Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Darling.
Amanda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I believe the future beckons to us and, if we are listen closely enough, we will hear it calling. Somehow, even though I wasn’t from a musical family, I always knew my destiny was in music. I taught myself to play piano by ear around age four. I would often beg to join band in elementary school. I wanted to play instruments, but my parents didn’t understand my passion back then. Luckily, they do now, and for that I’m thankful.
In high school I dove head first into choir and musical theatre, singing up to 4 hours per day. I became enthralled with classical music and opera, but my true obsession sprouted from the seed of 80’s vinyl. As my own form of rebellion against the bubblegum 90’s pop I was surrounded with, I fell deeper in love with the mysterious sounds of New Wave. I remember telling my best friend that my greatest dream was to become a DJ.
Flash forward to my early 20’s, I followed my passion to the city of dreams: Hollywood, California. I arrived with a couple hundred dollars in my pocket, jobless, not knowing a single person in the industry. As I clawed my way out of obscurity, I found a few singing gigs here and there in between working as an extra on TV, and to my great joy, finally landed a job at a local coffee shop. It was shortly thereafter that I took my first DJ lesson, at Scratch DJ Academy. I learned the basics of beat matching and how to mix on vinyl. I’ll never forget the rush of overwhelming bliss I experienced the first time I successfully mixed two LP’s together. I even remember the song. It was “Save a Prayer” by Duran Duran, mixed with itself. From the smallest and grimiest little hole-in-the-wall bars, to obscure desert parties in Lancaster and beyond, early on in my DJ career, I just didn’t say “no” to many gigs.
The next 5 years were spent in a constant battle, not only to find myself, but in attempt to gain some ground with my music. I did everything from Latin-style weddings, to dungeon parties, and even Trance shows at the now-extinct Trance club, Circus opening for huge headliners like Judge Jules. I became the resident DJ of LA’s most popular kinky costume party, Perish’s Love and Lust. I remember mixing hardcore dubstep in a plastic red bodysuit while people were getting tied up and spanked beside me. It’s humorous to me, even now, but it was also crucial to my development as an entertainer. Dubstep was breaking through and it was exciting to be a part of that scene, back then. Meanwhile, I was teaching myself how to produce music. At first, when I was learning the basics, I decided to release an entire album of ambient music: Earth Tones. It was a welcome contrast to the heavy, hardcore basslines I was throwing down every weekend at underground warehouse parties.
I felt like I was on a roller coaster in the club world; I had my ups and downs. I had a steadily growing fan base, but also, I had a lot of opposition. Furthermore, making me stand out like a sore thumb, I loved to dress up in costumes whenever I performed. I suppose this was in part due to my background in musical theatre, and in part because of my obsession with the rock stars of the 1980s, like David Bowie. At any rate, some people loved it, and others just didn’t understand it. I also had to deal with shady promoters. I had to constantly fight to be paid. I remember sometimes they even tried to pay me in illegal drugs, or promoters who asked for a date in exchange for club gigs. That’s just not my style, and maybe that’s partly why I took the long road to where I am now.
Suddenly, things changed, and I had my 2 biggest breakthroughs: playing ULTRA at the Olympic Stadium in South Korea in Summer of 2016, and getting hired as resident DJ of Avalon in fall of 2017. Avalon, located on Hollywood and Vine, is a historical venue were many stars such as Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire and even Donna Summer have graced the stage. After only one show in the upstairs room, they put me on the main stage, but after they did, I played the main stage every time thereafter. I released my 2nd album, a dance album called “EXIST” whilst developing my stage persona: The Time Traveling DJ. My last show was opening for Darude himself (producer of the quintessential trance song, “Sandstorm”) then, pandemic happened.
With everything stopped in the gig world, luckily I had a single set for release: A Trance song called “Captured”. With all the odds against me, and having been accepted by a new and rather small label in Spain, I wasn’t expecting much. I had never charted before. Much to my astonishment and the answer to my prayers, remarkably, the single went
to #2 on the Beatport Global Trance Top 100 chart and #1 on the Trance Hype chart in May 2020, and here I am beaming with gratitude! The music video, set in the ice age, took two years to create. They say overnight success takes 10 years, and that was certainly the case with me. I adapted my DJ show into a live stream called “Time Travel Chronicles”, which airs twice a week, and which has raised thousands of dollars for charity. Most recently, my single “Mystery” went to #26 on the Beatport Trance Top 100 charts, just a few weeks ago.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I have to just laugh while I contemplate that question. Trying to make it as a female DJ in a highly competitive field that is 99% dominated by men, certainly is a challenge. From the beginning, I was often treated as a joke simply because of my gender. Though I admit I was also given some special attention for being a girl, I feel that those opportunities were generally as an opener only, which is the token place for a female DJ to be. Toxic masculinity is prevalent in the DJ world, where young groupie girls abound, professional women are not generally treated well and are not welcome backstage. Every step of the way, a few insecure men have tried to undermine me and steal away my glories. Most recently, when my song “Captured” started climbing the charts, a couple of people (male DJs in the industry whom I will not name at this time) started spreading hearsay on the internet that I had “cheated”. The truth is that my song went to the top purely from real fan support, and of course, Beatport has a built in system to detect any kind of foul play. After much hard work on the music video (which I spent 2 years creating), and without any money spent on a promotional campaign whatsover, I was amazed that anyone could say such a thing. Though their lies hurt me, I have to look at history and reflect that many of the greatest accomplishments ever achieved by women have been erased from history or wrongly accredited to a man later, and I should have guessed my success would be challenged. Indeed, I have been astounded at the vicious competition in my field. Of course, those same people remained silent when I followed up “Captured” with another successful song, “Mystery”, 2 months later. I am a firm believer that dance music is about love and that love is the vibration that heals. I also believe this new era will be about healing women and uplifting them to a place of power.
AmandaDarling.com – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I’m known as The Time Traveling DJ, and I have a theatrical show that is unlike anything ever brought to the DJ world before. Through my music, visuals and costuming, I take the audience on a Time Travel adventure. It begins when I step out of the DeLorean time machine with a flashy jacket and sunglasses, and begin to mix. We travel to the 1980’s, to ancient Egypt, the last ice age, the renaissance, and beyond – into the future robotic age as well. It features my original music combined with choreographed dancing and live vocals. I like to flip things upside down the norm. You can catch a full scope of my sound in my next album, Passages of Time, which has songs that take place in each of the aforementioned times in history, and the album itself is a journey in music. The overall feeling the album gives the listener is spiritually uplifting and fun. Trance is a dynamic genre that can raise your consciousness and help you to open yourself to greater self-love. It can hasten the unlocking of deeper healing and connection to our higher selves.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
As soon as the clubs open again, I hope to embark on a world tour. As soon as VISAs become available, I will be moving to Europe to bring my music to a much larger audience across the pond. My dreams are massive, I also have a forthcoming original sci-fi book series I’m working on called “Destinaxia”. One day I hope to have my own theme park based on my book series, and to raise massive amounts of money for charity. I want to build a Neo-gothic cathedral for my very own trance festival. I know that may sound wild, but I’m overflowing with novel creative ideas daily, so truly anything is possible and I have many great things in queue. The highest purpose of my life is to heal and empower women, and educate my listeners about how to treat animals with compassion.
Pricing:
- Mystery – Single on Beatport available for $1.99
- Captured – Single on Beatport available for $1.29
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AmandaDarling.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/djamandadarling
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/djamandadarling
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djamandadarling
- Other: http://www.twitch.com/amandadarling
Image Credit:
Erin Johnson, taken in the Green room of Avalon Hollywood
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