Drey Pavel, DJ, journalist and producer
IN RUBRIC "BUSINESS" We acquaint readers with women of different professions and hobbies that we like or are simply interested in. In this issue - DJ, video producer and music journalist from Berlin Drey Pavel.
When I was 23, I taught English at the Wall Street Institute. After six or seven months of work, I thought: "What am I doing here at all?" There was a dress code, I had to hide my tattoo and remove the piercing. For a while I put up with it, and then I realized that it was just not for me. I left the class and quit. In the summer I saw that the largest German hip-hop magazine Rap.de was looking for interns. I had an internship and started working there. A year later, they sent me to New York as a correspondent. I have been to New York before, and here I first went there for work. It was at the end of 2008, and I met with rapper Stalley, who worked at the Alife clothing store, and only the locals knew about him as a musician. Then his first mixtape was just released. He introduced me to the get-together, and in 2009, when I returned to New York, I already did interviews with the main people in the hip-hop world, such as Dead Prez. My friend Suzanne Creel, who then worked at Heavy Rotation Records, introduced me to the American music industry, which, in fact, is a rather disgusting phenomenon.
2009 was a great time in New York: a lot of great people who were still not tired by the city; musician Theophilus London appeared. New York was glad to see new and young, rather diverse artists. In 2010, a guy from Reed Space introduced me to new guys who do different cool things: ASAP Rocky, Venus X, X. J. Scott, Jesse Boykins III, Children of the Night. I remembered this out of hand, surely I forgot someone. At first they were just acquaintances for me, and then, when they began to develop, I was so happy and immediately wanted to pull them out of the United States and bring them here, to Europe. I immediately wanted to bring Venus X before it became famous. I do not mean that she needed it, it was just that all of me was interesting.
My mix was just monstrous, idiotic. Shuffle iTunes would have done a lot better than me
My friend Stefan from a Pigalle store in Paris asked me if I knew of any cool New York artists they could work with. ASAP Rocky then just released the single "Peso", and I like this: "Oh! I have a friend, Rocky, who, I'm sure, is bombing now!" The guys from Pigalle sent Rocky some of their T-shirts, and Rocky flew to Paris, where we did the shooting. And here comes the single "Goldie", Rocky wears a Pigalle jersey, and here this single takes off! It was a coincidence, there was no miscalculation, it just came together. I think New Yorkers already have a definite idea of where they will definitely be in demand. They love to show themselves, show what they think of themselves. In New York, your impact on the audience is greater than in Europe. For example, if I worked in New York, I would have a lot more fans.
Since I was so involved in the music industry, I constantly wrote about it, it is not surprising that at some point I thought about DJ. At first I just chose and put on music. And my mix was just monstrous, idiotic. Shuffle iTunes would have done a lot better than me. And then I saw that people were starting to like my DJing, I began to make efforts and became such an already-experienced DJ. I sometimes make some predictions about what will happen in the culture, it comes out in my natural way. I just catch what is in the air. If you are observant enough, curious and live with your eyes open, you begin to notice what is happening in your cultural field, in the area that you are interested in.
I am involved in a culture that I would designate as predominantly homosexual and color. There are freaks, LGBT community, gender neutral people who want to be just who they are. I don't care about trends or cool people. I am interested in those who always manage to do something of their own. I can communicate with any people, but I like the outsiders, because I know what it is like to feel different, to look different and at the same time feel comfortable. This feeling of comfort is quite difficult to achieve: it is difficult to feel good when someone stares at you and perceives you as entertainment. This is a battle of "normal" people and progressive-minded people. This should be talked about carefully and deliberately. In the 1920s and earlier, men who wore women's clothes, women who wore men's clothes, and transgender people were shown at a circus. They were fun. They no longer had any use. That is, people who were not the majority in the white Western culture, were forced to occupy such a humiliating role in society. Only in the circus could not be like everyone else, and not be an outcast. Now it is politically unacceptable, but it began to be understood much later, after the LGBT rap movement had already appeared. Prior to that, it was impossible for such musicians to find their audience.
If we talk about clothes, I have been dressing in this style for years, but lately the whole culture of the 90s and tomboy images have swallowed me up. Now I feel that I should look more respectable and elegant. The last 10 years in fashion have been quite variegated: fashion designers are becoming steeper and more accessible to ordinary people. And I think that fashion will again be closely connected with music: the youth culture is quite responsive, and the designers look primarily at those who are their final consumers. It doesn't surprise me that Hood by Air can be so expensive, and Raf Simons puts Zebra Katz and ASAP Rocky on his clothes. These are the people they are guided by. Of course, this clothing is not available to everyone, but knowledge is increasingly available. People can choose their style icons and get access to them. I can tweet Rihanna if I want. I can see what celebrities wear every day. If I subscribe to Rihanna’s toggle switch, I can wear the same clothes as she (maybe not exactly the same, but similar), and maybe I don’t differ so much from her? This feeling is created by people. Previously, they somehow respected artists, but now they look at what they wear, what nails, earrings. I thought this madness would stop, but the digital revolution could not be stopped. The divisions of the record labels A & R, which were responsible for the search for artists, no longer exist, because now it does YouTube.
When I look at what is happening in art, fashion, I understand that people want to be known by something. This is complete insanity: it is no longer a question of quality, it’s about how to look cool and more often to flash, rather than be a respected artist. We will never turn back time and absolutely do not imagine what will happen to us in the future, because now we are in such a transitional phase.
Photographer: Kristin Lee Moolman