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DJ COLETTE
djcolette@aol.com

DJ Colette is one of the first DJ's to add her vocals to the record she spins, inspiring a new category of performance in the electronic world. As countless others begin to sing and spin, many can still not compare to the vocal/turntable sessions Colette delivers. There may not be any DJ today who can match the impressive pedigree of former music teacher turned mix-master DJ Colette.

Having already displayed that pedigree in clubs and festivals throughout the world, both on her own and with the beloved SuperJane collective she helped form, Colette is ready to establish herself as an upper-echelon DJ with the release of her Nettwerk America debut 'Our Day'. Colette showcases that operatic training from the outset with the bluesy acapella intro/title track.

While the vocals add unmistakable flavor to the mix, the beats come fast and furious on this inviting CD that includes high-energy tracks from Wolf N Flow, Synthique, Angel Alanis, the can't miss club anthem 'Under the Shower' featuring Colette's rising vocals over the Prax Paris original, and the percussion-rich Colette original, 'Feelin Hypnotized,' which serves as a tantalizing teaser to Colette's first originall artist album, which will be coming out on Nettwerk Records in March 2003.

Colette credits both her mixing style and her improvised vocals to coming up as part of the fertile Chicago house music scene at the turn of the Nineties. 'I'm very spoiled because Derrick Carter and Mark Farina were the first DJs I got to hear growing up. I taught myself how to spin by watching everyone else on the decks. Unlike today, there weren't any classes, or people, that were willing to instruct you. I remember when I was 16, I used to watch Diz and Lego; I'd watch every little thing that they were doing and just absorb it all.'

It was also at those house parties that Colette, a classical music student by day, began to find the liberation she still enjoys from singing over other people's records. 'I started singing with house music when I was 16 or 17. I would go to parties and freestyle over other DJs playing.' That spontaneous approach is something that has stuck with her through the present. To Colette, there is no better rush than the one that comes from improvising in front of a room full of clubgoers. 'It's very impromptu when I write a song over a record, many times I'll buy a record that day and when I'm playing it out, that's when I come up with the lyrics,' she says laughing. 'There's definitely something to be said for a practiced performance, but it's really freeing to just improvise. It's almost like you're one of the people in the party. It's just like dancing; you just feel it and you react to it. It's the same thing for me.

If the idea of writing lyrics in front of a crowded club sounds gutsy, it's even more impressive when you consider Colette was shy about the idea of spinning publicly until SuperJane mate DJ Heather forced her to overcome her fear. Though her fear came not just from shyness, but from what she felt was a late introduction to the decks. 'Growing up in Chicago, everyone started when they were 12, so in high school and my first couple of years of college, all of my friends were DJs, and were really accomplished DJs at that. I just had been buying all these records and then I decided to buy some decks just to play around. I never was planning on playing out because it just seemed to late in the game for me to do that, and also, a little bit intimidating,' she recalls.

Because of her early fears about entering the DJ scene, Colette is happy and proud to be a role model for the young girls who follow her lead. 'There are people who ask me questions about spinning or about music and it's great to be able to help them. It's all about continuation. It's amazing because I've been meeting so many girls who are 15 and 16 and are already spinning,' she says.

Colette's generous nature is something she tried, successfully, to imbue Our Day with. Like it's creator, the CD sings with warmth. 'The CD is very summer-y, even though it's coming out in the fall. It's very warm and fun,' she says, speaking from LA, where she moved a little over a year ago. 'With all the music that I've been making, I've been really trying to focus on a lot of positive things, both sonically and lyrically.'