Conversations with the Inspiring Rhiannon Roze

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rhiannon Roze.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Rhiannon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Sure! I’ve been DJing for over 18 years now. I started collecting vinyl records in 1999 and saved up to purchase Technics turntables in 2001. Before that, I collected compact discs and cassette tapes. Growing up, I enjoyed the process of discovering music that created energies of love, empowerment, joy, and higher consciousness – and sharing it with my friends. I’d select songs and play them in a particular order to cultivate a certain kind of feeling and journey (quite shamanistic if you think about it). Becoming a proper DJ eventually was a natural process. The right music can move energy, heal, uplift, and connect people together. That’s what I’m interested in being a part of. Music is a powerful vehicle for awareness and change. It’s like a moving meditation that shapes the listeners who are open to receiving it.

My childhood days were filled with dance and acting classes, piano lessons, and soccer. I’ve always been active. I also loved writing and still do. I was into poetry and essay-writing at school (nerd alert!) and now I’m applying my creative writing skills to lyricism. I started recording my lyrics in 2011 and after that, I toured extensively as a DJ and didn’t have much creative time. Things finally started to slow down in 2016 so I dove into Ableton and music production classes; first at Garnish in Hollywood and then at Matrix Sessions downtown Los Angeles. Learning how to produce my own electronic music was a game-changer and I am super excited about this new creative journey that I’m on.

Has it been a smooth road?
Ha! No, it hasn’t. I think it’s important that artists share the truth about their journeys and experiences so that up-and-coming artists don’t put too much pressure on themselves. One major struggle that I had was crossing the Canada-US border. It took years of time and buckets of money to acquire my first US work visa in 2011. I renewed it in 2014 and applied for a green card in 2017 and fortunately was accepted. It was not easy! My advice to anyone wanting to hop borders with their work is to hone their craft and build their career in their home country as much as possible first so that they’re in a good position to apply for a visa when the time comes. Part of it is finding people who already support you in the new country, however, and how are you going to get face time with them if you’re not there? It’s kind of a chicken-or-the-egg situation. My experience was complicated and I implore young artists to be patient and do their homework before making any huge decisions like moving countries.

Artists who are lucky enough to have financial support from their parents can likely skip a lot of the obstacles that I experienced. I think that this is part of the reason why there is a dominance of white male artists in the electronic dance music scene. The software and hardware required to produce music is not cheap, let alone the classes and mentorship programs to learn how to use it. The reason I DJ’d for 16 years before I got into music production is because I was intimidated by the time and money that I would have to invest to learn. I simply couldn’t afford it. If it wasn’t for my mentor, Brian Matrix, I may not have pursued music production at all – and now I love it! Brian offered me an affordable program in a safe environment that got me going in less than a year. I’m still learning and always will be but wow, I never thought that this would be possible.

Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
My first love is DJing. I am great at reading and rocking a crowd and I love the experience of sharing music with people in order to inspire them to feel alive, be in the moment, and get out of their comfort zone. Even if it’s a massive festival filled with thousands of people, there is something intimate happening inside each person who is there participating in the experience. DJing is a special craft, especially if you know how to tap into the heart of what is happening in the collective energetic grid. It is a powerful conduit for sharing and spreading light and love – which is the only way to combat darkness and hate by the way. Don’t fear or fight the shadow, simply turn on the light. Anyway… My second love is producing music and it may even surpass my love of DJing one day. I produce my own original songs from start to finish; beats, lyrics, vocals, mixing, and mastering included. I also make remixes, edits, bootlegs, DJ mixes, and voiceovers (oh yeah, I’m also a voiceover actor).

What sets me apart from other artists? Well, I can’t say that it’s being a female DJ. There are plenty of female DJs, many of whom produce their own music and even some that write and record their own lyrics and vocals as well. I used to think that what sets me apart is that I also perform my vocals live on stage during my DJ sets but I think there are others doing that too. So ultimately, it’s just ME that sets me apart. No one is like me, there has never been anyone like me, and there will never be anyone like me. I offer that as an affirmation to any artist who is struggling with confidence or artistic direction. You can’t help but be unique because you are you so the best plan of action is to dive deep into self-discovery and see what’s there, explore your self. When you surface, share what you find with the rest of the world and remember that what people think of you and your art is none of your business. Treat compliments and criticism the same – simply an opportunity to practice receiving and the content of the comments do not matter. Your job as an artist is to create and keep creating, that’s it. Take a bow and move on to the next project.

What do you feel are the biggest barriers today to female leadership, in your industry or generally?
In general, systematic discrimination. We see it in all fields of work and leadership roles all over the world and have done so for thousands of years. The only industries in which women make more money than men today are modeling and pornography. That’s a statistic that I obtained from a woman named Maren Hancock who has a PhD in Women’s Studies (in case you were wondering). Facts are facts and in this case, they prove that the primary value placed upon women is still one of aesthetics, external appearance, objectification, and sexiness. Women are pressured into being sexy but punished for being sexual – especially if they own it because sexuality is a resource for personal power. It’s easy to ignore the facts because they are built into the fabric of our society (we overlook them on a daily basis if we’re not practicing awareness) but they do exist. As a result, female-identifying artists (and people in general) are forced to respond to this in their personal lives and professional careers. For example, whether a female-identifying DJ wears baggy pants and a t-shirt or a bikini and heels when they perform, neither have escaped the systematic problem and therefore neither should be judged. Both are simply reacting to and reflecting their outer world in their own way. One might be considered to be hiding, downplaying, redefining or even denying their gender or sexuality and the other might be considered to be embracing, highlighting or even ‘exploiting’ their gender or sexuality.