Today we’d like to introduce you to Hip Stir.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I first learned how to DJ during the pandemic in Hanoi, Vietnam. I was living there and teaching English for a couple of years. I saw an ad on Facebook for an intro to DJing course by this organization called “Pho the Girls” (a clever pun referencing the delicious Vietnamese noodle soup) and was intrigued. Even though I’ve loved music my whole life and creating playlists, I had never even considered becoming a DJ before. I just didn’t even know it was an option. Once I saw this ad specifically targeting women and non-binary folks, I decided to try it out. I immediately fell in love and became obsessed with mixing music. With the connections from Pho the Girls, I was able to play at a wide variety of bars and clubs in the city and at local festivals. Pho the Girls was more than just an organization offering DJ courses. It was a safe, encouraging, friendly community for folks who would otherwise have been excluded, ignored, or shamed in the DJ world. When I moved out here to Austin in September 2021, I started networking with other DJs through Facebook mostly and one of the first questions I asked in a FB group was “Are there any other lady DJs in here?” I got no response. A kind male DJ responded with a link to a female DJ’s page, but I learned very quickly that there is a lack of femininity in Austin’s DJ communities. So, I found myself really struggling to find a supportive community here in the beginning. I decided that if I couldn’t find one, then I was just going to have to make one.
Using Pho the Girls as a template, I created this B.A.B.E. community which stands for Bad Ass Bitches Elevating. It shares the same goal as PTG which is to encourage gender-oppressed people to participate in the local music scene and build a supportive, cooperative (rather than competitive), and collaborative community. As of right now, we’ve got an Intro to DJ course taught by me and an Intro to Vinyl course taught by the very talented LadyRoXoXo. As time goes on, I imagine our course options will expand, hopefully into music production as well! We’ve secured a monthly gig with the Guad Vintage Market on Sundays and there are some more BABE events in the works that will showcase the incredible talent from our women and non-binary folks in this city. On social media, we post weekly events where you can find women and non-binary folks playing.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Carving out space for women and non-binary folks at DJ events has always been a challenge. It’s improved over time, but currently, about 1/3 of DJs are women, 13% of 2022 festival headliners were women (https://djtechreviews.com/news/only-13-of-2022-festival-headliners-are-women), and “the average ratio of female to male DJs in the lineups of clubs and festivals equals 1 to 12” (https://djanemag.com/news/sad-statistics-gender-equality-club-and-festival-lineups) despite being half of the population. Non-binary acts made up about 0.5% of festival headliners.
For me personally, there have been moments where I’ve been treated differently as a woman on the decks. It’s hard to describe sometimes because it’s all very subtle. The first gig I had here in Austin, I was checking my USB in the device to make sure my playlist was there and I was asked by the guy who was currently playing if I had ever used this gear before. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I doubt he would have asked that question to a man doing the same thing. There are these little micro-aggressions that signal that they think I don’t know what I’m doing or of course, there’s the constant sexualizing. In Hanoi, there was a random man who thought he could hang out next to me behind the decks and I asked him to get out of the DJ booth. He decided to ignore me until I physically shoved him away and got a man to stand next to me. In Vietnam, the most popular female DJs were heavily sexualized with little clothing and lots of makeup, etc.
Gender-oppressed folks deal with a lot of daily judgment for anything and everything (what we wear, how we talk, putting others first, being too sexual, not being sexual enough, how we look, what we eat, what we don’t eat, blah blah blah). So, you can imagine how intimidating it can be for a person who is judged and possibly shamed for daily little things to try and enter an extremely competitive field dominated by people who don’t understand them, don’t care about them, or at its worst people who actively want to exploit them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Playing at various clubs and festivals around the world, Hip Stir’s global collection of bops and beats are downright sizzling. House, electro, world, hip hop, and electronica ingredients tastefully simmer into an irresistible urge to move. Getting her start with SYS Sister Sounds and Pho the Girls in Hanoi, Vietnam, her music has a unique sound from exploring the SE Asian electronic scene. Through this safe musical space created for women, femme, and non-binary folks, she was able to quickly find success in Hanoi’s bars and clubs as well as participating in Treehouse Festival. In Austin, you may have seen her play at The Venue where she won a DJ contest hosted by Baked Up, at Voodoo Room, Native Hostel, Cheer Up Charlies, Batch Brewery, Pink Flamingo Plant Co, Fourth & Co, or at various private parties. Hip Stir also hosts a monthly radio show called Fresh Air on Ha Noi Community Radio where she explores a wide variety of genres and features local artists and DJs.
Hip Stir’s most recent project is BABE (Bad Ass Bitches Elevating) where she is replicating the same empowerment she got from Pho the Girls into Austin’s local music scene. With BABE, gender-oppressed folks can take introductory DJ lessons (both digital and vinyl) and join a supportive, cooperative collective of feminine DJs and artists. BABE events are popping up around the city with our next all-bitch lineups at Guad Vintage Market on Sept 4th and 18th.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I’ve learned so much during the Covid-19 crisis in different areas of my life. The greatest gift of this crisis was that I was able to explore DJing and had a lot of time and energy to put into it. I believe that creativity and spirituality are linked and went through a personal spiritual/creative renaissance through the pandemic. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron was a great source of inspiration and guidance.
Pricing:
- 3-hour Introductory DJ course + slot to play at a BABE event–$150 OR barter of equal value
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babeatx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babeatx
Image Credits
1-Anna Skelley (BABE member) 2-Cindy Mesbahi (BABE member) 3-Pho the Girls 4-me (Hip Stir/Kelsea Pinkston)
