Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Hanrahan and Kiraleigh Bohannon.
Jamie and Kiraleigh, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We met almost 13 years ago working at a retail job in the Seattle area and instantly bonded over the impressive clothes-folding and beer-drinking abilities that we both possessed. When we were working in the stockroom one time, we decided to play this unmarked mix CD someone had left behind. One of the tracks on it was Green Velvet’s classic “La La Land” and even though we were familiar with some dance music, neither of us had heard of Green Velvet before. We were like “we don’t know wtf this is, and it’s really weird, but we like it!” and started playing it in the back all the time. Still not sure who made that CD but we probably owe them for introducing us to one of the most iconic artists in house music! The dance music scene in Seattle at the time was pretty much nonexistent, so we would go to the gay clubs in Capitol Hill to get our electronic music fix. Later on, when we became more serious fans, we would drive all the way up to Vancouver, B.C. to see all the big names.
Eventually, we both moved to LA, mostly just because it seemed like a fun and exciting place to be, with no intentions to pursue anything in entertainment at all. Weird, we know! With more access to electronic music venues, we got way more into going out to see DJs. In 2012, we went to EDC Las Vegas together. While walking through the Wynn on the way out to the festival in our raver outfits (which consisted of tank tops that read “OUT HERE TRYNA FUNCTION” and neon boy briefs on this occasion), we got stopped by security. He said something to us along the lines of “This is the Wynn, so you ladies need to wear pants in here” and made us pull down our tank tops until they were like dresses in order to exit the hotel. We thought it was hilarious and it inspired us to start an Instagram account called “wedontwearpants” that consisted only of pictures of us going on adventures with no pants on. Thus, the no pants movement was born!
At some point, when we were going to all these shows, we got this idea in our heads about how cool it would be to become a DJ duo, because we didn’t see a lot of female DJs, and especially not female duos. Within a couple of years, we both learned to DJ and started recording mixes together in our living rooms. The name got changed to No Pants Party since it’s easier to say, and of course, who doesn’t love a party?! Then we spent a long time hustling and trying to find someone who would let us play in public. We DJed a bunch of random gigs, like a 90s party where we played all house remixes of 90s music. In September 2016, we won the first DJ contest we ever entered and got to play at Sundown Music Festival in OC, which really gave us the confidence to keep going. Later that fall we got booked to play the Pioneer DJ Lounge at Avalon Hollywood, which is the front room where they often start out new DJs. It went really well so they booked us on the main stage a couple of months later, as support for TWRK. There were hundreds of people there and we had so much fun and we were basically hooked on the DJ life after that!
Since then, we’ve been DJing around SoCal regularly, and have also played in Vegas, Mexico, and at a couple of festivals. Green Velvet was actually a headliner at one of those festivals; it’s crazy how things come full circle! The music production side of things has been getting a lot more serious lately and we released our first original track “WTH” on Seattle-based label Late Night Munchies in February. We’ve been achieving a lot of our goals recently and are very excited to see where this takes us next!
Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely NOT been a smooth road! In fact, sometimes it feels like it is all one long struggle! Someone once told us that “music is the Wild West of the entertainment industry” and it’s absolutely true. We’re learning to navigate our way through it but it often feels like we take two steps forward and then one step back. There’s no handbook for this stuff!
When we were first getting started, it was really hard to be taken seriously or to get anyone to give us a chance because there are just sooooo many DJs in LA. (If you’re reading this and you live in LA, do you know someone who DJs? Yes?! That’s what we thought!) It took almost a year from the time we made our first mix together until we could convince anyone to let us play anywhere, even for free! And it wasn’t because we sucked, because we didn’t! But we didn’t have any sort of social media following or know any of the “right people” yet.
Being a female DJ is an interesting challenge, in particular. On one hand, you sometimes get more attention or certain opportunities because you stand out in such a male-dominated scene. But on the other hand, there’s a lot of harsh judgment about your talent, or assumptions that you’re only achieving any sort of success because you’re a woman. You really have to prove yourself. Just recently, a male DJ made some comment about how he’s only going to be able to go so far in this industry because he doesn’t produce his own music, and he isn’t a girl who dances around with no pants on. We were like are you f**king kidding?! We DO produce, and we have had to work so hard to be able to get basically the same gigs that he plays! Of course, it can seem like what we do is all just super fun because that’s how it looks when you see us in the booth, but that’s because that’s the fun part! Most people are not seeing the work put in behind the scenes or all the thought that goes into everything we make and play.
Don’t get us wrong though; we feel like we’ve been extremely fortunate and have ended up in the right place at the right time or had things just come together perfectly many times. Maybe it’s something to do with female intuition? 😉
Some advice for women who are starting this journey: stay true to yourself and your vision and don’t listen to the haters. There are going to be a lot of people along the way who will tell you, or maybe just imply, that you should be a certain way, look a certain way, or do certain things. Don’t let them bully you. Also, support your fellow female artists!
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
All we want to do is make people dance their pants off! We mainly play and produce high-energy tech house with lots of vocals, and we love tracks that incorporate samples of music people know. Our goal is for people to have fun, sing along, and party away their worries. In the booth, we’re usually dancing and singing and having a great time as well. It’s just one big party, really!
Unfortunately, one consequence of experiencing a great party is often a hangover. That’s why we started our mix series Hangover Club Radio. It’s released monthly on a Sunday morning with the intention of providing a pick-me-up to help you get yourself back together at the end of a crazy weekend. We suggest pairing it with a Bloody Mary or mimosa to get the full effect!
We’ve also started throwing our own Hangover Club day parties. The idea started on a Sunday morning at Splash House when we invited a bunch of strangers to hang out and pre-game while we played a set in our friend’s suite. It turned into a full-on rager and nobody ended up going to the actual festival! We’re still friends with so many people we met that day and some of them have even said it was “a spiritual experience”! We threw a version of the party when we played Groove Cruise and recently did a brunch and then a full-scale Hangover Club in LA. It’s all about booty-shaking music, fun decorations, confetti and nursing your hangover with some hair of the dog. We want there to be no judgments and for everyone to wear whatever they want because they’re struggling a little and just want to be comfortable. It’s been really fun to see our vision of the perfect party come to life and we’re going to keep throwing them when it makes sense and when we have the time in between working on everything else!
Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
It’s interesting because we actually had somewhat similar upbringings. We’re both from small towns, were raised by single mothers who had to grind and make sacrifices to be able to support us, didn’t come from a lot of money, felt like outsiders growing up, and had our own hobbies that sort of “saved” us (horse riding for Kiraleigh and art and dance for Jamie). Not sure how our moms managed to make those things happen for us, but we are forever grateful! It seems like these experiences gave us both the drive to want to work hard and do something bigger and better, but also be able to have a great time along the way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nopantspartydjs.com
- Email: nopantspartydjs@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nopantspartydjs
- Facebook: facebook.com/nopantspartydjs
- Twitter: twitter.com/nopantspartydjs
- Other: soundcloud.com/nopantspartydjs
Image Credit:
Lucy Snow, Amanda Barber, La Bouffier Photography, Max Reyes, Chris Laxamana
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
