DJ, vocalist, promoter & producer Michelle Manetti blossomed from being an underage clubber in the Late 90s UK Rave scene, into a well-loved and well-respected DJ and stalwart of East London's Queer scene. With over 17years of DJ-ing under her belt, it's safe to say she's no novice to the decks, with the passion, skill, panache, and record collection of a well-established and well-refined DJ.

Michelle is a revered DJ in her own right, with a strong presence on the East London underground queer scene, with residencies at her own party Fèmmme Fraîche and Adonis, as well regular guest appearances at parties such as, He.She.They, Little Gay Brother, Horsemeat Disco, Percolate, & Homoelectric.

As a Vocalist, Michelle has lent her voice to tracks for Third-Son, Lauren Flax, Sophie Lloyd & Chris Massey and has many unreleased works in the pipeline. She’s also the frontwoman for The Off Key Hat who’s span of releases on ISM, Untracked, Hobbes Music and the cult vinyl-only label Dissident have received remixes from the likes of Ashley Beedle, Cosmodelica, Yam Who?, Daniele Baldelli & Dionigi and much love, play and support from the likes of Bicep and Steffi.

Dipping her toes into production, 2020 saw Michelle’s first solo release on Super Drama records, with Premiere play support from Jaguar’s BBC1 introducing show and Michelle’s forthcoming remix for Falle Nioke on Prah Recordings has received early support and play from Mary Anne Hobbes on BBC radio 6.

With more productions and collaborations in the pipeline, as well as a new exciting ‘post-Covid’ London Club residency to be announced soon, Michelle Manetti is certainly an artist to keep a watchful eye on.

Tracklist

Subtle Houzze - The Traveller
Xtrak - Tar05 
Paul Johnson - Dream of You 
Boys' Shorts - Poor Connection (Love Letters Remix) 
Munir Nadir - CK 
Innershades - Jammin' with Linn
Alinka - Reality Love 
Avalon Emerson - Poodle Power 
Click Click - Body Buzz 
Alden Tyrell - Acid 3 
DJ Haus - Machine Learning 
Dawl - Overdub 
Will Lister - Forth 
L.e.n.i. - Catch The Groove (Instrumental) 
ProOne79 - YOU CAN DO IT 
Parris - Harajuku Girls 
Nyra - Opening Rhyme 
Ksky - Explore 

Hey Michelle! Thanks so much for preparing this mix for us! Could you tell us a bit about what you’ve put together?

Thanks for inviting me! It’s an honor. So it’s a little deep dig, some old stuff, some new stuff, a bit of Acid, Leftfield, Breaks, Electro and lots of nods to old skool Chicago & Detroit sounds.

Let’s go straight in, fave artist in the mix, and why?

By far Alinka, she’s a good pal of mine (and the reason I started my clubnight) She’s a Chicago native living in Berlin so has both the Chicago and Berlin magic. Her productions are just always amazing, but the latest stuff she’s been putting out is killer, including her new EP on Rekids that came out a few days ago, which the track on here comes from - the whole EP is amazing. She’s also an incredible DJ and hilariously funny too! (Damn I miss my Berlin buddies, can we go party there again now please ms Rona!!)

We’ve known each other for some time now, apart from absolutely loving you to bits and being an all-round star, I’d love to hear about how you actually started off DJing and getting into ‘the scene’?

Ahh thanks ditto :) so yeah I started my DJ journey over 20 years ago! But it was a kinda happy accident. I started off as a vocalist, I took a year out before going to Drama School (cue Jazz hands), and was doing bits of session vocals. I was working regularly with one producer, but just singing guide vocals or stuff other people had written, I told him I wanted to make my own tracks to sing on, he showed me round the studio a bit and then I ended up doing a degree in music production at uni, instead of musical theatre! While producing I figured it would be a good idea to learn to DJ, so I can understand what works on the dancefloor and what a DJ looks for in a track (and to have a cheeky little money earner through uni)….. 20 years later…..

We’ve seen you play some killer sets over the years. Is there a particular party/moment that has stood out for you? Or was there someone you absolutely loved warming up for? (we can get into the juicy stuff about who you hated warming up for in-person :D xxx)

It all feels like a blessing now tbh, I’d have to say warming up for Honey Dijon at my own party Femmme Fraiche was pretty up there, it was just before she hit big time, but was already a huge queer icon, so to have her at Dalston Superstore was gorge. Despite being the first week of January, it was capacity by 9pm and the whole atmosphere was electric and Mama Dijon bought the mustard as always.

Feel like I have to ask about Femmme Fraiche. As someone who literally can’t get enough of running parties, can you tell me a bit about how yours came about? How do you find it different when running your own event vs being a DJ at someone elses?

So again it was a kind of happy accident. I was one of the regular DJ’s at an infamous East London queer night called Dick & Fanny and I played at their very last event they did, afterwards Sandra told me I should be running something and to take over the legacy, I’d always wanted to put my own night on in London but the time was never right. Around a year later, Sandra got in touch, saying her friend Alinka was gonna be in town visiting from Chicago and was I running anything yet, which I wasn’t, so after much discussions, we decided to throw a queer girl party at the Star in Bethnal Green while Alinka was in town and see how it went. It was a killer night, so we carried on bi-monthly. Then not long after Dalston Superstore came knocking and asking us to put on something similar there and it’s been our home for nearly 6 years now.  

Playing at my own party and anytime I’m at Dalston Superstore feels like home, always full of friends and familiar (sweaty, gurning) faces, I know the crowd, I know the space and when It goes off in there it’s so lush because it’s so intimate. But I also love playing elsewhere, playing to a new and different crowd makes me have to think outside the box a bit more and push myself.

Let’s take a moment. 6am on a Sunday, deep into a 24-hour party at P Bar. Sunlights come up, you’re closing your set, everyone is at absolute peak and you’ve just played a track that can’t and the vibe can’t get any bigger. What do you close with?! [do you try and go even bigger or do you go EUPHORIC haha]

Well tbh, nobody can beat Boris playing Britney Spears One more time to close P’Bar, I wasn’t there but ICONIC! I’m a Euphoric closer, If I’m closing I always like to end on something emotive. The last few sets I’ve done, I’ve found re-edits or mash-ups of some well known old-school tracks, that people can sing along to, but done with really Euphoric vibes and then just as the vocal drops, I’ve grabbed a microphone and start singing just to add that extra little goosebump moment…most people don’t know I’m a vocalist too, so just comes as a little added surprise. 

Follow Michelle Manetti —

soundcloud.com/michelle-manetti
instagram.com/michelle_manetti

Interview by @armand.origins