OLIV aka Paula wears many hats alongside being a kick-ass DJ. One of the co-founding brains behind ZENA, a feminist DJ collective supporting FLINTA* artists in electronic music & club culture, she is also part of Fluid Festival and a Callshop Radio resident.
First and foremost thank you so much for taking the time to put this mix together, can you tell us a little bit about the energy behind this mix, is there anything you would prescribe doing while listening?
Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your series!
So I've been struggling a lot lately with recording mixes. On the one hand, this is due to the complete over stimulation by DJ and music content via social media, and on the other hand, because i have very high standards for myself and all the mixes i record. I often can't decide what I want to play. Since I listen to a very wide range of music, I also want to carry this further through mixes and gigs. I get bored with a lot of the current musical trends and often feel like playing a counterpoint to them. Most of my mixes have an arc of tension and don't just consist of one genre. it's the same in this mix for you. I felt like bringing in a spherical, atmospheric part, but at the same time integrating energetic and harsh sounds. Honestly, I believe that the mix can be heard in different situations. On the one hand it is quiet and can be listened to in everyday life, on the other hand it is also energetic and is certainly suitable as a preparation for nights full of loud electronic music :)
How did you first meet the other founding members of ZENA and how did it come about?
At the beginning, ZENA was a group of four people. independently of each other, we had already been DJing in the small town of Heidelberg and doing cultural work in various contexts. At some point, we met to work on something together.
The idea of a collective grew very quickly from this. at that time, very few FLINTA* people were DJing in Heidelberg or were present in the scene. After we were founded, we received a lot of feedback and encouragement, which has carried us through various events and projects to this day. For example, we have organized events ourselves or played at existing events, published a print magazine, had our own radio show and a regular mix series on SoundCloud, and held various workshops.
Meanwhile, there are three of us and we all no longer live in Heidelberg. Nevertheless, we continue to work and are keen on new projects.
What kind of music do you enjoy playing out the most currently, and how do you go about preparing for a DJ Set?
As I said before, I also like to play music from different genres at gigs. Usually I pack my new and a few favourite records first and then fill my bag with the sound I feel like playing. but there are a lot of different records in there, so i can always react to the actual mood and crowd. Lately I've been buying a lot of Early Breaks/Electro records. They are a bit more challenging to listen to and need to be prepared well, but I love the sound and you can't hear it too often. so besides groovy 90ies house, that's my favorite thing to play right now. also because it's always an experiment to see how people react to it and if they like the sound. for radio sets i'm also playing a lot of Jazz & Hip Hop at the moment.
What’s been your favourite experience playing out to date?
hmm that's a tough question for me! I don't think I can pinpoint an event that I liked playing the most and had the most fun at. In general, I much prefer smaller, more intimate rooms and have probably had the best experiences in such. It all depends on the audience, the organizers of the party and the mood of the people. Lately I think I had the best gigs at a small festival, at a bar in Leipzig and at two events in Berlin.
“The idea of a collective grew very quickly from this. at that time, very few FLINTA* people were DJing in Heidelberg or were present in the scene. After we were founded, we received a lot of feedback and encouragement, which has carried us through various events and projects to this day. ”
You’re part of Fluid Festival (an amazing festival by the looks of it that’s returning in 2024), can you tell us a little bit about your involvement and some of the challenges you came across in running such a big event?
I've been part of the Fluid team since the end of 2021/ beginning of 2022 and last year I was part of the team that curated and implemented the extra-musical booking, i.e. our program stage. There we hosted a very varied program including various workshops, a reading, movement workshops, one tattoo artist, a film screening etc. Last September we started the planning phase for the new festival year. Since then I've been part of the music booking team and have paused work in the previous team due to my lack of capacity and my mental health. One of the biggest challenges for us is probably to find a suitable location for a festival of this kind. Various factors, above all the political situation in more rural regions of Germany, have meant that we cannot hold the festival this year. Another difficulty is that the festival is carried out entirely by volunteer work. This means that participation is not as easy as we would like, but a privilege. In addition, the individual priorities often have to be set differently, meaning that the festival work is of secondary importance.
Rising costs have also given us problems. Especially as a young festival it is very difficult to meet your own demands and at the same time be economically stable. The fact that we are taking a break this year also means that we can devote more time to internal work and continue to grow together. The Fluid team consists to a large extent of white cis people with a majority of academic background and German citizenship. Our group represents queer and straight perspectives. The team is actively dealing with these power dynamics and is in the process of learning and developing the concept of allyship and power sharing. So we also deal a lot with internal structures, power dynamics and different perspectives and reflect on them. In any case, there is still a long way to go and we are far from having reached our ideal state.
What’s next for OLIV?
I'll be playing at some exciting events over the coming weeks which I'm really looking forward to. This definitely includes the closing at Tresor Berlin and a few smaller (day) festivals in the summer. At the moment I'm also in the process of rethinking my radio show linger for a moment, gaining new perspectives for it and being able to let it take place in different contexts. with ZENA there are also a few changes that are very exciting and exhausting at the same time. Among other things, the restructuring towards a different legal form and finally the first ZENA merch drop! (keep your eyes peeled) and I finally want to learn to produce music myself!
However, the most important thing for me right now is to focus on my mental health, prioritize it and gradually get better. mental health in the music industry should be more of an issue in general so people don't have to feel like they're on their own. Depression makes it very difficult for me to participate in the culture and music industry the way I would like to. So I still have a tough road ahead of me.