Interview by Ana Zerpa
Born in Milan, Cristina Lazic is an ambassador from Pioneer DJ Italy. In a short time with her experience as a DJ and producer, one could foresee Cristina could make a difference in music for women. She has been working with shesaid.so, as well as leading Google’s #IamRemarkable workshop as a facilitator for women involved in the shesaid.so ‘she.grows’ mentorship program. After a great summer season in Ibiza with performances in one of the best clubs in the world, Hï Ibiza, Lazic was present at the 27th edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) a few weeks ago. The five-day event attracted visitors from all countries and featured every conceivable aspect of electronic music culture, with conference programming, an extensive Arts & Culture programme, and live music and DJ/artist performances.
EG caught up with Cristina Lazic to talk about her ADE experience, the progress of the female artist in the electronic scene, her social roles, and more.
EG: Hi Cristina! How are you? It’s a pleasure to catch you here in Amsterdam. How was your ADE experience?
Cristina Lazic: Thanks for the invite. It was my first ADE after quite some time, and I truly loved the experience. Amsterdam is also a place where the raving culture is very established, you can see it from the way in which clubs are organized, the amazing sound systems, and the well-behaved and educated audiences.
I loved going to listen to some of my favorite artists play such as Enzo Siragusa and Archie Hamilton, and I was happy to meet several friends from the industry. I had the chance to hear a couple of great talks at the shesaid.so space, and to see an amazing audio-visual experience by Joris Voorn. I feel like I have come back from ADE convinced that the music industry is more buzzing than ever, that the industry is full of experienced and smart professionals and in general I am quite satisfied with the networking I have done during the days of the conference.
EG: What do you think about the progress of the female artist in the electronic scene?
Cristina Lazic: I find this fascinating, as in an industry that was historically male-dominated, it’s great to see that also women are given a voice, compared to just even 5 years ago. I also like to see more women supporting each other with initiatives like shesaid.so, the community of women that I belong to, but also other female communities like Future Female Sounds and Women In Music.
There is still a lot to do though: I would like to see even more females in festivals and clubs lineups, and especially more women producers. In my genre, minimal, you have a very little amount of female producers – but I hope that things will continue to improve as time goes by.
EG: What have you been doing with shesaid.so at ADE?
Cristina Lazic: I have worked on multiple fronts. For example, I have led Google’s #IamRemarkable workshop, of which I am a facilitator, for the women involved in the She Grows mentorship program. Currently, I am leading shesaid.so’s parenthood efforts at a global level. Sometimes (as it happened at IMS and ADE) I DJ for shesaid.so. We kicked off the shesaid.so Parenthood Committee during the pandemic, in April 2020. We initially started attending a variety of events, in order to raise awareness of the fact that the industry has a problem: there is not enough support for professionals in music with kids.
EG: How do you combine your personal life, your work as a DJ, and your work at Google?
Cristina Lazic: I am trying to be very organized and committed to splitting my time in a way that allows me to continue my full-time job, do music, and be a good and responsible mother. I love producing, and this takes a lot of time. On a normal day, I’d wake up early, bring my daughter to school, and have calls/meetings for Google all day. I then spend time with my daughter until she goes to sleep, and I do music-related “duties” (production, digging, etc) at night. At Google I work in the brand & reputation marketing team, leading a beautiful program called ‘Italia in Digitale’, made of a variety of initiatives that the company has implemented to help Italian SMBs and people accelerate digital transformations.
EG: Can you explain how is your creative process and what equipment do you use?
Cristina Lazic: I use an Ableton Push 2, a Novation keyboard, and a great Apollo Twin X sound card, very recommended! And up next I’ll buy a Behringer TD-3-AM. Between now and January, I also have the goal to create a dedicated studio at home, which I want to equip with proper studio speakers and more machines.
I normally like to take time for myself (generally at night, when everyone is asleep) and compose music starting with synths and melodies. I then add drum rack elements, basslines, and after the various additional elements like pads, FXs, vocals, etc. I started making music at the age of 14; just yesterday, I was talking to a friend about the three songs I composed and wrote in my teen years, and this memory made me smile… I can see that music production is something I have always loved to do, and that has always accompanied me.
“There is still a lot to do though: I would like to see even more females in festivals and clubs lineups, and especially more women producers. In my genre, minimal, you have a very little amount of female producers – but I hope that things will continue to improve as time goes by”
EG: Are you immersed in the production of a new record?
Cristina Lazic: I have several tracks ready, which I am looking into placing with labels as we speak. In the long run, I have the goal to produce a full album in collaboration with female vocalists, all coming from a variety of genres. I hope to be able to involve pop, R&B, and jazz vocalists, for example. I didn’t have the physical time yet to kick off this work, but I hope I’ll do it soon.
EG: Thank you for your time, Cristina! We wish you all the best!
Cristina Lazic: Thanks! See you soon!
Follow Cristina Lazic: Facebook | Soundcloud | Instagram | Spotify
