SCV: We met at the Lord & Taylor party where you were spinning fun 80’s party songs. I thought you seemed so nice and sweet, but in the course of my research for this interview, I watched some of your Youtube videos and listened to your music and was really struck by the overtly sexual nature of it. Do you think that this sexual side was always there, waiting to be expressed, or do you exaggerate it for your music and career?
DJC: I think my career definitely brought it out, but it was there all the time waiting for an outlet. When you meet me, you think I’m a sweet girl and I am, but I’m also a woman, and it’s definitely cool to have an outlet in music to express myself. The things I talk about in my songs are things every woman thinks about, like kissing other girls, and sex and experimentation. Even though this is 2009 and we’re supposed to be so modern, society still teaches us to have a virgin-whore complex. Men want their girlfriends to be proper and innocent, and society sees women who enjoy sex as sluts. But being sexual doesn’t mean you want to fuck everyone on the street, and there’s nothing wrong with experimenting and wanting sex.
SCV: So were your friends and family shocked when they saw your videos and heard your music?
DJC: Oh yeah! They were definitely shocked. I don’t have tattoos and my only piercings are in my earlobes. I think I’m kind of like the girl next door who tells you the truth about stuff and likes having fun and having sex and going dancing. It doesn’t mean I’m a drug addict or a slut or an alcoholic, or whatever people think DJs and women in music are supposed to be.
SCV: Do you think there’s a double-standard when it comes to women in the music business?
DJC: Definitely. Guy DJs can fuck as many groupies as they want, get tattoos and piercings and not shower for weeks on end. But if a girl did that, she’d get a horrible reputation and no one would take her seriously. I like to keep my private life private because I think it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business who I’m seeing, but there are definitely people out there who make it their business. They want to know who you’re fucking, who you’re dating, who you’re hanging out with, but there’s not nearly as much prying when it comes to men in the business.
SCV: I feel like people want to know more about the personal lives of successful women because they want to know who they slept with to get their jobs. In a lot of ways, society still assumes that a successful women got there because of a man.
DJC: Yes, exactly. It’s really infuriating, and that’s one reason I work so hard to keep my professional life separate from my personal life. A lot of great people have helped me get where I am today, but that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard and am not good at what I do. And I think the separation of Catherine Michelle Wentworth vs. DJ Cat helps me personally, because it’s awesome to have this outlet and persona that allows me to express myself and not be stuck in society’s idea of what I should be as a “nice girl.”
Keep an eye out for DJ Cat’s new mixtape, where she collaborates with Felix Da Housecat and P. Diddy. She’s also working with Automatic Panic on a Dangerous Muse remix.
