BAMBII Is Partying Until Dawn Then Reading About Technofeudalism
Kristen Azan hits the club multiple times a week. Sometimes she’s behind the boards, fucking shit up with garage, dancehall, and pop hybrids; other times she’s letting loose on the dance floor as someone else spins. No Celsius needed: She can ride the crowd’s energy until dawn on her own. The Toronto-based DJ, who performs as BAMBII, started DJing at 23. She threw biannual raves called Jerk, where she’d serve jerk chicken, then later went on to produce for Kelela. She’s also a wickedly talented recording artist in her own rite: I count her high-velocity club albums Infinity Club I and II, featuring guests like Yaeji, Jessy Lanza, and Lady Lykez, as some of my favorites.
The club isn’t the only place where you’ll find Azan, though. A lifelong learner who’s anxious about brain rot, she’s always looking for new ways to stay sharp. Right now she’s reading several different books while also taking three piano lessons three times a week. (She’s also co-parenting a bearded lizard named Daria with her friend down the street.) Here, Azan speaks to the Cut about the artists on her radar, latest reads, and visions of the future.
Tell me about your journey through music as a listener.
I’m second-gen Caribbean. Growing up I was stuck listening to everything my single mom listened to, but she actually had incredible taste — classic rock, reggae, R&B, house. I didn’t know at the time that it was weird that she liked Bruce Springsteen and Gregory Isaacs. I went to art school and that laid the groundwork for my love of indie-rock music like Broken Social Scene. But also, Toronto is such a big reference point for me. We have an influx of Caribbean immigrants coming in, slaying music, style, clothing, everything. It’s so diverse. Then I got put into hyperdrive when I started touring with Mykki Blanco, and it was 35 cities, a crash course on all these scenes. We were underground in Berlin, and then the next day we’re in Paris, the next day we’re in Copenhagen.
How did you go about making club friends early on and getting into the Toronto rave scene? How would you recommend other people develop their own understandings of where to go out?
I started with the music I liked, then the music guided me to this party. Then I found this DJ, this party, then I started following this DJ, then the trickle down was I ended up at this secret thing. Even just like five, six years ago, the motivation for personal research was a lot higher than right now. I don’t think people are, like, trying to ask what they like and going the one extra step to find it. I think they want it in a list.
I love complimenting women. And a lot of queer and trans parties aren’t just parties. They’re like points of connection. This is about departing from the shitty life outside. It’s about being yourself. It’s just inherently easier to walk up to someone and say, “Hey, what’s your name?”
What makes a DJ good in your eyes?
I’m looking for a balance between empathy and personal taste. My favorite DJs are extraordinarily well researched and well versed in a multitude of genres, but then they have a level of empathy where it feels like the self direction isn’t overriding what the room needs. I trust the DJ Crystal Meth. I trust my friends back home in Toronto, Nino Brown and Young Teesh. There is another Paris-based DJ named OK Williams I love.
What have your most recent wormholes and obsessions been?
I saw this young New York rapper on On the Radar Radio named Salimata. She is like rap rapping. We’re in this era of cute raps where she’s more like late-’90s coded, a Lil’ Kim. In five years, she’s going to be a widely known name.
Sammy Virji is making some of my favorite club festival tracks, like 140-BPM U.K. bass music with innovative topline melodies. He has a new song out with Skepta called “Cops & Robbers.”
How do you survive being out all the time?
I don’t even, I’ve died a million times. One of my rituals to drink fucking water. And use real deodorant. We have this thing in Toronto where before the rave, the organizer will be like, “No vegan deodorant. It needs to be the deodorant that will give you cancer.”
What are you typically wearing to the club?
A baby tee that says something stupid on it, a little micro short, layered silver necklaces, a hard boot. The classic bisexual raver outfit. I really like Ottolinger and Charlotte Knowles, but I feel like those price points get a little crazy sometimes. I really like Depop.
How long are you usually there for — like 11 p.m. to like 6 a.m.?
If I know the party is going from 11 to six, arrive at three, because everyone’s so happy to see you. You come in, you smell amazing, you look better than everybody else. It’s like your birthday.
It’s not possible to get sleepy. People are so funny, the dancers — everyone is collectively making a promise to be on ten.
As a jerk-chicken expert, how do you like your chicken cooked?
Chicken only tastes good if it’s cooked outside. It has to be cooked in the pit. There’s a place in Toronto called Rap’s, which has been open the entire time I’ve been alive, and that’s the best chicken in the city. Are you gonna get a cute gentrifier side? No. But that chicken itself tastes like you are in Jamaica on the beach. It’s so fucking good.
During your non-club hours, what do you like to do to unwind?
I read a tremendous amount at home, because I’m afraid the music industry is making me stupid. I want to feel like I know what the fuck is going on. I take piano lessons three times a week. I just had a lesson with my instructor three days ago, and I was like, “I need you to teach me composition patterns that happened specifically in jazz music.” I also love sci-fi and fantasy, so I watch a good amount of TV.
What have you been reading lately?
I just started Technofeudalism, which is a very fucking heavy book. I’m reading Terminal Boredom. I’m reading Octavia Butler, because I just love her. I’m halfway done with Martyr! That’s a beautiful book. And the last book I finished was on All Fours by Miranda July, which I thought was so fucking good. She’s, like, one of my favorite writers. She’s such a kook.
She dances like a maimed horse online. I love it.
So strange. I love her bad. I’m like, Please don’t say anything problematic. She is so, like, very specific and very relatable … like touches on the unsaid of human experience. She’s so smart.
Where do you like to get your recommendations?
One of my smartest friends is Kelela. The very last thing she recommended was this book called Blues People. And it’s so fucking good — one of the best historical music books. I think we would understand the Justin Bieber album [Swag] better if everyone read it. My book recommendations are just via my social, like, my feeds. I’m kind of friends with smart bitches.
Where are you looking for visual inspiration?
What really influences me is cartoons: things I grew up watching, like Ghost in the Shell, recent anime like Pantheon. Everyone must watch Pantheon. This is a very high-level show, one of the best-written shows on television ever, that pushes into disembodiment and AI avatars. Give it the first three episodes. They’re establishing the rules of the universe, it’s going to feel annoying, but after you get past that, I’m telling you, everyone who has watched this show has been blown the fuck away. Also, Samurai Scavengers, Common Side Effects, Death & Robots.
I’m basically interested in what people imagine the future is going to look like, even it’s bad. But specifically the early 2000s because there was this optimism toward future aesthetics, and that was very interestingly expressed.
Yeah. Right now it seems like there’s an active refusal to imagine the future, either with the constant regurgitation of old cultural styles or just politically, the descent into nihilism. What does success look like to you as an artist? Because it’s very clear that traditional metrics are not what you’re looking for.
We are in this age of, you know, even something like Spotify, these institutions, unfortunately, are tied to very dark entities. I think now success is much more interpersonal. I want to have that type of career where the people who support and love my music will allow me to be an object in motion. I want to make sure my music lives in real life.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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