About
ChicksOnWax! is a blogast, online community and resource for the (many) women who harbour secret dreams of becoming a DJ (with vinyl) and never thought they could make it happen!
If you DJ for fun, or as a way to earn a living, you can use this site to:
- Learn from the experiences of women who have made it in the DJing world through our exclusive interviews.
- Find out where featured DJ’s are playing from our Chicksonwax! page
- Bone up on the history of some of your favourite songs, through our ‘CrateDiggin’ series, with resident expert, ‘DJ Equity’
A Letter of Admission, from ‘annonymous’, a frustrated wannabe DJ’.
‘I have to let you know a little bit about my motivation to do this ‘DJ-ing thing.’
You see, I’ve always wanted to play records.
Ask my parents. I really wanted to be a radio DJ back in the day… just after I decided that I didn’t want to be an air hostess, and before I decided being a journalist was a better fit for me than being a high powered lawyer.
I know every pop tart says it but, ‘music has always been a part of my life.’ Growing up, there was a song for every mood and occasion in my home. And as for the LP covers? I LOVED finding new things in the artwork! I remember wondering why my mum and aunties didn’t like that I thought Donna Summer looked like a lovely, sweet lady, sitting on that crescent moon on the ‘Four Seasons of Love’ album. I recall dreading the moment when I would have to dance to Stevie’s ‘Happy Birthday’, EVERY year between 1981, and…hmmm my next birthday. I recall singing my favourite song, ‘Buffalo Soldier’, all.the.time, even though I couldn’t pronounce the word, ’soldier’ (apparently, ’showujwah’ was the best I could do when I was 3.) I even developed an obsession with a promotional record my mother received from the Avon lady. Not because of the song. I hated that (’Avon you make me <DING DONG> SMILE!’). I just loved the fact that the record was…RED!
Even my talent for drawing was even discovered through music… At the age of 5, I recreated a cover of a Debbie Harry record cover, after school one day, ’cause I was bored. It was that talk of the house for weeks.
So, it was probably inevitable that at age 8, I worked out how to produce my own *live* radio show with my super-gadget-electric piano, which had two tape player/recorders (to record my favourite songs on the radio), and a mic input (to record my voice). Those demo tapes still exist somewhere in my parents’ house. Looking back, it also made sense that while other tween girls were spending their cash on clothes and frosted pink lipstick (which wouldn’t have suited me anyway), I was going to the local record store, searching for the next underground hit.
But then at age 14, my desire to right global wrongs kicked in. I went from wanting to play and talk about the virtues of music, to wanting to expose inequality. In a strange way, you could say my love of music led me to the world of journalism.
Years later, my desire to create my music mixes returned with a vengance. I started looking for those special records again. This time though, I wasn’t just looking for underground hits, I was looking for the songs I fell in love with during my ‘wilderness years’ and those tracks that I loved listening to as a kid — the classics. But I never got ’round to mixing the tracks.
Until now.’