dysphoria and choosing to transition, and also alongside that, the story coming to know and love my current girlfriend. I have an atypical relationship to my body and I’ve been forced to research it thoroughly, and I get to watch my body change before my eyes, thus the Anatomy reference. But also this mix attempts to trace the “anatomy” of my journey through transition, and the anatomy of a love.
The original drawing for the cover art was done by Cecelia Johnson, and incredible artist from Houston, Texas and an old friend. Her art stirs my imagination, and her work often deals with the strangeness, familiarity, and intimacy of bodies. I digitally manipulated her drawing. I meant for the cover art to suggest an echo of former lives, a reflection of pain and triumph in different shades and contexts. I’m grateful Cecelia let me bastardize her excellent art to make an additional statement.
So this mix has 72 some tracks, and is some 4 hours long. First off – That has to be some kind of great feat. And how does one approach this mix for a listen?
At the most basic level, all you have to do is press play and let it seep into you. There’s a big reset right at the halfway mark, so you can see it as two chunks, and each half can be seen as two hour-long segments. I meant for the mix to be one cohesive piece, but there are some “movements” and changes in tone. I can’t listen to the same music for 4 hours, whatever genre it is, and I don’t think I’m being overly particular. I think many people react to art that way. I play with the juxtaposition of sections and grouping of genres just as I play with the juxtaposition of individual songs or even within songs. In all circumstances, context matters the most. Just as songs have more impact after certain other songs, and breakdowns have a different meaning following an aggressive section, so does a section of trip-hop and R&B-influenced tracks have a different impact after an intense uptempo future bass crescendo.
I prefer longer live sets, and though I think I’m a great short-distance runner as well, I prefer to draw things out and take people on a journey. At heart, I think the long set is my truer art form. I’ve never fully indulged that in a mix, however. Mr. Scruff posts long mixes almost exclusively, often about 5 hours, I think they’re fantastic and a great model. Also with the rise of computer DJs, there’s much more pressure for time on lineups and much less opportunity for stretching out, and I think club goers have been somewhat trained out of expecting long sets. It’s like seeing an epic movie (or an opera!) vs. quick-fire thematically uniform music videos. I want the dramatic moments and tender moments and scary moments and funny moments all in the same story.
I have always felt mixes are a journey of sorts – so where does this mix take us and what do you hope to achieve for the listener?
I agree, I think of all my mixes and live sets too as journeys. I built the mix with a clear and specific narrative in mind, but mixes are more like paintings I think. You don’t need to know the precise plot, you can just soak up the angles and color contrasts and shapes and image, and discover what it means to you as it unfolds. That being said, of all my musical achievements, I’m proudest of this mix. Making this mix required an emotional investment and struggle beyond what my music had asked of me in the past. Through the mix, I traced my experience of coming out to myself, struggling with the choice to transition, my early emotional challenges, and my growing relationship with my then-new girlfriend. I’d say a good quarter of the mix represents my intense and overwhelming experiences at the Transformus festival in 2013, and the consequence of coming out publicly there.
In a lot of this mix, I explore new, sexier musical territory for me, but that’s less an indication of where I’m headed as an artist, and more a factor of generally pushing myself and being musically adventurous. I feel that pressure I mentioned earlier for the single-genre quick sets as much as anyone does, and with this mix I fight against it in an attempt to return to my adventurous roots.
— TRACKLIST (Exclusive to RVA) —
1) Banks – Warm Water (Snakehips Remix)
2) Minstry – Work For Love
3) Nadia Ksaiba – Virtual Lover
4) Cloud One – Disco Juice (illexxandra edit)
5) Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This (Leftside Wobble Edit)
6) Toby Tobias – Macasu (Motor City Drum Ensemble Loft Party Remix)
7) Dido – Don’t Believe In Love (Dennis Ferrer Objectivity Mix)
8) Marlon Hoffstadt & Dansson – Shake That
9) Knights of the Hunted – X The Beat
10) Duke Dumont – The Giver
11) Cherelle – I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On
12) Darryl D’Bonneau – Let There Be A Way (Paramour Paramogue)
13) Full Crate x Mar – Nobody Else (Club Edit)
14) Lossy – You Could Feel
15) Sophie – Bipp
16) Elijah Collins feat. Mizbee Ned Palmer – If I Had A Chance (Extended Vocal Mix)
17) Bugz In The Attick – Booty La La (Psyans Bootleg Mix)
18) Hint feat. Josie Stingray (Give It Up)
19) Corduroy Mavericks – Reprezent
20) Mike Delinquent Project – Step In The Dance
21) Back To The Old School – Girls Play Too
22) Cloud 9 – Do You Want Me Baby (Dusky Remix)
23) Somore – I Refuse
24) R.I.P. Productions – Players
25) Rosie Gaines – I Want You (Bump & Flex Vocal Mix)
26) Simbad – After The Dance (Bugz In The Attic Remix)
27) Krampfhaft – Makin Magic
28) Raven – Is It Real
29) ¥oin – Digits
30) Phon.o – Fukushima
31) Lojik – Retrospect
32) Funkystepz feat. Lauren Mason – Bring Me Back (Big Dope P Remix)
33) DJ Sliink – Impossible Is Nothing (Re’Amped)
34) Toddla T – Do It Your Way
35) Disclosure feat. Sasha Keable – Voices
36) Roger S. – I’ll Be Right There
37) DJ Zinc – Only For Tonight (Mason Sky Remix)
38) Tinie Tempah – Tears
39) Destiny’s Child – Say My Name (PALACE Remix)
40) Stevie Wonder – Too High
41) Robert Glasper Experiment feat. KING – Move Love (Sivey & Evil Needle Remix)
42) Musiq Soulchild – Forthenight
43) Sola Rosa feat. Oliver Daysoul – Promise
44) Potatohead People – feat. Claire Mortifee – Blossoms
45) Dan Ferguson and Jay Snyder – You Got Me Crazy
46) Matthew L. Cassell – Heaven
47) Top Flight – Reversed Vibes
48) Strike Litening – Safe & Sound
49) O’Jays – Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby (Deep&Disco Rework)
50) Floating Points – Love Me Like This (Nonsense Dub)
51) Cerrone – Hooked On You
52) DJ Moar – She’s The One
53) Wayward – Only Flaw
54) Justin Timberlake vs. Champion – No Heaven (Ghislain Poirier Mashup)
55) Greymatter – Tesla
56) Caserta – You
57) Stefan Biniak – The Read All About It Bootleg
58) Eddie Kendricks – Date With The Rain (Extended Disco Mix)
59) Surra – You Showed Me The Sun
60) Deadboy – Fireworks (Slo-mo House Edit)
61) Sophie – Nothing More To Say (dub)
62) Ndinga Gaba and DJ Spen feat. Marc Evans – Until You
63) Disclosure feat. Eliza Dolittle – You & Me
64) Bjork – Who Is It (Vitalic Remix)
65) Visible Sound – Glisten
66) Soundshifter – In Love With You (Visible Sound Remix)
67) Blu Mar Ten vs Erykah Badu – You Got Me
68) Zinc – Since
69) Sola Rosa feat. Spikey Tee – In My Dreams
70) The Gap Band – Outstanding
71) The Dream – Dope Bitch
72) Mapei – Don’t Wait
http://illexxandra.com/
