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Qzen

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

by Christina Li on May 05, 2009
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Making her name on the San Francisco scene since the 90s, it’s hard to pinpoint what Qzen hasn’t done for the music scene whether it be photography or even an electro punk band. With her DJ skills dabbling in everything from techno to dubstep, she has always managed to showcase her tunes and beats with fun yet a carefully thought out manner. Swinging by the SF Station office on a sunny afternoon, it’s hard not to fall in love with this multi-faceted DJ.

SF Station (SFS): Tell us a little about how you go into DJing.

Qzen (Q): I started as a promoter, and did a drum n’ bass club called Eklektic years ago in '97. I moved to Montreal for my study abroad and realized I wanted to be a DJ and not date the DJ! So I started buying records and DJing about ten years ago, and I played drum n’ bass for about the first 3-4 years. Then I started playing 4-4 stuff and as soon as I started playing more 4-4 stuff it was like 'okay, now I could play anything.'

SFS: So what attracted you to drum n’ bass initially?

Q: I started raving locally and I just wasn’t into the San Francisco sound, which was very house-y and deep house-y. I wanted something more trance musical and synthy, and I found drum n’ bass. And I went into a drum n’ bass black hole, and that’s all I listened to from ’97 to 2001. I still have a big love for it, even though I stopped DJing it for a while.

SFS: Then what do you play nowadays?

Q: More tech-house, that kind of stuff. After I started playing more 4-4 stuff I started this party called Moxie, which was anything between disco to electro house. We had a radio show on a pirate station, and did a bunch of underground stuff. It was kind of all over the place.

SFS: So do you go to a lot of underground stuff?

Q: Yeah I just left Apple. I was the dance electronic music editor. I was there for four years, but it was a lot of fucking work. I couldn’t go out as much as I wanted to cause I had to commute to Cupertino. When I first started there I was still doing parties, and everyone was like you are insane. So I stopped throwing parties in 2007, and stopped the radio show in 2008. I kind of knew I was going to get restructured or my position was going to be eliminated, but it was totally a blessing in disguise.

SFS: I don’t know if you’ve read the news lately, but underground parties have been getting busted like crazy. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Q: Well, it happens. The system is set up for failure. Even if you jump through all their hoops, get all the permits, and everything you need to get, they’re still gonna bust you for something. Might as well just do it illegally! They’ve been doing a lot of crazy things…and I just feel every time the economy goes down, it gets amazing. People just find ways to make it happen. I don’t think anybody is gonna stop doing anything. With as many people as there are laid off, there are amazing intelligent people that don’t have anything better to do right now. As much as I think the city is getting weird, I don’t think it’s the end of warehouse parties.

SFS: I heard you were in a band called The Invisibles. How was that?

Q: It was awesome. The only reason we stopped is because I got the job at iTunes. We were literally three months away from moving to New York, but I got the job and it was like ahhh! But Kimi has a band called Lilofee, and Alex is in New York.

SFS: You guys should get together again!

Q: Well Kimi is here now, but Alex is in New York. But I’m actually working with 40 Thieves. We’re starting to put out a bunch of singles and remixes.

SFS: That’s cool. You’ve worked with a lot of people, like vocals on a Claude VonStroke track. Who are some of your favorites?

Q: It’s all been so easy because they’re all friends. It’s never like, what are we gonna do? It’s like we get a whole bunch of Cuban pastries and get high on sugar. The people that I’ve worked with are all very experienced so I can learn from them.

SFS: What do you like most about San Francisco in general?

Q: I’m born and raised here, but I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve never really lived elsewhere; there was a part of me over the last few years that wanted to move badly. But I feel like now if I continue to travel as a DJ, this as a home base is amazing. There’s so much nature, and people are so creative, open, and intelligent. It blows my mind sometimes. My favorite thing is how accepting people are. Like I’ll go somewhere and sometimes people are like, “Why is that guy wearing heels,” but I’ll just be like, “Who cares? Why do you care? What does that have to do with the price of milk?”

SFS: So true! What are some of your upcoming projects that you’re working on?

Q: So I got the 40 Thieves album coming up. And I’m gonna put together my own live PA with laptop set and vocals. I was known a little bit for vocals and that will be a little easier to tour with. And I’m also really, really happy to be focusing on being a DJ full-time. And really be able to dig again, and I have so much music coming at me now. Now I can go back and really dig through what I’ve missed. A bunch of collaborations coming up for sure!

Find Qzen at http://qzen.dj (now with http://blog.qzen.dj) and jam with her at [url=http://www.myspace.com/qzendj]http://www.myspace.com/qzendj



by Christina Li on May 05, 2009
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