Radio 1

DJ Lottie: Fighting For Feminism (& Bringing Up Babies) (interview)

July 26th, 2010 |

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“Having a baby changed my life massively, I took myself out of the loop quite dramatically for a while and all I could think about was my gorgeous little boy Stanley. Although I started doing gigs again when he was quite young they were all local and I didn’t go out apart from that so a lot of people thought I’d disappeared completely. It takes a while to feel normal again and it’s only the past year I’ve been back in it like I used to be.”

Landing her first high profile residency at influential London night-spot Turnmills in 1999 and going on to regularly cover for Pete Tong on his hugely powerful Radio 1 show, DJ Lottie started the noughties as one of the few female DJs touring the world on the A List DJ circuit. 11 years on she remains comfortably placed within the same elite strata though she’s the first to admit becoming a mother four years saw her stepping back from the decks for more than a brief break.

“On a practical level, you simply can’t carry on playing three gigs a night or going touring for months,” she says. “There’s the breast feeding issue for a start, I breast fed for 6 months so could never be that far away, plus emotionally it’s unbearable to be too far away until they’re about two or three anyway,” she explains.

“I only did three gigs a month for his first couple of years and the furthest I think I went without him was Paris,” she continues. “I took him to Ibiza with me to play Space and Amnesia every summer, though. I have two mates now in the same boat as me, Jo Mills and Ayalah (Sister Bliss) and we have great DJ mum chats,” she confides.

“Ayalah takes her little boy with her on tour and has help, there’s ways and means of doing it but it’s a lot easier when they get older. Now I’m going to Hong Kong this month, Dubai and Australia later in the year and generally travelling more and more and further afield again but I still wont go on tour for three weeks again unless Stanley can come with me.”

Staying closer to home she’s also launched Geisha, a biweekly party at East Village devoted to house music and more significantly female DJs.

“After years of not wanting to do all female nights I’ve had a complete U-turn on the idea. I used to think it was restrictive bunching us all together like we were a novelty but 10 years on, although there is an abundance of female talent out there, there is still a ridiculously large gap between the sexes in our chosen vocation,” she points out. “I have to say when I started I thought it would be more balanced between female and male DJs by now but it’s not.”

“Geisha is certainly not about excluding the boys though, it’s more about showing what great female DJs there are out there,” she stresses.

“We’re not getting all feminist about things we just want to get together, as girls do, and play some music. It seems everyone is a DJ now so the opportunity to play out is often slim. This gives us a night where we get to play together and control the music all night. It’s female driven but it’s for everyone to enjoy.”