All My Friends EP#80 Léna C

Hello Léna, thanks so much for coming on the blog and putting together such a lovely mix for us. I always like to start these interview by getting our guest to tell us a bit about their DJing and musical journey. Can you share with us when you started DJing and how that journeys been up to this day? 

Hi Liam, thank you for having me and I’m glad you enjoyed the mix! I had a lot of fun putting this together for you!

I started DJing in 2017 with the Manchester-based collective Me Gusta until 2020 just before the pandemic. I left MG because I wanted to explore DJing and producing solo but Covid hit and we got all stuck at home! I was lucky to be able to continue my monthly show called Jet Lag on Reform Radio which has been really great for me to keep digging, putting mixes together and creating some content. It is also during covid that I learnt how to use Ableton Live and that my journey as a producer really started. 

Since the end of lockdown, I have been lucky to be booked in and out of Manchester. I moved to Hebden Bridge during the first lockdown and I’ve also been enjoying playing locally since everything reopened!

Your mix is a wonderful selection of a music drawn from different genres, decades and places around the world. Have you always approached DJing this way and do you have any DJs, promoters or venues that you look to for inspiration as a DJ?

Thank you! 

I always make sure to feature tracks from as many countries as possible and when it comes to eras, I am definitely a huge fan of the 70s and 80s but I do dig a lot into new releases as well so yes I am very eclectic!

And yes I have always approached DJing like this and music in general. There are plenty of amazing DJs playing Anglo-American music but I try to avoid it in my sets, not because I don’t like it but because there’s so much more good music out there and I love songs sung in different languages! I am French and teach French so English is not my first language, that’s why I want to promote other languages and regional dialects. 

I grew up in Brittany, which is a region with a very strong culture and language so I’ve always been told of the importance of keeping our regional culture alive, especially by my dad who’s a Breton traditional music composer and multi-instrumentalist.

I don’t really like the term ‘looking up’ because it implies that you don’t value yourself as much as the people you look up too, and I think it is important to be aware of your uniqueness as a creative and to use it as an asset to offer something that is very personal, otherwise we’re just copycats! 

That being said I obviously do respect many artists, DJs, record labels, record shop owners, music collectives, music venues in and out of the UK! 

I think I find inspiration in people’s kindness and sincerity more than their music knowledge. I truly respect many creatives with whom I don’t necessarily share similar tastes but whose personalities are very inspiring! 

Tina Edwards is a perfect example, she is an incredible person that I have been lucky to DJ with in London and in one of her Worldwide FM shows. She’s been really supportive, extremely genuine and kind! We obviously share some common musical tastes but she’s a UK jazz specialist, a genre that I don’t really know much about! 

My very good friend Nongi Oliphant (SNO) is also a person that I respect immensely because she is true to herself in anything she does whether it is in her DJ sets or in our friendship! 

There are so many other incredible people in Manchester that I genuinely like a lot! Chris Massey is one of them, he’s been super nice to offer me this record deal for which I’m so grateful! Andy Votel has also been really supportive, he’s an incredible selector who I respect a lot! There is a genuine sense of love and support in the Manchester musical scene which is so wholesome and heartwarming! 

I also want to mention the collective Apricot Ballroom based in Sheffield, they booked me for my very first headlined show last February and I love them! They’re amazing guys with a genuine love for music! 

I also have a lot of respect for record shop owners, we don’t really talk about these guys that much but they have such an incredible music knowledge! I’ve learnt so much from them! I always check the record shops in each place I visit but my favourite so far (and I might be a tiny bit biased) is Corner Records in Lorient, my hometown in Brittany. 

Here’s an non-exhaustive list of some of my fave venues to DJ in Manchester and in the Calderdale Valley where I live : NAM (Mcr), Band On The Wall (Mcr), YES (Mcr), Golden Lion (Todmorden), Nelson’s (Hebden Bridge).

As well as DJing you’re also a producer with an upcoming EP in the works. How does it feel knowing you’re going to have your music released on wax and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? 

I still have to pinch myself to be honest! It’s incredible and I am extremely grateful to Chris Massey and his label Sprechen to have given me this amazing opportunity.

I am very nervous but obviously really excited to see it released. As you are probably aware, there’s a huge backlog in the pressing plants at the moment so the release has been delayed by 3 months already so hopefully by January it’ll be out! 

It is possible to pre-order the EP on bandcamp though.

Let talk a little more about your mix, you’ve been really kind and supplied us with a tracklist (Readers can find it below) but can you pick out a few tracks in it which you really enjoy and tell us why? 

You’re welcome! I always provide the tracklist because I don’t really see the point of not sharing the names of the tracks, this is not my music after all so I have no rights to make it my own and keep it a secret. The whole point of DJing as I see it is to share music with people so they can discover or re-discover tracks that they’ll listen to again in the future!

In this mix I have put one of the tracks that I listen to on repeat at the moment which is Northern Lights by Puccio Roelens. This track is an absolute Italian funk soul masterpiece! I love it because the melody is so bittersweet, it is quintessentially 70s and Italian!  The crescendo is so well executed leading to this incredible saxophone part towards the end, it gets me each time I listen to it!! 

I obviously love every single track of this mix but if I was going to choose another one that I really love it would be Ti Na Mas Kanei I Nychta by the Greek singer Christiana. I love music from Greece, Turkey, Iran and more generally the Middle East because in Greek and Turkish folk songs for instance there is so much emotion that transpires from the vocals. It’s almost as if you could hear the singer cry whilst singing because they put so much pathos into their singing, it’s incredible! They definitely put their soul into it! 

Lastly, what is on the horizon for you music wise? When is the EP likely to arrive and do you have any other events or radio shows in the pipeline you can tell use about? 

My horizon music wise is to keep playing music for people and also make more music. I am currently making another EP which will be released probably late 2023. I am also working on a remix of a track by an artist who has been signed by a label which is based in my hometown Lorient in Brittany. It is the first time I’ve been asked to do a remix so I am really excited about this project! 

 I do have a few events coming up, there is one that I am really happy to be doing which is ‘Podium’ a residency at Golden Lion in Todmorden which promotes women and non-binary DJs, we’ve done 3 events so far and we’re planning to do more in the new year!

I am also a regular guest at Andy Votel’s B-Music events which I really enjoy doing because I get to play records that I don’t usually bring with me to a bar or club!
You can also catch me playing records at this new venue in Manchester called Exhibition, I alternate Sunday and Thursday evening once a month.

 Pre order Léna’s EP Promenade on Bandcamp now: Link