Mind The Music Episode 016 - On combining motherhood and a DJ career in the nightlife industry with Auntie Maureen
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🎧 Replay on Reform Radio’s website
If this is your first time tuning in, let me quickly introduce the show. Mind the music focuses on well-being in electronic music and I explore how we can achieve that, through interviews with people who are active within the dance music industry and outside of it.
This episode covers motherhood and a career in the nightlife industry - it's a rare combination that strikes most people as unnatural. Late hours, loud music and exposure to the more hedonistic side of life…
To say that Maureen has an astoundingly inspirational story is an understatement. She has overcome an enormous amount of hurdles as a young mom - figuring out how to keep her relationship going, raising her son alone, going back to university to avoid the poverty trap and DJing giving her the freedom she needed to be there for her babe.
Through her philosophy of unlearning and unpacking she shares how she - with her son all grown up and out of the house, can start anew and at the same time, continue on her journey in life, experimenting along the way.
We also talk about
The challenges she has faced and is still facing as a female person in club culture, arguing to leave gender out of it … in a political/economic context,
How she has and always will live and breathe gender parity,
Patriarchy, how her son gives into that, how that makes her feel and how that is impacting on her view of education and raising a child,
Letting go of her caretaker role after her son, now in his 20s, moved out.
Speaking about juggling life, motherhood, and DJing, in an interesting way, DJing gave her the freedom to do school runs during the week for both her son and her neighbor’s children. This led to community support of moms helping each other out - moms babysitting Maureen’s son so that she could DJ during the weekend.
For any normal person on the outside looking in, it's hard not to show concern for a young kid growing up in a family of DJs. Maureen recalls some stories where again that community feel is beautifully reflected - like getting help from her local record store to entertain her kid with cricket while she goes out on a quick promo run with party flyers.
Maureen also shares her top tips for DJ moms:
Get enough sleep,
Get enough vitamin D
Don’t give away your power.
Listen to the episode to get the full story!
And if you’re looking to get expert advice on how to become more visible as a DJ and book more and better (paid) gigs, be sure to download my free PDF which includes 6 mindfulness tips and advice from music industry experts at Warner Records, Disco Donnie Presents, Reform Radio and more!
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