Jonathan Shoup
Audio By Carbonatix
DJs don’t get more eclectic than Ginger Perry.
For decades, she’s spun everything from old country 45s and ’80s hits to David Lynch soundtracks and EDM – all while gracing just about every massive stage and tiny hole-in-the-wall that Denver has to offer. One thing she’s never done before, though, is create her own music.
That changed last week when Perry released her debut as a singer, songwriter and producer. Titled “Inside Out,” the song is as uncategorizable as her DJ sets. Funky and dreamlike, it’s a digital synthesis of many of the styles she’s played at clubs over the years. Except country.
“I’ve wanted to make my own music ever since I began deejaying in the late ’90s,” Perry says, “even if I didn’t start feeling confident in my skills until around 2005. I met my friend, teacher and engineer, Chase Dobson, when we were guest DJs at Michael Trundle’s Lipgloss. We got along really well, and Chase really knew how to make an impact on the music he laid his hands on. A couple years after we became friends, I asked him to be my teacher. We’ve been working together in some way ever since.”
Rather than an impulsive move, Perry’s shift from deejaying to songwriting was gradual – and careful. “I’ve been creating my own music for about fifteen years, and in 2011 I made my first SoundCloud account,” she says. “It wasn’t until recently that I thought of my music as finally good enough to actually make a release. I have always needed to share my music with the world, but only now do I feel comfortable doing so.”
However, there was a learning curve. “Learning Ableton was harder for me to pick up than just knowing what makes music sound good,” she says. “When I was putting different sounds together, whether it was percussion, dissonance or any of the fun stuff that makes music dynamic, it clicked in a way that I can’t really explain. I found a real hurdle when it came time to make it coherent and whole through the software. I can really thank my fantastic teachers like Chase for helping me figure out how to put it all together.”
Perry acknowledges that when it comes to making one’s own music, being a DJ can make the transition as inspirational as it is intimidating. “When you deejay, and you can find a better pulse for what people want to hear, that does make you more conscious as an artist,” she explains. “I have friends who have been in the same scene as long, if not longer, than I have, and they still won’t make a release of their own, because that scene can make you self-conscious. It’s a really interesting dynamic, in my eyes.”
Perry draws influence from real life and struggles when writing her songs – as any animal lover might relate to while listening to her upcoming second release. “Very soon I’ll be putting out an EP called Gozer. It’s named after one of my cats,” she explains. “I wrote three of the tracks while he was in life-saving surgery to remove an intestinal block. Those emotions really fueled the heart of this new project. Ultimately, I would love to start playing original music sets in a live setting, but in the meantime, I plan to write an album for each of my beautiful familiars. Hopefully without the trauma I had to endure with Gozer, but with all the love I feel for each of my pets.”
No matter where her recording career might take her, Perry has no plans to stop deejaying – or to stop using that to influence her original music. “I’ve always been an open-format DJ first and foremost,” she says. “In that same way, I haven’t really settled on a focus for the music that I create. I like to think about production much like an event that I’m playing. At the beginning of the night, everyone is getting built up. Something downtempo and vibey, but easy to get into. As it progresses, it just gets more upbeat and dancey, and who knows where it will end up. Maybe hardstyle. Maybe I’ll find a more goth element, like electronic body music, to grow into. Maybe I’ll get big in Japan. This party is what you make it.”
Ginger Perry’s debut track “Inside Out” is streaming now on SoundCloud.
