WeeDot.
Episode 012
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23.11.22
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Episode 012 >> 23.11.22 >>
Hearing 35-year-old, WeeDot.’s accent will tell you that she’s originally from Paisley, Scotland. Now living in Manchester, Kerry describes how she loves a great wee rave in a sweaty basement or dark warehouse, which in turn pushed her to learn to DJ about 6 years ago.
Since then, she went on to be a Mixmag resident for 2 years, playing at many festivals and clubs and about 5 years ago decided to start her event in Manchester: Mixing Mates. Through lockdown, Kerry focused on growing the brand and it is now a label with a monthly radio show on Bloop London.
For her Troubleshoot mix, WeeDot. shares an hour of tracks moving from the more ambient and downtempo side of things and skillfully builds towards heavier, Breaks and Techno. The mix is paired with an interview, in which she shares how she got into DJing, the story of Mixing Mates, and discusses her standout moment in this mix.
Interview
Words: Troubleshoot
23.11.22
What’s your earliest musical memory?
I won’t bring up the one when I was very young and forced to go to a Boyzone concert with my mum and aunt Pamela – horrendous is not a strong enough descriptive word. When it comes to memories, there are so many to pick from – but ones that still resonate with me to this day are my first festival, concert, and my first underage club night.
Glasgow used to run under 18’s club nights on a Friday in Privilege and Archaos before being closed for many reasons. One being a fire, and another being the general mayhem that happened inside and outside of both clubs. I think it just stays with me for the fact it was my first taste of adult nightlife, what clubbing culture was like and how the music helped to elevate everyone’s spirits after what would have been a horrid week at school (which coincidentally is now a horrid week at work).
It was great to go and listen to some happy hardcore from GBX and hang out with your friends whilst sipping some juice box. Here it became apparent to me that music would be a vital part of my ageing life.
PS. I don’t listen to GBX anymore because, well Happy Hardcore – no! But you can still catch him on the GBXperience on Clyde 1 (Planet Radio) if you fancy some mental, head-melting remixes of N-Trance, Ultra-Sonic, Mauro Picotto and more.
How did you first get into DJing?
When I first moved down to England about 8 years ago, my mum had put me onto a DJ called B.Traits who happened to be playing in Canal Mills 3 months after I moved down. I picked up a ticket, went along by myself to catch her set, and had a great time. With every week that I was tuning into her R1 show, I found myself itching to grab a set of decks and learn. I heard about Manchester MIDI School (now SEM) and enrolled on a Music Business and Production Diploma course every Saturday & Sunday.
Once I moved to Manchester I made loads of like-minded friends and just started DJing. We would all go to each other’s houses and at first, have terrible mixing sessions. We ruined numerous vinyl and now we have a hatred for what used to be our favourite tunes! But as time went on, our skills improved and then most of us went on to run events like Mixing Mates, Distinct, Rubric, Boxed:Music.
You run the record label and events brand Mixing Mates. Tell us a bit about it, how did it start?
Well… A friend was the events manager of Stage & Radio, and 5 years ago a promoter pulled out of using their basement space very last minute, so she phoned me for a favour. I pulled together a few mates and decided we’d go down and have a wee mix together for the venue and from that, Mixing Mates was born. The way to summarise it would be that “We are a night based around a bunch of mates getting together to bring to you some of our favourite DJs, music & dance moves” and our ethos is more on a belief that set times should be longer than an hour and line-ups should not be overcrowded. For me, it’s about the DJs being able to showcase their music taste and mixing style; taking the dance floor on a musical journey, and I don’t think that’s truly achievable when you’re only given an hour or even 90 minutes.
In terms of the label, this was just something that I’d been wanting to progress into. I was always hearing tracks or being sent stuff and it was all sounding great but wasn’t being signed. So I decided to take Mixing Mates to the next step during lockdown and started up our White Label series which is 4 original tracks, pressed to 100 black vinyl and all hand stamped. We’re working on our 4th release at the moment but have had some great artists on our previous 3 (Bobo, Lewy, SDS Max) and the support has been overwhelming – so thank you to everyone that’s made a purchase – big love!
What would you say has been your favourite gig to date and why?
My favourite gig I’ve attended to date, and there’s been a lot, but one that I’ll always love is when I went back home to Paisley and my mum (Oor Wee Julie) took me along to catch B.Traits in Club69 back in mid-2019. It was relatively quiet but we had the best time just dancing away, being with my mum at a rave with my favourite DJ, creating the atmosphere on a bare dance floor and knowing every track that came on. Although then she went over to B. Traits at the end and said she was gutted that “North Shore” wasn’t played as it’s her favourite track.
When it comes to Mixing Mates, they’ve all been great!! But my favourites are when we had Amaliah up for her Manchester debut, that night just went off and Amaliah was amazing, the tracks played, the vibe she built and a lot of my friends came along, so was just great to share it with them and introduce them to a banging artist.
Also, every time we have Holly Lester with us. Anyone that’s ever had a conversation with me about DJs, always hears me bang on about Holly and it is deserved chatter as she always brings the goods. I find myself on Bandcamp, Juno downloads and all sorts the next day trying to buy up the tracks she’s played. Just a quick shout-out, another favourite set that I’ve been present at, but then always listen back to, particularly when I’m needing something to make me feel good or get me set up for a day/night is Holly Lester: Live from Lost Village.
How did you find recording the mix? Could you talk us through a couple of the standout moments from your set?
It sounds a bit weird, but most of the time I actually prefer recording a mix than playing out to a crowd. Mainly because I find it more satisfying. It’s me playing music that I want and at a pace I’m feeling, which is something that I don’t get to do so much when out due to my set time or the general setting that I’m playing in i.e. bars, etc. I found this quite exciting to put together as I had built up a lot of tracks that I really dig but hadn’t had the chance to play yet, and also had received some records just before recording so was great to get them included as well. But as standouts for me:
Track 1. Blackadder – Near ft. Bea
So I met Bex in Albania the other month, as a group of us went to ION Festival and she had told me that she’d just released a track. Grabbed a copy on Bandcamp and was blown away by how beautiful it sounds, so needed to get that in and so I’ve used it as an opener.
Track 5. Spray – Ratenplan
Those Craigie Knowes lads. They just smash it with their releases all the time!! And this EP from Spray is techy brilliance. It’s the perfect sound to elevate your energy levels.
Track 10. Abdul Raeva – Surf the Web
Could have picked any Abdul Raeva track really, as they are all brilliant. If you’re more into those techy/acid/prog vibes, you should go listen to them… Nothing but feel-good dance floor bangers.
Track 13. Scaefa – Every Time
Randomly came across Scaefa when I was having a dig on Bandcamp, and this EP from Draconian Audio is fantastic. I’m here for the breakdown in this track in particular because the drops back in are right up my street for dancing or generally listening.
Track 16. Amaliah – Throw that Dutch
This is her debut release from her Y2 Slay edit series, nostalgia with a modern-day beat… Everyone seems to be doing the whole edits thing at the moment, and I’m all here for it!
What's next for you? Have you got anything coming up that we can look forward to?
Next up for me and Mixing Mates… We’re at Eastern Bloc on the 4th November, and then Stage & Radio on the 26th November. We’re taking a short break over December and back again with Baby Rollen on the 28th January. Hopefully, around that time MMW004 should be with us so please keep your eyes and ears peeled!!
Tracklist
Blackadder - Near ft. Bea (Original Mix)
Space Cadet - Used To It (Original Mix)
Blue Veil - A Kind of Adventure (Original Mix)
DJ City - Sophie's Theme (Original Mix)
Spray - Ratenplan (Original MIx)
Local Group - Stolen Dreams (Original Mix)
Overmono - So U Know (Original Mix)
Babsy - Curls (Original Mix)
Sally C - Give It To Me (Original Mix)
Abdul Raeva - Surf the Web Up to 7x Faster (Original Mix)
Dowd - Coming Up, Genosys (Original Mix)
Drua - Larp (Original Mix)
Scaefa - Every Time (Original Mix)
Trudge - I Feel You (Special Edits)
Britney Spears - Toxic (Elad Magdasi Edit)
Amaliah - Throw That Dutch (y2k Edits)
Dowd - A Retro Love Affair (Outro)