I met Infrared at Beat-Herder festival and not only were they the nicest humans ever but they spoke so eloquently and beautifully about the grassroots music scene in Darwen, their friend who set up Sunbird Records and their experiences of being a woman in the industry.
Infrared are female DJs from Darwen played the formidable Fortress this year – a castle crafted from corrugated metal, and hosting DJs playing breaks, beats, techno and house.
Where and how did your career in music start?
Nat: So, yeah, where do we begin? Fay was an air hostess and she used to live in Ascot, in London, miles away. But we were friends, we’d always known each other. I bought my own house. Fay was travelling up north, back down south very often because her mum became unwell. She was really stressed, didn’t know what to do and I was like, listen, move in with me.
Fay: We’ll be in that bubble together.
Nat: I said, however, one condition. Fay used to live in Ibiza, she did some seasons there and I knew she knew how to mix a little bit and I was like, teach me how to mix. So we bought some decks and then, boom, boom, boom, lockdown happened. So, we moved in together.
Nat: We used our time wisely during lockdown to affect our DJing skills and abilities together.
Fay: She taught me everything we learned and it was amazing and that’s how we began.
Nat: Yeah, Infrared was born in the back room of your house.
Fay: And we never, ever intended to play out at clubs or do anything. But one of our friends puts nights on and he was like, right, play for us. We were like, no, we’re not ready.
Nat: And then I went, I dare you. And she went, only if you do. I was like, we’re doing it then.
Fay:So we did it together. Yeah, yeah. And then we just, because we’re a female duo, it’s a niche. There’s not many female duos. Well, named two ginger female duos. And we got asked to play loads and that’s how it began. We spiralled.
What were the decisions you made and the things that you did, that got you to where you are now?
Fay: I think, genuinely hand on heart. Just being ourselves. Yeah. Because we’ve watched people trying to be something they’re not and try and do this. And we actually got told, stick to one genre, or you won’t make anything of yourselves if you don’t stick to one genre. I was like, no, but we love techno. We love all of it. We love all of it. We love all of it. Everything. We do house, tech house, we love acid house and here we are now, It’s not stopped us getting anywhere.
Nat: Yeah, exactly. We just do us. So we be ourselves. And also, another decision is like, just always putting ourselves out there. Like, we could just go to work and just not do anything. But if there’s a competition that arrives, we’ll enter it. And if we go to an event, a night that we want to go to anyway, we always have this saying we’re going to work. Because we’re going to network. And we’re going to meet loads of people and network.
Fay: Research, Natalie, research.
Nat: Yeah, research.
Fay: So just a build up of things, really. Yeah, yeah.
Nat: I’m smiling. I can’t stop smiling.
Donna: Oh, that’s so cute.
So I want to know what grassroots music looks like to you?
Nat: The word grassroots gives me goosebumps. Because we have a late friend of ours who passed. And he opened up a venue in Darwen, our hometown. A live music venue. And he was doing a PhD in community projects. And this bar was a bank. It was a bank. It was a shell.
Fay: It was an old NatWest bank.
Nat: And we all chipped in, stripping the place, painting it to make it the venue it was.
Fay: For a community space.
Nat: Yeah, yeah. And he put on live bands, live DJs. And we’d only really just started DJing together.
Fay: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he pushed us so much. He’s like, you can do this. And you can… He believed in us so, so much. Which gave us more confidence to keep going. And he’s passed now. He was really unwell.
Nat: But the venue’s continued. The venue’s continued. Yeah, the legacy stays on. And they’ve fought tooth and nail to have people that are coming from nothing playing.
Fay: and It’s thriving too. Johnny would be so proud. It’s thriving more than ever.
Donna: What’s the venue called?
Nat: Yeah, it’s called… Sunbird Records.
Fay: Yeah. We hold our own events there from time to time as well. Which always go off. And it just means a lot to us. It’s a special place in our heart.
Nat: Because so many grassroots venues have been closed down. Yeah. And Sunbird Records went through it. They closed. They went through, you know, tough times. And we did everything we could. Worked on the bar for free. DJ’d for free. Got bands playing for free. Just get it back. Yeah. Because if we didn’t have grassroots venues, we wouldn’t be playing. We wouldn’t be doing anything we are doing now. If you don’t have your grassroots, unless you know somebody big and you’re up there, no one has a platform. You don’t have a platform unless you have grassroots venues.
Fay: And it’s good for everybody’s mental health, you know, to be able to perform with their hobby or their instrument or in the band or the DJs. Like, if we didn’t have that, what do we have? So, it just means a lot.
Okay. So, are there any barriers for women and minority represented genders in the dance music industry?
Nat: Don’t get us started. Do you know what? I have always said this. It’s a blessing and a curse being a female DJ. Yeah. When we started out, we were told, no, there’s no females good enough. Da, da, da, da. And they don’t really take you seriously. When we’d go to house parties and the boys would be mixing. And we’d be like, oh, let us have a go. And they’d be like, oh, girls have a go.
Fay: Yes. Let the girls have a go. Oh, no, not the girls.
Nat: But, at the same time, when we started playing out, it was, oh, we’ll book you because you’re female. We’ll book you because you look like that. And it’s like, well, yeah, I do look like this, but watch what we can do on the decks.
Fay: And then they’d always put us on first. Always. Which we always appreciated it. However, it got a bit tedious. Like, we can’t show what we want to show. Yeah. And so then, in that moment, we decided we’re going to put our own events on and create our own brand.
Nat: Full female line up. To celebrate. Local females. Yeah. We asked social media. It was amazing. It was amazing. If you can mix, bring yourself forward. And we do try now.
Fay:We still put events on. We try to have a female heavy line up, we also have men. There’s some fantastic male DJs. Yeah, of course. But there’s female DJs just as good and that needs to be shown.
I’m asking about inspiration. We’ve already chatted about it a little bit. But who are your female or nonbinary inspirations?
Nat: There is a female. Who we actually saw at Beat-Herder last year. And she blew our minds. And I’ve seen her once before at Hidden. Yeah. And I said to Fay, we need to go watch her. She’s called TAAHLIAH. And she is unreal. Incredible. She just looked cool. Is cool and mixed so well. She’s just an inspiration.
Fay: Inspiration. Massive inspiration. And so when I first started out in my DJ career, I met a girl who had moved from Bristol up to Manchester. She didn’t know anybody. She came here for music, to DJ. And then lockdown happened.
Nat: She’s called Jo’pool Big shout Jo.
Fay: And she is amazing. She inspired me and taught me some stuff.
Nat: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And pushed us, helped us, and just gave us the confidence.
Fay: And now she’s playing massive gigs in Amsterdam. She’s international. Yeah, yeah. And she’s just always had a pure heart.
Nat: And she’s always been there for us. As well. Which is great. Because it’s a female support network.
Do you think that’s unique to dance music?
Fay: Do you know what? Yeah. Yeah. I actually think when you meet other female DJs, you connect really quick. And you can speak to each other.
Nat: We met DJ Madam X last night. And she welcomed us. Straight away. We saw her today. We made a connection. And it felt like we were. We’ve been mates with her for a long time.
Fay: And I feel like when you meet male DJs, you meet them and it’s fine and whatever.
Nat: When you meet males, sometimes it’s a bit awkward. Like. Fay: Because you know what it is? When you meet another female DJ, you think, fuck yeah. Power. And we all support each other. That’s the difference. You know. You go to the girls bathroom, we all look after each other. And the same in the DJ community.