Beanie's Beginning

Beanie first bounced onto the hard dance scene at Frantic’s Hard Dance Showcase as their August 2008 competition winner.

As regulars will know, HDS is notorious for catapulting fresh new DJ talent into the spotlight, and Beanie is definitely no exception.

With two sets at Raindance under her belt, together with a performance at Back2Basix and numerous appearances at Frantic’s Hard Dance Showcase, Beanie is becoming a firm favourite as she takes the London hard dance scene by storm and snaps at the heels of significantly more well-established DJs.

A true raver at heart, Beanie has been out clubbing on the scene on-and-off for the last ten years.

An old Peach regular and previous attendee of the fridge for events such as Chemistry and Rave Monkey, she is definitely a woman who knows how to have a good time!

It was at Chemistry she first saw Lisa Lashes play a set and was so inspired she went out and bought her first set of decks.

Now, after taking time out to have her second child, she is back on the scene as a DJ and is proving a force to be reckoned with!!!

Since she handed her first demo out at Hard Nation @ The End in March 2008 she has had an astounding amount of complimentary feedback from clubbers, DJs and promoters alike.

“Beanie is a great girl always full of energy and a great passion for what she wants to achieve. I listened to two demos of hers which were designed really well, mixed like a pro and with a superb tracklistings. There was no doubt in my mind that she would be a good choice for HDS. She warmed up the middle room and set the standard for the rest of the night.
Remember the name because she is sure to have a great future ahead of her....” - - - Kevsey D

StompKat catches up with Beanie prior to her Birthday set at HDS on 6th March to dig some dirt......

So, Beanie, for those of us who were living under a stone in 2008, why don’t you fill us in on some background on your good self...?

I've been mixing for 7 years at home. About a year after I had my son I decided to try and take my DJ-ing further and then set about making my first demo. I emailed the lovely Miss Cally Gage for some advice on how to go about doing this. She was great and helped loads.

To test the waters, I gave my first demo out at Hard Nation in March 2008. I gave the first one out to a random outside in the smoking area - he goes by the name of Webbo (some will know him as Adrian Webb). He’s a great bloke and a hardcore raver; we've been firm friends ever since. The clubbers are so important to me, it’s essential to keep the fans happy – they know what they like and can make you or break you.

Armed with Cally’s advice and all the feedback received from other people I made another demo, ironing out all the creases – my Remember This...? mix was born!
I gave this to Elvis at HDS and the rest, as they say, is history!

Of course, because it was with your Remember This...? mix that you won the August HDS DJ competition! How did you feel when you realised you’d WON?

I was at home on facebook and I saw Elvis online and just thought I'd make a little enquiry to see if he had listened to my mix and he replied with “How do you feel about playing for us as the competition winner in August?"

It didn’t actually register at that moment, I had to read it 2 or 3 times!!! Of course I said “yes” and “thank you so much” etc, etc.

I jumped up and screamed and jumped about the front room for a good 5 minutes before I could actually get the words together to tell my family why I was going crazy! They actually thought I'd lost the plot!!! It was just the best feeling in the world.

LOL, your family must have been so pleased for you! What was your next step after that?

I'd only had my CDJ’s for a week! So I threw myself into practising; the transition from vinyl to CD wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be and I managed to pull it off by the time HDS rolled round.

I had the time of my life on the night! The room was SO much busier than I ever expected it to be and I got a huge applause when I finished and wound down my last tune! I can honestly say it was the best night of my life! I felt like I was finally doing what I’ve dreamed of doing for years.

Wow, sounds incredible! Not long after this you played your first set at Raindance – a fantastic achievement considering you only played your first ever set out in London the August before! Tell us about that....?

Raindance is one of the biggest and oldest names on the rave scene and it is an absolute honour to have played for them. They must have been pleased, as they invited me back to play for them again at the Slightly Late Valentines Ball.

A little bird told me you stepped up to the plate to save the day later on that night as well.....?

Poor Elvis was ill and couldn’t make it so they asked me to play half of his slot at 2am! So of course I jumped at the chance, and I ended up playing my first peak time set!

You just recently launched “Beanie’s Basement!”, your group on DSI, and very nice it looks too!

...After a lot of blood sweat and tears! I hope people like it and hopefully join! I plan to put out a mix when my group reaches 100 members, so tell your friends! ;)

Everything happened so quickly for you in 2008 - what are your plans for 2009.....? Any juicy gossip you can fill us in on?

Last Saturday I had my first experience making a tune! I went into the studio with A.Dee & the very talented Rob O.T.T and we came up with a little number called Bad Dream! I have put a little taster up of the tune below. Plans for 2009? well I plan to try and get as many bookings as poss and keep on working hard to try and achieve all my dreams, I'm still so hungry for more….

Beanie has four mixes available for download - Remember this...?, Raise the Roof, August HDS set and her latest promo, Dark. Visit her Facebook fan page to see the list, choose which one you want to download and click on the orange “freeMP3” box, save and enjoy! (You DO NOT need to be a member of Facebook to do this!)

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www.Facebook.com/pages/beanie/25558617231