DJ LadyFace Talks Music & Gets It Ready for OverEasy!
Maybe some of you have heard of the new DJ in town (well newish- she’s been here for just over a year now). She goes by LadyFace, she hails from Lawrence, Kansas, and she was the winner of the HER HRC DJ Battle this past January. Possibly best of all though, she’s this month’s special guest DJ at OverEasy!
LadyFace, aka Emi Erekosima, has been spinning vinyl since she was 13 years old. “I was nerdy kid. I wasn’t good at sports,” LadyFace says of how she got into DJing. “I listened to the radio a lot and when my favorite song would come on I’d wanna hear it again and again. So I started recording songs onto tapes.” She would spend hours figuring out good places to start and stop the songs so that they flowed well together.
“Eventually, someone suggested I try vinyl. Before that I was obsessed with this movie Breakin which got me into breakdancing. Then I tried tagging, but I feel in love with vinly.” Two years later her mom got 15 year old Emi her very first legit turntable. “The turntable is another instrument. You’re making sounds out of scratching,” says LadyFace.
So what brought this seasoned DJ to the District? School. She’s actually prepping to take the LSATS this summer and continue on towards a law degree. With the time commitment of school, she was convinced that the DJing would stop once she arrived, but as networking happens in this city. She was wrong.
With a little bit of internet research and the help of last summer’s Forward Fest she met Annie Nguyen—better known as LesbiANNIE or dj vANNIEty kills who is also DJing OverEasy this month and every month this summer. But it was U Street Music Hall that launched her DC career when she performed at their New DJ Showcase. She also joined ranks with the ladies of Girl Rock! DC and is actively working again with them this summer.
“When I came I didn’t want to get stuck being a club or bar DJ,” she explains as to why she assumed her time spinning had come to an end. “I mean I’ve been doing it for 13 years now. As a DJ I don’t want to play things to just make you dance—I want it to bring an emotion out of you.”
And this Lady—who’s name was given to her by her best friend, Bob, eight years ago—has eclectic taste. “Right now I’m really into Post-Dub Step which is nothing like dub step, like James Blake (a British artist), who adds in elements of 1920 jazz with nineties R&B. I also love 1960s British punk rock, Nina, Ella, Billie Holiday and African rhythms. I tend to mix genres that I like and see if they mesh well together. Besides, I like being sort of timeless.”
She used to be a strictly vinyl DJ but two years ago she switched to digital. LadyFace has also been a percussionist since she was roughly nine years old. “What I really want to do is find some musicians and create a super group. I have vision of songs in my head that I want to recreate,” she says of her future goals. “I know I need brass instrument and violin.”
So check her out! She can be found on Facebook as well as at DJLadyFace.com. She’ll also be getting the beats flowing tomorrow at OverEasy!
“Music is an art form. If you’re going to do it, you better do it well. Anything I put my name on is something I’m really passionate about.”
Sarah is a fiction writer who moonlights as a freelance journalist. She’s been the Transgender Relationship Examiner for Examiner.com since May of 2009, and she helps keep DC classy via Meets Obsession Magazine. She can also be found at SarahMarloff.com. In the rare moments when she’s not writing she’s dancing, dying her hair, singing with her headphones on, or possibly climbing trees. She’d like to remind you all: only boring people are bored.