The Mix 099: HALFQUEEN

“I'm interested in ass shaking and all those who facilitate,” says HALFQUEEN, Aotearoa’s premier dancefloor energiser and righteous advocate of all that the culture should stand for. She’s a needle-moving influence on the dance music landscape in her home nation, also known as New Zealand. Behind the decks, she turns clubs upside down with a dark and charged blend of propulsive sounds from across the globe. Beyond the decks, she’s a firm and uncompromising voice for resistance and liberation in various forms. 

Though raised in the remote pacific nation, HALFQUEEN’s approach is an antidote to notions of isolation, drawing inspiration from an international array of sounds — including gqom, footwork, Jersey club and techno — and stitching those threads into a storytelling sets that cause and reflect connections, both sonic and cultural. The club night FILTH she launched in 2018 with JessB was forged from a need to explore those links and tap into a wider sense of connection, and has grown into a pivotal party in her hometown of Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. 

In recent years the wider world has duly taken notice, with HALFQUEEN touring the world, playing the likes of Tresor in Berlin, Razzmatazz in Barcelona, fabric in London, Mood Ring in New York, OIL in Shenzhen, Cakeshop in Seoul, Circus in Tokyo  and Glastonbury Festival. At least one of those bookings has flowered into something bigger, with the recent debut of HALF OFFF, her collaborative project with State OFFF, landing via Cakeshop’s in-house label Carousel. The single, ‘Big Choon’, is a mighty combination of raw bass-loaded power and more slippery percussive rhythms.

The track features in her instalment of The Mix, which she describes as a “sonic layering to arm and balm”. Check it out below, alongside an interview discussing what the “spiritual contract” of being an artist entails and more.

When did you get into electronic music and how? Were there any key releases, artist or club nights that inspired your interest in electronic music music? 

From the beginning of my club exploration, I felt a strong sense of belonging to the worlds’ that Asmara and Venus X built. Putaria Maxima Vol. 1 and 2 - I can’t express enough how they influenced my practice and understanding of how expansive DJing is as an art form. Total Freedom, NGUZUNGUZU, Nino Brown, Lil C and Prestige Pak, Mina, Juba and Tash LC, Boko! Boko!, 6 Figure Gang, ESTOC are all people I can cite as being pillars for my descent into the global club movement. The list of artists, labels, communities that inspire me is long as fuck, but always underpinned by a kaupapa of resistance, connection and self-sovereignty. Mostly ass shaking is an immutable force in my life, and I’m inspired by all those who facilitate.

How have your experiences of nightlife in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland shaped your music?

Aotearoa has real hearty and rich DIY music scenes and art communities. Being a part of them shaped me into the artist, curator and promoter I am now. Sometimes limitation leads to innovation. This attitude has for sure translated into my taste, craft, imagination. If I want something to happen, I make it happen. And while Tāmaki has the most beautiful cultural diversity, that often doesn’t feel representative in our nightlife spaces. The lack of third space made for us and by us led me to connect to communities all over the world, in the hope of finding some reflection and bringing it home, sonically and experientially. FILTH, our club night which began in 2018 from my friendship with JessB, is an expression of this, and so has become an abundant platform for sharing music and hosting artists from everywhere.

How important has the queer nightlife community been for you? 

There’s probably no quantifiable amount to be honest. Queer nightlife has always been a refuge and place for self exploration and becoming. As soon as I entered these spaces, I felt like it was a home for me. It’s my lifeline.

How has your Fijian and Pākehā heritage influenced the types of music you’re drawn to?

I think when you’re a child of diasporic identity, you desperately yearn for connection to culture, and whether it's your own or another changes from person to person. My understanding of the world came through music, because that’s really all I had direct access to growing up. Music helped me flesh out my identity within cultural, societal and ethnic contexts, and with it grew this deep antipodean desire to gain knowledge of the world through it. But sometimes an affinity for certain genres can’t be explained in Western terms..

You’re outspoken about the impact of imperialism on the Pacific region and in your aims to decolonise the dancefloor, and stand against oppression of all forms. Do you think dance music artists have a responsibility to be vocal on political issues?

I'd say really one of the main roles of an artist is to speak to the times with vigour and honesty, and to imagine new possibilities so we can too. No shade, it's a spiritual contract. The foundation of dance music is resistance, and art inherently is vocal. You can't disconnect the two. 

It feels like there’s a huge influx of DJs from the Global North that head to your side of the world around this time of year to escape winter and take part in the Southern Hemisphere summer festival season. Is that something that’s always been the case or has it ramped up in recent years? What is the impact on the local scene?

I think artists have always come to the South Pacific, but for sure has ramped up within the electronic dance space in the past decade, probably due to the globalisation and internetification of the world. And even though local scenes across the country aren’t beheld to hosting international headliners, the pathways for them to come here are easier. People get to hear and connect to music they’ve never heard before and experience an artist who comes from a far away place, and because of that, maybe get to explore new parts of themselves. 

You’ve played across the world in recent years. How were those experiences for you? 

Ahh just amazing, each and every show I’ve had the privilege of playing anywhere has transformed me. Witnessing, experiencing and participating in different communities through the dancefloor is the antidote to capitalism. 

I saw that last year you took an extended break from “DJing outside”. Can you tell me a little bit about that decision and how you found the time off from touring?

The time off from touring has been grounding and affirming… the turbo lifestyle burnt me out, and became unsustainable. I think every touring DJ can attest to that. I just felt the urge to stay put and detach from how it became my identity. And I really just owe it to my city Tāmaki to tend to the garden here. 

Your new release came out via Carousel, the in-house label of Cakeshop Seoul where you played in 2023. How has that relationship developed and led to this release?

When State OFFF and I made the tune, there wasn’t really an idea of ever releasing it. Playing at Cakeshop Seoul and across East Asia, I got to experience which sounds resonated with locale-specific dancefloors. It's incredible how different sounds traverse dancefloors. Carousel/Cakeshop are purveyors in contemporary club space, so when we started to float the idea of putting it out to the world, it made all the sonic sense. 

How was the process of working with State OFFF and how do you think your respective approaches complement each other?

More than anything, State OFFF and I share a very deep love for the club and the expansive spectrum of this dark club sound that moves us. We fucked with each other as artists before anything else, and so that underpins our relationship. We are both big hermits that work in intense isolation to create for the purpose of extreme connection. He’s well versed in the understanding of what makes people feel empowered and embodied — we also have that in common. When you find sonic kin and get to build your international sound family... It's one of the greatest pleasures of the craft. 

Storytelling is weaved into your artistry, how has this manifested across your releases and DJ sets?

I think it’s manifests by how people respond and how they feel when listening or dancing. The audience/listener/dancer is the other half of the story. 

Can you tell us about your mix?

This mix is a preparatory sonic layering to arm and balm. Recorded at 2:AM on a foggy Friday Tāmaki night, it contains all the ingredients to prepare you for Outside, with the essence of the dark and hard Inside of the club. "Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof.” - Alice Walker

Tracklist:
Chrisman - Bailogy
Ozwald - Hammer & Steel
Sister Zo - Panda Beef feat. Sirius Soundz
Prior Self - Step2
Antilogic - Shake It
Doctor Jeep - Rankings
NA DJ - sincerely
Miss Jay - Night Slug
Burna - Mayday
BIGMUTHA - head × shoulders
Animistic Beliefs - Thúc Tinh [Rebirth] (Exploited Body Remix)
WILHELMINA - Divine Hand
HALF OFFF - Big Choon
Doctor Jeep - Ohm
Vv Pete, Florentino, UTILITY - Varvie World (Florentino Megamix)
State OFFF, DJ Lag, Styn, SKMATOBELA MSHAYWASO - Paraffin
Tatyana Jane, Kay The Prodigy - Orbit
Static Structures - Biorky Bar
PollyHill & Samara Alofa - PAIN (QUEEN OF THE HILL EDGING REMIX)
Savile - You Will Be A Maker Of A Better World