The final stages of 2003 saw Misstress Barbara relaxing in Sydney with her friends. That’s Misstress with 4 S’ – something she’s VERY diligent about. The name’s a word-game with the words Miss and Stress… When she’s not relaxing with friends, Barbara can be found behind the decks or in her studio where she both plays and makes some of the very ‘pumping’est’ of Tech.

Touring through Europe – “I’ve been twice as much as usual in Europe. All over the place there”, and visiting for the first time in Columbia and Israel – 2003 was a very exciting year.
“My favourite gigs and places always remain the Latin countries like Spain for example, where I always have wicked gigs!”

Misstress Barbara was born in Sicily, Italy in 1975 and has lived in Montreal, Canada since age 8. At age 12 Barbara joined the Air Cadets and took up drumming in the Cadet Band, but by 16, having reached the top of the Rank and with no-where else to go but onwards, she took control of the Music. “Well, I do love my control yes, but honestly I don’t think I like percussions and drums because of that (being a Control Freak). I just think that the beat is the most essential thing in music, more than the melodies, at least that’s how it is for me, so without the beat I feel nothing and this is why I love the drums so much!”

Visiting a Disco at age 17 in honour of a friends birthday, Barbara experienced for the first time music other than her regulation Led Zeppelin and Guns’n’Roses. Reggae and House took her (and her knees), completely by surprise and she headed off to a new world of Raves, Dance Parties and Gay Clubs where trainspotting became Barbara’s Number One past-time. Being shown how to mix for only 5 minutes by a friend, was obviously enough to hook the young Sicilian vixen and buying her own decks soon followed.

“I’d been booked at my first gig after having distributed so many demo mix tapes and finally a promoter saw in me something really exploitable and has wanted to book me and it has been the greatest thing as it gave me a chance to show people what I could do and since then I have been booked constantly and it all went so fast because I never stopped working and trying to do more and always better”.

Setting up a studio came next for Misstress Barbara. A studio in which she could produce her own “drummy funky pumpin’ techno”, with influences ranging from shuffling Jazz to Latin grooves. Taking 12 months to familiarise herself with the equipment and it’s abilities gave solid backing for Barbara to make her trademark style, one which is instantly recognisable no matter who drops the track, and rumour was that she’d begun a foray into film and video scores. “I am not really involved so much in it (writing scores for videos and games) yet. I do want to though but more for the future. I have had a few tracks licensed for video games and movies but nothing more. I think that in the future I will spend more time producing music also for these kind of medias as I like them a lot and still love to play video games myself when I find the time”.

As with a large majority of DJs, once you step behind the decks, the music takes a whole ‘nother angle and when you’re working your butt off behind the decks trying to keep things together, the ability to let go and really get into the music physically is lost. Reading in another interview with Misstress Barbara that she had ‘stopped dancing a long time ago to Trainspot’, I asked Barbara to tell us whether she’s started dancing again, and which DJs make her want to bust a move. “I have not quite started dancing again but I have never stopped moving…Any DJ can make me move as long as I’m feeling it and the list is too long to mention”.

Having started her own label ‘Relentless’ a good while back now gave Misstress Barbara the license to make what she knew to be some damn good techno as it suited her. “Relentless has now just changed name for ITURNEM. The reason why I started my own label though is because I wanted to be free to release whatever music I wanted whenever I wanted. The label is going pretty well considering how the market is down at the moment. But for now we are shopping for a new distributor since Prime Distribution has now gone down (Relentless / Iturnem old distributor) and so everything is on hold at the moment for a very short while”.

”(When starting a new tune), I always think beats. I always start with the beats and the grooves. If the drums move me then I can move onto something else and then add more to the track. I rarely start by a melody but it can happens, in times when I feel more nostalgic perhaps”. Barbara explains. “My first piece (of studio equipment) ever was my ATARI. And my favourite piece in the studio is probably my JUNO 106, for the wicked basses I can find in there!”

With releases under the names of both Misstress Barbara and Barbara Brown, I felt it important to make clear for those of you who’ve never even heard of her, what the difference in production styles is between the two Artist names..

“The major difference between Misstress Barbara. And Barbara Brown is that Misstress Barbara is strictly Techno and Tech-House and Barbara Brown is House or anything else too different from being Techno or Tech-House”.

Misstress Barbara has played alongside some of the worlds very best including Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin and Carl Cox, and lists amongst her greatest influences Adam Beyer and Marco Carola. “I actually say that I am influenced by these producers because that it is their music that I buy and like to play so it comes to the same thing. Besides them, I also love Ben Sims, Speedy J, Oxia, Ignition Technician, DJ Preach, Gaetano Parisio, Danilo Vigorito, Rino Cerrone, etc. I’m always looking forward to more releases from these guys so I can rock them out in the crowd! The labels are less important for me as I don’t think I am sold to a label. Even if I like a label a lot, or a producer a lot, it doesn’t mean I buy everything that comes out on “that” label or from “that” producer as it can always happen that I don’t like a particular release of theirs, which is absolutely natural”.

“The very, VERY best thing about being a DJ, is making people dance on the music that you absolutely love!”

Catch Misstress Barbara doing what she loves in Sydney this Friday 9th January and in Melbourne this Saturday 10th January at Hi Fi Bar.