Interview with Ariel Zetina
Ariel Zetina is a Chicago based DJ, producer, and writer. Her work transcends genre, incorporating Chicago house as well as Belizean genres punta and brukdown amongst other sounds from a variety of influences. She is a rising star in the queer club scene and is currently a resident DJ at Chicago's smartbar. She is also a playwright and poet, and is currently writing a commission for The House Theatre of Chicago and composed a score for her play, Pink Milk.
How has your sound changed in the past year?
I think that recently I’ve gotten reacquainted with melody. I’ve been trying to experiment with melody being the thing carries a track, and also thinking about my work as more songs than tracks. My stuff is always shifting-- I’m always thinking about incorporating new rhythms and beats, but I’ve recently been thinking putting the making the melodic elements at the center of it.
I’m imagining there is a marked difference between the intimate and more introspective experience of producing a song and the very social and performative experience of performing a set. Which experience do you enjoy the most?
I'm so shy for the most part. As fun as DJing is, I sometimes prefer the intimate experience of producing, as frustrating as it can be. I tend to prefer spaces where it's dark and I'm not really on a stage or in a spectacle. I mean, I definitely do enjoy the performance aspect of a show, but I can also get shy when I’m on a stage. I was in Madison on a stage and it was semi-bright and I was like, I was like, okay, I can do this. I was here for it. But I do prefer when it’s dark, and there is something intimate about the space.
That being said, there’s times where I also like, you know, there's times when I really like going to the club. I got into this because I was going into the club a lot. I think when you're just someone listening to the music and even sometimes when I'm DJing, that music can be also a very private space. And I feel like I always try to like hold onto that, but also make sure I have room for when I'm playing, make sure I have room for everyone else. That's theirs too and it can be a shared experience. I have been trying to make my music-making spaces into shared intimate spaces. I've been doing a lot of collaborations and learning more about how to share that intimate space in an artistic way.
I read that you were a theater kid. Does that influence any aspect of your performance as a musician/DJ?
Theatre is the only thing I've studied formally. I still technically do it, I'm in the writing commission for a play at the moment and am a playwright. In school, I was doing a bunch of performance art as well as studying adaptation. I feel that one of the major elements in my sets is, not a narrative but rather a dramatic flow to them. When I make a set I’m thinking about moments of climax and interludes in the progression of things, moving from one thing to another in a way that sparks the attention, interest, or conflict.
I Miss The Sea is a beautiful track awash with swelling vocals, the familiar and evocative sound of flutes and a thrumming rhythm. There’s something nostalgic about it, where it brought me back to the places I’ve called home, but in a way that felt like those places were still with me, not like they had been left in the past. Would you like to talk a bit about how you think your place of origin influences your sound?
I appreciate you having that reaction, because for me that is what the song is, it's coming from not feeling connected to the ocean. I grew up five minutes away from the beach, in a suburb of Jacksonville, and that meant always being near the Atlantic Ocean. And in that song I’m also thinking about the Caribbean sea, off the coast of Belize. I do really like going to the beach when I'm in Chicago, but it feels so starkly different to me. I didn't, couldn't really place it at first, but then I realized that the main difference between being at the shore of a lake and the shore of the sea is that you can’t hear the waves. And I feel like that sound is such a major part of my relationship to places where I've like called home and places my family is from. The singer on that track, Paula Nacif, is Brazilian, and when I first sent her the EP she was living in London at the time. I feel that we had similar experiences with being in a city that is cold and near water, but having it be a different kind of water than the ocean. I feel like her voice brought a lot of the track to life, and I appreciate that.
I made that track at a really emotional point. I can usually place where I was when I made a track, but this song is so tied to memory and emotion for me that for this track, I can’t tell exactly where I was. I didn't really edit it too much from my original draft of it.
I really wanted to embrace also like acid house in that stuff is so tied to Chicago, which has been a major influence in my music. If I lived somewhere else, maybe my influences would be different. It's fate that I ended up here, I didn't really mean to end up in Chicago. And so it's just funny how things end up sometimes and I appreciate that.
The cadence and repetition in your songs bring to mind poetry and spoken word. Is this a source of inspiration for you?
I studied poetry when I was in school. That's how I started writing. At first I didn’t connect how I could incorporate that into theater, and then that's what got me into play writing. Poetry has always been my favorite thing to read and to write. I feel that you can say a lot with poetry without having to say much.
I think what first got me into dance music was the repetitions within it that often include what are essentially poetic phrases. I liked the way in which, in dance music things were able to move lyrically in a more abstract way than, like a pop song, for example. (Not that I don't like pop songs, because I do and am also very influenced by pop).
I'm slowly but surely trying to work on incorporating more of my writing into my work–– I'm relatively shy about incorporating lyrics or words. But it’s also something I do a lot in my work, and I think it adds a different element into my songs that I can later appreciate.
Your songs hit on space, both in the sound which is so expertly balanced between intervals of drawn out notes and silence, as well as the actual lyrics of some of your music. In Putamaria, reviewers have described the way catcalls take up space within the song to the point where they feel oppressive and claustrophobic, coupled with crashes and the relentless beat. How do you think your work reflects on the experience of taking up space?
I think the spoken part of the song has been classified as a sample, which is interesting to me. MORENXXX is the other producer on this, and what sounds like a sample is actually their voice, and it’s coming from a totally different context than a cat call. The original impetus for the song is very different, it sort of calls to mind these older Latinx dance tracks, and especially US Latinx dance tracks that feel very Chicago, but the song also feels very connected to other diasporas and other places as well. We were also playing with the idea of space, which is a huge part of those dance track that mix very hard hitting beats with moments of complete silence.
Silence is usually a major aspect of what I like in someone’s work, and it’s something that I always try to think of in my own work as well. In tracks and in writing, I love things that have been intentionally edited down. I feel like I can be a maximalist sometimes. I don't necessarily want to be a minimalist, but I do think my work really shines when I explore being more minimal than what is usually my first impetus.
I think that ultimately, what we really wanted to do with Putamaria was make a new Latin club track that like references a lot of older dance styles.
What is your ideal audience for a set?
Intimate and willing to dance. I think it's important to feel like I can connect with everyone. Although I also like when the room is set up so that people aren't necessarily just looking straight at me; I like it when the space feels more like a dance floor than a concert.
It seems that you’re been featured extensively by Papi Juice in Brooklyn. They even have a playlist featuring your mixes! That’s amazing, what is it about that space that draws you?
I’ve known the people running Papi Juice for like the longest time. My first set that I played on CDJs was with Oscar Nñ who’s one of the Papi Juice residents. We’ve continued to work together, and I’ve played versions of that first party a number of times since. It's really great because there's, there's hardly any Belizean DJs and Adam R is who is also from Papi Juice is one of them, and then Oscar Nñ is Honduran. It’s cool to be able to connect to specific diasporas. And then at Papi Juice they always really appreciated my music. I think they definitely saw what I was doing before a lot of people did.
Playing for spaces where people of color are significantly represented in a very intentional way is always something that I appreciate.
And also, they know how to throw a party. I remember hearing like Oscar Nñ play Hotline Bling at a time when everyone was like, already so over that song, but then he made it new.
I really change my sets based on like the venue and like the type of party and like what type of music, like I want it to be and I let go and like many different directions. I always feel like there's so much room for experimentation, especially in different Latin club styles and different sorts of Belizean diaspora and Caribbean stuff as well. It’s that much better when people also have connections to that, and I think audiences in general can have an appreciation for those elements.
Who or what are sources of inspiration for you?
I feel that I’m in a research phase in my process right now, which means letting myself be open and inspired by different things. I’ve been watching Project Runway. It's interesting to watch fashion from like 2015 and see how quickly trends change. I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into fashion and learn more about it.
In terms of music, I've also been really listening to Ana Roxanne who produces a lot of really cool sort of ambient music. I’ve also been trying to read more.
Fashion and makeup are a big part of your artist image (which, by the way, some of your makeup looks are just amazing).
My whole EP that’s coming out at the end of February stemmed from the rhythms of putting on makeup. I was watching a lot of makeup tutorials. My first knowledge of makeup came from being in the club and watching drag queens do their makeup. Then I got into makeup tutorials and also just like the culture of YouTube and the culture of live streaming. I was interested in the ASMR sort of component of it, not quite ASMR but the focus on the sound in those videos: the sound effects, the embellishments people add to make it more interesting. Cause you know, all of this stuff is like more about the rhythms and that it is about the actual physical sound that the brush is making against your face. The actual sound of the brush is so quiet that you cannot register it. But in those videos sounds are added that are more about creating a feeling associated with what is being shown visually, the sounds create and represent a feeling.
Do you think makeup can be used as an empowering form of self expression? Do you think it can be the opposite of that?
As a trans woman, makeup can feel like something that protects me. I feel that there's something meditative about it as well, it often calms my anxiety, and I think that part of it is fairly universal for anyone that uses makeup. Makeup is also a way for me to be artistic in a way that explores the ephemeral, since, you know, it washes off at the end of the night. I think there is also an ephemerality to my work because, I can like that there being a sort of ephemerality in my work cause I feel like it’s something that I can also wash away at the end of the night and then try in a different way next time. The club has also allowed me to experiment with makeup more. So many people play with so many different types of makeup themselves.
I have to ask, what’s your favorite makeup product?
God this is hard *laughs*. My Fenty palette is my favorite thing that I own, it's like my prized possession even if I don't even use it that much. I really like Fenty and I really like NARS. In an ideal world, those are my go-tos. But I feel like I do most of my face these days with a mixture of like random free things I've gotten, or drugstore makeup.
Are there new fields you feel that you have not explored as an artist?
I want to be doing more film stuff and more writing for film. I also want to get back into drawing and painting. Cause that's where I started creatively when I was very, very young, and I feel that I want to do that for myself again.