She's Taiwan's only female DJ, which is cool, but sex aside she's also one of the country's top deep-house turntablists, with a laid-back style that blends big bouncy beats, samples and vocal highlights, for a sound that occasionally leans toward trance and even acid.
Over the past four years DJ Nina has been developing a reputation that has made her a familiar face on the dance floor and behind the decks on the Taipei party scene and around the country, all the way down to Mash in Taichung and Bobos in Kaohsiung.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
She turns up for our interview on time, neatly turned out, at the lounge bar BTW ("By the Way," the former Saloon) on Xinyi Road. But when she's spotted by the owner of the bar, Turtle, and the manager of Room 18, Alex Liu, it turns into a mini-party. They even get her to play a few records, the cocktails flow and the shots go down. The interview is forgotten for a while.
When the voice recorder is back on, we discuss how electronic music has developed in Taiwan. Sometimes Nina talks like a columnist (she writes for the weekly Pots) and asks more questions than she answers. She wonders if the reason why people used to shake their heads at parties rather than dance was because Ecstasy was called yaotou (head shake).
"I mean," she says, "foreigners never shook their heads like that did they? Four years ago, Taiwanese used to just watch and shake their heads."
We talk about how the government equated electronic music with drugs and shut down dance clubs. "They don't break up the parties so much now because the clubs are so established. Some of them have gangster backgrounds and connections with politicians, that's why they stay open."
She says she used to do drugs "but I don't need to take them any more. ... All I do now is stay home and surf the Internet and play music during the week. I don't even watch TV or go shopping. I go out on the weekends because I have to work. The parties are not so interesting to me anymore, unless it's a good international DJ."
Her pet peeve, it seems, is the relative lack of sophistication of local clubbers compared with abroad. "I'm a little bit frustrated that people just like anthems and only react to what they've heard before. I really don't like to hear the same stuff again and again."
As to the future, Nina says she wants to
produce "my own sound" -- something like Derrick Carter or Mark Farina, but with a twist. We can't wait.
This weekend Nina takes a break from touring the island to surf the Internet and not watch the TV or go shopping. For further information on where she'll be playing next, check out www.la-groove.com.
It's a big weekend at Ministry of Sound this weekend with Leeroy, from the world's top dance music band Prodigy, putting on an exclusive DJ set tonight. Tomorrow, there's the official opening of a new alfresco bar and Temple of Sound celebrates the event in the main arena with a big show of "sonic big beat globalism" with "latinized percussion, huge guitar riffs and most notably rapped, mantric vocals -- straight, no chaser."
Elsewhere, there's SL and Saucey, "Deep Inside" at Eden, with free entry and two-for-one, drinks, on Saturday. Same day, dress up as a soldier (navy, air force) for free entry at Room 18 and "The Soldier's Day Party." Also, at the Juming Museum in Jinshan, Taipei County, there's a musical journey around the world. This week it's ambient with Dr DMT and Claus Bru from Germany. It starts 7:30pm and finishes at 9pm. It should be a sound and light spectacular. For more details go to: www.juming.org.tw.
A date to put in the diary is the Mash opening party in Taichung next week, with Chi Funk Revevolution, featuring Saucey, Edmund, Chi Funk.
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