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Dinky is making her highly anticipated return to electronic music after pausing earlier this summer to welcome a new baby boy to her life. You would think this might have slowed her down, but she laughs it off when we ask her about music and motherhood: " I played till I was 7.5 months pregnant," she exclaims, "I am integrating motherhood into my music career in a very natural way." Having been influenced by her own mother to pursue piano and dance when she was growing up, it's no surprise that integrating music into her family life and vice versa comes naturally.
Since becoming infatuated with electronic music in the '90s, the Chilean artist born Alejandra Iglesias has become a fixture in the alt-techno scene, respected for her risk-taking and her impeccable, unusual production. Now based out of Berlin, Dinky is picking up her summer tour schedule, which has been on hold since her last gig in Munich when a month-long all-female bill and accompanying workshops turned the venue Harry Klein into "Marry Klein. " We caught up with Dinky to discuss Marry Klein, gendered technology, and fostering the next generation of DJs.
Congratulations on the new addition to your family! Has becoming a mother changed the way you interact with dance music? Thank you! To be honest I don't see dance music in a different way than before at all, but I am definitely more inspired.
Has it been challenging transitioning into a new role that balances music with motherhood? There certainly has been challenges: while performing pregnant I had some problems, some promoters canceled gigs and a couple of clubs stopped booking me, it was quite strange as I didn't experience so much discrimination before – it seems that certain people consider motherhood as the end of a DJ career. But I must say I also saw a lot of support from some promoters and lots of smiles at my gigs, women particularly were the most happy to see me performing with a belly!
We loved the idea for the Marry Klein events that took place earlier this year at Harry Klein in Munich. Tell us about the experience of playing the event? Oh that was great, that was actually my last DJ gig in March and I had a huge belly already! I think it's a great concept because it's cultural and not only a female DJ line up -- they had book readings, art, music, lesbian DJs, transgender DJs and even pregnant DJs like I was myself.
To that point, it's often noted that female DJs aren't really "highlighted" unless it's within the realm of an all female line up, or a list of "10 best female DJs." How would you say the Marry Klein events turning that kind of concept on its head? I think mixing it up with art workshops and literature and having non-typical female DJs and artists. It's recreational, cultural and also educational.
Why are events or projects like these important to the continued presence of females in DJing? Alternatively, is it "bias" to gear these programs specifically towards women? I think it's good that women stick together. There is a lot of controversy around the fact, so why not turn it around and get together to share experience and knowledge? There are many other industries that do "all female" annual events and it's not considered bias. It's a good thing to build a female support network; it encourages and educates the new generation, it avoids isolation and it's just fun!
There was an article on Meoko recently that looked at the history of women in technology. The article made the brilliant point that "it is not the lack of examples of pioneering women that astounds, but rather the lack of awareness of their crucial roles. The role of women in typically male dominated industries is frequently played down." That's something that is true not only of dance music but of technology, gaming, science, etc. Do you think this has something to do with how technology is gendered? Is technology masculine? I think it has more to do how the world is gendered and I don't think technology is masculine. It's a matter of education. Little girls are not really taught to work with technology so unless it comes from the family or a very rare early self interest, women might be a tad more intimidated later on in life, especially if they didn't grow up with it as an example.
I do see some changes though. For example my 11-year-old niece wants to go to DJ lessons! That’s great and it shows how the new generation of women will probably be more into technology. I believe school programs are also encouraging girls to explore it.
What else would you say is being done to foster the growth of the next generation of women in music? What advice would you give to this generation? As I mentioned before Mary Klein is a good example, and the many new female talents in music will definitely encourage girls to have interest in music as a career. There's many more successful female musicians and DJs than in the past and that will influence the next generation. My advice is to do the music you love and only take music seriously if you love it and can't live without it.
What advice would you give to your younger self, if you could sit down together? A music career is not necessarily an easy road and you need a lot of motivation and strength, one really needs to love it otherwise it could be very disappointing. I'd advise myself to take singing lessons earlier as I discovered I could sing only a few years ago and to take an instrument more seriously earlier!
You’re about to head back out on the road this August, with a couple of huge gigs at London’s Tobacco Dock. How does it feel to finally be getting back into the swing of things, and can we look forward to any new material in your sets? I am very much looking forward to it. As I mentioned, my last gig was in March and I already played once in July so it hasn't been as long a break from the stage. I definitely have new material to play and look forward to doing so – my son gives me so much inspiration that I feel great to be able to play and create music again.
This summer also saw the release of your remix for Eagles & Butterflies, "The Mind." You noted on your Facebook page that you'd had a traumatic remix experience in the past, but that you enjoyed and felt good about your rework for E&B. Can you tell us about the experience of working on that track? For a while I didn't want to remix at all as most of the music I was offered to remix didn't really inspire me so for years I didn't do remixes. But this time since I loved the original and I wasn't touring I decided to give it a go. It reminded me of Aphex Twin so that was great inspiration and working on it was a pleasure.
We're eager to find out what you're working on these days. Is there anything you can tell us about what we can expect from you this year? This year I am taking it easy, I am taking only the gigs I really want to play and slowly going back to the studio. I am planning to re-start my label with my husband and release a couple of singles, and in the winter I will work on a new album to release in 2015!
Exciting! So, finally, and perhaps the most important question: should we not be speaking about women in music, but rather simply speaking about music? I would prefer that, but is inevitable. And it could get interesting if we allow it to.
Dinky plays Summer in the City at Tobacco Dock in London on August 9. More info and tickets here.
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