Hyeonje
Sending emanations from Seattle, California-born DJ Hyeonje opens the channel for Mystery Shell with a sensual, playful mix. Hyeonje began DJing in 2019, after experiencing burnout as a professional in Los Angeles. While visiting Seattle, they felt the welcoming embrace of the local DIY culture, rooted in the spirit of PNW grunge and post-punk. Inspired by profound dance floor epiphanies, Hyeonje approaches the decks as a conduit to a unified consciousness.
First and foremost, thank you for joining the Mystery Shell. What energies were present during recording? Is there a specific time in your life that it’s linked to? Who and what is this mix connecting us to.
I was excited to make this mix because I really wanted to express my gratitude towards Seunghee who invited me. She was one of the first contributors to Diasporic Corean Mixtapes, which is a project that is so personal to me. So my personal memories and identities were held close to my heart, when I was making this mix. Well, they are never that far from any musical venture I’m on. Listening to music is such a memory-evoking activity, especially when they are old tracks. When I listen to old music, I experience whole-body feelings of remembering. For example, I put that Stimming track in this mix because at the time of making the mix, I had just come back from The Ever Afters, which was in and of itself such a moving rave filled with memory, with many meaningful encounters with folks I hadn't seen since the last Gays Hate Techno before COVID, some people who I have known for 10+ years. And there was a crew there that I had gone to Lightning in a Bottle with several years ago where Stimming played a really memorable set. The track’s inclusion in the mix is kind of like a little easter egg to myself, because I have this secret, treasured memory attached to it. But that was years ago, and now I am a different person. And then I mixed it into
Lucy Liyou’s incredible new Dog Dreams. In new releases there are always pieces of sounds or instruments or rhythms that are so fresh, but that too bring out some kind of unnameable but familiar nostalgia. Right now, with respect to making studio mixes, I think I’m particularly interested in seeing what happens in that contrast - mixing the old and the new tracks together as kind of like an analogy for that process within oneself, of the old memories we are holding inside us being mixed into new experiences in the present.
How long have you been Djing in Seattle? Can you tell us about the most memorable experience since you’ve started Djing? Please describe the environmnet and how you were feeling.
My DJ journey is relatively new. The first time I felt inspired to DJ was on the drive home from the aforementioned Gays Hate Techno in 2019. It was one of the most profound rave experiences I’ve ever had, for sure. We were chatting in the car about the transhistorical nature of the rave, and how ancient humans long before us were drumming and dancing, and how our recent queer ancestors in Chicago and Detroit were making home out of the nightclub. And I just felt in that moment that I wanted to find a voice through DJing. The first time I ever played a gig in public was in summer of 2021. It was at a garden party I threw in my backyard, the first one after COVID began. It was a time soon after the vaccine arrived, when no one was quite sure when we would start gathering again. I think in Seattle especially, everyone was a little apprehensive of getting canceled from being the first one. But we decided to throw this cute backyard dayparty at our house, and it was so much fun. It was sweltering hot, and we had great sound by our friends Fergus and Sam, and our neighbors had offered their yard too, as a chillout zone with shade. It felt like a mini Coachella lol. All our friends were on molly in the daytime. We had Livwutang, DJ Having Sex, Zi!, and a few others. One of the DJs dropped out last minute, so I had no choice but to fill in myself! And so that was the first time I DJ’d a party. Since then I have slowly gotten booked more and more in Seattle as nightlife started to return. I feel great pleasure at being offered the opportunities I’ve had to express myself as a DJ. Each new gig is such a delight to experience, and I’ve been lucky to get to play in different spaces and party contexts that demand different musical sides of me. But my favorite gigs are the ones where I get to play whatever I want, at a party with many of my friends.
Three tips/advice for other DJs/Musicians trying to get themselves out there?
1. Work hard and try your best at each gig. Know your music by listening and dancing to it with love. Practice pays off over time and makes you feel more confident. And people notice it!!
2. Be good to everyone in your scene. Everyone is a potential creative collaborator and the health of your community comes from strong relationships.
3. Tend to your relationship with yourself, because it makes it easier to be an authentic creator. Prioritize showing your authentic self in your music and art over doing what you think other people will like.
Lastly, what is another obsession outside of music for you? What have you learned recently that blew your mind?
Oh man, so much. I am honestly obsessed with so many things. Right now I'm also in school for graphic design. It's the first real commitment I've made to a visual medium, and I'm learning so much about what compels me within that world. There's a lot of talk about AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney and how they are going to affect that industry, and I'm of the camp that is totally pro-AI. But not in a bro-y way, but in like a whimsical in-awe-of-the-unknown kind of way. I am obsessed with making fantastical images on Midjourney. And asking ChatGPT to tell me all it knows about really niche, deep shit. I think it's so fun and imaginative and sci-fi. I like to tell myself that the software is intelligent on some level, even if that's not really the case. I like to indulge in my naive optimism about it. But I am also really curious on a realist level too, so I've been trying to use my summer break to study more of the math behind the tools which maybe is time better spent studying design, hahaha!
