On the difficulty of being a woman hardcore techno DJ
(AFP)
14 May 2008
PARIS - Looking at Daisy Rinaldi, one would have a hard time guessing what she does for a living.
Wearingsmart leather boots, a cashmere jumper with pearl buttons, andglittering earrings, she hardly seems the kind of girl who could reignover semi-legal, underground raves populated by hooded youths andthrobbing with in-your-face techno.
ButDaisy is the queen of French hardcore techno DJs, and the only woman inthis testosterone-driven milieu to specialise in this toughest anddarkest form of electronic music. She has made dozens of records, andhas spun the turntables here for more than a decade.
She has also published a half-dozen scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals on the genetic origins of epilepsy.
Daisy'sdouble life lasted for six years. In 1996 she co-founded Insomniacs, agroup of DJs and hard-partying music lovers that organized so-called"free parties" in and around Paris. She was also a doctoral student inneurogenetics, but after she earned her PhD in 2002, it was all musicall the time.
As the first woman to break into the top ranks of French DJs during the late 1990s, Daisy needed guts as well as brains.
ARTICLE SUBMITTED by DJChoppercat
