It’s 3:30 in the afternoon at the über popular Coachella Music Festival in the California desert and the heat is rising to triple digits. 3,000 bodies are sweating, waiting for the next act. As roadies scramble on stage to get the turntables ready, a woman with a water gun runs out on stage and starts screaming and wetting the bodies within squirt range, they are thankful. She reaches into her bag and pulls out t-shirts with her logo. She waves them around teasing the crowd as they raise their hands clamouring to catch one. Running around the stage, screaming, squirting, throwing things and laughing all the way, this is DJ Irene. After playing the closing set at a party the night before, after getting off a plane and driving 2 hrs. To get to Coachella, DJ Irene throws down a high energy set that swells the music savvy crowd to 4,500 bodies by the time she is done. Walking away from the decks she high fives the awe struck VIP crowd back stage then proceeds to the side of the stage to sign hundreds of autographs and give more of her self to those who love her for taking their souls out of this hot desert reality.
The dance music world is a world of escapism. People come out to dance to forget the life dramas that wear on their souls or to be a little more glamorous than they are during the day. The DJs who are loved the most are those that provide moments of beauty, clarity, inspiration and hope that everything will be alright and beautiful. This is why DJ Irene is America’s most loved DJ. DJ Irene has seen drama, has fought chemical and personal demons, has lived without a home, has seen the power of escaping her reality and did it with flair. About life’s challenges she says, “All I can say about getting through the b.s life gives you, is you gotta be fearless. It is your life, why be afraid? If you screw up and live, you will still be here, and you will still be the only one who has to do anything about it.” She is a survivor, a character with an off-the-beaten-path lifestyle that has surpassed all obstacles and helped create the new American Dream for the next generation.
The cult of DJ Irene began at Hollywood’s mega club Arena. Here, her DJ and life dramas played out through her mixing and publicly on the dance floor. This only made people love her more and helped her to see how she could give back by leading a positive life with the music. She says, “At one point I realized that I am not just playing records to the same people every weekend. These people care about me, more than I care for myself. I knew I had to make them proud by being proud of myself, by taking care of myself, by being the best.”
The best for DJs is selling more mix CDs than any other DJ in her genre, it is non-stop touring at every major music festival and at the best clubs around the world, it is having pop culture and rock journalists queuing to get interviews, it is being the DJ whom some DJs fear having to play after and being the DJ that younger DJs want to be. This is DJ Irene. When the rest of the world realized the allure of the cult of the DJ all DJ Irene had to do was say “Here I am, kiss my ass, I’m one bad ass bitch that can mix!!!”
So what? Another girl DJ. Not in this case. She doesn’t go topless, doesn’t smile coquettishly or Seductively for the camera, she didn’t just start mixing 3-5 yrs. ago when it became cool. DJ Irene is DJ culture in all its brazen, globetrotting, mythic womanizing, beat banging, trend raising and trend killing glory. With her signature laugh she has lived a fearless life, daring all who challenged her to step up. “Yeah great, there are lots of girl DJs, so what? I was a girl DJ too, now I’m a DJ Diva, lets see how many of them can hang like me. Let’s see.”
If you consider yourself knowledgeable about the DJ world but haven’t seen DJ Irene yet then you haven’t seen one of the most entertaining and engaging DJs in the biz. Find out where she will be at next and don’t let nothing stop you from getting there. Be fearless, like her.
