Biography
Language: EnglishAlthough Calisthea has no live play-out experiences as yet although been approached by a couple of club promoters to use CDJ, but she firmly sticks to using vinyls to create her musical journey. Presently, she is waiting for the right opportunity to come for her to display her unique mixing skills on turntables for any gigs / parties / club residencies etc. Calisthea is indeed confident and ready to play out anytime, anywhere.
Calisthea first developed her keen interest in dance music when she was only 14 years of age, and had gone clubbing frequently during that time with her party-goers friends. She loved to go to different bigger dance clubs and experience the different genres of sounds being played by the DJs at those clubs she went.
Later on when she reached 18 years of age, she started to frequent the legendary dance club ZOUK (Singapore) and from then on, she switched her preference for dancing to techno stuff to serious tribal and house music, which Zouk was fervently promoting to the local scene at that time. From then on, Zouk was her favorite club hangout, until she began to grow tired of the music being played there and in other clubs, she later developed a vision of seeing herself being the DJ standing at the console and playing quality dance music to the dance crowd. In addition, her friends also strongly encouraged her to learn DJing and play her own selection of dance tracks as they, as her friends, had always recognized and admired Calisthea’s excellent, progressive and acute sense for great tracks that can rock e crowd.
And finally in 2001, after Calisthea graduated from a local college with a Diploma in Legal Studies, she further continued to pursue her growing passion for DJing and dance music and so she started to lots of research on DJing via the Internet and eventually saved enough money to buy herself her 1st set of brand new DJ equipment comprising of a pair of Technic 1210MKII decks, Stanton 500 stylus, Pioneer DJ headphones, Behringer Truth Monitor speakers and a Behringer DJM300 mixer.
With her equipment, she began to seek DJ training from two local and experienced professional club DJs who taught her the fundamental basics of beat-mixing and DJ equipment knowledge.
Her training lasted for 6 months but ever since she had her own decks in late 2001, she began to buy vinyls in 10 or more in a go to practice intensively on her decks, and she always found joy in creating her own mixes with the different genres of dance records she purchased on her selection. Over these couple of years of dj-ing as a bedroom jock, she has amassed about more than a hundred different titles of dance music comprising of different genres, and she makes it a point to always update herself on the latest trends in dance music revolutions.
She has not being able to commit full-time to Pro DJ-ing as she was holding a full-time day job and the income from her day job sustained her expenses for buying the records and DJing equipment. It was until now then she realized that she just could not bear DJing in her bedroom anymore, she had to play out her music to the public and masses anytime from now. Djing had always been her passion and its the only activity that will sustained her interest for as long as it holds. From then on, she knew deep in her heart that her life purpose was meant for the DJ circuit.
She is a self-confessed Non-Alcoholic, and she Does NOT do any illicit drugs or party dope etc as she strongly believes that a good DJ does not need any dope (or even alcohol) to do a great set.
Her technical knowledge and functional capabilities of DJ equipment are not limited to only her own brands of DJ gear. She is able to mix equally well on other brands and models of DJ equipment such as VESTAX, NUMARK, GEMINI, DENON, PIONEER, RANE, etc.)
Her current music taste and style is mainly geared towards the deep, dark and progressive sounds, and in general, she plays any tunes that she knows will make the crowd dance to it. Her main DJ Influences has always been changing and jus to name a few herein; DJ Sasha, Anthony Pappa, John Digweed, Nick Warren, Lexicon Avenue, John Creamer, Stephane K, Dirty Vegas, Peace Division, M.V., Dave Seaman, Deep Dish, Luke Chable, Satoshi Tomiie, Tony Thomas, Saeed & Palash, Max Graham, Chris Fortier, G-Pal, and the list goes on..
Her main mixing and music programming styles: In general, she does harmonic mixing by the keys of the track and chain them into a wondrous, continuous set. She simply luvs playing wicked, phat dance tracks filled with deep, heavy bass-lines, and added with minimal hypnotizing vocals that complement the whole track throughout. She luvs to play progressive mainly because it brings the clubbers into an unknown musical journey, and you will not know where you will be led to unless you follow the DJ set right from the beginning till the end.
Although she prefers to build her set up gradually, but she will use her keen and accurate instinctive ability to read the crowd’s reaction and adjust myself accordingly to the crowds preference (if necessary) Her set is also dependant on the duration of the set. If the set is a brief 2 hr set, she shortens her set, and at the same time making sure that the crowd is treated to a brief but equally mind-euphoric dance journey.
Presently, her ultimate passion & goal in life is to secure as many gigs as possible and gain maximum exposure from the experiences. She is a tough lady inside and is not afraid to tread on the main male-dominated world of DJing. She hopes to gain recognition for her unique mixing skills and become a true PRO DJ, and travel around the world at different venues for clubs residencies or gigs both internationally and locally. If possible, she would prefer to play out more internationally as she enjoys meeting different people of different countries & cultures.
On an additional note, she is also proud to be part of a truly, rare breed of female progressive DJs who can do a equally good set as the male jocks and treats any competition in this highly competitive DJ field as a challenge to bring herself to greater heights. This is a talented, sassy, versatile female DJ who can play breaks, house music of various genres, or electronic dance music etc.
If she is being booked for any gigs, She swears to give her total commitment to her potential club owners/promoters. Her ultimate objective is to rope in as many clubbers for the club and keep their dance floors consistently packed with the happy clubbers. Seeing the dance floor filled and the clubbers dancing non-stop to her set is my best satisfaction.
