{"id":32014,"date":"2016-06-03T17:01:05","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T15:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/?p=32014"},"modified":"2016-06-03T23:36:46","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T21:36:46","slug":"interview-b-traits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deephouseamsterdam.com\/ibiza\/interview-b-traits\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: B. Traits"},"content":{"rendered":"

DJ, Producer and BBC Radio 1 presenter B. Traits is an artist with an ever-growing global presence. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether it is the Canadian\u2019s involvement with drug education, passion for diversity within the industry, or just solely her highly skilled DJ sets and radio show, B.Traits has proven her worth over the years. I caught up with Bri not so long after she had finished talking on the Diversity In Electronic Music<\/em> panel at this year\u2019s IMS<\/strong> in Ibiza, delving deeper into what was discussed earlier that day, plus more of what is to come from the talent that is B.Traits.<\/p>\n

“We are literally knocking down these barriers every day, it just takes time and we all need to continue pushing what we\u2019re pushing and soon it will be completely different.”<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Great to have the chance to chat to you today Bri, so, when did you arrive on the white isle?<\/strong>
\nI got here late Wednesday night, flew in on the last flight in from London Stansted, it is always quite a nice flight because you get those kids ready for the party, when the plane lands and everyone claps and cheers, I kind of cringe but it\u2019s kind of awesome as well. This is my first trip of the season to Ibiza, I feel like on the first trip you always get those butterflies and excitement. When I come to Ibiza I actually stay in the countryside on the far north of the island, it is a little bit more relaxed and chilled, I find it a nice escape. Then I come down here and live the whole club and business life and after I escape back to the countryside which I really love doing, you get the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

Have you managed to check out any of the talks and panels at IMS this week?<\/strong>
\nI haven\u2019t! I saw quite a few last year, I don\u2019t really know why I haven\u2019t seen so many this year, I didn\u2019t spend too much time in the hotel yesterday, basically I just spent all day running into people who I haven\u2019t seen in ages. Then today I was speaking on the panel so I haven\u2019t been able to spend as much time as I would have liked because it is just so busy, there are so many things happening here it is kind of hard to keep to track, but it\u2019s really good to be back.<\/p>\n

The Diversity In Electronic Music panel has just finished, featuring yourself and a number of other influential females within the industry. Over the time you have been involved within electronic music, do you feel that the situation has changed for female artists? <\/strong>
\nSo much, I mean, I\u2019ve been DJing since I was 16, I feel that when I started there wasn\u2019t nearly as many female DJs as there are now. I think that the interest in becoming a DJ within young women has become more popular, there are so many coming out of the wood work which is really nice. Back then for me I found it a little more difficult than I do now but I think we\u2019re moving in to a really interesting sort of age where there will be no excuse to not have a female on a line up or included on a front cover of a magazine. We are literally knocking down these barriers every day, it just takes time and we all need to continue pushing what we\u2019re pushing and soon it will be completely different. <\/p>\n

Do you feel different genres are harder for females to be accepted in?<\/strong>
\nYeah definitely, I think different genres do. I can\u2019t really speak for the house and techno community because I didn\u2019t come up in that scene, I came up in the jungle and drum n bass scene that, I\u2019m not sure if it was worse, but it was very much a boys club. Once I sort of broke past this barrier of me being looked at as this little girl DJ, I was accepted by everyone but it took a lot to get to that point, being quite aggressive and quite hard.<\/p>\n

You mentioned you changed over time as a person, about the way you portrayed yourself\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah well no one wants to be like that, and of course I would get that reputation of being a bitch and that\u2019s unfair to automatically call a woman that when she\u2019s trying just to be professional, it\u2019s incredibly unfair, and calling people out on that helped me as well. Of course, by behaving like that it\u2019s hard to have real friends in the industry, having to have this really professional barrier. Now I\u2019ve learned to be a bit more open and wear my heart on my sleeve, which is the person that I truly am, being a bit more relaxed, especially now that I am where I want to be. I had to work my ass off so I have that harder shell, but even for people like Nicole (Moudaber) today, you can tell that she\u2019s had that hard shell, she\u2019s still like that, I don\u2019t think that is a bad thing but that is just the way she has made it to where she is in such a short time, she\u2019s absolutely killing it. It is just me sort of discovering myself as well, how to manage it all, but it is changing a lot and it\u2019s great to see and to be apart of it. <\/p>\n

So your Radio 1 show, is that you, is that how you represent yourself, do you have the complete freedom and this is who you are?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely. In 2014 when Radio 1 officially gave me that Friday night slot, they said, we\u2019re going to give you the show after Pete Tong for three hours, before the Essential Mix, your only job is to bridge Pete and the Essential mix. This is your chance to do exactly what you want to do, make it your own, so they gave me free reign. That show is exactly my creation, it is my brain, which is so nice that a company like that puts their faith in me, in my taste of music, my style, they trust me. It is such an honor to be a part of something like that. It took me a while to get the show to the point that it is now, but I think now that I\u2019m there, there is nowhere else that is championing that more underground, a little left, experimental side of dance music, it is also nice to have a home with Radio 1.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Relating back to the female artists subject, do you try to push as many females through your show, for example with your Future 12 feature.<\/strong>
\nYeah definitely that is what the Future 12 is all about, pushing new artists male or female. Like La Fleur for example, she will be taking part in the summer, I only met her in March for the Mixmag Lab, I loved her and she sent me loads of music so I have been watching out for her for a while now. She will be one of our Future 12\u2019s over the summer, so she will have the feature for the whole month, I\u2019m not sure which month she\u2019s doing yet but she will be on. <\/p>\n

Picking up artists like that and really giving them a bit of a platform to let our listeners and the nation peek into who they are, what they\u2019re about, the style they play, just a little bit more than having a one off guest mix, that\u2019s what it is all about. They can do a different theme for each mix every week, you just get a little bit more into that artists mind, that\u2019s always very important and what I try to get across to our listeners.<\/p>\n

See also: Winter Social Podcast By B.Traits<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On the production side of things, I just wanted to touch upon the Fatima Yamaha edit you released last year.<\/strong>
\nSo that kind of exploded yeah! That was really only a festival edit that I was playing personally over the summer of last year, but everyone kept asking about it so I was like yeah maybe I\u2019ll just release it as a free Christmas download. The original was released ages ago, then came out on the re-release and became a massive track last summer, everyone was playing it, it was a huge festival tune, great vibes. I had done the edit just to make it more playable in my sets and it just exploded in to this thing, which is why I just gave it away for free download for fun. <\/p>\n

Production wise I have been back in the studio for the last year, I have finally decided what to do with my music, I was a little bit on the fence for a long time in terms of what I wanted to release. My team and I decided if I\u2019m really going to show a proper representation of myself, I should just start releasing my music on my own. So, everything will be coming out on my own label, which is something really exciting and something I\u2019ve always wanted to do. I won\u2019t go into too much detail right now, as we\u2019ll be releasing more information soon. <\/p>\n

It kind of just clicked, if I was going to start releasing music again, it should just be the best representation of me, it shouldn\u2019t just be on another label, and that is extremely liberating, to be able to do it on my own terms and control everything, as I\u2019m a psycho control freak, it\u2019s been really nice! So there will be new music from me coming really soon which is kind of freaky! I\u2019ve played some it out before, the first track from my Mixmag Lab set was my own, I\u2019m also going to be playing some tonight at Dalt Villa, so it\u2019s really nice to have stuff in the orbit again, it feels really good.<\/p>\n

You have got a ridiculous amount of shows coming up over the summer, including Glastonbury and Parklife with a b2b Alan Fitzpatrick yeah?<\/strong>
\nYeah Alan and I will be doing a b2b, he will also be joining me for the B2B Chameleon Club Mix on the Friday night on my Radio 1 show before hand, so we will head to Parklife the next day. After that Alan will also be joinging me at Hideout Festival in Croatia, as part of our Radio 1 party and on my own boat party. I have 2 shows at Glastonbury, one of which is a b2b with Subb-an. I mean Subb-an is one of my favorite DJ\u2019s, he\u2019s so technical and the music he plays is just, ah I can not wait, he\u2019s excellent. I will also be doing Lovebox, T In The Park Slam tent, Secret Garden Party and Ill be heading to Morocco for the first time for Oasis Festival. There are loads of Ibiza dates too, I will be joining Carl Cox for his final year at Space, Steve Lawler for VIVa Warriors at Sankeys, the new techno night ONYX at Space and of course I\u2019ll be back with Radio 1 at some point.<\/p>\n

You mentioned your show tonight at Dalt Villa, it is quite an early set, sort of a sunset set, how are you going to approach it?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not sure! They keep switching my set with Benjamin Damage\u2019s as he is meant to have the sun set set because he has planned a big special live show, which will be amazing. They keep checking the times of when the sun is actually going to go down, so for me tonight, because it is quite early people don\u2019t really want to be going super hard yet, so I will be playing some of the softer sides of my productions, just creating a groove for the crowd.<\/p>\n

Finally to finish off, where is your one place to go and chill out in Ibiza, do you have your one special place?<\/strong>
\nThere are so many! Town wise I really, really love Santa Eulalia, it is sometimes quite quiet, it\u2019s just a little further away from the \u2018club life chaos\u2019 which Ibiza can be sometimes and as I mentioned, I love spending time in the countryside. One of my favorite restaurants is La Paloma, it is incredible, really laid back, the food is delicious and healthy, that is my number one place.<\/p>\n

B Traits plays Somerley T Party tomorrow and ONYX @ Space Ibiza on August 15th.<\/em><\/p>\n

Soundcloud <\/a><\/span> Artist Page <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

by Ollie Howarth<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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