I’m sitting with my best friend Brad Rolheiser at the Edmonton International Airport with a bouquet of pink and purple flowers, arranged inside of a purple purse-shaped vase. I feel like a straight guy waiting to go on a blind date; I’m fucking nervous. Brad and I keep careful watch on the arrival doors, all the while asking each other a myriad of questions. "Do you think she’ll think our flowers are cheesy?" "Will she want to go somewhere to eat or straight to her hotel?" "Do you think she’ll be tired?" Of course she’ll be tired we decide. She’s flying in from Berlin, having just days earlier been in Italy, and just before that London. She is, after all, one of the most in-demand DJs in the world.
DJ Miss Honey Dijon is instantly recognizable. At a height of 5’10, glamorously slender and head-turningly gorgeous, she looks more like a super model than what many people might envision when they think of a globe-trotting DJ. Indeed, having played events for top fashion houses Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Hermès, Balenciaga, Chloe, and Narciso Rodriquez just to name a few, she looks as though she could step right out from behind the decks, sashay down the runway and fit right in. Scratch that (pun intended). She’d easily stand out as a stunning beauty even among the world’s top models.
But it’s not her beauty for which she has become a force of global pre-eminence. Miss Honey Dijon is renowned for her legendary DJ sets - as eclectic as they are crowd pleasing. Refusing to fall into the electronic music genre trap that sees countless other DJs come and go from the public’s good graces, Honey’s sets include everything from disco to tribal to RnB to techno, and just about anything else that could possibly make a crowd want to get up and dance. It is a unique style and musical philosophy that has seen her headlining gigs in the world’s top nightclubs, from Ministry of Sound in London to Respect Is Burning in Paris, and premier dance music festivals including the Love Parade in Berlin and the Miami Winter Music Conference. And that’s exactly why !mpulse and D3VIANT Entertainment have brought her to play at The Starlite Room in Edmonton, kicking off a new series of queer-friendly parties in the city. This is why and how my friend Brad and I now find ourselves sitting in an airport nervously awaiting her arrival.
She walks out of the gate looking every bit the chic yet seasoned traveler she is; draped head to toe in stylish yet comfortable black clothing and black sunglasses, Honey projects that perfect vision of "celebrity on their down time." Brad and I rush over and introduce ourselves and I hand her the flowers. "Oh my!" she remarks, "I wasn’t expecting botanicals!" With that a big, genuine and instantly beguiling smile flashes across her face. It is a smile I will come to see countless times over the next 16 hours. Oh my God, I think to myself she’s nice! She’s actually nice! My heart rate slows from Drum & Bass to Deep House bpms.
Immediately I lead us towards the luggage carousel for her flight. "Oh, no, this is all I brought with me," she says, displaying her compact carry-on bag and an average sized but rather heavy looking backpack. I’m shocked. Considering how fashionable and famous she is, I automatically assumed she would have several pieces of luggage with her. "When you travel as much as I do," she tells me, "you learn to pack light." Brad offers to bring her carry on and I, her backpack. I was right, it is indeed quite heavy. No sooner are we in my vehicle and Honey bestows upon me my first compliment. "Your car is so nice and clean," she appraises. "Oh, um, thanks," I clumsily muster, while exchanging a quick, knowing smile with Brad as he climbs into my backseat. It was he who, as I filled up with gas, spent a great effort to wipe down every surface of my car until it looked and smelled brand new. Like me, he wanted everything to be perfect for Miss Honey.
As we drive to Honey’s hotel, I’m again surprised by a revelation about my passenger. Not only is she nice, she’s also somewhat shy and soft spoken. Considering her music has so much impact and presence, I am taken aback by this. And although she is quiet, Honey engages Brad and I in a winsome, humorous and often cerebral conversation. She affectionately nicknames us P1 and P2 after I tell her to think of us as her poodles for the night; we’re here to follow her around and if she needs anything, all she has to say is ‘go fetch.’
Though she might be somewhat shy, it’s clear that having to interact with scores of strangers on a daily basis as part of her job has well prepared her for situations like this. Being in a car with two men she’s never met before in a city she’s never been to before is par for the course. We talk about a multitude of subjects. How the pleasant but short summers of Edmonton are marred by its profuse amount of road construction. How hectic her touring schedule is. Tomorrow she flies to Vancouver to headline a party for Pride, then immediately back to Toronto, then Berlin. Trips to Rotterdam and London are also in her very near future. Honey tells us of the time she, while attending Elton John’s AIDS fundraiser, is whisked away by friend and Scissor Sister frontman Jake Shears to Madonna’s Oscar party, humbly regaling us with her story of being awe struck in the presence of people like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Hudson. Sitting mere inches away from one of my all-time favourite DJs, I have a pretty good idea what that would have felt like. "You sure have some fun people here," Honey proclaims as a seventy-something man riding a longboard is followed soon after by a man on a large bicycle and cart contraption so covered by plastic flowers, spinning wheels and small toys all but the bottom half of the wheels are obscured. We discuss the current, grim state of affairs in Russia and Honey informs us she’s played in St. Petersburg before. It is then that I contemplate how as, not only a woman of colour but as a transwoman of colour, it must sometimes take no small amount of courage to travel alone to some of the places she’s gone to spin. From South America to the Southern US, the Middle East to Eastern Europe, Honey’s gigs aren’t always in places I’d consider particularly LGBTQ tolerant. But fearlessness, as I’ll come to learn, is just one of the many remarkable attributes about this woman that have made her an international favourite. Wherever there are people willing to dance, Miss Honey Dijon’s willing to go to make them dance.
And tonight, that place is the Starlite Room in Edmonton. After a quick bite to eat from a nearby Vegan restaurant and a woefully short one hour disco nap, Miss Honey takes the stage for an exited, yet disappointingly small crowd who number only between 75-100 people at the most throughout the night. It’s not what I nor the promoters had hoped for, nor what Honey deserves, but that hasn’t stopped Honey from giving it her all and rocking the club. Throughout the evening I keep falling more in love with Honey as not only an outstanding DJ but as the gracious and humble person that she is. Every drink brought to her is rewarded with a thank you and that big bright smile, as charming as it is disarming. And every time the crowd screams and cheers in appreciation as some soulful or funky or pumping track is played, a smile reappears only this time it is one that is shy and surprised. As if she is saying to herself "Oh my God, they like me!" Or maybe it’s "Oh my God, they’re nice! They’re actually nice!" She might be deserving of being among the stars, both physically and metaphorically, but clearly this star is very down-to-earth.
At one point in the evening, late into Honey’s set, Brad is off on a smoke break accompanied by some bridesmaids we conscripted from the lobby of Honey’s hotel a few hours earlier. I’m sitting down to take a breather from nearly two hours of dancing hard and a group of girls that were dancing up at the front with me for the evening are still going strong. At this point Honey drops a deep, abstract track that, if she were in a New York or Toronto club would thrill the crowd. But in Edmonton, well, let’s just say we can sometimes be apprehensive about music that isn’t quite what we’re used to. The group of girls all vacate the dance floor to go grab a drink and the crowd generally takes a step back. The track is something Edmonton either isn’t quite ready for, or simply wasn’t looking for tonight, and I notice that Honey has noticed. There is now literally a chasm between Miss Honey and the crowd, as I find myself that same nervous wreck I was sitting in the airport wondering what’s going to happen. Will she be offended? Will she think poorly of Edmonton, our musical tastes and our partiers? Will she doggedly decide to keep going in this musical direction? That it’s her way or no way and either we get on board or we don’t. I don’t have to wonder long because within moments the unmistakable horns of Mousse T’s ‘Horny’ comes blasting out through the speakers, causing the girls to abandon the drink line and rush back to the dance floor which has already erupted into cheers of approval. That same coyly genuine smile breaks out across Honey’s face, this time with a hint of self satisfaction. She did it; she won the crowd back and has them right where she wants them, on her dance floor. "Oooh girl," I say out loud to nobody but myself, "you pulled it!"
Once her set is complete, Brad and I rush to congratulate Honey and thank her for an amazing performance. She’s all hugs and smiles and graciousness, but after a long day of flying and a late night of spinning, she’s tired and ready for bed. We head for the door when Honey is stopped by some other partiers who all want their turn to meet her and to thank her, and Honey is nothing but warm and accommodating. Every autograph sought is signed. Every picture requested is posed for. Every handshake, high five and hug is freely given and returned. She’s every bit the beauty and talent and gregariousness of a diva, without any of the entitlement or pageantry or ego often associated with one. I apologize to her for the smaller crowd than she’s used to playing for. "It doesn’t matter if I’m playing for five people, or five thousand people," she responds, "I just want to make everyone dance and have a good time." Mission accomplished.
The next day Brad and I are back at a now better rested Honey Dijon’s hotel, she has a 1pm flight to Vancouver to catch. She greets us each with a kiss on the cheek and inquires how her two poodles are feeling. We tell her we’re still flying high from last night’s festivities, but sad the time has come for her to leave us. The drive to the airport is as jovial and absorbing as was the drive away from it. The only difference today is it feels as though the superstar DJ sitting to my right is now also a friend. Honey comments on how lovely and green Edmonton’s downtown looks, perched above the river valley. I notice that, for some reason, Edmonton and by extension the world in general seems a little more beautiful. All too soon we’re back at the airport where our brief but wonderful brush with THE Miss Honey Dijon began mere hours earlier. Brad produces a bottle of Honey Dijon mustard for Honey to sign. She laughs and scribes two words: ‘OK bitch!’ draws a heart and adds her autograph. And although she’s anxious to get past security to grab something to eat before boarding her flight, Honey courteously grants my request for a quick interview on behalf of GayCalgary Magazine. Instead of the quick, rote answers I expected and would have been perfectly content with, Honey takes her time to answer each question thoughtfully and thoroughly. Even after all her thoughtful kindness, the fact that Honey is so nice still manages to take me somewhat by surprise.
GC: So Honey, for any of our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you first got into DJing?
HD: Well, I was born and raised in Chicago which is the birthplace of house music. It was just always around me, and I just fell in love with the music. I started out as a clubber, basically, and I was really fortunate to grow up at a time when it was beginning, or the second wave of it was beginning. First there was disco and then there was house. And I became friends with the second generation of house people, like Derrick Carter, and Green Velvet and Mark Farina and all those people. I just fell in love with the music and I used to always think, how can I do this for the rest of my life? But you never think you can have a career in something like this, and so, I just started buying records - I didn’t even know that I wanted to be a DJ, I just started buying records to listen to them at home. It came to me when I moved to New York. I wasn’t hearing the music presented the way it was presented in Chicago, so I started doing my own thing, starting my own little parties and it mushroomed from there. Actually the first place that I ever really got an out of town gig was in Toronto, so I always hold on to a lot of love for basically kick starting my DJ career. So that’s how it all got started.
GC: Awesome. If someone wanted to learn more about your sound, what are some essential tracks they should check out?
HD: Well, you know, I’m really an eclectic DJ which is a curse and a blessing, because I just like music. I try not to get into specifics about what genre I’m playing. But I think if you really want to know who I am as an artist I would say listen to disco, listen to new wave, listen to techno, jazz, Detroit Techno. I sort of pool all my influences from just living my life and being exposed to a lot of different types of parties from straight, gay, black, white, green, purple - it didn’t matter to me - warehouse parties, mega clubs... I just started playing music that makes people feel good. Danny Tenaglia’s a huge influence; Derrick Carter’s a huge influence. Now I would say for the new generation I quite like this producer called Motor City Drum Ensemble, and Mr. G, but I still like a lot of old Motown. I just like music, I don’t know. You’ll just have to follow me to find out what kind of music, what tracks you need to listen to.
GC: A few years ago you started your own record label, Digital Disco. What inspired you to start your own label and how different is it to be the head of your own label and not just a featured artist?
HD: It’s fucking hard [laughs]. I started my own label because I just wanted to have my own voice presented the way I felt it should be presented. A lot of times when you make music for other labels it’s their vision and not yours. I actually changed the name from Digital Disco, I folded that label, and now I’m starting a new one called Music Box which is sort of influenced by a club in Chicago that was called Music Box. It’s hard, because being an independent label, people think it’s so easy to do what we do. It’s not like I just show up, but it’s like A&R’ing [Artists and Repertoire], finding the music, finding the artists. And you know there’s no money in music anymore unless you’re doing a certain type of dance music, E.D.M., which is really more pop music. But if you’re still an underground label it’s still quite hard and difficult to get the music out there because the digital age...the market is over saturated with music. A lot people making music...they’ve learned how to make music on a lap top which is not necessarily... I mean, it is what it is. But they might not have the history or musical knowledge. So a lot of music is just faceless and tracky and really doesn’t have a lot of emotion. I think any great artist comes from life experience. So it’s really hard being a DJ and running a label. Like any creative thing, it’s hard to do both. You sort of have to pick your poison and very few people can do both. But I did it just to have my own voice.
GC: Last night was your first experience spinning in Edmonton. How did you find playing for an Edmonton audience?
HD: It was fun. I think anytime you go somewhere for the first time and people don’t really know you and aren’t familiar with you it takes a little bit of time for them to connect to you, because it’s like what is this?, what is this music?, especially if it’s not music that’s being presented on a regular basis. But people at the end of the day just want to have fun and just want to dance, so as long as they see you having fun I think they’ll sort of find a way to connect with you. ...It was fun for me, I had a good time.
GC: Excellent. Where are some of the more exotic or off the beaten path places you’ve played before?
HD: I’ve played in mountains in Mexico [laughs], I’ve played in China, I’ve played in, I think those are probably the two weirdest places that I’ve ever played. In the mountains in Mexico, and in like the middle of the desert in California we drove for like two hours on this winding road in the middle of the fucking mountains. I don’t know what it is with mountains and people but [laughs], those are some of the most exotic situations I have to say.
GC: Do you have an all time favourite place or party that you’ve played?
HD: Anytime people are having a good time is my all time favourite place. Yeah. You’re only as good as your last party. So I just think, anytime I get to DJ is my favourite party.
GC: Any nightmare gigs that you’re played?
HD: Too many to mention! [laughs] I mean you know, from shitty sound systems to under promotion, but you know it comes with the territory. Everything in life is not going to be great or fun. And you take the good with the bad and sometimes that’s just how it is, not everything is perfect. But it’s part of the job...you have good nights and sometimes you have bad nights.
GC: If you could put together a party of your top five DJs of all time, who would you pick?
HD: Ok... Ron Hardy, Larry Levan, Honey Dijon [laughter], God this is so difficult, there’s so many influences. I have two more... Derrick Carter. And then I only have one more which would probably be...I’m trying to think of the last person to really turn me out. Shit, oh my God there’s just so many great artists. Oh um, Matthew Dear.
GC: You’ve worked with some of the top talent in the music industry, everyone from vocalist Dajae to Celeda, DJs Derrick Carter to Danny Tenaglia, and musical artists from R.E.M. to Cyndi Lauper. Does anyone hold a special place in your heart?
HD: All of them. I mean it’s so funny I just got a twitter from Boy George the other day for remixes coming out and he wants to work with me. It’s crazy to think of these people that have changed culture in some ways, they come to you and say, oh we love what you do, can we work with you? It’s a bit of a head trip. But it’s also validating of your work, because you never know, with music it’s so ephemeral...there is no barometer. Popularity is a barometer for some people. I never got into this for a popularity contest, I just got into this because this is what I do. And I want is to be able to make a living from it. You have these people and it’s crazy and validating and nice. So they all hold a special place in my heart for different reasons. But it’s like oh, I’m getting to do what I dreamed about doing.
GC: You’re kind of a big deal though.
[laughter all around]
HD: I wish that bank account reflected that!
GC: What are some of your latest releases and can you tell us about any current projects you’re working on that we should keep an eye out for in the future?
HD: Well I’m currently doing a bunch of remixes at the moment, I have a mixed CD coming out on Classic Music in September, Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon’s label. I just did a collaboration with X-Press 2 that came out that was really fun. I have four remix projects that I have to finish, I have all my gear with me that’s why my backpack is so heavy, I have to work on the road because I’m always on the road. And I’m working on an artist album actually, my first artist album. That’s why I’m spending the summer in Berlin because I’ve collaborated with a couple people and am hoping to finish up some more tracks.
GC: It’ll be worth the wait I’m sure.
HD: Hopefully. [laughs]
GC: What’s something about you that we might be surprised to learn?
HD: That’s a loaded question. [laughs] That I’m quiet. I’m a Vegan. I do yoga, I try to meditate. I write in a journal. I’m a romantic. I’m obsessed with fragrance. I’m kind of boring, I’m such a nerd.
GC: What’s your favourite fragrance?
HD: I have several different people that I like, but I try to wear oils because I don’t really like synthetic fragrances. So I try to wear oils and just take care of my skin.
GC: What’s a guilty pleasure on your downtime? Like a TV show that you just love.
HD: Orange is the New Black. This is the new series, I have a friend of mine who’s on it, my friend Laverne Cox. She’s a friend that I’ve known forever. That’s probably my guilty pleasure and, oh, sometimes to fall asleep I watch The Devil Wears Prada. It’s just one of those movies, I just love it. Oh and Veep. I’m obsessed with Veep, it’s so good. I love Julia Louis-Dreyfus, she’s very talented.
GC: What are some things that you enjoy doing when you’re not busy performing for the crowd or in the studio making new music?
HD: Sleeping! [laughs] Sleeping and sex. [more laughter]
GC: What do you think is more important to becoming a successful DJ, being talented or being nice?
HD: That’s another loaded question [laughs]. I don’t think there is a formula because for some people it’s the people they hang out with, for some people it’s the music they make, for some people it’s their talent as a DJ, for some people it’s being in the right place at the right time with the right sound. But I think people that last long in this game do it because they love music and their perseverance helps. But the definition of success is different for every person, so I think for me...to be able to continue doing what I’m doing and traveling and meeting interesting people and playing new exciting music and seeing the world.
GC: Well, for people like you who have talent and are nice, it certainly helps.
HD: Awww. That’s the Xanax! [laughs]
GC: One last question, if you could sum up your trip to Edmonton, [what] would you say?
HD: Oh, I got to walk two poodles! [laughs]
One last hug for each of us, and one last flash of that stunning smile, and she’s gone. Off to the next gig, the next club, the next party. Off to the next thrilled crowd. Off to the next oh so fortunate city. Brad and I take a moment to reflect upon our last 16 amazing hours and conclude to ourselves that one thing really is true; you catch more flies, and in this case poodles, with Honey.