Pitchfork Interview Series: Ariel Zetina
After attending Pitchfork as a spectator for years, Chicago based artist Ariel Zetina made her debut as a performer at the 2023 Pitchfork Festival. Originally from Jacksonville, Florida she moved to Chicago when she was just 18, and over a decade later her time in the city has taken her sound and art to the international stage. She’s focused in music production, DJing, and writing. She’s currently a resident DJ at the iconic Smartbar in Chicago, and was nominated by DJ Mag for Breakthrough DJ — North America in 2022.
Drawing from the electric sounds of Chicago’s house, the upbeat Punta cadences of her Belizean heritage, and the theatrics she’s taken from the stage she crafts a unique space in music where she can move between producer to performer effortlessly. Her sound is so distinctive, yet beautifully representative of the queer club scene, no matter what part of the globe she’s performing. After a string of beautifully ecelectic EP’s and remixes, she dropped her debut album Cyclorama under Local Action Records.
Like many artists, Zetina grew up in theater as a performer and a playwright. She continues to score and write for various staged productions today. She references the cyclorama, a large curtain hung at the back of a stage, as the centerpiece for this album. As she explained to DAZED, “The whole album is like the cyc, a representation of the sky. Or an imagined sky. An imagined dance floor. An imagined theatrical production.” And that it is. Cyclorama isn’t the typical body of work you’d see from a house DJ or even an electronic producer solely because there is a greater purpose besides danceability. The album — even the final track aptly titled “Tropical Depression” — feels bright, energetic, and almost manic at times. Underneath, it’s a memoir of resilience in a violent white cis-heteronormative world. It’s a love letter to trans people of color who frequent the balls, the nightclubs and the vibrant queer spaces of community. It’s a “fuck you” to a society that rejects the humanity and protection of queer people, while preying on our communities. Tracks like “Gemstone” and “Tropical Depression” especially feel set in a club, but there’s a single spotlight on a girl in the center of the dance floor laughing, crying, shouting into the void of strobe lights and drinks spilling.
Zetina sought to create a piece that incorporates the distinct sounds you’d hear in a Chicago queer nightclub, with sprinkles of spoken fragments from the busy mind of a trans woman of color reflecting on life, love, and sex. I got the amazing opportunity to talk with her post Pitchfork 2023 while she was touring in Berlin. This interview was recorded August 9, 2023.
So I’d love to talk about Pitchfork Festival 2023 — How was the experience for you? Is it the first time you’ve ever performed at Pitchfork?
Ariel Zetina: Maybe 2012 was the first year I went. But you know, it’s funny… I don’t like to consider myself a festival type of person. I haven’t gone every year, but I’ve consistently gone for like 10 years. This year [2023] was the first official time I performed and it was very surreal for me, like it’s always been a goal of mine. Pitchfork is really different from a lot of other festivals, and I always appreciate the curation. This year there were a lot of new unfamiliar artists to me. But to answer your question — It was just a lot of moving parts. I usually will do a regular DJ set, just me with a microphone and CDJs. But for this I couldn’t just do a DJ set. This was like a whole crew of people. I was in a more traditional rehearsal process which was really crazy but really fun. I’m glad that it all came together for this.
I wanted to know more about how long you have been a resident at Smartbar?
AZ: So I started working there, maybe in 2016. It was kind of random the first time I played there. They were looking for a DJ that played less house and tech, and more bass stuff. I was recommended because of this last minute dropout thing. From there I started doing this party on Thursday nights there before my residency. Then I was offered a residency in January 2017. When I first started I was very much the wild card; like I did play house and techno but I also played a bunch of different stuff. Smartbar is definitely not as one genre focused as it once was, even though it’s traditionally a house club.
So yeah, so I’ve been curating stuff there. I always really try to guide artists that are doing cross-genre stuff. I really like getting promoters that do their own parties. I feel because I’m a promoter and an artist, I relate to the people that are making scenes in their spaces. D. Tiffany and Regularfantasy for example, we’re doing a project together. D. Tiffany has been someone that I’ve always really wanted to get, because, not only is she like an amazing producer, but she also runs a label and is doing the curation stuff. So that was really important for me. To represent.
How did you start DJing? Were you making music first, or DJing and promoting first?
AZ: I was always interested in electronic music, and I was studying theater and, you know, incorporating it whenever I would like to direct. People would be like, “Oh, like the music was great, and the transitions were great.” After graduating, I was kind of like “fuck theater, like I’m doing performance.” So my friends, maybe in 2013, started this performance group. I was sourcing a bunch of music for it while we were performing in nightclubs. I ended up starting to produce because I needed really specific music, and I couldn’t source things for certain performances. And so I kind of taught myself GarageBand, and then, Logic. And then that kind of led me into DJing. We got booked to curate a night at Berlin like years ago, and I just put myself on the line up to DJ. I don’t think anyone knew it was my first time officially DJing. Then I kind of just blossomed from there.
I shifted my practice a little to being more music focused. I feel now it’s like 80% music and 20% theater. Theater started with directing, and then I went into writing. The last time I did an official play I think was 2021 — I had a commission for a play at First Floor Theater in Chicago. I definitely always see myself as working with music and text. It’s something that is still part of my practice, even though it’s shifted more towards music. The pitchfork performance really made me interested in being able to do theatrical performance again. And I think I still use a lot of that performance theory stuff in my work, like, I kind of see everything as like a performance somewhat. Those two things create the perfect storm of creativity for me.
I love that. When it comes to theater, or films you mentioned working on, are you more into the scoring/soundtracking aspect or being the playwright?
AZ: I’ve actually done a bunch of different scoring recently. And that’s something I really want to get into more. There’s this director in Chicago, Glamhag that has done a bunch of shorts. They’re this queer Chicago director that I really, really love. Their work is really amazing; sort of like pop art, crazy, in your face, super super colorful. I scored one of their shorts, and it was like my first full scoring project on a film. And I also just worked with this choreographer, Erin Kilmurray, on scoring her dance piece that happened at Links Hall in June. And I’ve also done some sound design for plays. So I’ve done little bits of it, in places.
I was originally making music for performance. I love doing stuff where it’s part of the whole production because you may end up making different types of music. I really want to get into that more because soundtracking and good scoring in films has been so influential to me. I always try to think, “How can I expand outside of the nightclub?” And then I think in the world of capitalism, “How do you make money in all of these different things as opposed to just one single thing?” Because DJing is super tiring. Literally this weekend, I flew to Amsterdam from Berlin on Saturday. And then I onto Glasgow. And I was like, you know this is kind of unsustainable sometimes. And I know people, like a lot of European DJs, who they’re doing that for like 8 weeks in a row. After like 3 weeks, I’m at a max.
When it comes to making your original music — what is the main influence or the thing that gets you creating? Is it mainly house?
AZ: I think that at the end of the day I’m just super influenced by a lot of different dance music. But I think Chicago house was so important to me. And like I really appreciate that — with Renaissance and all these albums out inspired by it — it’s kind of shown that house isn’t just sort of this, like Lo Fi house. It can be very percussive. It’s related to so many other genres. So yeah, I’m definitely always cross influenced, but it’s very rare to see one of my sets that doesn’t have at least a little bit of house
I also think about what I grew up with, like a lot of pop. When I was young, I loved that like Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey were the 2 pop stars that were super into sort of that trance-y 90’s Pop-House. I got that from an early age. Belizean music is also so big to me, specifically like Punta. Even though Soca doesn’t originate from Belize, there’s so much Soca in Belize so I definitely have a lot of Caribbean influence in my music as well. I think for me, it’s this sort of melodic percussion that happens a lot in those genres.
Is there an artist that always, or often, ends up in your mixes? Or does it pretty much always vary from mix to mix?
AZ: You know it honestly, it really varies from mix to mix. I think I get through kind of phases being obsessed with certain artists. Right now I will say Octotopic is this Mexican producer that’s making this sort of… How do I even explain his music? It’s dance music. But he’s really interested in these weird percussive sounds. It feels very Mexican. I also really like this producer, Evelyn, who’s in New York. I really like, I think, just cause she’s making hard tech now, but it’s not boring. There’s also this girl, Miss Bashful, that’s in Berlin right now, I’m really obsessed with. She’s doing sort of these like bitchy tracks where she’s on vocals… it reminds me a lot of that like 90’s House stuff. When I think about what influences me? There’s always DJ Fast Eddie that I like to turn to a lot. I think all of his stuff is super influential on me, and when I have a housey housey set. I’ll always have a track by him.
Are you someone who’s like a traditional create digger? Do you like music discovery online?
AZ: Yeah, it’s like a definitely a mixture of everything. Still pretty digital in the sense that, you know, people are often sending me tracks. And I have these sorts of avenues of finding music. Especially when I’m traveling. And that’s actually what I need to do now in Berlin. We’ll see if it happens before I leave. When I’m digging, I try to dig for specific parties. I’ll get really influenced by the venue and like the vibe of what’s happening. I really try to cater my sets to where I am in the space. And I think that also comes from the theater of actually responding to what’s going on there as opposed to preparing everything beforehand. But I always try to dig and do records, I have like a small but mighty record collection.
I don’t think I’m ever gonna fully transition to playing vinyl, but I think what’s cool about vinyl is I have so many tracks that aren’t on the Internet that I only have. And they’re like, these crazy mixes. If it makes my set unique, I definitely will use it. I have this remix record that isn’t on the Internet and it’s all like Chicago House. I got it at a Gramaphone in Chicago. Michael Serafini, who runs Gramaphone, told me he used to play it all the time. I love knowing the history of a record, and then like having it.
What have you really been listening to in 2023 that’s inspiring you to create? Or what have you been listening to while in Berlin?
AZ: So I think for me the biggest, my biggest influence recently is noporn. It’s been the thing that made me want to get back into the studio. They’re this spoken word electronic duo that is huge in Brazil. They played at this festival I played at, and it was like all these layered crazy sounds that were very atmospheric, but then still had a beat. Then the vocalist, she’ll kind of get into a phrase, and then repeat it and change it, and kind of make this like poetic improv exercise during it. My friends were talking to me about how this is like what they grew up with; this renegade avant garde sort of music that everyone was listening to, and they’ve been doing it for years and years and years. And I think that’s just been super influential to me right now. Since I’ve been in Europe, I’ve been listening to that.
So because we were talking about “Chasers” off Cyclorama — if you had to put that one song in a playlist, or a mix of 4 to 5 others, what would you put? What’s in the same world as “Chasers” to you?
AZ: That’s such a good question. I love that question. Let me think about this for a sec… So I feel that song fits both these more ambient atmospheric artists I listen to. Honestly the first thing that came to me was this artist, Ana Roxanne. She does like really crazy, ambient stuff. I think another one of them would have to be like a Poppy moment. Something from like the new album, I feel is in the same world. I think I was super influenced by the Lo Fi house moment, but like with a little something different. This group Blue Hawaii makes a bunch of different types of music, but they did this really amazing house EP, in 2020. Really, I think that when I was making that track, it was something I was listening to a lot.
I’m always referencing, like, kind of a bunch of different genres in every song. And even if they’re not totally apparent in the final product, it’s like where my brain has been, you know.
And tell me more about what’s to come this year?
AZ: I have like some things coming out. I think it’ll probably be like early 2024. But I’m working on stuff. I think it’s so funny because I have just so many remixes stuck in release purgatory right now. There’s this one track I made in like 2020, that’s still not out. And everyone’s like, when is it coming out? I have no idea. So I’m definitely sitting on a bunch of stuff which has been funny.
Recently I’ve been really interested in sort of like tiny, different sounds as opposed to sort of these longer synth-y things. And so I’ve been really grappling with, “How do I make this sort of manic music in a way that sounds palatable and like completely finished?” I played one of the tracks for the first time at Pitchfork and it went well so I was like okay, I’m full. Good. More to come in 2024.
Listen to her most recent release — Shade Rattle with foundation.fm records and follow her everywhere @arielzetina!
