Breaking Beats & Barriers: DJ Samantha Michelle on Thriving in a Male-Dominated Industry

0:00Samantha Michelle:I don't want to see a sweet potato fry in sight. I want to connect with the people who are there for a real dance music driven experience. And in that space, I think female producers make up 2 % of the industry. It's tiny. And not just are you competing with all these other men, but the people who are making the decisions about the opportunities that get bestowed are also men. Yes.

0:26welcome back to the bilf pod where authenticity trumps authority now today's guest lives between sound systems and spotlights she's broken beats broken barriers i mean she is a dj an actress a storyteller a woman who has really paved the way from across london to new york to even california and now is sitting here with me in New York City. Welcome to the Build Pod, Miss Samantha Michelle. Woo! Get a girl. Get a girl. I always love, I love bad bitches. I love them. And you, as soon as you walked in, like, you exude bad bitch. I'll take it. Yeah, I mean, beautiful bad bitch. Beautiful, beautiful.

1:04It's like in a good way. So welcome to the Build Pod. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's really great to be here. Yeah, thanks for coming. I heard you canceled your trip just to hang out with me all day.

1:13Samantha Michelle:Basically. Yeah, you didn't know. No. So you're here at the BILF on the BILF pod right now. Do you know what BILF stands for? Boss I'd Like to Follow. Yes, it is. It's definitely, and you really are a boss, and it's super impressive. I love women that are in fields that are male-dominated fields, and I'll tell you about myself after, but it's not about me. It's all about you today. But I love to connect with women that are really in predominantly male fields. So tell me what that's been like for you. I mean, it's definitely a thing. You know, most DJs are men. And the further that you move in sort of dance music specific spaces, because I really built a lot of my career in members clubs and working with luxury brands and doing sort of in-store events and sort of more corporate things.

2:01Samantha Michelle:At this time, I'm really like, let's do festivals, let's do clubs. I don't want to see a sweet potato fry in sight. I want to connect with the people who are there for a real dance music driven experience. and in that space, I think, like, female producers make up, like, 2 % of the industry. Like, it's tiny. And not just are you competing with all these other men, but the people who are making the decisions about the opportunities that get bestowed are also men. Yes. And I've been doing this for, like, 10 years now, and it's really interesting because, like, orienting around that reality as a 25-year-old girl is super different from orienting around that reality as a 36-year-old woman, you know?

2:40Samantha Michelle:I get it. Yes, I'm just smiling because I totally get it. Yes, I definitely understand that. Yeah, I think like youth and naivete and like a sort of wide-eyed softness has always been my sort of go-to as to how to like navigate in male spaces. Right. But as a grown woman, I just can't do that anymore. Yeah, it's funny. Yeah, it's absolutely funny because I grew up too in the space that I was in. I come from a male-dominated industry. I was 25 also when I started. and the little girl that I started out as around these male, you know, predominantly male dominating figures is definitely not the woman that I am.

3:19And it's kind of, tell me it's not funny, like, because I know there's like some girl DJs that are coming up that are younger. So like, how do you navigate that being like, because now for me, like I'm the oldest bitch in the room. I used to be the youngest and hottest. I just want to throw that in there. I think you're still doing pretty good.

3:34Samantha Michelle:I love you. But how do you navigate around that being like an older, not older, but more seasoned DJ, and then these little girls are coming in? Mentorship is the only answer. Yeah. You know, I think even like competing with women who were my age, like there was a couple years ago where I really just, I felt it starting to get to me. Like my, you know, my business was so focused in these kind of corporate spaces and the volume of opportunity isn't there because like, for example, if you're Dolce & Gabbana, maybe you're going to do an event once every three months. if you're a club you're going to book seven DJs over the weekend right right so like getting these opportunities like can sometimes feel so like and I started to really just feel like I was being compared to like my colleagues and like these people were just sort of sat in rooms making decisions and and without knowing me and it was really hard to deal with so what I decided to do was like listen I can't change the reality of this industry and the reality of the competition that's a part of it but I can show up differently to the situation so I started producing these female forward like nightlife experiences in partnership with Soul House and I went and I hired all of the girls that I had to be in my bonnet about yeah so like each night like that we did each party had like me and three others and I would hire somebody who was really young really green really excited to get into Soul House to play I would hire someone who was really experienced five or ten years older than me who could like kind of provide like the kind of queen bee mentorship to the situation and then I would hire somebody who was at my level usually somebody who I'd lost a job to that month just because like that's the only way I can show up to make this dynamic different yeah and it's not about whether or not they're gonna do something for me in return like it's not about creating some sort of like transactional lane it's just like I don't want to be in competition with you I can't change that but if I hire you all of a sudden guess what But I have changed that.

5:33Yeah. And you get to collab. And then you get to meet other women. And kind of just, you know, for the one that's green, you can kind of, like you said, mentor them. And for somebody that's at your caliber, you have a lot in common. And then for, you know, always a student. I always like to say that. Like, if you're the smartest one in the room, you got to get out. You got to get out and start, you know, meeting other people. But I love what you're doing and making the space available for women. Because I'm sure it's a hard industry to navigate through. I'm sure about that. But I have a question.

5:59Did you grow up wanting to be a DJ?

6:01Samantha Michelle:No. No, so it's funny. I really didn't know what I wanted to be growing up. Like, I always loved music and dance, and I had danced from the time I was, like, you know, a three-year-old in ballet class. And then when I was, like, a preteen, I took dance pretty seriously and started doing competitions and stuff. And movement and movement to music was, like, my outlet as a kid. But I had a pretty tough childhood. I was dealing with a lot of pretty dark things. And so I didn't have the same, like, oh, you could be whatever you want thing that like some kids have, you know, where they look back on their childhood and they, they had that like clarity of like, oh, I'm going to go be that thing.

6:43I mean, I really just wanted to be okay, to be honest with you.

6:47Samantha Michelle:You were just surviving. Yeah, I was surviving. And then when I got out of that situation and landed in New York at 17 years old, a freshman in college, my roommate, she grew up in the city. She was this gorgeous girl. And she was like, come on, let's go. go to the clubs and it's like freshers week at NYU and I'm running around to like marquee and 10 June and pink elephant this is you know 2007 like the glory days of you know the meatpacking club scene and I just kind of fell into nightlife from there and then it wasn't until seven or eight years later I'm like living in London and I plugged in my iPod this is like 2014 2015 at a party at the Groucho Club and just like played nostalgic bangers like Aqua and Hey Jude and whatever and people went insane like there was this one moment to Hey Jude where like everybody was like standing on the furniture standing on the bar like arms in the air singing na na na na na na na na na na and I just was like oh wow there's something here but again it took years before I really kind of like gave it a chance and now in hindsight with all of the sort of adventures that I've had behind me and hopefully all the adventures that are ahead in front it feels really clear that like DJing chose me as opposed to the other way around it always ends up it's so crazy that's how life is it's funny that it's funny that you even say that like all your little things and everything you're saying I can I can totally resonate with it just because I always laugh I you know I was telling you before we were talking that my real job is I'm a senior regional sales leader and I'm like this is never what I never this is not what I went to school to do but I always say like you know insurance chose me I didn't choose it so it's kind of funny the way that life works out so I can only imagine you're in this club right just vibing out and then you're just dipping and dabbing in there like and I'm sure everybody wanted to come see this hot gorgeous chick that can really throw down so this and then eventually it just evolved into like your full-time deal yeah so basically what happened after that night everyone was like oh my god you made the party you made the party thank you so much okay i'm on dj for whatever and then somebody asked me who was there to like dj her birthday party and i think i was like a bit drunk at the time yeah yeah sure i'll be there i turn up to the birthday party with nothing and she introduces me to like the guy at the venue she's like this is samantha she's our dj here's a bottle of champagne for you and i'm like what i don't have any i don't so i like call like the guy i'm dating at the time I'm like, you need to go to my house, get like my laptop, my iPod and like come here to Fulham and I'm going to have to figure this out.

9:18Samantha Michelle:So he does. And I sort of am like literally just like playing songs from my computer. Like I have no idea how to mix. And the DJ. So you're faking until you're making it. Completely. And the DJ who was booked to open for me hilariously was like an actual DJ. And she was like, girl, you have like amazing taste in tracks. Like why don't you come play back to back with me at the King's Head in East London? And I was like, I don't actually know how to play. And she's like, just burn some CDs and I'll teach you. so I was like all right sure why not and yeah so she she taught me and then like a couple years maybe about a year and a half on I had done little bits of DJing here and there but again there was so much resistance like I didn't want to do it and then on a whim a girlfriend and I decided to start a DJ duo called the Smoking Guns this was in 2016 so it was a really exciting moment in like culture and zeitgeist for female empowerment we both had this love of like 60s and 70s northern and soul rare rhythm and blues funk ska so we were like all right let's make that our sound let's be these kind of like nostalgic revivalists and in the UK there's really an amazing industry and like demand for that kind of sound in a ton of different spaces so we had a lot of success really quickly because there was no women right you know all the DJs in these sort of mod clubs they were like old guys who were like they were at the time and we were like we weren't there because we're 25 but you know and then I did that for like two and a half years three years and then I felt like I just really wanted to evolve creatively and the difficulty of working in a duo is like you know there's like your creative identity and your partner's creative identity and then the duo which is like a bit of both of you and also sort of neither of you and I just like needed to evolve I wanted to play more electronic music.

11:06Samantha Michelle:I wanted to like up my game technically. I was like, all right, if I'm going to do this, you better believe I'm going to be the best. Yeah. Not like worse. You're not going to go half ass it. Exactly. And I felt like in order to really fulfill my potential, I needed total creative autonomy. So I left the partnership. I left London. I moved to New York 2018. Like. So you're moving back to New York. Back to New York. Like basically 10 years later. No one here knew who I was. like Samantha Michelle is like a name and music didn't have any anything because I was like working under the smoking guns and I started all over again wow okay so let me just piece the story so you go to NYU right so in my daughter's go she's applying to Pace which is so funny but um so you go to NYU you go to these clubs then all of a sudden like you start like it's kind of like overnight success right not even like I was just a club girl like I just went to the clubs because I like to dance and like wear fun outfits and put on high heels and like for me like and also there's a different era for nightlife like in 2007 2008 like this was before Instagram right before social media like I remember being at marquee and like Beyonce is over at the next table and she's just chilling and no one's trying to rush her because they don't have a phone that they're trying right and it's that's also not the culture like it would be the least cool thing you could possibly do to take out your little digital camera and take a picture of her right like it was a completely different culture so nightlife was where the most interesting people came out wow so now and then you go to the UK okay so at that point you go to the UK you're really making a name for yourself well so what happened was I took a leave of absence from NYU my junior year and I went to Oxford because I had this fantasy about Oxford in my mind and I couldn't believe that I even like got in so when I got in I was like we need to do this and then at Oxford I really fell in love with Shakespeare and theater and I was like oh I'm gonna be a theater actress okay and I did like three different plays in my year there and then stayed for the summer after and went to drama school in a Shakespeare intensive at Lambda.

13:05Samantha Michelle:Then I came back to New York to like finish my degree but by that point I was like oh no I'm going to be an actress like in Shakespeare in London or whatever. I didn't have a way to stay in America after school because I'm Canadian. Right. So I was like I didn't want to go back to Canada so I said okay I'll move to London and then in London I was really focused on you know trying to be a theater actress. Right. and like trying to be an, build an acting career is impossibly difficult to begin with, but trying to do it as a foreigner in a different country is misguided. Yeah, for sure. I'm sure.

13:37Samantha Michelle:No one's going to hire a Canadian girl to play a British person, and you'd be hard-pressed to discover there's not a lot of Canadian roles in like British productions. So here you are, so now you're there, and then you finally come back to the U.S. Yeah. And then you decide at this point that you're going to what? That you're going to just, you said make a name for yourself, kind of differentiate. And now it's, what is it, 2018? 2018. And I'm like, so I managed to get, like, my artist visa to come and move back here based on the success that I had achieved in the UK. But something not a lot of people know is that, like, the U.S.

14:09government doesn't believe in multi-hyphenates or, like, cross-disciplinary creative expression.

14:14Samantha Michelle:Gotcha. So whatever you're, quote, an extraordinary alien in is the only thing that you can do. And if you do something beyond that, like, you're in breach of your visa. Ah, okay. So the possible risks of that are, you know, pretty grave. So when I moved back in 2018, the only thing I was legally allowed to do was DJ. And I knew at the time that I wanted to express myself in so many more ways. But I was like, if I do this and I do this hard enough and I do this well enough, I can get my Extraordinary Alien green card. And if I get my Extraordinary Alien green card, then there are no limitations and I can do whatever I want.

14:55Samantha Michelle:so I got here in 2018 and I was like we are gonna floor it I was like I'm gonna get my name on every single flyer I'm gonna work with every major brand like I looked at what the categories were that I needed to like satisfy in order to get this green card and I worked for five years and got it so when was this so everybody has like in in their career a defining moment like a breakthrough moment that you're like I've arrived I'm here and this is because now like you're decide this is going to be your lifelong I don't know did you know at the time it was going to be but when was that defining moment where you're like this is like my life it's fun but this is going to be my life's work or my career for now I should say it's funny because I still don't even have that like this isn't even my life's work don't tell you know like it's I have so much more so this is just a part of where you're yeah this is like the tip of the iceberg and because of the limitations I've had around visas and whatever, which also is just hilarious because I grew up literally like a 90 minute drive from the American border.

15:58Samantha Michelle:I was born at Moundside Hospital in Toronto, you know? But no, I'm here to like change collective energy through storytelling and experiences and performance. Like that's what I'm here to do. And DJing chose me and I'm now really beginning to understand why and also like how special that is like I was talking to my mom about this recently like you know my mom's generation or even 10 20 years ago even like let's go back to 2008 like the meatpacking clubs like you never knew who the DJs were like you went not by name not by name not by name like there wasn't DJ culture didn't exist the way that it exists now like no not like I mean you knew a few a few there were a few big names but that would not like how it's erupting everywhere in Vegas there's a lot there's a few women that are very good because when I would go to the marquee there and there's like a big club daytime club there's a few women that play there but no nothing like now how DJs are coming out totally so it's really interesting now like reflecting on this all I'm able to see that like actually by being in this industry and in this space I'm in a totally unique completely culturally unprecedented position to really shape culture to tell people what's cool to show people that being kind loving sweet not taking themselves too seriously holding space for the past expressing warmth like I'm able to show all of that and then like from that place who knows what else I can achieve you know yeah I love how you incorporate because I you have a lot of different genres in there right you like you kind of mix it all up so how does that work when you're like creating let's just say you're in a club how are you able to like kind of mix it all together and bring it to like modern day so it usually it really depends on like what the format of the space is like these days i might sound just super evolved right like it started with like 60s 70s like rare soul covers like original format and then went into like remixes of nostalgic stuff and then from there went into like disco house funky house and then about two and a half years ago I fell into an Afro house rabbit hole and started playing more like Afro house remixes um and tribal house edits and like music that had a more worldly ethnic feel to it but I'm still like I'm a remix girl I'm like a sing-along girl so like finding these fun versions of songs that have like a lyric that you know but you've not necessarily ever heard it this way and I can mix it together with It's like really cool, like maybe it's like a Moroccan percussive instrumental track or something that has more of like an Arabian, Middle Eastern kind of flair.

18:51And then in the set, I'll skate between instrumental versions and music with lyrics.

18:57Samantha Michelle:But like I only ever play edits. I almost never really play like original versions of things. I sit there and I dig. Do you ever dip and dab and do any of your original stuff? I mean, so I produce my own music and so I'll play my original stuff. for sure. But when it comes to like playing other people's music, I'll normally try and find unique versions that are like less obvious because I just think it keeps the whole thing so much fresher. And if it's not broken, why fix it? I love that. I love how you combine that. So as like looking, we talked about you like evolved in the last 10 years. What would you say would be one big mistake you've made along the way?

19:34Some, maybe something that I'm sure there's, you know, plenty.

19:37Samantha Michelle:There's a couple. We all have lots of, but what would you say like is one big mistake that you that you can think of or a redefining moment I think I think okay so I was just at Burning Man I had the most amazing experience I ended up playing like six sets around the playa and one of the things that I really kind of realized in my time there and something I felt like I kind of put to rest really when the man burnt was like I just moved through my life with so much incredible fear and anxiety centered around my not being enough or too much yeah both like goldilocks do you know what i mean i totally get it especially as a woman a woman i get it you you're like you know you have these like defining roles right are you supposed to be like can you be too sexy or is that like now you're a hoe you know or like if you don't if you're too confident is that cocky i think there's a lot of that that goes on for sure totally and i spent just the most insane amount of time like in in my mind just doubting myself and just worrying that I was too pushy too confident or too insecure or you know just just that I somehow didn't deserve you know and there were two guys in my camp who were both DJs who were both hetero tall pretty hot white like and I just watched how they literally how they walked how they walked around camp in the morning their legs turned out taking up space something swinging around in the middle when I talked to them about their music they didn't have any surface right very surface but there was not a hint of like insecurity yeah these guys were like this is who I am I am the shit I am God's gift you're lucky to be in my presence and I'm paying attention to you right now and I was like you need to be more like that Samantha and then when I watched the man burn I was like oh I see what's happening now there was like a part of me that came into existence to protect myself right that's what anxiety is really rooted in like and thought that I could protect myself by always just being really careful and second guessing everything and reading every email 17 times out loud before I sent it and the biggest mistake I realized is like that energy that you put out isn't going to get anything your way right like you need to you need to have that swinging feet turned out energy in how you talk to people and how you send emails and it's not about being cocky or full of yourself it's just you don't need anyone else to like give you some sticker that you're looking for here girl yeah I think there is a moment you know it's been I'll tell you I hate getting older it's like the war for me because I'm so vain and I and you know I'm like very open about it I think there is a moment in your life as you get more season where you kind of just look at things and you're like fuck it this is who I am and you get to this place where you're finally comfortable with who you are and it starts with like the inside and And I say it all the time.

22:46I'm like, I might not be everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay. But what you see is what you get. And when you finally embrace your inner soul, then your outer soul really shines because you stop giving a shit what other people think. Totally.

23:00Samantha Michelle:And I'm very much strapped in on that journey. And I try and just have grace with myself because it's like recovery is nonlinear. It's like three steps forward, two steps back. Always. I'll have a day where I'm like, I've got this. I love myself. It's great. and then like I'll have a moment where something negative will happen and it's like next thing you know I'm right back there you know like this heinous thing happened on Thursday I was playing at this club I've never played at before I would never play at again like the booker really put me through the ringer for a year and a half to even get this slot and like paid me way less than I would ever normally try it was just it was a lot and in the middle of the set and I by this point I've had no feedback from anyone at the venue and like everyone around me seems to be having a great time and it's telling me that I'm killing it and there's all these like 25 year old girls behind me like I'm obsessed with her I'm like it's all going great it's going great and then I'm stood next to the lighting up and I see his phone and the manager has texted him saying I heavily dislike her I'm in the middle of the show and just did you ever have a conversation with this oh yeah no prior prior no I never met her oh so you never met I never met her so she oh it was a woman too at that it was a woman too how ick she was late for setup so normally she's supposed to be there to brief the staff and the junior person did it because she was late for work and she didn't introduce herself to me and she obviously i was at the dj because she could have come over to me at any point and asked me to change things if she wasn't happy with it i didn't i had no communications with her she just like crap talked me personally to her colleague who happened to be stood next to me in a dark illuminated space lovely that's really nice especially another woman doing that i just love those women that won't uplift other women yeah the best learned it's jealousy usually yeah the best part is and i met her at the very end of the night because i was talking to the doorman about it who was so sweet and he could see i was very upset because like nothing like this has ever happened like this is hugely unkind and really unprofessional and he was like do you want to talk to her i was like yeah of course i do so i went and i met her and i said listen that really hurt my feelings like if you had an issue why don't you just come talk to me and she was like oh well I'm sorry you hurt I hurt your feelings but you weren't meant to see that I'm sorry that you saw that you're not sorry that you said it it'd be one thing if there was like constructive criticism in it you know I'm here for that but you've just said that you don't like me yeah heavily and and someone that you've never really met or anything never met never worked with straight past judgment not even trying to help me like you could tell me what it is that you don't like about what I'm doing and I could pivot for you yeah but you wouldn't even give me the opportunity so how'd that end she just walked away and that was it you didn't say you weren't no then I spoke to the booker the next day and he echoed the ickiness the same I'm sorry that you read it but it was intended for a worker I was like okay cool so you think it's okay that your staff is gonna crap talk the djs that you bring in to perform for you okay but I think your response was like a lady sometimes I don't always act like a lady I think I'm very reactive sometimes and I probably would have gotten nasty but sometimes silence is golden and it really makes a louder statement than being obnoxious and trying to one-up because then you totally loses the value of what you're trying to prove but I think you handled that a lot better than I probably would have I probably would have been really nasty thank you yeah I'm very I don't struggle with temper when i get upset i get very like i get small i get contained i get meticulous in my choice of words so you don't get emotionally unraveled or razzled by other people it's good that's really it's that's a great thing i wish i could say that all the time about me i mean typically in business i mean you won't see me unravel or come unglued in front of people but i would say in that situation i probably would have gotten nasty for sure yeah yeah it was mean and it sucked that she was a woman too you know because there's not very many women in positions of power in nightlife yeah you've said some really endearing terms that i love that you say because i say these too you said grace allow for grace and i think as women we don't allow ourselves for grace a lot of the time yeah um you know be kind i think women we especially should be super conscious about being kind to one another especially because of the stigma and the different you know gender roles that we're supposed to assume so your verbiage and just being in this male space really just speaks volumes about what you what you're doing and who you are especially because it's still a male dominated space yeah so what you're doing is definitely part of the women empowerment I love it that I mean that's totally my whole vibe I love what you're doing thank you it's really um it's really interesting because I think because clubs and parties and all of that kind of feels like this space that people enter to like get in touch with what's cool so to speak you know that's where they get their content for the weekend to show their friends what they did on friday night or whatever that like when you're the person on the stage under the lights they're literally all looking up at you like this and whatever you represent you're encoding to them and telling them what's cool yeah so if you turn up and you're like in a hoodie with a beanie and sunglasses and you play music that no one's ever heard of and can't connect to and you don't look up at the audience like you were sending a very particular message to everyone there about what is quote unquote cool now if you compare that to like let's say the set that I did at Webster Hall on Saturday night let's talk about that I knew you're super excited about it so you're a Webster Hall Saturday night go ahead let's hear about it it was crazy like out of the blue my manager says to me oh by the way like I think you're gonna open for a cascada at Webster Hall I'm like oh no shit that would be amazing like I grew up on her you know like that song because every time we touch I can't see.

28:38Samantha Michelle:Look at you and get it. I mean, that is like anybody who like. It makes me high. Exactly. I was like, it's all clicking now. 20 years, I mean, that song has like stood the test of time in a way that few dance music ballads have. Plus it's fronted by a woman. I mean, she's incredible. So the chance to share the stage with her, the chance to perform in a venue as iconic and storied as Webster Hall. I mean, I was a hard yes across the board. however I was already booked to play a birthday party so an hour later when the offer came through I said to my manager hold on like I got this we will make it work and this is actually such a beautiful kind of like full circle thing because what did I do I went and I called all my DJ homies I was like who's free on this night who can do the second half yeah and I called the client whose birthday party it was and I said listen I'm in a pickle I'm gonna have to leave your party halfway way through but you still showed up well silence on the other line and I'm like but I have four fabulous DJs who are all available who are part of like my camp that I would you know vouch for wholeheartedly who will close out the night for you and she's like oh okay like great I was like here they are I'm sending you their instagrams like take your pick whoever you want the next morning she gets in touch with me saying oh okay this one girl her name is DJ Tokyo Rose she's amazing shout out to Tokyo Rose I owe her big time um and they really wanted like hip-hop DJ and she does that really well.

30:01Samantha Michelle:So kind of all worked out for the best. And then she came and like did the second half of the set. So I went, I did the birthday party, played for the first hour and a half. I booked it from Midtown to Webster Hall. They held the doors for like five minutes so I could do a really quick sound check. My manager was there up ahead so he could like test the equipment in advance. Jumped on stage, plugged four tracks in, went to be, came back. I was like, good, doors, let's go. Like didn't even have a minute to like process any nerves around it um and then what was so cool about the set was like you know they I knew they wanted something very commercial obviously to support Cascada um but I still worked in like my Afro house flair I still worked in a couple of like Middle Eastern tracks like Habibi and Papi to like give the whole thing this very like worldly feel and I sort of went back and forth between like you know prog house and instrumental house bangers like tin liquor and stuff like that with like really fun edits of like sing-alongs like I played the Spice Girls I played wannabe at Webster Hall and there was one moment where I was just like we have to do this fully dropped out the level so I'm talking like no music's happening for like four seconds just so everyone together can sing along friendship never ends and then brought the music back up into the if you want to be and like that moment I mean holy smokes right and it's a risky thing to do because you have to really be in touch with the time because if you pull it up mid-word like it doesn't have the impact you know but like standing on stage watching all of these people sing acapella together friendship never ends like that creates something yeah energy energy yeah and it says it says a message or even like when my manager came over to like bring me my tequila soda and I'm like yep we're gonna need a sip of this but I'm already on stage and obviously everyone's staring at me I'm like okay like so I hold up the drink to everyone they loved it huh and they're like and I start blowing kisses at them and they're all blowing kisses back at me and everyone's holding up their drink and I'm like cool guys let's do this and so now from the start like I've said to I've said to them without ever getting on a mic or using a single word of English that I'm here to connect with you I'm here for you this is for you not for me yeah and we're gonna go on an adventure together which is super super different from a dude getting up on stage in his hoodie and being like you never heard this track but I think it's sick oh you know women just bring a different vibe I think all together you know and we have a different way of connecting as a whole so when you and you definitely can have language without speaking and that says a lot because I've been to a lot of concerts and the best ones are the ones that connect with the audience completely I think actually we can communicate way more powerfully without speaking yeah especially body language for sure yeah well and also you have sound pumping through subwoofers in every corner and you have a light show and you have like a whole video like envisioning this as you're going through it i'm like totally envisioning this it was insane it was amazing and then you're like i'm watching this all happen around me and it's a fully three-dimensional experience with sound and lighting and visuals and the way that i'm performing the way that i'm moving the way that i'm dancing and like it's it's sending a whole series of messages that can't even really be fully encoded in the mind but you leave feeling like gosh she was sweet that was nice I had a good time yeah life is cool not what you want for your audience that's the end of the day exactly that's what you want you know that's what you want and it because like we need more love we need more not take yourself so seriously so that so this is a great segue so I have a little game that I want to play okay so it's called factor cap are you ready factor cap yeah so basically you're just gonna it's either truth you know if it's fact and then cap if it's a lie okay so number question one the DJ booth is always chaotic behind the scenes factor cap cap cap yeah really I would think it is chaotic I mean it depends like I know I for me I really hold my space I don't even really like I don't know what's going on beyond me like even at the Webster Hall show I had three photographers and videographers circling me on stage and I so you're just kind of in the zone there's like a energetic force field that i create around me that no one can touch i love that okay next question creativity dies when you fear being judged fact yeah i would say facts for sure what do you yeah i would say that yeah i think if you think that's all part of it yeah i think you have to make from a place of generosity but from a place of like your truth if it's about what somebody else is gonna say or how somebody else is gonna judge it it's really hard to actually lock into it yeah flow space love it all right there's no male or female dj just good or bad cap there's a lot of really good djs and a lot of really bad djs yeah yeah so the so you would say that's true so there's really like when it that question is like there's it's either good or bad it shouldn't be defined by male or female.

35:09Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay.

35:10Samantha Michelle:Oh, yeah, that's true. True, true, true. Just good or bad, because I feel like you can have, I mean, I've seen some people DJ. I personally love Pauly D, don't lie, but I'm a Jersey Shore fan, so don't laugh. No worries. I really love him. He's so funny. But I've seen some bad DJs. I've seen people, like, before they'll get on to perform for whoever's coming out, and if they're not warming the crowd, they didn't do their job. Correct. Is that, like, a correct statement? Yes. Because the crowd should be, I mean, I feel like the person that comes on before, typically, like, if it's not like the opening act but a dj that's like getting them up hype hype but if it's like shit music nobody's vibing i feel like what it's not really it's probably bad there's a lot of shit djs out there yeah there's you know there's no shortage of shit djs out there male and female yeah you know um i do think and obviously i'm a little bit biased but i i'm something you know i've worked with a ton of djs i've booked a ton of djs i do think that there's something about being female that sets you up to do this job in a unique way which is that to be a woman in the world means to constantly be knowing when you need to duck run for cover like it's knowing how to maneuver yourself around situations because this world wasn't built to empower us look at the history of humankind yeah so it requires a lot of creativity paying attention to details and knowing how to mold yourself around what's going on I also think just because of the history of the patriarchy we as women are like particularly conditioned to just like make sure that people like us or make sure that we're doing it right or make sure that we're like showing up in the way that we need to show up and all of that attention and generosity of spirit which is what it really is I think is like invaluable as a DJ yeah agreed agreed agreed all right last question social media has helped more than it's harmed you factor cap cap yeah if I could go back to the world before or Instagram.

37:03Yeah, I mean, I think it does both. I think social media is helpful. I think it is helpful and hinders. It just depends. It allows us less grace because people are always watching you. So yeah, I would, I, yeah, I'd be kind of mixed on that one. I don't know how I feel, but it doesn't matter how I feel. It's how you feel.

37:19Samantha Michelle:Listen, it's out there. Like I, it's tricky for me because I, I just, as a person, I'm very kind of like in, in another time. Like I like to read books and walk in nature and not stare on screens and I like classical music and I don't know I like things that make me feel connected with like our history so yeah social media has been like a beast that I've had to kind of tame for myself and just remember it's social media like they give unsolicited yeah I call it fake book because it's not real so it's like unsolicited advice and honestly like if they don't like you then scroll who cares so yeah i wouldn't take it at face value people are going to talk shit but i do have i have some i have two controversy questions controversial questions all right people say female djs need to act a certain way to be taken seriously which we kind of talked a little bit about what's a stereotype you've pushed back against which i think you've you've talked about it but if you can like just name it like say something in one sentence what would it be um i think that people think that if you look a certain way that you don't have a certain like amount of technical talent there's a perceived um mutual exclusivity between being hot and good at something involving computers yes um and so the more that like I lean into my hotness or whatever like dress up whatever I think people think oh she's not really gonna know how to like lay it down don't take you seriously yeah yeah or like the number one feedback I get on my demos are these are actually really good you're like thanks right thanks yeah so glad you're surprised yeah no no I've struggled I've battled this my entire career people say stuff to me like she she actually does know how to speak thanks or for a woman you had a great idea I'm like wait what yeah so it's always been a battle right trying to like trying to command presence be pretty and also be authoritative totally and it's hard when all of the like people who were there to bestow the opportunities are men and the few women that there are in that space like aren't really helping the other women you know what I mean yeah I I totally agree here's another question for you pressure to maintain image or trend when has that most broken you or maybe it hasn't where you're trying to like keep up with the times or be trendy has that ever broke or maybe not maybe I feel like you stayed authentic to who you are Yeah, authenticity for me is pretty big.

39:48Samantha Michelle:I've never really been into like what's trending. I think that's a good answer. I think it's a perfect answer. So it really doesn't, I mean, and that'll trump everything because people can sniff authenticity. Like if you're fake, they can feel it. But if you're authentic and you stay true to who you are, then it really doesn't mean. It really just stays, I think it just stays out there and it resonates more. People can smell it. Totally. Well, I'll tell you this. I've had such a blast with you. I love your authenticity and the words that you, it just reminds me of me and my journey so I can only imagine what's up next for you I know that it's going to be incredible so I thank you so much for allowing me grace and coming on but you know more importantly what you're doing is you're you're absolutely right it's not just about DJing it's giving women a space in a male-dominated industry and being able to embrace their femininity which I think is super important you know it's always hard trying to be hot and be a professional and be, you know, a woman and be confident.

40:45I feel like we struggle that so much. So I just want to thank you for really embracing that and taking that on and just doing one hell of a job and allowing other women to be in the space while you mentor them and just take on an incredible role.

40:57Samantha Michelle:Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it. And this whole conversation has been so lovely. It's like, again, so much of this stuff is like it's not in words, you know. You just sort of feel it. But then the experience of like sitting down and like telling you about Saturday night and trying to like use words to communicate, like not just that feeling of like power, but like, oh, like this is putting out into the world what I really want to put out into the world. And then that helps me, you know, find and feel rooted in the meaningfulness of what I do. Because I think if there's no meaning, there's no point.

41:33yeah then what are you doing and I think in a world filled with so much controversy right now and we're in such a detrimental time you're you know you're bringing out people's love and laughter and those are the elements that we are so missing into society today so what you're doing is absolutely special and I hope that you know that thank you you are you really I mean just listening to you and everything that you're doing is super incredible so keep doing what you're doing thanks babe you too thank you so we're wrapping up and I want to know I'm sure all the audience members want to know number one so two-part question what's next for you and then also tell us where

42:07Samantha Michelle:we can find you so next what's happening really exciting um is i'm really focused right now on on getting my music out so i have a release coming out soon can't say too much but it's just yet but oh can you send me maybe i can like promote it again like i'll and maybe i can you know what maybe i can like have the beat for like the bilf pod that would be really cool that'd be really cool i'll send you my stuff for sure make me a will you do it for real okay i'm gonna hold you to it jenay you heard that she's into it and um yeah then this week next week i go to london i'm playing some sets there i'm also producing one of my shabbats with soul house which is going to be really nice it's like this sort of inclusive music driven vibey spiritual experience i've started doing um after october 7th 2023 and then i go to ade then i go to la back in the studio then it's Halloween then oh this is exciting I'm opening for Mo Black on November 8th making my superior ingredients debut get a girl get a girl get a girl and where could everybody find you?

43:06Samantha Michelle:Samantha Music on Instagram and I'm getting active on TikTok it's been a slow journey I know me too but we're getting there I know I am Samantha Michelle I'll put it in don't worry I don't even know my hashtags all the time or my handle I never know but we'll put it in there everybody has it great thanks for coming on thank you so much for having me girl power babe yes