SISTER SF in the Press: 2003

XLR8R Magazine, 2003
By XLR8R

Sister SF - The Ladies of the all-female Sister Collective have been busy shaping San Francisco's Scene-and, when necessary, knocking it into shape-with poise and purpose. DJ XJS surveys the scene as Sister turns five years old.XLR8R: Have Sister's goals changed since its beginning?

DJ XJS: From the beginning, we wanted to provide a place where woman DJs are welcomed, supported and able to ask questions without feeling intimidated-the DJ world has been a bit selfish historically - and that's still what we do. We only book female DJs, and have a never-ending supply. And men are allowed to spin at our charity events -in drag. It's been wildly popular-especially among the men themselves.

XLR8R: Despite positive media coverage, do you still get press that paints Sister as a novelty?

DJ XJS: I'll scream if I get asked to do another interview about chick DJs! But we've painted ourselves into that corner, so we just smile and say "Yes, I spin, and yes, I have these [indicates chest]. Isn't it just great?" And we're not the only female crew, just maybe the only ones who go so far out of our way to promote female DJs in general.

XLR8R: Sister's avoided associating its identity with aspects of sexuality or appearance. Have women come far enough along to be able to play around with those themes if they choose?

DJ XJS: We're not shy about sex, some of us are downright hussies. But associating women DJs with suggestive imagery reduces their impact to that of eye-candy and takes away from their skills. We're classy ladies! It's treading a fine line to promote women without falling into the trap of objectification.

XLR8R: Where will Sister be in another five years?

DJ XJS: To some, just being a group of women who work together to the apparent exclusion of men is still considered too divisive. So there'll always be Sister. I doubt we'll have eradicated sexism by then, but we'll give it a bloody good shot. Someday the playing field will level out and Sister's concept will become redundant. At that point we'll be totally delighted to create a male-only DJs who are proud of their gender and...Wait, that's already been done.

www.xlr8r.com

Etc. Magazine, 2003
A Women's Place is Behind the Decks.
The Sister SF DJ collective equalizes the mix.
By April Jones

Jezebel's Joint, San Francisco. The dance-floor heaves with girls in midriff-baring tank tops, shiny pants and fur-collar coats, and men in distressed jeans and oversized sweaters. On a projector screen above the dance floor, Bruce Lee whirls and kicks his way through Enter the Dragon. A clubgoer in thick glasses shoulders his way through the throng of sweaty dancers, across the dance floor splashed with strobe lights. He throws his head back and howls. The frenzied crowd returns the cry.

Squeezed inside the closet-sized DJ booth, DJ Polywog doesn't even look up. In a trance, she nods her head, her blondish hair coiled into two horns. Like a mad chemist, she mixes the thumping electronic beats. Welcome to the world of Sister SF.

DJs are to San Francisco what actors are to Los Angeles. Despite it's small size, San Francisco cranks out turntablists with creative style and worldwide appeal. The internationally known Skratch Piklz, Mark Farnina and DJ Shadown got their starts here. Music is essential in this small city, and if you've got skills behind the decks you can rule the scene.

But women have always had a harder time breaking through. "Females aren't known for being great DJs," said one male DJ, who occasionally works weddings and birthday parties, and preferred to remain nameless. Eric Alvarez who DJs regular club gigs in San Francisco and Palo Alto, thought women do have something to offer behind the decks, "They look cute when they're mixing," he said.

Sentiments like those and the barriers they represent led DJs Ploywog, XJS, the baroness and MC Linzee to found the Sister Collective in 1997. They aimed, in the words of their mission statement, to create a place for female DJs to get gigs without bias, a place where gender is not an issue."

"We're DJs-not Cosmopolitan models posing as DJs while looking good in our low-rise jeans," XJS said.

The collective helps DJs get gigs and promote themselves. The group also looks to inspire other women to get behind the decks instead of trying to look cute in front of them. In keeping with the collective's ethos, resident DJs are not allowed to use the Sister name on flyers where "women are described in derogatory terms, or where obscene, violent or degrading depictions of women are used."

Sister draws resident DJs from all over the world-both coasts of the United States, Europe, and Australia. Most of the residents are members of other collectives, but they benefit from their involvement with Sister and have regular gigs in the city.

DJ Amber holds residency at the bi-monthly techno party, :CODE, at the spacious DNA lounge. Just blocks away on Folsom and 12th Streets, DJ Seraphim works it out on the turntables at Incognita, her weekly stint at the club Sitio. DJ Melyss, a Sister resident, credits the collective for creating a sense of solidarity. "It's great to work with a group of women who have more experience than I do," she said. "It's a group of women I can turn to, to ask questions and learn from its veteran members."

Sister throws monthly parties (currently 'Sister and the City' at Sitio) featuring a mixture of resident and guest DJs spinning everything from drum and bass to house to breakbeat records. The Sister concept has found a ready audience. The Sister SF website gets about 30,000 hits per month, and local DJs email Sister thanking the group for helping them get gigs. Sister is also branching out. Co-founder MC Linzee started a Sister branch in 2001, after moving to New York City. Sites on Portland, and Seattle followed.

XJS said DJs in other states like Ohio email the group, wanting to start their own collectives using the group's name. "It's amazing ho many people want a clone of Sister SF," she said.

The group's members prefer not to be thought of as female DJs, but rather as DJs who happen to be female. At least a couple of the Sisters are heavyweights in the San Francisco music scene. Polywog and Forest Green showcased their skills in the indie film hit Groove, which depicted the nights when San Francisco warehouse parties where the white-hot center of DJ Culture.

The scene now is much different. Select, word-of-mouth raves have been replaced by heavily marketed dance parties that command ticket prices of $15 and up. And female DJs are no longer an oddity. "There are so many female DJs in San Francisco, so many," Amber said.

Forest Green said she sometimes wonders whether the world needs any more female DJs. But then she plays clubs in places like Georgia, where women DJs are still rare, and its becomes clear that Sister is still serving a purpose. "We are very much needed," she said.

Etc. Magazine

Washington Post: Friday, June 27, 2003
Hey, Ms. DJ . . .
Women Are Turning Tables and Finding Strength in Numbers
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer

It's midnight on a recent Friday, and the Black Cat nightclub is overflowing with estrogen.

A sweaty woman in skintight jeans has just stripped off her button-down white shirt to reveal an even tighter tank top. Across the dance floor, another woman is shaking what her mama gave her under a T-shirt that bears two strategically placed red dots. A lesbian couple is grinding in a corner as DJ Dirty Jean spins a remix of the '80s hit "Don't You Want Me?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37960-2003Jun26.html

Karma Magazine: October 2003 We Are Family By Starla Estrada Photographs by Mark Skorheim The Sister SF DJ collective is conquering the creative patriarchy with its brand of talent, style and community spirit. Be prepared: they're coming to a city near you. While most crews come together over a particular style of music, San Francisco-based Sister SF was born under a different premise; the solidarity of sisterhood.  But make no mistake - this is not your baby sister's "girls only" club. This is a collective of kick-ass female DJs who are making waves in the dance-music industry. Sure they'll let the boys play too, but even they have to dress in drag to spin at Sister SF parties and charity events. In 1997, DJs XJS and Siren came up with the idea of creating a positive, motivating support system for themselves and other women in the industry. The goal: to broaden the scope of female DJs as performers and producers in the varying genres, which range from house to techno, drum-n-bass to breaks, trance to electroclash. "The main focus is our talent and not our gender," said DJ Elz, a new member who spins funky house and breaks.

Membership has it's benefits-primarily, the competitive edge of safety in numbers. "Being part of the organization paves the way for gigs," acknowledges DJ XJS, an expatriate from Ireland who mixes drum-n-bass. According to her, many promoters and club owners won't take a chance with a DJ unless they are part of a crew or club. Fellow member DJ Samira agreed: With the right balance of people, you can get a lot done with a crew. Collectively, you expand your resources and connections. You learn a lot from each other's experiences.

The Sisters have also had to deal with problems unique to an industry that remains male dominated. The request to dress "sexy" for a gig is an occasional dilemma, and the Sisters much decide between their concerns about sexual objectification and the realities of getting booked. Still being a female has not cause many career setbacks. "I have never been passed over for a gig because I am a female, said DJ Elz. "I usually do feel like I have more to prove than a male DJ. In the past I have felt judges by my looks, but I just let my skills speak for themselves. I have gotten a good, supportive response from other male DJs."

 In order to maintain a handle on their goals, the Sister crew keeps the group relatively small, averaging ten or so members at a time. Established Sisters nominate new members based on their skills and reputations as local DJs. Nominees must complete a six-month internship, allowing everyone time to work together and see if the collaboration works. "The internship is like an apprenticeship. It was developed as a way to keep the girls working," said Amber, a techno and hard-house DJ. "To keep the flow and awareness that once you're in it's not just a smooth, marble path."

Jobs are voluntary and determined on the basis of ability and desire. While there are no titles or mandatory duties each lady is expected to ass to the crew in any way she can, whether working on the website, organizing events, promoting or spinning. If a Sister can't devote time and energy to the collective, she maybe asked to step aside to "guest" status until she can further commit. Despite the "work," the aim is always to have fun. After all, DJing might be a career, but these women do it for the love of music. In these tough economic times, especially, making ends meet can be challenging. Original member Polywog (she played the blissed-out, dreadlocked DJ in the film Groove) has been spinning for more than 12 years, mixing everything from Van Halen to Billie Holiday. Three years ago, during the dot-com boom, she earned up to $3,000 a gig. Today comparable gigs pay her around $1,000. Despite the down-turn, the Sisters are committed tot he evolution of their careers. Many have branched out with side careers. Some have found creative outlets: Amber is executive producer and host of a club-based TV show called :CODE, while Seraphim has recently launched Recordwhore.com, an on-line record store. In the past year, Sister factions have developed in the New York City, Seattle and Portland (Sister NYC, Sister SEA, and Sister PDX, respectively). These groups were established as natural extensions of the crew, usually when a former Sister relocated to a new city.

The crew is also regularly approached by women in cities all over the country who want to create their own Sister division. Although the interest is flattering, the group is cautious about lending the Sister name. The collective abides by a mission to uphold women as equals to males, so new branches must show that they can be booked based on skills, not gender. Ultimately, the members want to be fairly involved before starting a new branch. DJ XJS suggested that interested women in other cities start their own group, with an "original title that Sister SF could possibly advise and guide through development."

In the future, expect the crew to pop up in more major cities in the U.S. and perhaps internationally. Long-term goals include a Sister record label and a booking agency. Despite the transient nature of clubbing and DJing, these self-described "proactive dreamers" have stuck around. "We're the bugs rooted deep in the carpet," Polywog said. "We're here to stay."

To read more about Sisters and to find out about events go to www.sistersf.com

Reproduced with permission from Karma Magazine. To view the full article, go here.

SF Weekly: November 19th, 2003
Sisterhood Is Powerful
By Hiya Swanhuyser


A lot of DJs want to be a part of the Sister SF crew: The women's DJ collective has the star power of Polywog and Forest Green and a reputation for working hard to be more than just eye candy behind the turntables. As a result, there are limits on who gets called a Sister. For women, it means proving you've got talent and integrity. For men, it means wearing a dress. Once a year, the gals of Sister invite brothers to perform with them -- but only in drag. "Dragnet: Dude Looks Like A Lady" begins at 10 p.m. at Sublounge, 628 20th St. (at Illinois), S.F. Admission is $8; call 552-3603 or visit www.sistersf.com.

www.sfweekly.com