Detroit house and techno musician DJ Holographic first tried her hand at DJing when she was at a friend of a friend’s house.
"He had two turntables and a really basic mixer that only had high and low EQs," she says. "I tried to mix two records, but it was complicated because the tracks had live drums, so it was difficult to beatmatch. I understood the concept, though, and really enjoyed it. I got more serious around 2010 once I invested in my own gear, which were Technics and a Traktor S4. When my mom passed away, I didn’t really know how to handle it, so I put all my energy into getting better at DJing. It was easier to focus on that. I couldn’t do anything but get serious. After that, it became an emotional investment, too."
The artist says that her sound is still in its infancy.
"I'm excited to really get to know it," she says. "Right now, I feel like I'm just harnessing raw energy, and I'm more excited in sharing that energy with others than giving a description of it."
Holographic's latest release is "Taurus."
"[It's] part of my new project that channels the healing power of music," she says. "Over the course of a year, I’m releasing one song per month, resulting in a collection of twelve emotionally charged songs that resonate with the energy of each zodiac sign."
As for gear:
"For headphones, I stick to V-Moda," Holographic says. "They are my favorite, with their noise cancellation. They’re good on my ears, the way they go around them, and not just on them. Back in the day, my favorite-favorite headphones—and Carl Craig was being funny when I mentioned my favorites used to be Pioneer DJ HDJ-X5; he said, “You’re old.” But I learned to DJ with Pioneer headphones."
"Right now, my DJ setup is a mix of new and old. What I use to practice while at home are my technics. My original ones were stolen by some crackheads, but these are my second pairs. I have four SL1200 MK2s. My mixer is a Pioneer DJM-900 nexus mixer, as well as two Pioneer CDJ 2000s."
"My main gear for music production is the Akai Professional MPC Live 2, which I travel with alongside a mic. I do a lot of looping on there. I have a Push 2 too, which works well for writing melodies. I also have a Roland Juno, which I use to create some of my favorite sounds. I’ve always liked that time period of synths. I have some other things but sometimes they end up collecting dust, but they’re used from time to time."
Looking ahead, DJ Holographic has plenty planned for 2024.
"I can barely even think about the whole year, let alone just the spring and summer," she says. "Things are really flowing through me and my team right now. We just put out “Taurus,” the second single of my new project, which followed "Aries." And then we have "Gemini" coming out next month. I’m also working towards Movement next month in May. There’s so many things! I’m playing Red Rocks in May, too. I feel like right now, after a lot of seed-planting, the trees are starting to grow and bring things to actual fruition. There’s definitely a lot more and I’m excited to show you the whole puzzle."
DJ Holographic's "Taurus" is out now.
