Q&A with Jyoty
Established as the voice of Saturday morning on Rinse FM over the past three years, Jyoty's inimitable skill as an interviewer and musical selector has won her a loyal following the world over. The Amsterdam-born, London-based DJ's rise to becoming one of the underground's most loved figures is a story of sheer dedication.
As a born grafter, when she isn't DJing at clubs and festivals the world over, including Good Room (NYC) Music Box (Lisbon), Razzmatazz (Barcelona) and Melt Festival, Jyoty is keen to use her platform to give back to communities. In a nod to her Indian heritage, she hosted DJ workshops for women in Calcutta alongside the British Council, and taught a six week course for young British Asian women looking to break into the music industry. Of these experiences, she says: "Passing on knowledge and experience is key to making a real change in music".
Building Beats’ Marcus Rosario recently interviewed Jyoty as part of our bbConnect Q&A series.
(For the full interview, check out the video above)
Marcus: We’ve got Jyoty, London-based popular radio host and DJ. I’ve known you for a while through the musical sphere. Thank you for joining us and doing this Q&A for Building Beats. How’s it going?
Jyoty: I’m really good. If we’re looking at the circumstances, I’m actually doing very well. I thought I’d be struggling, and I am work-wise, but mentally and spiritually I’m doing great.
Marcus: I’ve known you as a DJ for a long time. You’ve got a really popular Rinse FM show. Can you give us a little bit of background -- how did you get where you are? I know you’re not from London.
Jyoty: I was born and raised in Amsterdam. I came to London seven and a half years ago to work on my master’s degree. I needed to make money so I became the door girl at a very popular club in East London — doing the guest list. That’s where all my music connections in the UK came from because all artists, DJs, managers, anybody, had to go through me. Then Boiler Room decided they were going to make their events public and not just for friends, and they needed a door girl, so they asked me to start doing their guest list. So slowly I built a reputation of… if you had a good night, I would be the one doing the guest list.
I was talking all night til 4 in the morning to people who were outside. I was talking to a girl who came to the club a lot who had a show on Rinse FM, and she had a presenter show - meaning a show where you’re given a playlist and you play that music, but you’re entertaining as a character. She said she was getting bored and wanted a co-host and thought that I’d be funny. I did that one Saturday and then two more after that, and the fourth Saturday she didn’t show up because she slept through her alarm and I had to do the show by myself. The week after that, I was given the show.
My talking and presenting skills developed over time and that’s what led me to keep the show. Then the show got popular so the people at Boiler Room realized I was good on the microphone. So I became the first girl who was on the mic at Boiler Room — it was only men before me. It frustrated us a lot. Then I became a Boiler Room host and started programming Boiler Room shows globally, which means I got to decide and book who I wanted to play a certain show. That led me to get more DJ bookings, because people heard my radio show and liked what I was playing — but people didn’t know that I didn’t know how to DJ. The founder of Rinse, Genius, was getting so many emails about me. He said let me teach you how to DJ because people really want to hear what you’re playing. So that’s been a little over two years now that I’ve been DJing in clubs and stuff.
Marcus: For those that don’t know, Boiler Room is a big online music platform that’s been streaming DJ sets for eight years. It’s a very popular platform and all your favorite DJs have done it. What was that like doing radio without any experience?
Jyoty: It was so weird because I didn’t even know how to speak on radio. I just spoke as myself and I really had to drop any ego when people gave me advice at the station… little things they’d tell me like, “Make sure you’re always speaking as if someone has just tuned in, and keep repeating who you are.” These are things you don’t think about. I started listening to my own shows, playing around with my voice more, making it sound more appealing on Saturday morning slots. I pay attention to when I say “um” but I don’t do that on the radio. I also have a tendency to swear but on the radio I turn that off. I would stay in the studio after I was done with my show and I’d watch other hosts talk, and I took what I thought would fit me the best.
Marcus: How long did it take you to feel comfortable? For me when I got into radio, hearing my own voice was jarring.
Jyoty: It is so weird. I was listening to myself in the beginning because I had to, because I had no idea what I sounded like. After the first three months, I didn’t listen back to a single show I’d done for almost three years. It was very difficult for me. The last year or so, I’ve started listening again and I’m happy with what I’m doing. I’ve become a recognizable persona on radio. It took me a lot of time because you’re your own worst critic.
Marcus: What’s been the process for producing your shows? How do you find new things to showcase?
Jyoty: My show is two hours every week — I have a rule that I never play the same song twice. I always play songs you haven’t heard before, old or new. And then the last 30 minutes is a guest mix by a DJ that I like very much. From a young age I’ve always been looking for music. It was always a hobby of mine so it was a natural thing for the radio. I’ve always looked for music, but now I’m looking for music that fits into my brand. I don’t do one sound or one genre but I do look for a feel that fits into my show. I always say that my radio show has a lot of soul, even when it’s house music or rap or trap.
Marcus: In thinking about our Building Beats students, did you have any jobs that helped you with your radio show?
Jyoty: To be honest, I’ve always been in the opposite of what we’d call the creative world until two years when I started working as a creative producer at Mixcloud, and the music industry became my full-time job. Being a creative producer means I make things — campaigns, advertising, events, documentaries, podcasts — for a lot of brands like Adidas Football, Tommy Hilfiger, W Hotels. I curate for them. Before that, I worked in politics and I worked in IT, and I studied philosophy, political science and history. One thing that has helped me is that I’ve always been really good at speaking because of my studies and my jobs. I was always in meeting room with very senior people — you need to be able to blend in and convince people. That really helped me sell music on radio. I’m so used to talking about something and making you believe in it. At Mixcloud, I learned a lot about what happens behind closed doors in the DJing world. I learned how to negotiate booking fees, before I had a manager. I learned how far I could push it, what I could ask for.
Marcus: In transitioning from radio host to DJing, can you tell our students how you did that? Can you speak on your experience of starting to DJ, getting gig offers?
Jyoty: I’ve done this series where I break it down on my IG Live called Tips & Tricks. I go everywhere from how to physically start DJing to how to get booked. They’re short ten-minute videos. My start as a DJ was slightly different — I feel like I had a step ahead of other DJs because of radio. People tried to book me solely based off the music that I was playing. That was a huge advantage because people knew my vibe. I knew wherever I was doing to DJ live, I knew the people would like the songs, even if I was nervous about my technical skills. A lot of young people think being a DJ on decks and having a radio show go hand in hand. And I want to tell you that it doesn’t. Having technical skills is not important to have a radio show. On my show, I play songs full-length. It’s more like major stations in the US — they play the whole song and they talk around it. For my show, I know what’s good music, but how do I turn it into a 90-minute storyline that keeps the crowd entertained? It’s like reading a crowd — I never knew what that really meant until I was behind the decks. Sometimes you have to pull some tricks out of your bag to keep people alive.
"Passing on knowledge and experience is key to making a real change in music"
Marcus: What are some challenges that you face that you have overcome to become a better creative?
Jyoty: In the UK, radio culture is big — bigger than anywhere else in the world. When I walk to work, in a 30-minute walk, I walk by five major online stations, like NTS. Here in the UK, there’s a lot of competition. Online radio and commercial radio compete with each other. We all compete. What I found really difficult at the start is I was getting the biggest guests and artists but still a lot of people didn’t know about me. Because I assumed having a big guest meant people would know about me. But what I learned was to focus on the people who were listening, and not the people who weren’t. I wanted to keep the people listening happy, and I call them my tribe. It started with a few hundred and then it became a thousand — now it’s 20,000 a week. I also had to let go of the idea that my social media following equals my radio listenership — it doesn’t. The people who tend to follow me on Instagram are usually younger and know me for DJing in clubs. People who tend to listen to my radio show, 50% of them don’t follow me on Instagram cause that’s not the world they live in, they don’t go clubbing anymore.
I stopped watching other radio hosts, because all we seek is other people being successful. When I think about DJing in clubs, I had to get over imposter syndrome. A lot of the DJs that I look up to, they’ve been doing it for 15 to 20 years. I would think, “These people are going to realize I’m not that good and I haven’t been doing it long enough.” I had to tell myself before every gig that I was booked because people want to see me, and that I’m unique and have a certain energy that no other DJ has. And I get nervous before every gig. And being an Indian girl, you don’t see many of us behind the decks. Sometimes you know you’ve been booked as a token. But I know it’s my opportunity to change someone’s mind. I know if I do such a good job, that this person is going to realize that we do something sick and book more women of color for gigs.
Marcus: Do you have any words of advice for young women of color?
Jyoty: You’re going to have to work twice as hard. That is not something you want to hear, but it’s true. But that doesn’t make it any less exciting or motivating. Stop thinking in competition — we’re made to feel that we’re competing against each other, especially that there can only be one girl DJ. We never think of it that way when it comes to men. If we are made to feel like there can only be one, we’re going to look at everybody like competition and we’re going to miss out on opportunities to work together. Right now in London, I can’t remember the last time I saw a club night without a woman DJ, because women realized that they have to work together. Be creative — don’t be scared. If that means putting on your own radio show from a Mixcloud page. Don’t think that because you are not on a station, it is no longer a radio show. It’s a show if you make it one. Same goes for parties — don’t think that because some big promoter won’t book you, that you’re not ready. Throw your own parties.
Marcus: If you’re not getting booked, throw your own party.
Jyoty: That’s how a lot of people I know started. They started at house parties and grew it into clubs and bigger things.
Marcus: What advice would you give starting DJs as far as controllers?
Jyoty: I didn’t start on a controller. I started in radio — on a CDJ setup, which is what clubs would provide. I learned on a big boy setup and after that I started learning about controllers as I would travel to friends’ houses. I only purchased my first controller two weeks ago, two and a half years ago after I started DJing. I never practiced at home. Really where I used to prepare my sets and see if songs would mix is just in Rekordbox on my laptop. That’s where I would practice sets on my way to a gig. If I could give any advice, google what controller goes well with your software. Every software brand has a controller that is the most affordable — it might have less shiny things to play with, but most brands like Pioneer and Native Instruments will have controllers like the DDJ-400 or DDJ-200 that are quite affordable. That could be a perfect first controller.
For a DJ just starting out, practice practice practice. Watch the Tips & Tricks on my IG — no matter what controller you use, figuring out the buttons is just the basic thing. The most important thing is you need to know your songs inside and out and then you start practicing. That is what’s going to make you a really good DJ. You will know what song has an intro, a breakdown, a bridge. As you create a mix that’s your vibe, that’s what makes a really good DJ. Be original — if people think you have weird taste in music, that’s fine, you’ll meet people who have that. You just have to find them.
To get a radio show on something like Rinse FM, you always need something to show. How are you going to show you’re a good DJ with great taste, or that you’re really good at talking? There are two ways to get on. One is as a presenter, you’re given music and you’re presenting it to people and finding interesting things about it and presenting to the public… making it sound like you’re excited about it. Or you can be a specialist, which means you play everything you want to play. It often means you’re associated with a movement or a crew, or a certain subculture, which means you get to curate the music by yourself. You don’t have to be that comfortable with speaking on the microphone. But you have to be good at selection. I’d advise you to listen to loads of shows… NTS Radio, The Lot Radio, Rinse FM. Listen to the different shows, daytime shows versus nighttime shows. You will hear how different they are because they’re talking to different audiences. Start to find your vibe. All you need is your computer and something you can speak into. Layer your talking over moments in the music. Build it into a show. Start uploading that. Once you start getting better and better, and people tell you they listen. People will tell you what was good and what wasn’t. Then you’ll have a catalogue of shows that you’ve done. After that, you can send in a demo that you’ll send in to a radio station. It can be anywhere from one to 15 minutes. They’ll listen to ten minutes max. This is your showcase about what you’ll do on radio. If you want to be someone who interviews big artists, start by interviewing your friends.
Marcus: What other creative projects are you working on?
Jyoty: About two years ago my friend Tom Armstrong and I decided to start our own print music magazine as a joke, called The Move. We put all our saved money into it and it cost us a lot of make the first one. We made a really beautiful collectors item, only a thousand items, and it was full of stuff we wrote ourselves, and stuff we got our friends to right. We’ve done seven or eight issues so far, and we’re working on a new issue of the magazine. And I’m still working on a lot of projects for women in the music industry. We’re working on more podcasts.
Marcus: Any other future plans?
Jyoty: Right before lockdown, I launched a new project called Jyoty Presents For Real For Real. It was a live podcast, because I think my artist interviews are what make my radio show stand out. So I thought what could I do to make this part of the show more real, so we thought we could take it on tour. So we make it super intimate, 50 people max, and then we go into an acoustic performance from the artist, which is inspired by MTV Unplugged, which is one of my favorite shows. That would be followed by a girl DJ. Everything was filmed, and I was gonna do one in New York, and in Capetown, and in other places. Everything’s on hold for the moment. I’ve made pitches to brands who could put some money behind it.
Marcus: That sounds dope. Anything else that you want to share with us before we wrap up?
Jyoty: Generally, whatever it is that you want to do as a DJ, I want you to really know that it is not going to be easy, because nothing makes sense. There’s only so much that you can control yourself. You can practice but there are so many other aspects that have to do with what you can call success that aren’t in your own control. They might not even be related to a DJ skill — there’s networking, there’s being in the right place at the right time. Or people tend to work in cliques. Don’t let that discourage you. What you need to find is your people and your tribe and grow that. Just define what success means to you. Some people want a million followers on Instagram and for everyone to know who they are. You really need to find out what makes you happy and figure out a system to get to that place of happiness. Look at who does something that you relate to the most — find out your favorite DJs’ stories. That is what’s really going to put you onto the game… the system behind it. There are a lot of things you wouldn’t have thought of that people have done to get where they are. Every time Gilles Peterson or Josey Rebelle talked, I’d listen. Don’t be afraid to ask questions — some people might not answer but some will.