Brazil’s leading lady of the dancefloor sends out shockwaves with her mighty ‘Sexus Remix
Interview : Dan Prince
Hey Anna welcome to DMCWORLD, where in the world are you right now?
“Thank you, it’s a pleasure. Well, now I am in São Paulo in Brazil just got back home, after spending a month in Europe.”
Well let’s kick off with the tune that is causing mayhem all over the world, your remix of Pleasurekraft’s ‘Sexus’…wow! Talk us through your rework…
“Pleasurekraft contacted me because he loved my track ‘Keep Going, he asked for some tracks for his label Kraftek, and a remix for his track ‘Sexus’ together with Format: B. When I was doing the remix I tried to keep the same vibe that ‘Keep Going’ has, very groovy, with a strong bass line…and it worked! The original has some great parts, so it was really fun and easy to do it.”
You have been rocking clubs in your home country Brazil since you were 15…how old where you when you first started to fall in love with dance music, who were the artists and DJs that first grabbed your attention?
“My father owned clubs since I was a baby and I was allowed to start going to the clubs when I was 14…and then I fell In love with dance music. The first DJ that grabbed my attention was DJ Marky – I loved to see him play, he was so technical and his music so good. So because of that I started listening to drum n’ bass at first, and a few months later I was researching and exploring other genres, until I found myself into house and techno with Digweed, Carl Craig, Todd Terry, Sasha, Green Velvet and so on…”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning?
DJ Anna – Enough – Tronic
Wehbba – Think Thank – Tronic
Velkro – Make Me – Zero Eleven
Alexander Kowalski – Christian Smith Remix – promo
Ten Walls – Requiem – Life And Death
Paul C & Paolo Martini – Waterdrops – Terminal M
Luca Maniaci – People Like us – Area Remote
Pleasurekraft & Format: B – Sexus (DJ Anna Remix) – Kraftek
Dj Anna – Six Figures – Kraftek
Metodi Hristov – Too Much Pills – Witty Tunes
Your latest release on Tronic Music ‘Enough’ had some great feedback from the superstar DJ fraternity…Sasha, Mark Knight, Roger Sanchez and Darren Emerson all giving it the big thumbs up. Who are the producers that you are loving at the moment?
“Thanks God! When I finished ‘Enough’ I didn’t know what to expect, I wasn’t sure about it until Chrisitan Smith wanted to sign it to Tronic. I like so many different things, I am loving Disclosure, Santé, Wehbba, Christian Smith, Metodi Hristov, Hot Since 82, Wade, Ten Walls, Samuel Dan, Julian Jeweil, I’m forgetting a lot for sure, but I am playing these ones a lot!”
I live in Ibiza and of course saw your name up in lights in June when you were over playing. What was that experience like this year, is Ibiza the greatest party island in the world?
“Yes this year was my debut on the island. I’ played at Bora Bora and although it wasn’t super busy that day, still lots of fun! Unfortunately though I didn’t have much time to have the full island experience as we had to leave the next morning. For sure though, whenever I think of partying and clubbing, Ibiza is the place to be.”
Tell us about some of your other stand out gigs from the summer, Barcelona was rocking!!
“Yes, I love Barcelona so much! The Tronic Party Off Sonar at City Hall was a big party, It was my first time playing there and I loved it, I hope to be back next year!”
Biggest tune of 2013?
“Ten Walls – ‘Gotham’.”
Your dog Boris looks a pretty cool dude, how is he loving the music you are making? Does he hide under the sofa when you play it?
“Ha ha! Actually Boris lives with my mother in law, he does not live with us because we travel a lot and she has a big house. But he is always with us no matter how loud the sound is, he stays in the studio sleeping, he has his own puff there that he loves, he is so cute.”
I interviewed Renato Ratier in the magazine last week and asked him how Brazil was going to cope with The World Cup and The Olympics coming to his home country – he was pretty skeptical about the infrastructure and tourist industry as a whole coping with millions of people descending into the country. What are your thoughts?
“Well, I share the same thoughts. The airports in Brazil are not ready to receive millions of tourists, they can’t handle even the regular traffic, any inconvenience that appears turns into chaos. When it rains in Sao Paulo the city literally stops, the traffic is chaotic, there’s no sufficient subway network or any sort of public transportation for that matter – and from what I’ve been seeing, every major construction site is far from being ready in time for the World Cup, but I hope for the best, although I am not very confident.”
What is your favourite ever festival story?
“It is not a beautiful story…but we were at Creamfiields. My boyfriend was going to play and this major storm came, every stage was destroyed except for the techno stage where he was playing, many DJs stayed in their hotels afraid of what was going down, so everybody got jammed into this one stage rocking it until the morning. They didn’t change the line up so it was a pretty memorable experience for us!”
What is on a DJ Anna rider at your gigs in 2013?
“3 CDjs Pioneer 2000, 1 DJM 900, vodka, juice and water, easy rider.”
What did your family think of your career choice back in the day?
“They love it, my father was a DJ and club owner, my brother organizes events too, my cousin runs a management agency and handles mine as well, we are a musical family!”
You moved to Europe in 2008 and quickly began spinning in Portugal, Spain, Hungary and the Czech Republic…that was quite a move from South America…what was the plan for you back then and where did you fall in love with around this new continent?
“I moved there to expand my career, I had just been playing in Brazil and a few other countries in South America and it was also when I started to make music. So having a few releases out helped me getting around. I did some really cool gigs, but we decided to move back to Brazil right after that and since then I’ve been going for tours about 2 months per year, but this year I’ve done about 3 months overall which I really enjoyed! I really fell in love with Greece, especially Santorini.”
What is the best piece of advice you have ever been giving?
“Do what you love, do things for you not for others…don’t worry about the results and then everything will be ok.”
Not many people know this, but DJ Anna is really good at…
“Cooking and playing volleyball.”
And finally, what is coming out next from you studio wise?
“Green Velvet did a remix for my Track ‘Unique’, it is really good and will be released around January. I also have a remix pack of ‘Keep Going that is my best seller to date and is now coming out on Witty Tunes. Also, I just finished another original track that is coming out on Kraftek in February and finally another EP on Tronic!”
