 "Photo: photo: Mitch Ramos / UCD Advocate")
DJ Alisha Sweeney was raised on the classics—Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles. Her father owned a record store/arcade, and all through her childhood and teenage years, Sweeney listened to everything she could get her hands on. Now she is one of the most successful crossover DJs in the Denver/Boulder area.
Sweeney DJs for Radio 1190 at the CU Boulder campus from 4-6 p.m. every Wednesday. She features a top-12 countdown on her show and focuses mostly on independent and local music. She also DJs at clubs in Denver. The Advocate sat down with Sweeney to ask her some questions about DJing, motherhood, and rocking the mic.
Advocate: Did you always know you wanted to DJ?
Alisha Sweeney: Yeah. I always recorded myself and I always hung out listening to the radio, waiting for the song to come on, and then I would press record so I could make my own mix tapes. In high school journalism, I interviewed Bret Saunders [a local radio DJ] and he was very nice, and I thought it was really cool experience. He had a really great following back then, before he moved to KBCO or KTCL became corporate.
How did you become a club DJ?
By accident. I was a radio DJ first and then got asked by a listener who happened to be a club promoter who wanted me to come and spin at new club night in downtown Denver. I knew how to run the board at the radio station and how to mix songs, but I had never done it in front of a live audience at a club where people are depending on you to dance. But I came to love it, and seeing the dance floor fill up because of a song you play is such a great feeling.
What’s a drawback to club DJing?
I got a little scared at first, because in radio you can hide behind the radio, but in clubs people can really approach you, like “Hi, I’m Dennis. I’m the one who listens to you all the time and calls you every morning.” I was kind of scared to be a club DJ for a while because of those kinds of things. I’m not saying every dude is into me, but there are those few who think they share a special relationship. You get invited places. Some guy wanted to fly me out to the Playboy mansion this weekend. I was like, “Yeah. Right.”
Why aren’t there very many female DJs?
There are and there aren’t very many female DJs. You just need to know where to look. For me, being a DJ, I can think of 10 or so girls that are friends/colleagues of mine that DJ once a month or so for a smaller club night. The women DJs I know are all entrepreneurs and have built relationships with club owners across town to make their DJ nights happen.
But on a bigger level, this is a predominately male field and the amount of male DJs overshadow[s] the females. I try not to think about being a female DJ as a “novelty,” as I’ve been called before, and I do take my role for selecting songs and entertaining a crowd seriously and just have fun.
Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Absolutely. I’m a feminist in that I know I deserve equal treatment, especially in the industry. I think being a feminist has a stigma attached to it. Like you have to be angry at the opposite sex to care about your rights as a woman. I’m not an angry person and it takes a lot to upset me, but I have been mistreated by men, especially early on, who have judged me by my sex and age not thinking that I could compete with my peers—men—in the industry.
Like when?
While working in corporate radio, I was demoted without notice by my program director so that he could hire his best friend to do my job. And in the clubs, I’ve been treated poorly by promoters who try to get out of paying me, [and] men coming up to the DJ booth trying to dictate my setlist and look through my records without asking. I’ve also been threatened to change a song because a song reminded a guy of his ex.
But that’s not the story I want to tell. I like to think that most of the people I work with don’t just want me around because I’m a female, but because I’m a good DJ. And I feel that’s the real story.
Oh, and I’ve had a baby. How many men can say they’ve done that? I should get some extra brownie points for that, right?
Totally. Speaking of which, how has being a mom changed your perspective on having on career?
First, being a mom is awesome. It’s like all the naughty stuff toddlers do is canceled out by the fact that he is just a great kid.
Becoming a mom has definitely changed the way I’ve shaped my DJ career over the last two years. I now have to make more decisions on what I think will be more lucrative for us as a family. I can’t just go and DJ at a random club for someone all night and get paid in drink tokens. I am more choosy about my gigs. I do, however, have a soft spot for charity events and local businesses who want me to spin and will always go out and support them if it’s helping to benefit an important cause.
I have decided that the best use of my time is to spend it as a stay-at-home mom, which both my toddler and I benefit from, and I expect it to lead me into a new phase of my career once I decide to get back to it full-time. I still DJ once a week on the radio and it’s important for me to do it so that I have a creative outlet and some “free-to-be-DJ Alisha” time.
What do you think about the music scene in Denver?
Denver has such a thriving underground music scene and I think what makes it so great is that the people involved act as a big family or collective—whether you’re in a band, just go to shows, work at a venue, write about and photograph the shows, make flyers, record bands—we all support our scene. We are lucky that any night of the week, we can go out and see one of our own onstage.
If you don’t know where to start, listen to The Local Shakedown on Radio 1190 and call up and request Paper Bird, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, or Iuengliss. Our locals rival any city, and thanks to events like The Underground Music Showcase, we are turning heads towards our little cow town. Oh, and the national music blogosphere is pretty good to some of our rising talent as well.
Any cool celebrity stories?
Our friends and I took Marilyn Manson to Casa Bonita, and bonded over exchanging pictures of Chihuahuas. We always try and take people there, and he thought it was pretty awesome.
And, I actually saw Radiohead play at the Mercury Café, a long time ago. There were fake plastic trees on stage. That was a really cool and memorable show to be a part of.
Listen to DJ Alisha between 4 and 6 p.m. every Wednesday on Radio 1190, or see her live from 7-10 p.m. on March 6 at Jonesy’s Eat Bar. Find her online at twitter.com/dj_alisha and radio1190.org/blog.
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