Empress

  Known for her high energy and mind bending sets, internationally revered Empress's talent & dedication has always set her apart for her 18 year career. 

    Empress saw a seminal glimmer of purpose in 1994 when she attended her first rave. “From the first time I ever stepped into a club and felt that free, passionate energy, I knew I had to be involved,” she proclaimed. The next two years found her honing her DJ skills while she worked at Joey D’s Records, and networked with local promoters and DJs on the Northeast coast.

    Empress received her first bookings in 1996 at the young age of 16 while she was attending her first year of college. Practicing relentlessly to perfect her craft, she performed consistently throughout New England and became a full-time DJ upon her graduation from College. Something of a prodigy, she graduated college at 17 years old, to then work at Satellite Records (NYC) as the in-house drum and bass specialist from then until the end of 1999, performing a few nights a week and developing her production skills in her free time.

    In 1999, destiny unfolded to reveal Empress’ primacy. After thoroughly impressing Jumping Jack Frost in Toronto, she was invited to play at V Recordings’ night in London called Movement, making her the first American drum and bass DJ to be accepted and booked into the insular UK drum and bass scene  That was also the first year Empress was invited to play at the Ultra Music Festival during WMC, which she played at for 8 consecutive years.

    In 2000, Empress enjoyed frequent bookings overseas and in the US. She found herself playing frequently on the west coast, where she met DJ/producers UFO! and Sage. The three collaborated as Triadd for the 2001 release Hydroxy (Skunkrock Recordings UK).  She toured with DJ Sage to promote the release in the US and toured with DJ UFO! on a 3 week multi-country tour of Europe, while making it back over to play at Movement in London again. After that she was booked in Macedonia, where she was the first Drum & Bass DJ ever booked to play there worldwide.

    In 2002, Empress and production partner Jinsoo Kim remixed the theme from New York, New York for The Rockettes performance on New Years Eve. Kim, then a keyboard tech for the infamous band Blondie, relayed Empress's demos to the band. At the band’s request, Empress and Kim produced and mixed four songs for Blondie's album "The Curse of Blondie" released in 2003 on Sony UK.  The same year, Empress recorded Stateside Sessions: Drum & Bass Vol. 2 for Topaz Recordings and conquered a 40-date promotional tour of North America and Puerto Rico.

    From 2000-2003 Empress was the resident DJ @ one of NYC's most influencial dnb parties, "Ignite" that she ran alongside DJs Krunchy & DJ 101-- featuring many of the world's most prestigious Drum & Bass DJs and Producers.

    Dominating the drum n bass scene as a DJ and producer for over 7 years, Empress felt the need to broaden her horizons. In 2003, she began to play many of the genres that had always been major influences to her- all styles of hip hop, electro, funk, dancehall, soul, 70s, 80s, 90s & disco.  Armed with Rane's Serato Scratch Live Dj Empress became known for her 5-8 hour extended sets, spanning many genres and sounds while still rocking drum and bass crowds globally.  Her production also reflected this expansion of sound--with Empress producing electro & other genres of music.  She was continued to spend her time in the studio.  In 2004, she sampled Roy Ayers’ "We Live In Brooklyn" for her song "Brooklyn Baby", which she licensed to a compilation on New Identity Records UK "Jazz and Bass". 

    She held a residency at NYC's The Park nightclub from 2005-2007, playing 8-hour sets every Friday and performing at special corporate events for the Tribeca Film Festival, Condé Nast, Victoria Secret, Godiva & MTV's "My Sweet 16" events amongst various prestigious Magazines/Papers/Publications, Art Galleries, Charities & other landmark NYC functions & other corporate mixers. It was then that she became sponsored by Serato and was featured in an international ad that was published globally until 2009. 

    In late 2006, she began vocal training, and produced & engineered her first song featuring her vocals entitled, "I hope". In February of 2007, her song "Brooklyn Baby" was licensed to the HBO film "Life Support" staring Queen Latifah & produced by Jamie Foxx, and she eventually sold "Brooklyn Baby" to Universal. The film was nominated for 3 Emmys, including "Best Original Score".  

    In March of 2007, after a nonstop week at the Winter Music Conference in Miami of playing the prestigious Ultra Music Festival for the 8th consecutive time, an electro set @ the Future Sound of Breaks party & every other drum & bass event that was held in Miami that year, she went back to Europe to play in Romania, Germany, Portugal & Switzerland. After touring Europe, she went back to London to play @ the End for Renegade Hardware (for both hiphop & drum & bass sets in the same night), Movement @ Bar Rhumba, Therapy @ Herbal, Run in Bristol, Essencia in Bath & other weeklies in the UK.

    In 2008 she returned for more UK and European shows. During this time she was featured on BBC Radio 1xtra's Mista Jam's show and upon high ratings they asked her back again later that year.  She was also the world's first Drum and Bass DJ brought to play in Tahiti in 2008.

    After being based out of London in 2007 & 2008, and touring most of Europe, Empress decided to come back to NYC to form her first band and pursue her song writing and singing.

    In 2009, Empress wrote, recorded, produced & engineered her first solo album. Destiny called again and she was inspired to return to her Metal and Industrial roots, incorporating those sounds into her song writing and production.  She dedicated the year to finish the songs & to teach her 4 piece band, Empower, to play the songs from this new album. It featured her singing with some of New York City's brightest Musicians.  They rehearsed for over a year before Empower began doing shows in NYC.  All the while, she kept DJing her Drum & Bass sets, while also taking on Dubstep & Electro House, and was booked to DJ in the Dominican Republic in March of 2010.

    Also In 2010, Empower performed shows in NYC.

    Empress founded Empower Recordings in January 2011 to release "Alien Nation" her first single from the album. She coordinated various genres of bass heavy remixes of "Alien Nation".  Two Dubstep remixes; one from SST, another one from Optimus Gryme, a Drum and Bass one from GenR8 and a techno/electro one from Thrash that were distributed through Itunes, Beatport & Amazon.  She then teamed up to create "Alien Nation's" music video with director Eric Acosta, editor Dee Wassell and camera work and direction by Kermit Mercado and Gabriel Garcia.

Watch it here---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrofE7W_IxY 

    After doing shows and rehearsals with her band Empower in NYC for almost 2 years, she decided that she wanted to focus solely on producing music, DJing & singing after noticing she felt spread too thin. She put the band project on hold and is currently is focusing primarily on her global DJ performances of mostly Drum & Bass, Jungle and Bass Music, as well as releasing single releases. 

    In April of 2013, Empress released her next Drum & Bass singles featuring her vocals and solo production on "Only Love" and "Faithful".  Within 24 hours of "Only Love" being released with minimal promotion on her Soundcloud, it received over 4,000 listens.  She also just released her newest Empowercast Podcast mix, also available free through Soundcloud, which amassed over 6,500 listens in less than a month. For WMC she exclusively played at the World of Drum and Bass for the 6th time.  

    In 2014, Empress began hosting events called "Empress Presents" where she booked, curated and DJed with other Drum & Bass international talent. Her first event was at the new club Verboten in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where Empress shared the bill with Goldie and Dieselboy. She got sponsorship by the beer company Radeberger, who ran an ad with Empress in it, promoting their beer. The event was a smashing success, with over 1,000 people in attendance. 

    In 2015, Empress continues to play on many stages. Her next Empress Presents event was on Valentine's Day to celebrate Love & her love for DJing and Drum and Bass at Santos Party House with herself DJing with UK's Zero Tolerance. She also headlined the NYC Raver's stage at Dreamscape and played many rave & club nights all over the US.

    In 2016, Empress brought in the New Year by playing at midnight and DJing at the countdown right before the clock struck midnight at a massive Rave in Rhode Island. She also returned to Orlando to play at Shock & Awe. She also teamed up with the prestigious UK Drum & Bass label Renegade Hardware and helped book and organize a Renegade Hardware event at Verboten that she also DJed at and had Radeberger sponsor that was another smashing success. 

    In June 2016, Empress was contacted by her long time friend Reggie Watts to write a song for his first Netflix comedy special. Netflix flew Empress out to Hollywood to be featured as herself during filming, DJing her song. Empress collaborated with DJ Mumblz to write the heavy D&B song, which received praise from both Netflix and Reggie. The special which is called "Spatial" will be released on Netflix in November of 2016. Empress' fall & winter calendar have filled up with DJ dates in LA, Arizona, San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Wilmington, New Orleans, Austin  

    Sought after by promoters, artists, bands and fans worldwide, Empress continues to move crowds, grace studios and stereos across the globe everyday.