The shesaid.so mix series aims to spotlight the diverse artists within our community. We’re committed to championing underrepresented voices from around the world, focusing on female, non-binary, trans and queer individuals. Our monthly mix series allows our contributing selectors to showcase their unique backgrounds and inspirations by creating exclusive, 30-minute live recorded soundscapes.
This month, we have the Italian DJ/producer Cristina Lazic, whose vibrant minimal tech productions and staunch support for women and mothers in dance music have catapulted her career over the past half-decade.
Music has always been a big part of Lazic’s life. As a child, she learned how to play piano before composing her own music as a teenager. In 2016, she picked up DJing while on maternity leave; in the past few years, she’s learned how to produce, growing her skills exponentially by incorporating her knowledge of music theory into her groovy soundscapes.
Lazic’s kinetic DJ and production style have led to releases on labels such as Crosstown Rebels’ Rebellion, Bondage Music, TBX, and Creature Records, as well as performances at iconic international clubs and festivals such as Exit, Get Lost Miami, Unum, Koko, Magazzini Generali, and at Hi Ibiza in support of renowned selector Damian Lazarus.
She also recently released her first NFT - an audio/visual asset featuring her song “Meteor” and 3D visual art Crazy Panda. You can buy one for a chance to win a production lesson from Lazic.
What first inspired you to start making electronic music?
I have always been a big fan of electronic music, and music in general. I grew up during my childhood years learning to play the piano from my grandmother, who was a piano teacher. I started composing music during my teenage years, and at 18 I moved to London, the city where I started developing a strong love for electronic music.
Since then, I have been a big electronic music fan, traveling all around the the world to listen to my favorite producers. However, it wasn’t until 10 years later, during my maternity, that I approached the world of DJing myself. While I wasn’t working looking after my 6-month-old, I wanted to find a hobby to accompany the milk and nappies. A friend approached me to join her for some DJ courses, and that’s how I started playing.
That was in 2016 - fast forward 4 years, my music career started picking up, even if it was still a side business. But then Covid happened, and I was based in Italy then where they had very strict lockdowns. I took this opportunity to improve my music profile and started producing.
I already had Ableton installed on my computer, but a lack of bandwidth (full time job and daughter) to actually use it… so I took the time afforded to me by Covid to finally start studying the program, attending remote classes and watching tutorials on Youtube.
I always wanted to learn to produce, as I felt this would make me more of a complete artist. I’m glad that I was able to find an opportunity during a moment of frustration. Now, production has changed my music career and I can definitely say it has given me a professional boost I neve would have achieved by DJing alone.
What’s your favorite part about producing and DJing?
I am a very creative person, and I feel that with music production I can bring to life all my ideas in the form of music, my true passion. I personally enjoy applying the things I learned as a child through my grandma and piano lessons, concepts such as harmony, to my music productions.
When it comes to DJing, I love to share my energy with the audience. I just simply enjoy improvising and taking the dance floor on a musical journey, always with the mission to make them dance and have a memorable time.
Why is it important to you to support women in the music industry?
For me this is of paramount importance, as the electronic music scene has been male dominated for a long time. Things are changing now, and there are more women in music, but in my opinion there is still much work to be done. In my genre, for example, deep tech / minimal, only 2% of producers are women. I think it’s important to support each other and create awareness of the fact that, even if you see many women who are DJs now, the road to gender equality is still a long one. I am quite happy about the progress that I have seen in the last years though, and this is thanks to initiatives and communities like shesaid.so. However, I believe that it’s necessary to constantly remind people of the importance of having gender equality in the industry - therefore the support among women, and among women and men, is something that has to be continued throughout time.
What can the music world do to create a better environment for artists and their children?
First of all, there is a big need to build awareness of the fact that there is a problem in the industry: it’s not family friendly. More initiatives have to be done to help artists, and music professionals in general, with kids. For example, I loved seeing Rhianna pregnant on the Super Bowl stage; this was a great way to show that parenthood is something normal, and can cohabit with your professional career. I’d love to see more of that, but also more events, panels and initiatives that talk about parenthood in music. Secondly, I think more support is needed for parents in music. That’s why with shesaid.so, we are looking into bringing to life a helpline that parents can call 24/7 to receive mental health support.
And last but not least, events should become more family friendly. For example, I dream of attending a festival with a kids friendly area, or the normalization being a dj and a mum; that’s why, in my rider, I have included a note where I mention that I often travel with my family and I ask promoters to support that, by providing a triple room so that my husband and daughter can feel welcome. In the future, I hope to be able to also request a child care service during the slot of my performances.
Talk to us about your recent NFT project.
A couple of weeks ago I attended the Polkadot Decoded festival in Copenhagen, and this was the perfect occasion for me to drop my first NFT: an audio + video asset featuring my track “Meteor” and beautiful visuals by 3D art studio Crazy Panda. We dropped the NFT during my DJ set at Polkadot Decoded, via a music web3 platform called Public Pressure. Among those who will support this project by buying a copy, 3 lucky winners will receive mentoring sessions with me. Many people have been reaching out to ask me to mentor them lately, so I thought of extending this opportunity to the wider public. As of today, I mentor several junior artists, and during my previous career in tech while working for Apple and Google, I was mentoring junior colleagues. I really enjoy helping others build self confidence, plan their development and take action to achieve their goals; but so far I have been mainly mentoring men, especially when it comes to music, and I hope that moving forward I’ll be able to help more women.
You can find the link to the NFT here: https://app.publicpressure.io/nft/0x049f362a5d5b4b77fb1a150528d3997b3e8a71cb?blockchain=moonbeam
Where’s your favorite place to play?
Hi Ibiza is one of a kind. I was lucky enough to play there last year in Damian Lazarus’ Club Room during Saturdays with Black Coffee, and I will play there again in a few weeks, opening for Damian Lazarus and Dubfire. The club is just amazing, with an excellent organization, sound system and crowd. It definitely feels special to play at the best club in the world and share the decks with some of the best DJs on the globe!
