Given that Nicole Otero has been DJ-ing for merely a decade, her list of professional accomplishments is something of an embarrassment to those of us for whom spinning is a dream, or even an occasional diversion. A native New Yorker from both Ecuadorian and Bolivian roots, she was identified early as a prodigy…and something of a brainiac. She attended the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts (that’s right, “FAME”), and later attended New York University, where she founded its “The Move” radio station. She has played gigs all over the city and in a multitude of other countries, is a faculty member at New York’s Scratch DJ Academy, and is the owner and founder and owner of Lovebreak music (www.lovebreakmusic.com) .
In a few moments of her wildly-spoken-for free time, she sat with us for an interview to discuss the profession, the nature of living life in the darker hours, and what new DJs can hope for as far as a professional return is concerned.
Industry: You love dance tracks from the ’70s and early ’80s. Can you be more specific? Are you crazy about any particular tracks these days?
Nicole Otero: As far as dance music is concerned, I fell in love with House music at an early age—at something like 11 or 12. So that was the late 80s or early 90s, and I still love it today.
Industry: There seem to be as many definitions of “House” as there are people applying the term. How do you define it?
Nicole Otero: Oh, to me, it’s just modern-day Disco. Now, as far as specific artists I love are concerned…Dennis Ferrer, Frank Rollinger & Friends, Manu Chao…. Todd Perry. I’ve also worked with Brennan Green who owns Chinatown Records; these are all underground House heroes of mine. I also like a lot of Top 40 these days too. I think Lady Gaga was a real breath of fresh air as far as commercial goes. Chuckie has some really big tracks, too.
Industry: Without naming names, what do bad DJs do badly?
Nicole Otero: They play bad music [laughs]. They lack programming skills; they don’t know how to blend one genre into the next, what kind of song to go into the next, all of which confuses a dance floor.
Industry: Is there a real living to be made by DJ-ing these days or does it usually need to be paid for by another job?
Nicole Otero: Oh, there is a real living that can be made, but the problem in DJ-ing is that you tend to be either at the bottom or at the top. I have done it full time, and it’s a lot of hustling; you have to be out every night, which means that you don’t—almost can’t—have a day job.
Industry: Do you have to market yourself even more given that this tends to be a guy-dominated profession?
Nicole Otero: No, not really. In a sense, it makes marketing a little bit easier being a woman, because everyone reacts with “Oooh, a woman DJ!” But to get credibility, I would say it’s harder. The supposition is that you are the hot chick getting the DJ gigs, so I had to really pay my dues and prove that I had skills. And you can’t just be one thing. I have other work; I teach at Scratch DJ Academy, I’ve started a dance track workshop with them, and I also run Lovebreak Music. I would think it’s very rare that you meet a DJ who just does that, because the job simply opens up other opportunities in the music business. Think about a music artist…say a singer. Is she just singing? No, she’s opening up a production company or a talent agency on the side, because you have to. So, you get into production, you start producing, you do promotion for bigger DJs, you re-mix for other artists…you write songs and earn by publishing. Everybody has side money coming in.
Industry: Are you encouraged when you think about the music business these days? It’s been a tough ten years on the manufacturing and publishing side.
Nicole Otero: Well, for DJs, I think it’s even more attractive these days. You have so many more people doing it, and there are so many different formats now. Before, it was 12 inch vinyl—which to me is still the best format—but nowadays you can do CDs, you can do it off the computer, you can do it off an iPod. Plus, there are DJ schools attracting a lot more women to the profession, and DJ-ing also seems to be in the cultural mainstream; you see movies all the time where DJs are on display in one way or the other. If you’re asking me if selling records is more attractive, that’s a whole different ball game. But the real money comes from gigs, with songwriting and publishing second. And, if you do it right, you can travel all over the world; you can go and do something fun and have your hotel paid for [laughs].
Industry: Do you live in town?
Nicole Otero: Yeah, I live in Williamsburg.
Industry: Any favorite clubs?
Nicole Otero: Yeah, one of my favorites is SubMercer, (on Mercer, off Prince) which is downstairs from the Mercer Hotel. It’s a pretty exclusive, chic, underground spot. Another favorite of mine is Hudson Terrace, which is a really cool venue. •
Check out...
Nicole Otero’s upcoming gigs at Myspace.com/lovebreakmusic. She will be spinning the Jersey Shore on July 17 for an all-girls party at the Beach Bar at 13 Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park.
