OUR DAY BY DJ COLETTE
RELEASED: NOVEMBER 20, 2001
In 2001 I was 17 years old and in love with a raver. If you had asked me if I was in love, I would’ve denied it but looking back I know I was already there. We already took that leap together, and her connection to raving and house music played a huge part in why I found myself so suddenly obsessed with this one person. And why shouldn’t I have been? Even then she was cooler than me, more aware of who she was, and there’s no denying she had far more style than I ever will. The rave will always be the perfect example.
When we first met, it was before a rave. Her first one. Sparks flew from the minute our eyes met, and I spent the entire night showing her around and introducing her to this new world. Everybody has that person that shows them the magic of their first rave, and for her that person was me.
A detail about this night, though, that I see so clearly now, all these years later, is that her first rave was the last time I was more committed to the rave than she was. It was natural to her immediately. She found music I never heard of, and shows I never noticed, and people I did not have the guts to talk to. She was the cool raver, and I was the goofy blonde-haired dude tagging along. It’s been like that for a long time, and I don’t think it will ever change. That’s our dynamic, and it works.
But lately, I’ve been wondering where did that dynamic officially start? When did she really pass me by in the music department? Slowly, I narrowed it down to one moment and one DJ that she introduced me to that showed how things had really changed. It was the day she got into the passenger side of my dad’s little Toyota truck and looked at me with excitement and delight.
“I got a new CD.” She said as she smiled.
“Okay, put it on.” I replied as I shifted the clutch into first gear.
That was the way it went for us both. If one of us loved it the other would give it a listen, and then we’d go from there. Even then we respected each other’s musical taste immensely. She is my musical soul mate. I have no doubt about it.
“It’s called Our Day, by Colette.”
“Th DJ?”
“Yeah, but she’s not just a DJ. She sings.”
“Like, she makes her own songs?”
“Yeah, but when she DJ’s she sings too.”
Up to that point I’ll admit I had heard OF Colette, but I personally had not heard her actual music yet. Times were different back then. We didn’t have Soundcloud or YouTube. If you liked a DJ, it’s either because you heard them live and decided to like them, or because you saw they were coming, so you bought a CD and listened to them.
Or maybe your friend had a CD that you’d listen to together. But even with that, electronic music CDs were hard to find in New Mexico, and I still to this day am not really sure where she actually found this one. Part of the joy in this memory is the mystery of it. Which is also why I enjoyed Colette’s music so immediately. It was different. And unique.
She had come to town a year before, but I didn’t go, and I still had no idea what she actually played. I can remember the flyer, and us being mad we didn’t make it, but also knowing there’d be a next time. There’s always a next time with house music. It’s so funny to say that now because now I know her as a Chicago House Music Legend.
And not just that, but she seems to encompass and represent not just the sound of Chicago, but also the sounds of San Francisco and Los Angeles as well. I’ve found there to be a bit of a triangle of house music between the three cities and based on that, New Mexico is strangely right in the middle of it. We hear the sounds of the Midwest in one ear and the sounds of the West Coast in the other. DJ Colette was the very first DJ to introduce me to that, and possibly still the best at representing it.
It’s disco, but it also has a fresh pop to it. Like, the sound of the ocean. Or maybe just the way we like to remember it in our heads. I didn’t know that, though, when the cd started. I just knew the girl I loved wanted me to hear some new house music. Which was a surprise, cause she was always the techno one.
By then she had already seen Joey Beltram and Juan Atkins, and I suspect she only liked hanging at my house at first because I had a bunch of Frankie Bones CDs in my collection. I didn’t mind, though. I liked that she was techno. I wasn’t quite all the way into it yet so I would let her borrow my techno cd’s all the time, the very few I had. House was my thing. I was already her counter. The yin to her yang. The idea of being introduced to a new House DJ by a girl was perhaps the teenage dream for me, and I was now suddenly living it.
It started so smooth and powerful. The best part about disco house is that you never mistake it for anything else and you recognize it immediately. And once you recognize it you can do nothing but respond with dance and joy. This time was different, though. This time the DJ added her voice. What you’ve got to understand is that everybody does a remix in their own way and with their own style.
The whole point of house music, and all of life for that matter, is having your own style, and Colette’s style is impossible to duplicate because it is constantly different and forever connected to her voice. It jumped out of the speakers immediately and by the time the disc ended, I was changed. House music had shown me another side to it. But hearing the cd is nothing compared to when we finally went and heard her in person.
That’s what’s happening on Saturday, June 11th at Meow Wolf for the Summer Serenade Masquerade Ball. Colette is playing in New Mexico. I can remember that first time seeing her live, at a show that also took place in Santa Fe. Hearing her sing those notes in person, over those groovy house beats is a must have moment, and in an environment like Meow Wolf it just can’t be beat.
I’m forever grateful to the Techno Raver girl that introduced me to the House Music of DJ Colette, and I look forward to the chance of hearing Colette in person once again. She is Chicago, She is California, She is House Music. Please go and show your appreciation for this sound that we all love so much. The sound that has always been there. The sound that will always be excited to show you something new, but only if you’re willing to go for a drive.
Ourdancefloor.net 