Check Out Wendy Le’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendy Le

Hi Wendy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started out as a night life photographer in LA in 2008, shooting hundreds of events and that is how I was exposed to all types of music. It was at the club that I got to know so many DJs. I was fascinated with how they could control the energy of a room, bringing it up or down.

One of my first really cool residencies was at the standard hotel in downtown LA. I played there for 3 years. I got to play a lot of soul, disco, hip-hop, and cool remixes.

Over the span of almost 20 years, I’ve had the opportunity to DJ all over the world. From LA to France, I’ve played on small to large stages. I am an open format DJ, so I can play multiple genres of music in my DJ set, which has made my style of DJing more in demand.

Notable event 1. One of the places I’ve really enjoyed DJing more recently is at Dodger Stadium. I loved playing for all the kids and older people who had never seen a female DJ play live before.

Notable event 2: I will never forget the time that I opened up for Nas in the south of France. I was in Cannes, France for the Cannes Liones festival for the 5th time and was asked to open for him, right in the beach in front of people from all over the world. I will never forget that night.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth ride. There has been times early on that I DJ’d 6 to 8 hour sets for almost nothing. Looking back, I would never do an event that long. Most of my events are between 2 to 4 hours and thankfully pay very well. I just had to learn the hard way about bad clients and people who are low ballers. I always tell clients that you get what you pay for. lol.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am what you call an open format DJ, that means I play multiple genres in one DJ set. So for example, I can play hip-hop, rock, soul, 80s all in the same set. An audience that would likely enjoy that set would be a family friendly environment or a corporate event, which Includes many different ages and ethnicities.

Overtime, I’ve enjoyed playing multiple genres. I like that I can reach a wider audience, including kids.

It’s not about popularity for me as a DJ or being a huge club DJ it’s never been my endeavor. I just truly all kinds of music. I have also DJ’d weddings and high school dances and surprisingly, I have enjoyed them. These are special events in someone’s life. And for me, I take it seriously that they elected me to make their night the most memorable night.

Most DJs don’t allow requests, but for the younger kids, I want to play all the music that make them feel happy in that moment. I despise the DJs that come to the dances and don’t pay attention to what the children want, and are not friendly or approachable. I would always hear stories about how horrible a DJ was for the prom or high school dances and I promised myself that if I were ever asked to DJ a dance that I would make it as fun as possible for them.

What sets me apart from other DJs is for one I am a Vietnamese, American woman who can play multiple genres of music. I also take pride in my sense of style, and I am also a mother of two beautiful children who are seven and three months old.

And to top it off, I am a business owner of a small beauty retail store that I am very proud of. I have owned this shop for eight years and have built a lot of incredible relationships with my customers and have built a lot of trust with them. It’s funny because most of them don’t know that I am a DJ. Sometimes I like to keep it that way, unless somehow it comes up, but only the customers who have known me for some time will actually learn about my other passion, music. So in the daytime, I am a mom and business owner and by night or on the weekends. I am a DJ. The duality is fun for me. It keeps my life. Interesting.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up I played sports. I was a volleyball player soccer player and I was a pole ball in track in my younger years. I didn’t have access to that much music and I was not around people who were musically inclined, but when it came to playing sports in high school, I was the most athletic in my school. For my senior year, I got most athletic in the yearbook which I am very proud of. And I ended up going to Mount San Antonio College for two years because I tore my ACL in high school playing soccer as a goalkeeper.

But at Mount sac I ended up being two time best defensive player, and I had the highest stats of that time for best defense. I guess you can say I held a school record at that time for the most digs.

Growing up, I was very outgoing. I went to a very diverse school which I am grateful for because it makes me who I am today since I can be around anyone’s family of any culture. Interestingly, enough, though, Asian boys were never really into me, it may have been because I was too outgoing, too outspoken. Idk but I was more or less a tomboy in my high school days. I don’t think boys were really into me in high school and I was not very girly so in a way I kind of stayed out of trouble in playing sports instead of being at some boys house or getting into drugs like the other kids.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Iam_selectra

Image Credits
Photo Credit for Studio Shots: Kwe Johnson @Kwalityphotos