Nora En Pure, Alison Wonderland, TOKiMONSTA, DJ G-String, Honey B Sweet

Q&A with tenacious vocal house music artist DJ G-String

Chicago based vocal house muso DJ G-String has announced that she will be unveiling her latest track ‘No One Ever Said (feat. Honey B Sweet)’ this Friday via GString Records. We couldn’t be more excited to see promising female talent share a radiantly outspoken track like this one that dwells on the heartbreak that anyone can encounter in this game of love. Discovering the work of Kaskade at a young age, the DJ bought her first set of turntables at the age of eighteen and hasn’t stopped making inspirational house beats since. We know the future is bright for this hustler who keeps producing top-notch sounds while maintaining two careers.

We chatted with inspirational talent DJ G-String below.

What’s your “secret sauce?” What makes your sound stand out?

I am a big ‘80s and disco baby, so I usually just make music depending on how I feel. Normally my music-making time is 11pm – 4am. I always start with playing around on the keys and if it turns into something then awesome.

Define a successful day in your eyes.

Playing three shows a week, making music without the side hustle of a day job, and really growing my fanbase to have 1million monthly listeners a month.

What made you decide to pursue a musical career?

I just wasn’t happy with anything else. I played the big company executive roles and am still in a leadership role right now. I love my IT life but music is really where my heart thrives. So I buckled down and went at this much harder than I ever did before.

Do you think your next releases will be as lyrically involved or do you believe that it is highly dependent on the way you feel at the time you produce the song?

I actually haven’t written a song that wasn’t lyrically involved. I do have a track in Jan that I am releasing that is more talking style and the lyrics are about house music. I think that might be as close as it gets, lol.

What would you be doing as a career if you never pursued music?

Cybersecurity nerd right here (ethical hacker) – ha. I am still in IT so that is what I am doing plus my musical career.

Did you always want to make a career out of your music or did you start creating music as a hobby initially?

I have always loved music. I never really thought of it as a career. I’m a heavy IT nerd so I was always doing that and then music/djing on the side. I think I just really wanted to have fun.

Pros and cons of the industry from your perspective?

I am going to start with the negative then bring up the energy to a positive. So there are 7% of women DJs that are performing at festivals. Gender inequality has to change in this industry. There are talented women artists that deserve the same opportunities as men. Now the positive. The industry is fun as hell. I love that my audience is aged 24 – 50 and that tells me, folks are still be partying and I love that about this industry.

Please list some of the most influential albums on your creative outlook and output:

I am a huge Kaskade fan. When I heard ‘Steppin Out’ in 2004 on the Soundbar Chicago website, I was on that website because I was just getting ready to DJ at Soundbar Chicago for the first time and wanted to check it out. I remember being like OMG this song is fire. Ever since then I was into dance music that was emotionally and lyrically driven. Then let’s take it back a bit. I wasn’t born yet but heard Off the Wall by Michael Jackson and that also changed me. I am a big-time Michael Jackson music fan. My favourite track by Michael Jackson is ‘Billie Jean’ – I think I have like 20 remixes of that song and tend to play it often. I also of course love ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Annie Lennox, I mean that is a classic still today.

What key pieces of gear/software do you use to define your sound?

Protools and Reason are my primaries. Then I have old school style of guitars, bass, keys, violin -if I need it. For djing, I have used Numark and Pioneers for years, but heading to Denon in a few months I think.

Vinyl or CD?

Djing? I love Vinyl for sure but ironically started out on CDs.

How has music production changed your outlook on life?

I live and breathe music right now. All I think about is waking up one day to one of my tracks making it. I love the energy of this industry and honestly making music is my purpose, so I have to give energy to this journey in my lifetime.

Tell us about your upcoming releases or projects?

‘No One Ever Said’ comes out on 8/27 and is a track I wrote about having your heartbroken for the first time. The next releases are happening in September and October, and one of the news songs are called ‘Your Love’. I actually really dig that track a lot and the remix I did is sick. Can’t wait for you to hear it. Then I have a track in December that is called ‘Only If’, I am actually working on that now and it’s really dance-pop like. I keep changing it but I know I need to get that wrapped up really soon. Then in 2022, I plan to release an EP of remixes I haven’t released yet of my music. I plan to start working on that soon. It is a busy time as I release about one to two tracks a month.