You went straight from the Democratic National Convention to New York Fashion Week. Aren’t the two events pretty similar?
The events are fundamentally different, but from a strictly DJ perspective, it’s pretty similar. I played the Rock the Vote party, so I was looking for music to really get people motivated and excited, like [Shorty Long’s] “Function at the Junction.”
Do you listen to music differently in your personal life, when it’s just for fun?
No, I don’t really listen to music differently professionally versus personally. I’m a person who likes to tell stories through music, so I’m always listening to lyrics and melodies. They remind me of places and people, and that’s what sticks—then different parties where I’m DJ-ing will trigger those memories, and I may come back to that song in a professional way.
What do you listen to to get pumped up for Fashion Week?
I have these funk and soul records that I put on in the morning that you can’t be stressed listening to. There’s a compilation called Latin Soul: New York Barrio Grooves 1966-1972, and it’s all these great songs that just make me dance.
How do you discover new music?
I love Hypemachine, which is an aggregator that pulls from all the popular music blogs. I also think that the recommended picks on Amazon are great—you can usually find something really obscure.
You have a new capsule collection with Pencey. What are the pieces like?
I was inspired by the jazz era of the 1920s and 1930s, where the man is in a three-piece suit, and maybe he’s in a whiskey bar and a big jazz band is playing. I love that look, but there’s no modern-day translation of it for a woman that isn’t too costumey. So we did a version of that— a three piece suit called Josephine Baker. There’s another piece named after Eva Peron.