Interviewing House Music’s Favorite Witch: DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ
By Henry Holcomb
Putting on DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ for the first time transports you across time. Blending disco and synth with the sounds of soundtracks that dominated pop culture in early 2000s media, DJ Sabrina takes house music in a new direction. Often stretching past the 7-minute mark, DJSTTDJ’s music feels as though she is opening up space for the listener to ruminate on times long past, patiently building her tracks sonically and emotionally as they progress. It is clear she is building a world for herself too, filling her discography with an interpretation of figures from the television show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
DJSTTDJ teases out feelings from forgotten memories of childhood; the excitement of turning on your favorite show, the snippets of conversation overheard in passing, or as the radio switches -almost moments more than memories, allowing the listener to try to grasp and recall more. Put together, DJ Sabrina’s music stands out, giving the experience of reading a bedtime story that you want to dance and scream and cry to all at once. I had the pleasure of interviewing the elusive witch as summer drew to a close; check out the conversation below!
Your tracks are soaked in early 2000s nostalgia and carry themes of the highest highs and lowest lows. Do you wish you had your own music to listen to through your teenage years and are you making music for your younger self? How did your teenage years shape your musical interests?
I definitely make music for myself, I often think I listen to my own music more than anyone else haha! I think that’s why I make the albums the length that I’d want to hear or I spend so long trying to get everything “perfect” (or as close to perfect as possible) since I always feel like I’m the only one who’ll be listening to it! I definitely feel grateful that the sort of music that influences me has existed, it would have been cool for my younger self to have my music to listen to, but then I’d have nothing to make now! XD
In your Charmed novelization you constructed a series of characters in the DJSTTDJ universe, how did the book expand the persona you are trying to create and the world you are trying to build? What is your inspiration for these characters besides what is established from Sabrina the Teenage Witch?
The albums are always part of a bigger story that’s being told, and I felt with Charmed it was the right time to try and expand on the meanings of the individual songs, as well as the album and pentalogy as a whole. It also had canonical relevance with the following albums, so I wanted to make it so you’d have an idea of where the story was following on. I think the characters are a mixture of me and the songs, they’re the vehicles for getting across what I was trying to say, but with the pre-established style of the sitcom characters they’re a little easier to visualize in many ways.
On a related note, you write in the novel about “creating art with a crease,” how do you see your creases form within your music and how do they change its meaning?
I think a lot of the songs (and albums) have an almost Möbius strip quality, the seam is actually just the flip-side. I always think something that is beautiful but unconventionally is a hundred times more beautiful, if it’s a little unexpected or comical it can come across even more emotional and heartbreaking if done correctly, the juxtaposition can be so overwhelming it makes you feel a lot more of it.
How was writing the novel different from making music; did you find that written work allowed you the flexibility to tell your story in a different way? Can we expect to see more novels in the future?
Not a whole lot, I think it all comes from a similar place and I kinda pace all of my “work” in a similar way, it just allows me to communicate a little more explicitly. If I’d done it again, I’d probably have preferred to write a screenplay as writing is always very visual to me, but the novella format is really nice for being able to almost create a movie as a self-contained piece, and allow the reader to experience it in their own way.
Your audience has expanded significantly since Charmed, what do you feel you have been the most motivated to produce as your base has grown?
Honestly, having an audience at all is pure motivation for me! It’s truly unbelievable to me that anyone likes what I do, I never imagine anyone else in the world is going to like anything I’m working on, but to have an audience is an unbelievably motivating thing. You eradicate all personal questions of whether making anything is worthwhile, a waste of time, good enough, etc, all those un-creative and dissuasive ways of thinking. It’s just an absolute joy to me, and as I keep quoting, “not really seeking to talk to any of them…” (isolation, reclusive), “at this rate I’d be surprised if anyone’s still listening…”
Between your music, books, and iconic presence online it is clear that you approach the DJSTTDJ persona holistically, what motivates you to engage your audience in so many different ways?
I’ve never thought of myself as a musician or songwriter or producer or whatever, more like a multimedia maker or something, so while the music is probably the main focus for most people (and obviously myself), I don’t think of the other aspects as being less important to building the persona. I’ve always thought of the mixes as being almost mini-albums as I approach them in similar ways, and the album artwork, merchandise, books, etc all have equally similar amounts of consideration put into them. I really have a personal disdain for artists who don’t connect with their supporters or act as if their more important than the people listening to them, so for me it’s very important to do my best to engage with each and every person who’s taken to the time to talk to me, say something nice to me or even just listen in the first place!
You have released an incredible library of music so far, how do you get into the headspace to create on a given day? What journeys do your songs go on before they are released publicly?
I work pretty much every single day, I don’t wait until the muses find me, I just show up at the same place and they’ll be there (was that Ebert or King who said that?) and I try to make sure every single thing I start gets finished at some point; I think that was a Beatles concept, use every scrap of an idea, never throw anything away. The songs have so many, many, many hours of mixing, remixing and mastering to try and achieve some kind of perfection (which of course, you never reach) but since I’ll be listening to the music in future (to learn from) I need it to be as perfect as I can get… which is usually pretty far off the mark imo, unfortunately 🙁
What you have released with Call You / Under Your Spell has seen significant interest already, as the Fall approaches, what can we expect to come from DJSTTDJ in the future?
Well, originally I wanted to release 3 albums at the same time, but the heatwave was just so intense (42c or whatever it was) I became so exhausted from working all summer and I realized that Bewitched had shaped up really tidily. I didn’t want to spend another 4-6 months mixing the other two albums first, and I thought it would be nice to have something for people to listen to during the end of the summer. Bewitched and Beyond (which contains songs from the other two albums) was originally meant to be released on its own, but it actually turned out to be a nice accompaniment release with the album. To be honest, I’ve still got too many songs for even these next two albums, including some recent pieces I’ve been working on, so there’s just genuinely no shortage of plans for future music… I just wish I had more time to get it all mixed!
Finally, is there anything else you would like to add?
I really hope I never come across as egocentric, to me I think music is best when the personality is detached from the creation and you can just enjoy what you’re listening to without any preconception of who’s behind it. I like to experience music (particularly production-oriented music) in a kind of omnipresent, ego-less way… you know it was made, but you don’t really know who or how or why, and it can open up the listening experience a lot more… or at least hopefully that’s the way it comes across!
Thank you again, it has been really exciting to get into contact with you!
No problem, absolutely anytime! 😀