How BAMBII uses her 'DJ brain' to produce genre-blending electronic music

BAMBII is a Toronto-based DJ and producer whose innovative, genre-defying sound won her electronic album of the year at last year's Juno Awards. Since then, she's opened for Jamie xx and performed at music festivals around the world, like Glastonbury and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

But BAMBII's journey into music was anything but clear cut. Unlike some artists who found support from a record label early on, BAMBII achieved her music dreams by carving out her own space in the electronic music world. More than 10 years ago, she founded JERK, a wildly popular rave series that centres queer and Caribbean communities. Those parties helped her become a better DJ while also allowing her to play the music she and her friends wanted to dance to.

"I was DJing for like two seconds," BAMBII tells Q guest host Garvia Bailey in an interview. "I had no idea even truly, actually, how to DJ. I just knew I needed to hear these songs in this space.… What that grew into and the responsibility of it came later."

After her DJ sets started blowing up, the next step for BAMBII was to learn music theory and how to produce her own songs. Her Juno-winning EP, Infinity Club, mixes global club music with Jamaican genres such as dancehall, reggae and dub. Now, she's back with her follow-up, Infinity Club II, which proves just how expansive electronic music can be.

"People don't know how varied or conflicted the electronic space is," BAMBII says. "It's very much a faux pas and very much taboo to bring in different sub-genres into that space as a DJ or even as a producer…. I'm not consciously trying to actually make a statement. It's just representative of how I grew up and the travel I've done, which is pretty extensive as a DJ."

Growing up in Toronto as an only child, BAMBII was listening to an eclectic mix of music, from Bruce Springsteen to Buju Banton.

"Basically anything my mom was listening to, I was listening to," she says. "I feel like my mom kind of set the tone for having an eclectic taste. I mean, I wouldn't even label it. Just being open-minded."

In many ways, her approach to producing music is the same as her approach to DJing.

"I produce with DJ brain and I feel the best thing about DJs is their ability to hold their memories," she says. "As a DJ you have about 2,000 favourite songs. You're very familiar with large amounts of music and you're very familiar with patterns in music, and obviously genres and sub-genres…. It's taking you a bunch of different places [and] it's making unlikely connections."

The full interview with BAMBII is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with BAMBII produced by Liv Pasquarelli.