Tranquil Beats by Anji Bee
5 July 2016 Special Programming Tranquil Beats
Who are you? / Describe what has influenced you to become who you are? I’m your guest DJ, Anji Bee of The Chillcast and the band Lovespirals. I’ve been producing and hosting The Chillcast with Anji Bee for 10 years now. It kinda sprung out of a Live365 station that I used to do called Lovely Ladies Of Electronica. Before that, I was doing playlists under that same time on MP3.com. Before that, I spent three years in terrestrial radio as a DJ at a college radio station at UCI (University Of California, Irvine). As technology has evolved, so has my DJing. I’ve never really been a club DJ; I’ve always been more of a mix tape kind of gal.
How was this particular selection born? ( Its roots/ some of the featured artists on your list) Every track in [Monday’s and Thursday’s playlists are] from 2016; many of them are quite new. [Tuesday’s set features] some of the bands which were really influencing me at the time that I joined Ryan, my husband and partner in the band Lovespirals. We had actually hooked up after I interviewed him about his latest record in 1998. He was DJing atmospheric drum and bass in the clubs, so the two of us explored a lot of trip-hop, downtempo, drum and bass, house, etc. together. I pulled a few of my favorite tracks from that time to share with you guys.
In addition to being a DJ, I am also a singer and lyricist. [Wednesday’s playlist] is an overview of material that I’ve done over the past 10 years. I work in a wide variety of genres, but for this playlist I kept it in the electronica realm with a lot of downtempo, trip-hop, and super chill beats. I thought I would dedicate [Friday’s set] to some of my favorite bootleg remixes, some of which give credit to the artist, some of which don’t, some of which have completely transformed the original work, and some of which stick fairly close to the original.
What are some of the main challenges you find today in finding beats/instrumentals? /How do you navigate through today’s climate online/vinyl etc? I have to admit that my vinyl digging days are long past. My CD days are past. I am a completely digital music person at this point. For the past couple of years, pretty much all of the music that I find for my show comes from Soundcloud. What I’ve noticed from all of the time that I spend on Soundcloud is that a lot of young producers actually make their name by producing bootleg remixes of bigger artists’ work. [They are] usually trending artists, though sometimes someone will dig up an oldie but goodie and bring new life to it. I do like to stick with the newest tracks that I can find. I don’t delve back into the archives much for The Chillcast, unless it’s a new remix or bootleg.
What is the most important thing you listen for when you search for new gems? It’s all about the vibes. I’m not one of those DJs that’s concerned with conforming to a specific genre. For me, it’s all about the feels. Honestly, I do tend [to lean] towards melancholic music. I notice that I tend to pick a lot of tracks that have either electric or traditional piano, definitely laid back beats, sensual vocals or vocal samples. I tend to gravitate towards songs about love and sex (though not always) and I do play some instrumentals.
www.anjibee.com
www.mixcloud.com/anjibee
www.facebook.com/thechillcast
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