Jaguar - Headline DJ FF#25
With a supercharged backlog of award-winning radio shows, electrifying mixes and the sharpest eye for cutting edge new music, Jaguar is one of the most impressive and exciting new DJ's to break out onto the UK scene. Being one of the winners of Smirnoff’s Equalising Music campaign last year, she was mentored by The Black Madonna who quoted of her “She’s one of my favourite new DJs right now!” Jaguar is a force to be reckoned with and we’re super happy to have her join our residents in the Basement for this coming Saturdays Fèmmme Fraîche party at the mothership Dalston Superstore. We had a chat with her ahead of Saturdays party, to get the woes and wherefores.
JAGUAR INTERVIEW
Hey Jaguar, we’re super excited to have you playing at the forthcoming Fèmmme Fraîche This coming Sat June 26th, for our Halloween spooktactular and thanks for having a chat to us. So take us right back to the beginning, when did you start DJ-ing and what first inspired you to get into it?
I’ve always been a music fan! When I was a kid it was mainly contemporary stuff that I was listening to - I was always the one making the playlists for parties on my iPod Classic (fyi I miss my iPod - RIP x). But my love of electronic music started when I went first properly went raving in my late teens at uni in Leeds, which led me to start digging into its histories and different scenes, collecting music, and then curating. Leeds is where I first started doing radio too, and since I was playing a lot of electronic music, I then decided to start mixing, which eventually led to me DJing at house parties, then in clubs around the city. I just picked it up because I enjoyed it initially; I never thought I’d end up DJing as part of my career, but I love and cherish every second of it!
So then how did you go about getting your first DJ set?
One of my first eve gigs was for an incredible collective called Slut Drop in Leeds. I was a fan of their nights and how they set out to encourage more womxn to be behind the decks, and they have a really fun space where they throw nights and it’s a super chilled vibe. I had the founders as guests on my show and we just kept in touch after that. I was so nervous before the gig, but I enjoyed it and am so grateful for them booking me, as it gave me so much confidence to keep going!
Yess, pro-female spaces are so great for this reason! providing much needed platforms and nurturing. Ok so rewind.... can you remember the first record you bought? and if so what was it?
Unashamedly, as a kid of 95, my first ever album I bought was The Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk. Still bangs if you ask me!! A Close second is Gwen Stefani’s debut album or something from Destiny’s Child.
You do a lot of work behind the scenes at Radio 1 and 1Xtra and were taken on by them back in 2014 for an internship, tell us about your journey at R1 from then til now and how has that impacted your DJ career positively??
Back in 2014 I was lucky enough to be selected for the R1 and 1X internship. I was 19 and completely new to the music and media industries, and was not expecting to get it, so I really cherished the whole experience. I learnt so much from it in terms of what makes good radio, how to properly edit audio, and by honing my production skills, I feel like it made me a better presenter on the mic. It enabled me to start my relationship with the BBC and set me up well to apply for a job at BBC Music Introducing in 2016.
Since then, I’ve hosted Introducing stages at festivals, present BBC Music Introducing in Beds, Herts & Bucks and am part of the central Introducing music team. I’m extremely passionate about new music and I truly think Introducing is the best thing about the music industry, as our sole aim is to give new artists an opportunity. I’ve also hosted a few shows on Radio 1 this year, and most recently covered for Huw Stephens, which has been a lot of fun!
So to put it shortly - the internship was a huge leg up into getting where I am now, it inspired confidence and gave me a lot of knowledge. I’m forever grateful!
Fab, that really has be a pretty sweet jounrey, You also do a lot of in-front-of the scene stuff, including radio shows, event hosting, interviews and presenting, how did that come about?
Presenting all started at uni from doing student radio - I completely threw myself into it in my first year and became obsessed with putting together my weekly radio shows. After I did the BBC internship, I was able to apply everything I’d learnt to my final two years at uni. I definitely neglected my degree to pursue radio, put on club nights and do work placements, but I don’t really have any regrets there!
On top of the BBC stuff I’ve been hosting a bi-weekly electronic music show on Reprezent every Friday for the past two years, and host the Mixmag Lab every Friday.
Lot's of fingers in musical pies! We hear you recently hosted the DJ awards in Ibiza, how was that?
I loved hosting the DJ Awards! It’s definitely a career highlight for me this year. It was mad giving awards to people like Carl Cox and Charlotte De Vitte, but the whole night was so much fun and I’d love to do it again!
Well maybe you'll be getting one of those awards yourself sometime soon! Speaking of awards, last year, you were selcted as one of the winners in the Smirnoff equalising music campaign, how was the whole experience for you and do you feel like it's benefited you and your career?
The Smirnoff Equalising Music scheme was incredible. I really feel like it’s made a difference in the scene and certainly made a difference to me! I was so excited to be working with The Black Madonna, and she gave some amazing advice, and was very generous with her time. She even invited myself and Kiia (another DJ on the scheme from Bristol) onto her Radio 1 Residency show as guests which was cool. The whole campaign gave me a lot more confidence in myself and definitely was a turning point for me. I think it’s very much necessary to have schemes that encourage female-identifying DJs and producers to flourish in the scene. Hopefully one day we won’t need to do it, but for now I think it’s still good to talk about it and be proactive about making the world more diverse.
100% and we're all about that here at Femmme Fraiche, so then tell us what other female / FI / NB DJ's you think we should check out?
Wow, so many !! Here’s a big ol’ list for you: Heléna Star, Effy, Elkka, India Jordan, Kikelomo, TSHA, Syreeta, Lucid , Alexis…
Yes, that's a pretty sweet list, so back to you, where else can we see or hear you playing in the coming months?
You can catch me at Tobacco Dock for BBC Music Introducing Live on 1st Nov and at The Warehouse Project for Annie Mac’s Halloween night on 2nd Nov in Manchester.
Oooh Halloween shin-digs, and so finally, what can we expect from your set on Saturday at our Halloween spesh?
Big house pumpers and sexy techno
Yessss perfection we can't wait! So there you go, we're super excited to have you at Fèmmme Fraîche this coming Saturday! Thanks for the interview and for those of you reading, get yourself in the mood for Sat night by listening to Jaguar's pumping set, live from the Relentless stage @ Leeds festival below! and don't forgot to follow her on her socials just underneath. See you on SAT!
