Femme SELECTA.
A chat with Bella Hall.
Meet Bella Hall, a Nyonnaise, now Amsterdam-based, figure whose voice is amplified through her DJ sets and diligent contribution to the Dutch scene via her co-founded collective AMPFEMININE.
A fascination for breakbeats as well as an urge to educate regarding equality and criminally underrated talent, Bella raises the volume in getting her message across in order to shake up the power dynamics still prevalent in the electronic music industry; enthusing a need to contradict to all organisations, parties and clubs that lack diversity. Through events, workshops, panel talks and parties, Bella and her crew take matters in their own hands by giving people who have less access to a stage and create opportunities for marginalised groups in the nightlife.
With her activities genesised in March 2020, whether through invitations or residencies on various local and international radios (from Radio Tempo Não Pára or Refuge Worldwide), holding discussion panels themed around inclusion and diversity, or even co-creating a documentary titled "EQ The Industry" directed by Loes Korten (an entirely female-produced documentary about female and non-binary producers from Rotterdam), Bella's ambitions to grow and raise awareness are as vast as the colour spectrums that synergise when seeing her demonstrate her high level of a curatorship when behind the decks.
Using music to educate and make you dance. Inspiring and praising unsung heroins. Bella's self initiative by being in charge and making things happen are work ethics that are engrained in her DIY spirit. Amongst her many quality characteristics, she uses what she knows to fight for the cause of building a better future for our community.
In this chat titled "Femme SELECTA", we talk about, amongst other things, her role and activities with AMPFEMININE, her musical upbringing and standing out in the crowd in a male dominated industry.
How about we start with a self definition of who you are?
I’m Bella and DJ under the moniker Bella Hall. For the most part I am a DJ, student and am part of a feminist collective AMPFEMININE. Besides my studies, I suppose that education is a big part of my life since through this collective, we not only throw events to promote activist related events, but also workshops revolving topics in the likes of learning how to DJ, talks/discussion pannels and so on. So far it’s been working great because it gives the opportunity for lesser known women or non-binary artists to shine out.
Tell me about your affiliation and the genesis with AMPFEMININE.
AMPFEMININE is a world play of Amphetamine and Amp (amplify) Feminine. We took inspiration from DiscWoman, that collective/booking agency based in NYC co-run by Umfang as they were one of the first collectives in the music industry to put emphasis on promoting women and people of colour on their roster. At some point, one of their slogans was “amplify each other”, which we thought was great. It’s important for me to mention that the usage of “feminine” in our name is not necessarily directly related to being female, but rather to evoque the different kinds of energies that surround it as opposed to male dominated ones.
You ladies touch a lot of different areas. And I think that the terms nowadays whether a record label or association or collective is becoming a bit more ambiguous in terminology. What are you trying to achieve with AMPFEMININE and how would you describe yourself?
Yeah, definitely a collective. we've dabbled with the idea of course of maybe wanting to release music. But we're really a collective whose goal is to host parties and shine lights on underrepresented artists.
When we started it was three months before the pandemic stroke. We were initially looking for our own space to host our own activities. We still managed to throw our first party the weekend that the pandemic hit, which was great although in hindsight I can only hope we did not contribute in any negative way by creating a room full of possibly contagious people. Regardless, like most people going through this time, I think we all had a sort of existential moment where we hid in each of our corners trying to figure out this mess of a pandemic and what we wanted for our future. In June 2020, we met up to discuss how we wanted to carry on and what we could do under these circumstances. Therefore we opted for a mix series, then a workshop which coincided with the Black Lives Matter movement that was occurring at the time, in hopes that eventually there would be relief from the pandemic soon after.
For our Black Lives Matter related event, we organised a sort of sit down music session with open panel discussions. It turned out great, both getting a message across and attendance wise. Eventually, we decided to do a documentary with Loes Korten titled “EQ The Industry”. This turn out to be an immense project over the course of a year, which honestly I do not think we can do again any time soon due to the immense, yet gratifying workload. I’d like to take this moment also to express how talented and focused Loes was about directing the documentary. Although it ran for twenty minutes, the amount of work that went behind it was immense, to which we are extremely grateful to have had it in the hands of Loes. She obviously knew what she was doing.
Since the pandemic has "calmed down with the vaccine relief, we started throwing more and more events across the Netherlands. For the most part to be honest, we are kind of going with the flow. Not in the sense that we are taking a seat back, but rather seeing what comes along our way and seize the opportunity the best we can. Like the documentary. We were given this opportunity to have this theatre room, and so we decided to make a documentary as a means to make an event.
Additionally, we are five ladies with very busy schedules. Two of our members for example have been invited for their first Boiler Room sets . This continuous unforeseen yet very positive workload always raises the questions whether it will change things, shift dynamics and such as it gets harder to find time in our lives to commit.There is an immense sense of responsibility behind this, so every next step, you do not want to take it lightly and have to ensure that it will benefit the local and international community.
Do you have ambitions to incorporate more people in the crew in order to branch out in different domains, such as perhaps acting as a booking agency?
Well, that's the thing. I don't think as a booking agency. A reason perhaps is because at least two of our members already have booking agents themselves. So I don't know how that would work. Myself do not have this ambition. For AMPFEMININE, we want to have a space and be able to do what we want to do with a space but we don't necessarily want to be in charge of other people's careers, if that makes sense. I’d rather be putting more our emphasis on giving workshops, like we've done that a lot in the past. Or placing focus on stimulating the underground of the scene rather than trailblazing some careers or something like this.
How did you ladies actually get together? Were you all friends prior to AMPFEMININE?
Not exactly. We knew each other on a “friend of a friend” basis. it happened organically in the sense that, Jackie and Yessica were in Berlin talking about it. And Deborah was also enthused about having a woman DJ collective in Rotterdam. Jackie knew of me and Camille and eventually we all got together to put the dots on the “i”’s by merging forces and interests. In its very early days, we actually wanted to organise a festival, which ended up not happening due to not getting a big enough subsidy. Regardless, through the process we really enjoyed working with each other. Where some doors close, others open, which led to the creation of AMPFEMININE. Eventually that festival worked out in a different shape because eventually we got this opportunity from KONTRA, another collective who's based in Rotterdam who organises Women's Day activities. They reached out offering us the opportunity to host a party for Women's Day and so we got a subsidy for that. That was actually really fun (albeit stressful) and very successful. The stressful part was not a bad thing at all because it made us all learn alot on event organisation very quickly, so that was welcomed. I believe this success stimulated us to at least carry on during the pandemic, in the hopes that one day we could organise a party again.. And here we are today!
How do you function as a collective, such as separating roles and such?
It really depends on the circumstances. In the beginning, we were trying to create departments if you will, so you’d have someone in charge of finance, the other media, perhaps another for PR… based on which venue contacts who, then this person is in charge of the night. Because we are all busy, sometimes we delegate tasks to one another, so it varies in that sense. Or when I was writing my thesis, I gave AMPFEMININE the heads up that I will not be available really for two months. And so on. But then sometimes it's just that one member is just automatically more involved in one of the events, or one of the things that is occurring. When it comes to bigger things, upcoming events, booking decisions or that documentary for example, we have a sit down and discuss it. This somewhat lack of structure can be difficult for either of us to take initiative. But also it’s nice that our structure functions on a democratic basis, in the sense that we delegate the task to the person most appropriate for it based on the skills we hone. To elaborate, perhaps with Deborah we might tend to take more initiative in talking on behalf of AMPFEMININE about our activities when we are invited to talks. The other members are more timid to give interviews but it works fine in the end.
You mentioned that you're looking for your own space, so you can throw your own events whenever you want, when you want. How's that going?
It’s a bit conflictual because of course it is our ultimate goal. But seeing what my friends who run clubs or spaces do on a daily basis… you have to deal with so much bureaucratic shit. It’s not a simple thing to set up, especially when you want to ensure that your initial message of promoting female and non binary talent in a safe space makes it a huge responsibility. Then there is the ongoing question of uncertainty for myself; whether I stay in the Netherlands for a few more years or move in with my partner in Berlin. I also think I'd like to move back to Switzerland at some point. I could see myself growing old there.
You're looking for some sort of funding? I saw you did a sort of collaboration with AIAIAI, the headphone company. How did that come through?
That was Refuge Worldwide, the radio station in Berlin. They were doing a club tour and then they wanted us to help with hosting one of their workshops, which was then in collaboration with AIAIAI. So we didn't actually collaborate with them. It's Refuge Worldwide that did, but we might now we're in contact with them. There might be something out of it later on. For now, I cannot say. We want to be very careful with who we work with. Ever since VICE did a feature on us, we have been getting more opportunities to collaborate. It is not to say that everyone is out to get your name to be used as a brand to promote their events, but sometimes the message you are trying to place is not taken at the same level of seriousness that you wish. we need to feel comfortable with who our name is associated with.
You can get these very generic emails that go along the lines of “we love women, therefore let’s collab’. You’d get these offers but based on conditions, regarding booking specific artists for instance. We had rather unpleasant collaborations that went south but those were in our earlier days, and in the end, sort of worked out amicably. We’ve gotten wiser since so we place more attention to detail. Since mistakes can occur on either parties because of blindsightedness, we always feel important to let the organisers or collaborators what we liked and disliked and hope to find compromises or give each other feedback not as a means to critique, but more as an opportunity to thrive. Of course, not everyone feels that way, so you can get rather dry responses back.
It can get quite messy and delicate at times in the sense that you want to thrive as a community but obviously these are quite unpleasant conversations to have for both parties combined since nobody likes being called out. It’s normal. However they are absolutely necessary in order for every one, ourselves included, to become smarter, more respectful, aware and be nicer to each other. It’s not a matter of creating an issue, it’s more of a matter of improving ourselves; it’s a fine line between being diplomatic and fighting a cause, especially within your own community. It’s also to show that as an individual DJ, speaking my mind out may mean not being booked in the future anymore. But as a collective, I am proud to have people support me in amplifying my voice when denouncing if things could be better or are plain wrong on the premise of event organisation and attitude.
In reference to your careering aspects, you have a background in education, whether teaching yourself, being a student or the educational basis from your collective standpoint. When you DJ, do you do so from an educator perspective or is there a different approach?
It’s an interesting question and the thought never occurred to me before. First and foremost, I would say that I do it for fun. In the sense that I play what I like and want to make people dance to what I am presenting. I try to tell a story, by knowing how I begin and end my sets. Anything in between is up to the night to tell the story. The journey is an amalgamation of making strategic decisions in bringing the atmosphere generated by the crowd in a certain direction by either exploring different BPMs, styles and transitions. Some DJs like to lead the premise of whether you play for yourself or for the crowd first. I feel that I stand right in the middle of these two.
When it comes to doing radio shows, then I put a lot more emphasis on the educational aspect of DJing, showcasing criminally underrated artists that I really enjoy. Not necessarily promoting the latest hot releases, but rather bringing your attention to songs that I have found lately. The educational side of my practices are more channelled in the events or workshops we organise as AMPFEMININE and not necessarily through my DJ sets per se.
I know you best for your breakbeat sets, whether it’s slowed down in the realms of hip hop or sped up in jungle territory, I saw that you were also British. Is this a correlation between the two in your musical upbringing?
Kind of? Actually not really. I’m British on my dad’s side and he was really into music but more the traditional house stuff. My fascination for breaks came, I think from when I lived in Berlin for a month when I was 16. During this period was really a discovery of breaks, especially as I got older, was an immense world that opened in front of me. When I was younger, I listened to a lot of old school hip-hop and therefore they started to intertwine as my knowledge and understanding grew of this genre. The fascination of using the same samples over 30 years but how creative you can get with them, whether it being how you sequence them, layer them with other breaks or drum kits, pitching, time stretching… you would think that by now we’d figure out all the possibilities and yet there is still new music and creative ways to manipulate these samples.. Amazing.
With all this knowledge acquired through the years and fundamental understanding of what loops from different songs go with what, is starting producing your own music on the agenda?
For the time being, no. I would love to start but I find the whole process pretty intimidating and overwhelming. When I started DJing, it was never my intent to get to the point I am here today. The whole idea of becoming a DJ and playing for people was never within my framework when I started. I just had a strong pull towards it, an urge to play around mixing on turntables and see what would come out of it. That said, I would love to create more like an early 2000s breakbeat, which is a bit slower and really raw in the rhythmic section, holding hands with funky grooves. But I don't have the technical touch to it and I don't necessarily feel that pull towards it yet. Maybe we'll come back in a few years. I don’t want to say never.
Something that I admire about AMPFEMININE is that you took initiative into your own hands instead of waiting for someone to reach out to you in promoting women and non-binary people. Your documentary in question addresses the betterment of lineup in being more diversified and equal, but still not the case on a musicianship/producer level. On another point, you did a collaboration with Ableton where you addressed the issue that 93% of producers are male. Why do you think that's still the case of this huge disbalance between men and women when it comes to taking initiative? From one perspective, I was told that in some cases, especially in an online context, women feel timid in expressing themselves because they feel they need to double their effort in order to appear credible against their male counterparts.
The thing with AMPFEMININE is that we were already taking initiative on our own behalf before we gathered as a crew, so there was already a premise for the potential of like minded people to gather without having to push each other in a direction. We wanted to do what we do because we wanted to, and could. Not because we were given permission. Whether it was Yessica doing a course in Berlin, or Deborah who is self taught, myself saving up for two years to afford decks.. We all did it ourselves one way or another to get to the level we are today.
That said, the women who do approach us, a lot of them come from the angle that what we are doing (DJing) is very intimidating and technically challenging, expensive.. You can generate a number of similar reasons but at the end of the day, the only person stopping you is yourself. I encourage you to just go for it. Of course you will not be good in the beginning but that is not the point. The point is that you get better. This said, I acknowledge the irony being I have the same standpoint with producing music. But you should always remember that if you have that inclination, then you should do it.
You could also argue that it is a personality trait. Some people are shy. Myself have a tendency to go all in when i get interested in something. An urge to make ends meet in that sense. Add this to the fact that I am an extroverted person and it makes it easier to go out and get what I want to do. As aforementioned, I am one of the women who are part of AMPFEMININE who are more responsive when dealing with public relations (interviews, talks..) than some of my friends. In my case, I agreed to have a chat with you partly because I thought the premise of being approached due to the fact I was Swiss was interesting and unique. I understand that this platform is not in intent to promote nationalism, but rather a different angle to be approached from to have a discussion. it's nice to have a different framework, a different format, in which we can to talk about music and other matters, as opposed to the more traditional that I have been accustomed to these past couple of years.
[…] Although I haven’t “lived” in Switzerland for about half a decade, I think there is definitely an improvement to what the scene was a decade ago. In the beginning, when I went to places like La Gravière or Motel Campo, a lot of my DJ friends were male. All very talented and they deserve to be where they are at now. It’s more to say that as a woman, your participation was more translated being front row cheering them on as groupies as opposed to participating in contributing musically. I like Dance music just as much as they did, so why couldn’t I also do it too and get involved to the same extent? It’s also super refreshing to have really upcoming and deserved talent by ladies in the likes of NVST or Audrey Danza, whether on the DJing and production side of things. These ladies amongst others make it for a lot of women to realise that they can do it too. Not at all suggesting that their craft is easy, but rather that it is more accessible than one may realise. It’s important for the woman who can, who are brave enough, to take initiative in stirring things up. To change such dynamics.
Myself included, having gone back to Switzerland over the course of two months last Fall, it was really refreshing and inspiring seeing everything going on. Notably an evening I spent for the Anniversary of Ablette Records in Fri-Son, Fribourg, there was a lot of initiative within the local community to decorate the space and promote positive messages across the venue walls that really made it like a safe, respectable space with a premise. Another night that comes to mind was UMBO in Zurich where the lineup was female dominated. Seeing the people there, it felt very respectful and although it was a full blown party, the attendees there felt like they were for a reason, a cause. Not simply as a means to find an empty room to get fucked up in the dark with heavy techno beats being blasted in the background. There’s a lot of diligent care and focus taken by the organisers.
Exactly, the dancefloors don’t feel as male-dominated anymore. Speaking of Fribourg, places like TRNSTN are really a good job at broadcasting talent and being aware in promoting equality. When i moved to the netherlands six years ago, I really had the feeling that it is a different playing fields. I always thought, that if i were to go back to Switzerland, that the prospects of of having a musical career would be futile. Since this healthy growth, I feel now that this wouldn't be the case anymore.
Stay up to date and get in touch with Bella and AMPFEMININE’s activities.