DJ JAZZY wears sooo many hats in her career. She’s a DJ, producer, singer, songwriter, dancer and a photographer – just to name a few! Jazzy creates fun and uplifting music for kids and teens which is free of adult content but sounds exactly like the bops you hear on the radio thanks to her mix of dance, pop, dub and hip hop.
DJ Jazzy is currently starring on Channel Seven’s music series All Together Now as a judge. Headed up by Captain Ronan Keating, Jazzy and her fellow judges, known as The 100, are a collective of the music industry whose job it is to decide which performer is the most entertaining. GF chatted to DJ JAZZY about her time on All Together Now, how she got started in her career and her advice for success in the entertainment industry.
GF: How did you get started in the entertainment industry?
I was basically born into it! My mum and my dad have been doing music ever since they were younger and they had a kids pop group which were called The Star Girls and I used to do that as well – I was Twinkle Star – so I’ve been doing it ever since I could walk and talk basically.
GF: What inspired you to incorporate DJing alongside singing?
Really it started off with dancing because I started teaching dance at a really young age – I started teaching dance at 10 years old and I was finding that none of the music was appropriate for the kids I was dancing with and for myself as well but I loved all the music that was on the radio at the same time. I just grew a passion for finding music and I always have the best music, all of my friends have always told me that I always know what music to play at parties and I just know what everyone’s going to dance to.
GF: When it comes to making music, what inspires you?
Kids inspire me to make music. I write music for kids that is positive and that contains really good messages. It’s just putting that message into their mind that they can be different, they can do what they like, they’ve got so much to do with their lives as well. Writing music for them that they want to listen to and that’s catchy and fun and that sounds like what should be on the radio for them and try to make it cool as well – that’s my real passion.
GF: You’re a role model for many people, but who do you look up to?
My parents are massive role models for me. They’ve helped me through everything and have made me who I am today. I used to go to all of their gigs when I was a baby, like I mean from like six months old my grandma used to take me to all of their band gigs and I used to just watch them and I used to go to all of their rehearsals – that’s who I wanted to be like.
GF: You’ve got so many things going on so how do you juggle all of your projects?
It is very hard! I really just have to dedicate my whole entire life to it and that’s what I’ve been doing for years now and I’ve had the privilege to do that because my parents have helped me as well. I’m just so lucky that I have the right support system around me, especially my family. Every show that I do, it’s my entire family that’s helping me out and selling merchandise, doing things backstage and I’ve got really close family friends who have been with me since the beginning – they once were my fans and now they’ve grown to be my family as well and they help me through everything too.
GF: Sounds like it’s a team effort!
It is a team effort! I don’t think I’d be able to do what I do by myself, it would be impossible. There’s so many jobs to do!
GF: You often wear football jerseys and they always have the number 33 on them. What does that mean?
It’s strange because the number 3 was my favourite number but it’s not lucky to me, I’ve just always been drawn to it and I doubled it. I love football jerseys and I love the idea about being on a team, like every single show that I do, I invite the kids to be apart of my team as well so everyone feels apart of something and the 33 kind of just grew with me. Everyone always asks me ‘Is it because your 33 years old?’ They think that you’re so much older than what you are! But no I‘ve just always loved the number 3. I also like the idea that it’s not number 1, that being first isn’t the most important thing!
GF: You’re currently appearing on Channel Seven’s TV show All Together Now. How has this experience been?
Really, really fun. I’ve loved it! The whole 100 have become so close during the filming period, it was crazy and I was so glad to be apart of it because everyone on the panel was actually amazing talent-wise and people don’t know enough about The 100 – knowing that their apart of the music industry and working gigs every single weekend – they know what to have to do to get up on stage, they understand it. That has been a great experience. It’s really inspiring to be apart of!
GF: What’s your favourite part of filming All Together Now?
It’s so hard to pick because I loved being on set just as much as I loved being backstage with everyone but I probably have to go with being able to watch the talent that we have was definitely my favourite part and just seeing the talent within The 100 too, that was really fun. It was great! Everyone that came on was really good.
GF: When people did come on to perform, where you looking for something in particular in their performance or did you have an open mind every time someone performed?
I decided before the show that when I was going to be judging I wasn’t going to be going off their singing because that’s not what the show was about, it was about the entertainment. Not everyone can be a perfect singer but there’s some people that can get up onstage and perform a song and I was just going off ‘What do I think the people at home would love?’ If they made me feel like I had to get up and sing along or dance with them, I felt like that was considered my point so I would stand up if I could not hold myself back from singing with them.
GF: The entertainment industry can be tricky sometimes so what advice would you have for teens wanting to get involved in this industry?
My strong advice would be to not stop what you’re doing workwise as well because you’ve got to have something to support you as getting started in the music industry is not going to support you financially and there can be young teenagers that may have their parents helping them but a lot of people don’t have the right support systems and it’s not easy to get a family that goes ‘I’ll let you do music and we’ll pay for everything for you’ so my key advice is to just keep working at it, do your job through the day and get the financial stuff behind you, keep practicing every single moment that you get and don’t lose the passion. It’s non-stop so you’ve got to put everything into it!
GF: What does next year hold for you? What are you looking forward to?
I have a new thing coming up, it’s called The Daydreamers and they’ll be featuring with me throughout all my shows because I love getting young talent involved in my shows. Basically my team who will come and dance with me [at shows] and online they’ll do lots of content with me, filming funny videos and it’s just going to be a whole new thing because daydreaming to me is the start of a goal and getting ready to do what you want to do with the rest of your life because you should never give up on your daydreams so I want to create a massive group and get people involved and show them how to never give up. So The Daydreamers is going to be a really cool dance group that is going to be apart of my team onstage and I’ve already done the auditions for it and they’ll be announced at the beginning of the year, as well as heaps of shows as I love doing shows.
ALL TOGETHER NOW airs Sundays at 7pm on Channel Seven.
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