Emma G a female Dj originally from New Zealand has been supplying us listeners true soulful vibes with her mixes alongside MC TALI..

Soulside Sessions!

Emma G really has inspired a lot of females to carry on and make a huge impact within the D&B industry.

So here it is a quick Q&A with Emma G.

What was the main reason why you moved from NZ to the UK?

I moved to fully immerse myself in the two creative scenes that are my life – drum & bass and sportswear/fashion design!

I never planned on staying this long, but it’s worked out really well and I’m loving life in London.

It’s such a stimulating city.

Is there anything you miss about D&B in NZ?

I miss my Fu Bar and Liquid Recreation crews for sure but times have changed.

I have so many amazing memories from that era that I cherish. Fu Bar really was my second home back in the day.

There is something very special about being from such a small and isolated place in the world that has such a strong music culture – all the international DJs who used to come and play would feel it and talk about it.

The NZ music scene in general is very loyal to it’s own, so the local DJs get just as much (if not more) love than the big internationals – well they used to anyway!

You have been known to be the golden girl of DnB back home do you feel that you still & here in the UK?

Haha – that was a nickname given to me by my awesome friend and fellow kiwi DJ Lobo because I used to rinse that amazing Bukem/Conrad track out and wear gold boots out to shows.

Golden Girl is still my favourite tune ever! Now, I think I’m onto “Soulside Queen” thanks to Tali

You certainly have made a great positive impact by being a female DJ in a mainly male dominated industry.

Do you consider that females are equal within D&B?

Women aren’t equal in Drum & Bass ‘cause they’re better!

In all seriousness though, I think women DJs, MCs, producers and even promoters definitely bring a unique vibe – and I think it is appreciated.

Drum & bass is such a boys club and it probably always will be – female DJs are still seen as a novelty as there are still not many of us but I have worked hard to perfect my craft and be a role model.

I think I constantly surprise people because maybe I don’t look the part, but I love showing the boys up!

And actually, I have never really thought of myself as a “female DJ” as when I started it just wasn’t a thing.

DJing was super underground – it was about passionate, music-obsessed people feeding their habit by spending all their money buying vinyl and all their time mixing in their bedrooms and preparing for the clubs!!

At the time, I could never understand why there weren’t many girls into it.

Luckily I had that natural confidence back at high school and didn’t really care what other people thought, I just did my thing.

Any past or any present females who have inspired you to heavily get involved within D&B?

I was originally exposed to DJ culture through my older brother Stephen who was a prominent NZ DJ back in the day.

I was so obsessed with dance music from about age 12 and it was a bunch of my school friends and raving mates that fully got me into it (all male btw!).

That aside, I do have really fond memories of the Kemi & Storm gig in Auckland back in 1998!

I was 16 and just starting to play out and was in absolute awe of them and still am.

Is their any females within D&B at present that we need to keep our eyes and ears open for?

Check out fellow kiwi cutie and beautiful vocalist Blake who’s currently working with Hospital Records.

Tell us about your role within INTEGRAL RECORDS?

I’m the Label Manager and we are a small team so I work on lots of different things –A&R’ing, PR, graphic design and general management of all the workstreams.

I first started working on the label to put together the Integral Select compilation album that came out a couple of years ago and we have big things in the pipeline which is super exciting.

How do you balance your normal daily job while running a record label?

I’ve always been a busy person so pretty used to juggling and thrive on having a huge to do list.

I’m a freelance sportswear designer by day and work a lot remotely so I can manage my workload to find time for all things music-related because music is my absolute passion!

We don’t release a lot of music as we are all about quality over quantity so it’s not a full-time role.

It’s more of a hobby for all of us involved.

Paul and all the guys at SRD are absolutely amazing – without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Can we expect more Soulside Sessions alongside MC TALI in the near future?

Tali and I have just been talking about a timeline for Soulside Session 9 – so I’m going to start the curation process very, very soon and it will definitely be out before the end of the year.

Hold tight!

What was the main plan behind Soulside Sessions?

When Tali and I first met at one of the Shapeshifter after parties here in London, we really hit it off and became friends and started playing a few shows together.

As we are both super passionate about the music we decided to put a mix out for free, just for fun and were pretty overwhelmed with such a positive response.

So we kept doing them and each time would watch our stats on Soundcloud climb.

Eventually we decided to start touring the live show and to date have done 2 European tours and we also get together and have a jam in New Zealand whenever I head back.

We’re super close to locking a US tour which is still hopefully on the cards, we just need schedules to align.

We both feel pretty blessed to have so many Soulside fans around the globe who constantly reach out to us from all corners.

You recently had an event alongside True Romance.

( Big love to Zoe & Charlotte ).
Will there be any other UK events we can see you DJing at?

I’m just figuring out some dates at the moment for various gigs so watch this space!

Would you consider moving into different genres of music?

I actually had a side career playing house music back in New Zealand, which was very successful.

I did it for a number of years and had residencies all over Auckland and played on all the big parties but eventually I grew out of it and found my way back to my roots in drum & bass which was where my DJ career started – at underage raves playing techstep would you believe.

It was actually really hard to have a profile playing both styles – people were a bit funny about it.

You were either a house head or a junglist – the crews were so segregated, but I did manage it for a while.

I used to play a gig in Tauranga where I’d play 2 hours of house and end with drum & bass which was awesome and people were really into it.

I also used to cheekily play drum & bass on my radio show which was meant to promote house music. Eventually it became a full drum & bass show!

I’d absolutely love to play different styles of music again but as I have so much going on in my life and my passion for d&b will long prevail, it makes sense for me to stay focused.

Do you produce alongside ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE or independently?

I don’t really produce – I’ve delved into it so many times over many, many years but I’ve never really had the time to hone my skills and make something of it.

It doesn’t help that I am an absolute perfectionist so can never finish anything.

Production in some capacity is definitely still on the cards but for now I’m focused on getting the next Soulside Sessions sorted and releasing future Integral talent!

The answer to this will probably be a no but here’s the question that most D&B fanatics what to know…
Do you know who DAWN WALL is?

The whole project is so mysterious and it’s way more fun keeping it that way.

All I can say from behind the scenes is that there is SO much fresh new music coming from the Dawn Wall camp and we are super excited to share it with the fans soon.

Next level business!

Been great to ask you a few Qs..

Any final words?

Thanks for asking me to contribute x