Talking to: Booty Bass
Booty Bass are a Bristol based collective of femxle and non binary DJ’s playing bass music. Founded by Ngaio in the back room of popular Easton haunt The Plough in 2018, Booty Bass has become a space that celebrates different cultures from across the world, mixed with much loved UK sounds; afrobeats, latin, bashment, UK Funky, 90s, garage, grime, baile funk, trap, tribal, global, and most importantly, bass.
In an industry with predominantly men on the decks and in the crowd, Booty Bass are here to shake things up; celebrating, empowering and raising up womxn and non binary folk behind the decks and on the dancefloor. We caught up with founder Ngaio ahead of their DJ set for us on Friday 2nd April on our Instagram account and found out who they are, where they came from and what makes their Booty Bassalicious world go around.
Tell us about how Booty Bass started.
Booty Bass really started with me wanting to practise DJing basically! I am a singer, I’m a musician, and I lost my voice really badly when I was working at a festival, and I wasn’t allowed to sing or really talk for six months to a year. I was working in marketing, talking all the time, I basically sang my way through laryngitis to complete an EP, and my voice was just knackered. So they told me I had to have quite a serious lifestyle change, so I was pretty much quiet for the foreseeable future! But I thought I had to have a creative musical outlet, otherwise I was going to go mad, to be honest, and that's' when I learnt how to DJ. I fell in love with it completely.
I started going to a lot of DJing gigs and I was often the only woman there, and definitely the only Woman of Colour. It was really intimidating, you know, although I had been on the scene for years and already had this network; they were all really lovely and welcoming, but it still felt quite bizarre, even in terms of the audience. I would have men looking over the decks at what I was doing, saying “ooh, you might want to turn down the trim” and I would be like “Bruv! Just move away from me! You don’t even know what I am trying to do!” But then inside I would be thinking “Shit! Do I need to turn down the trim?”. So I was having this real battle between imposter syndrome and trying to just do it. Also, what I realised was that when I was DJing all of the women in the venue would come to the front. They would see me DJing and be like “oh my god, what's happening over there?!”
So then I got a message from the woman who used to DJ every other Thursday at the Plough [in Easton, Bristol] asking if I wanted to take over her slot. Bear in mind at this point I just had my one hour set that I was very happy with, and this was going to be for four hours, in a venue that I loved but didn’t know that well; I didn’t know whether to do this thing as Ngaio or do this as a different thing. I thought screw it, I am going to call myself Booty Bass.
It came from watching this thing with Branko, who is one of my favourite music producers. He did this experiment where he put sensors on this girl’s bum, and every time she twerked it would produce a drum sound, and it was incredible! My mind was blown, and that stuck in my mind, that booty bass! So that’s what it’s about, it’s about bass, it’s about sexiness, it’s about empowerment, it’s about dancing; it doesn’t need to be about anything else. I felt that Booty Bass was really about encapsulating what I was doing, it was about owning that space, and being able to play dancehall and be sexual, but not having to be sexy for anyone else; just being free.
Because I was doing this four hour set I really found what I was trying to do, you can go across the whole spectrum in four hours. I was starting with dancehall and latin, then moving on to reggaeton and hip hop, and then going into UK Garage and afrobeats, then ending on drum and bass and jungle. So that was my formula.
It just got really popular; everyone was coming, and it really definitely had this female empowerment driven energy around it. I wasn’t really mindful that I was trying to do that, but because I was holding that space that was what was naturally happening. The bouncers were saying that I was too good for a Thursday, we are all fighting over who gets to work Thursdays, so they said to The Plough that it had to be moved to a weekend night, so it did.
It really worked, I already had an established audience and when that happened I thought it was a great opportunity to start bringing in other people. I started putting a few messages up on Facebook and other spaces saying “if you are a female or non binary DJ and want to come and do a warm up slot let me know ''. So over the following year I had some really wicked people come in and just smash it! Just that was really exciting for me, I got to enjoy the night and enjoy some new music. I would just say to people, “I am here if you need me, if you need some support just give me a wave”, but that was it.
After that year there were a definite few with whom I was like “oh yeah, I really like being around them” … and that was it really, we were a crew.
Booty Bass crew at Glastonbury festival 2019
That was 2018 and it has been really interesting seeing how we grow together; even over this lock down we have all been able to grow, to find the things that drive us. We have all ascended quickly, we were in a space that wasn’t taken, we were providing something for people that they didn’t have, so we got booked quickly and we were packing rooms quickly, and it was almost evolving quicker than we wanted it to. So it has been nice to have this year where we have all been able to sit back and go “alright, we love this, but what do we want to be?”
Walk us through who Booty Bass are at the moment
We’ve got Devolicious; Linda, who is a part of Kiki Bristol, a collective who put on events for LBGTQ+ People of Colour in Bristol. She’s the oldest in the group and she is the biggest raver! She has got such amazing energy; she really keeps us grounded, she is kind of mothering without being a mother, she definitely holds us together.
Then DJ Bungzo; Ash. They have moved around a lot, and they very much take up the space of Jungle, you know, like a definite sound, a proper raver, but then they are this proper wizard when it comes to admin. They keep us on track, but they are always the one who is playing the tracks that make people go crazy!
Then we have DJ Adibah, she is our HR lady, and we also have the most tracks in common. We both love edits; we will play edits upon edits upon edits, back to back with each other. There is a little joke amongst the crew that she is the biggest diva. Everyone thought it would probably be me, but it’s definitely her! She just gets you so gassed, she has got a real stage presence, everyone gets so excited just watching her play.
Then we have got Xylo, who runs our SWU FM radio show. She plays a lot of really interesting afrofunk. She is that kind of soulful presence, and she is probably out of all of us the least in your face, which is kind of neat because you need someone who is going to be more of a chilled presence; she is a very calming space within the crew.
DJ Hannza
And then we have Hannah, she was our newest member, and she came from being at loads of the Booty Bass nights, she was always at the front just giving it her everything. One time I asked “do you want to come and do a warm up slot?” and she just smashed it! Hannah plays that really local Bristol sound, that real soundsystem music. I am so proud of that; Bristol has got such a strong music scene and you know whatever Hannah is going to play it’s going to represent the city.
Our newest member is Fabienne, she is from London. During the lock down, it was difficult for everyone to do live streams because not everyone has the equipment, so she has been taking more of the lead with our live streams, which has been great. Her sound, I would say it is in that l hip hop, but latin edit sphere. It was definitely a sound that we didn’t have, but it fits with us all. It is nice to have someone who is not from Bristol as well.
What I love about us all is that it depends what day you get us, we might play something different depending on what mood we are in, so you always get a surprise. Like Adibah, she might play an edit or she might play some bhangra music, you just don’t know. Also, all of our music comes from a cultural background. I think in the past people have associated me more with Booty Bass more because I started it, but actually we are a crew, and people can get to know all of us individually through all of the different music that we play. When we all play together it feels natural, the more we play together the more it just melds together.
What’s been your favourite Booty Bass gig so far?
© @skleinphotography
It was actually at Brisco, one that we did which was a collaboration with Kiki. We all smashed our sets, the energy was amazing, and I think that was the first time I saw that we were the energy. I think before that I thought it’s just The Plough, maybe the Plough is just this safe space that can hold us. So when we also started doing stuff at Brisco, I realised we created that energy, that freedom.
There was one woman who had her top off and was just arms everywhere, everyone was just smiling. I remember someone coming up to me from the venue at the end and saying, your audience is just so lovely, this is just such a nice environment to be in. But it’s not just us doing that, it's us and the people who come to our gigs. And I think that is because we are so clear within ourselves about what we are trying to achieve in terms of being that space of being free, where people can be themselves and be safe; knowing that if something happens that we will have their backs. We don’t do Booty Bass events anywhere where we can’t see the people. So that was one of my favourites because it brought together a real intersection of people who were all able to feel safe and seen and appreciated.
Tell us what we can expect at the live stream from you and Hannah, what are you bringing?
I feel like it’s going to be a lot of the tracks that I have fallen in love with. What has been weird about this time is that everyone has been getting new tracks out, there is all of this amazing stuff that has been coming in that people haven’t heard yet, so I’m definitely going to be playing some of my newfound favourites, and some of the golden oldies. There are some tracks that everyone always knows from our Booty Bass nights, like Gasolina, which I will probably play, because that was the song where the original crew who came along to the nights would go mad; I used to play it at every single night, and I still do.
Can you tell us what advice you would give to women and non binary people trying to break into the DJing scene? Do you think there is still a need for more women, especially Women of Colour and people from the queer community on the scene?
It's not happening because there still isn't enough representation, it's not happening because there are still not enough spaces they can see themselves in. I remember when I asked Adibah if she wanted to part of the crew she said “Thank God” because she couldn’t see herself anywhere but here, she only started to DJ when she started coming to Booty Bass nights. I think that was the same with Ash, you know, they learnt to DJ after coming to Booty because they thought “ah, there is a place for my music, there is a place for me with my full self”.
My advice would be to go and find the people who are there. It may not feel like they are there, but they are, but unfortunately you have to go and find them because they aren't the people who are getting the big gigs; all the money and being promoted that much. So I would say go and find the people who are replicating the space that you want to play in and playing the music you want to play.
I would also say don’t be afraid of being the only person in the room, sometimes you aren't going to find your crew straight away. I was putting stuff out looking for people, and no-one was responding, and I was thinking ”Oh god, is this stupid, trying to start up a crew?”. Someone said to me “just be patient, your people will find you.” There have always been women in this industry, there have always been Women of Colour in this industry, there have always been Trans People of Colour in this industry, there are queer people, they are there, but it was only when I started looking I found them. Don’t think that you’re alone, just go and find your tribe.
And think about the resources that will get you to a good place; I bought a battered second hand controller that I would practise on until I was confident enough to be in these spaces all by myself.
What's coming up next for Booty Bass?
We are in full strategy mode at the moment, we are definitely manifesting more regular gigs, not only in Bristol but online. We are all really passionate about the fact that there are people who can’t go out raving for whatever reason doesn't mean they are not wanting to dance, and I think that the pandemic has shown that.
If you are a parent, if you are a carer, if you have any sort of mental or physical disability, if you just don’t like being in a club, there are so many reasons why people can’t go and be in a club with other people; it doesn't mean that they don’t enjoy music, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to be part of a musical community. That was really why we worked so hard to figure out the live streaming, because we really want this to be something that we can continue to offer after the world opens, although we obviously can’t wait to be in a room together again.
That's also why we made sure we set up our radio show on SWU, because that is a space for people to listen to our music and be able to do that on their own terms, whenever it works for them. You need to have things available for people to interact with it in a way that is good for them.
We are also looking at how we can extend this further, like doing DJing workshops; I have already done some with Knowle West Media Centre. When I was learning to DJ, I knew I wanted to learn how to mix dancehall and afrobeats, and the person I was being taught by didn’t play that kind of music. There are ways that you mix that kind of music which are completely different to if you are mixing techno or house. These are poly-rhythms, these are global rhythms, there is a completely different energy you have with it, so that is really what I want to offer people, I find that that aspect of it can be learn how to DJ this way with this music, and it churns out the same type of DJs. So I want to say to people “fuck the rules, play what you like, but let’s make it sound cleaner”. We just want more Booty Bassers in the world, wherever that may be!
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