Soundboy were helping me scrounge along. It was weird, I had no control over my own money— I didn’t have any support system, but Shy and Breakage really helped me out, and they became my family. If I hadn’t had them, it would have really sucked. I’d spend every day in the studio watching them, just learning. I wrote ‘Fever’ in the first two months I was here, I was in such an emotional state! Then I did the remix of ‘Raver’, which did good things for me — and I just started working my butt off, doing little gigs here and there for £50, £100. I started doing more mixes for Digital Soundboy and people started picking up on me a bit.”
IDENTITY The rest has happened in a burst of energy, and when we talk to the endlessly enthusiastic Bri about the last year, DJ Mag feels that after a decade of shake and pressure, everything has popped in a sudden fizz of chaotic good times. First the Digital Soundboy shows for Rinse, then the monthly In New DJs We Trust spot on Radio 1, which evolved into a weekly slot simulcast on 1Xtra, and now the Friday and Sunday Annie Mac shows. DJ Mag wants to know if the higher profile role will mean less control over her playlist, and more attention that isn’t necessarily benign. “I can say no. I’m pretty certain on what I like and what I don’t like. If someone pushes a track on me that I hate then I’m just not gonna play it,” Bri shrugs. “I’m only going to get anywhere in this industry by being true to myself, I’m not gonna get pushed into liking a fad. So it’s not so much mainstream, but maybe a little bit more ear friendly for Friday nights... I’m getting sent so much music, so many different styles, and I feel blessed to be getting the opportunity to hear all these tracks. Everywhere I go, every gig I play, kids are giving me CDs of their music and I’m always considering those tracks — I just played something last night from a kid called Juniper who gave me a CD in Glasgow — it happens all the time, I like to encourage people to give me stuff, I’m always listening to things, seeing if I missed something, giving everything a chance.”
As it turns out, it’s not just CDs the listeners are sending to B. Traits. “This one time this one guy sent me a dirty karate belt. That is fucking random! I was like, ‘WHAT IS THIS?’ I had no idea what it was for. The only reason I knew who’d sent it was cos he’s put all these stickers in the box, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s that guy from Twitter’. It was dirty, like, used and dirty, but folded really nicely. When the box came I thought it was gonna be a box of Tic Tacs because I’d inadvertently let slip on the show that I loved white Tic Tacs. I thought it was going to be a lifetime supply. But nope.”
CRAZY SUMMER Stalking ninjas best left forgotten, she goes on to hype up the acts she’s been championing on her show.
“Mele is a big one right now. Reset Safari, I love their grooves. Cashmere Cat’s stuff is killing it — I think I gave him his first Radio 1 play. Real Connoisseur, who’s a young kid from Oxford, is great — he’s signing his music left, right and centre now. I love that! “I don’t see a lot of the new house stuff, the 128- 130 bpm stuff really as house. I was talking to a music writer the other day, and I was saying, ‘This is breaks’, and they were like, ‘You can’t call it that!’ It’s like a dirty word! But for me, all things like the French Fries stuff is just Florida booty breaks! Really, I kinda like that there’s no name for it, if it gets a name people start calling it cool, and then it’s gonna be over really soon. Keep it nameless!”
Currently the BBC’s plans for B. Traits don’t stop at the Radio 1 shows. They’ve already suggested she goes to visit Canada now “because I won’t have time in the summer”, and her forthcoming festival slots are exhaustive, taking in Glastonbury, Love Saves the Day, Amsterdam Open Air Festival, Hideout, Knock Festival, Global Gathering, Ibiza, Boomtown, Outlook, and Bestival. “I was thinking I might start getting on the mic at festivals,” she muses. “The MC I have is quite minimal just to hype the crowd, so I wouldn’t want to talk over every track, but it’d help me with my presenting skills. I think I’d probably be fucking petrified though…” Somehow we doubt she’ll let that, or anything else,
www.djmag.ca
B.TRAITS’ FAVOURITE FESTIVALS
“Festivals in the UK are unreal, there’s nothing else like them in the world. I wish the weather was better though…”
“BESTIVAL is one of my favourites — I always have a really good time there. I played there last year on my own for David Rodigan’s stage, and it was such a good response. I remember getting to the stage and there was no one there, they’d changed our set times and there was a bit of confusion, but we started playing and it got so packed, it was amazing, it was our crowd.”
stop her for a moment…
HIDEOUT “We do the boat party there, and that’s just brilliant. For that, me and Shy can really go in, because we’ve got four hours, so we can play ANYTHING, it’s so much fun, and we try and educate a little.”
”GLASTONBURY is such a mixture of mainstream and the underground, it’s such a huge festival. It’s one of the first festivals I came to here. I moved in May and went in June. I went to see Snoop Dogg and had such a crazy time. I was only able to be there for one night, and I didn’t even know that other dance part existed! It’s mental, it’s such a massive event.”
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