If the world doesn’t know about Lady Shaka yet, they’re about to find out when her iconic Boiler Room set recorded at an incredible Filth party right here in Neck of the Woods drops this weekend. So for now allow us to introduce you to Shakaiah Perez aka Lady Shaka. The DJ who moves between her home of Aotearoa and her recently adopted home in London is Māori, Samoan, Tahitian, Tokelauan and Cape Verdean and belongs to multiple iwi - Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Rangi and Te-Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi. Lady Shaka DJ’d for the first three Filth club nights and returned to Aotearoa just in time for the most recent and most momentous Filth yet.
In the heady lead up to New Zealand’s first event to be recorded for the massive international platform that is Boiler Room, we sat down for a kōrero with Lady Shaka. We’ve known Shakaiah since before her DJing career when she was teaching dance classes and organising shows. So we were excited to catch up with Lady Shaka to talk about her journey from dancer to DJ to producer, her landmark Boiler Room set, and the growing community of Pasifika artists in London. The DJ is not just a great performer but a great storyteller and her story of going from working at Deliveroo to blagging her way to DJing in front of 10,000 people is one of the best stories we’ve had the pleasure of publishing on this blog.
NOTW: Welcome back to Aotearoa! Last time you were at Neck of the Woods was 5 years ago and you were throwing your own going away party to raise money for a potential dance career in the UK. And now you’ve returned instead with a thriving DJ career! Talk us through that shift in your focus.
LADY SHAKA: My main goal was to dance, be a choreographer, backup dancer, that’s the route that I was on. That’s what I’d been working towards all those years. And somehow I ended up becoming a DJ! That became my new pathway and how I ended up getting on stages and performing for people.
NOTW: Was that an intentional change in direction? Talk us through how that happened.
LADY SHAKA: Watching people who I’d grown up with, who I’m very proud of, pursuing really huge dance careers in the States, back up dancers for Rihanna, J.Lo… And I was sitting in the UK like, oh my god … I’m working at Deliveroo. I’m taking people’s customer service complaints and I’m still not cracking it. For the first two years I was a fucking starving artist, doing jobs I don’t like. I done some dance things but they weren’t big scale. I went through a bad breakup, and when that happened this new opportunity came up to work with a whole lot of other Black femmes and Black women and we created this amazing theatre show.
From there I started realising, holy shit there’s actually more out there than the commercial dance world”. I met more people and my path just constantly kept on changing. I was like, I don’t know where it’s taking me, I don’t know where my destiny is anymore but I’m going to let it take me to where I need to go. I feel like now I can finally see where I’m meant to go and why this purpose has become like a full circle. I was always destined to do something but I didn’t know at that stage that it didn’t have to be solely dance. I still love to dance when I DJ. There’s no way I’m not gonna run out and do a whole fucking routine and then run back to change the song. But DJing is something I can do where I don’t have to be behind someone else, I’m not on the side or backup for anyone. I can be front and centre and take charge of the stage, which I love to do. I love grabbing the mic like “make some fucking noise bitch!”
NOTW: So you’ve moved from choreographing the stage to choreographing the whole dance floor instead.
LADY SHAKA: The whole thing! The whole thing.
NOTW: On one of your trips back home a couple years ago, you ended up on the first ever Filth lineup. Such great timing. Was that your first time DJing back in New Zealand?
LADY SHAKA: The first Filth was literally the first weekend after I’d flown home. The funny thing is it was actually my first proper gig. So I’d told everyone that I was this DJ from London, but really I’d only played at my leaving party in London. And it was at a club so I was like, technically I DJ’d at that club and randoms did come in (laughs). So, came back to New Zealand and just told people I was a DJ and I just started DJing gigs and then it just built from there. Shaqi and them were happy for me to do basically my debut proper set in front of a crowd. And it was great too because at the beginning no one was there and then midway through my set the whole club was PACKED and vibing. I was like (screams), twerking while I was DJing… I’d taught myself how to DJ using virtual DJ and then I used Shaq’s controller and was like oh my god this is so much easier! For ages I was just using virtual DJ and a controller for a lot of my gigs. But then I was like if I wanna book bigger gigs I have to learn how to use CD-Js. Cos for some reason in the UK if you can use CD-J then you’re a proper DJ. Which is bullshit but that’s the hierarchy.
NOTW: From there you headed back to the UK and started putting on the Pulotu Underworld club nights. How did those club nights come about?
LADY SHAKA: That came about with some people in the In*ter*is*land Collective I’m part of.
NOTW: For those of us who don’t know yet, what is the In*ter* is*land Collective?
LADY SHAKA: In*ter* is*land is a Pacific Island Arts Collective based in London. They bring together artists of pacific descent who come over. show case their art, run workshops. Being a part of that has really helped me to realise actually you don’t have to just be a dancer or just have to be a DJ. The opportunities that are available in the UK are limitless. I’ve found my own niche community in the UK where I feel supported and I can be my genuine self as much as I can here with my community in New Zealand.
London’s In*ter*is*land Collective
NOTW: How did Pulotu grow out of that collective?
In the UK there’s bare Pacific Islanders but we’re all so spread out, we don’t know each other, we don’t have anywhere to come together. The only time we come together is for like New Zealand government type things, or museums wanting to have Pacific Islanders come in for some thing. But we turn up and we don’t know each other. Also, we’ve got all this Pacific youth out there that are born and bred in the UK but don’t have anywhere to be with their people. So I was like, let me start a club night! Puloto is a space for and by Pacific people. With the values of no homophobia, no transphobia, no sexism, no racism. A space that is safe for everyone in the Pacific community but also having it open to people who want to learn about our music and our culture. Just creating a space for Pacific people to be unapologetically themselves and play our music.
NOTW: Then when lockdown meant parties and club nights couldn’t happen anymore you took Pulotu to the internet for live streamed parties and made it an international collaboration.
LADY SHAKA: I was like let’s do a Fiafia Zoom! I contacted a whole bunch of DJs here in Aotearoa too. Next thing you know we’ve got Filth DJs Halfqueen, Zeki, Pip (Native Bush), Brown Boy Magik, BBYFACEKILLA and all our DJs in the UK doing this intercultural, interconnection over the seas party together. We got to engage with so many different Pacific people from all across the globe. We had people from Guam, Hawaii, our UK lot, and in the States. My heart was missing home then, and a lot of our Pacific family in the UK were missing home and missing our whānau. To be able to be there and see my Dad dancing while I was DJing through a screen made me so grateful and so happy. And my Mum too … they both dressed up in their traditional outfits, my Dad had a frickin wig on! My aunt was getting her hair did at the hair salon in Australia and she was on the zoom party with the foils in her hair.
NOTW: Before lockdown happened, all these videos popped up online of you DJing for well known rapper IAMDDB as well as video of the two of you dancing together on stage in front of thousands of people. How did that happen?! For someone who blagged her way into her first proper gig, that was such an incredible move and really cool to watch happening as part of your journey.
LADY SHAKA: She put up on Instagram she was looking for a new female DJ so I sent through a message and didn’t hear anything for months. Then in February last year they messaged asking me to come in for an interview. So I turned up, I didn’t have any DJ gear with me. I’d brought a USB just in case but I went there thinking I was just going for an interview. I get there and there’s all these female DJs and they’re actually DJing and I’m like, oh my god I don’t have any gear! Everyone there to audition seemed really nervous, like they were all dead quiet. I was like if you guys psych me out it I’m just gonna ruin me so I’m just gonna keep talking, cracking jokes, asking everyone how their day’s going….
Lady Shaka & IAMDDB - click the image for the video of this triumph!
So I was talking to D and we were getting along because I was just chatting a whole bunch of shit and she said she wished I had my gear. And then I was like wait, does your PA have a laptop? She was like yeah and I was like well there’s a controller there … So I chucked in my USB and just freestyled and had the best time. Me, her, and her two best friends were all twerking while I was DJing. I couldn’t believe what was happening! It was organic. That connection we had initially was insane. The next day I got a message saying hey you’re being called back to come just have a talk. I turned up and they asked if I was available to DJ a gig in Switzerland that weekend! I just put my hand up like, yep! I’m free I’m free I’m free. I went home shaking. Went in for one rehearsal, took the day off the next day so I could practice my set. Then I flew to Switzerland and DJ’d for 10,000 people.
To get my nerves down before the show, I started playing some dancehall and I was just winning up in front of the mirror to get myself calm. And D heard it and told me to put it in the set and then on stage we just organically started wining together.
NOTW: Such a great story. A real testament to resourceful wāhine and believing in yourself.
LADY SHAKA: Period! I am not letting this opportunity go out the door. We’re gonna work with what we’ve got.
NOTW: Which brings us really nicely full circle to the fact that you’re back in Aotearoa, on the Filth lineup again but with a whole lot more experience and about to DJ for Boiler Room. The first Boiler Room to ever be filmed in New Zealand. Talk us through how that.
LADY SHAKA: I was screaming when Shaqi (Filth DJ and organiser Halfqueen) told me. I was in quarantine and Shaq messaged me about the gig. I was running around my hotel room screaming like, what the fuck?! I rang everyone in London like GUESS WHAT?! It’s like every DJs dream to DJ on Boiler Room. And for me it was like, oh my god New Zealand’s very first Boiler Room is gonna be run by a Black, brown, queer, trans, intersex beautiful collective that are gonna put on the most amazing party. I remember back in the day we were just kind of starting out, and people literally laughed at us for using controllers or using Virtual DJ. And now all these DJs are gonna choke because we’re fucking doing Boiler Room (laughs)! And how cool is it that it’s gonna be queer Pasifika?!
NOTW: One of the communities you’re connected to and get a lot of support from is the local Ballroom community. Does this opportunity mean some of the amazing people from that scene will get some international visibility?
Filth is the same night as the Iman Ball but I found out that Jaycee (mother of the House of Iman) messaged the femme queen chat “Once the ball’s finished we’re all going to Filth so we can support Lady Shaka. Femme Queen DJ and we all need to support her”. That for me is so beautiful. That support from that part of my community there. “We’re gonna be here and we’re gonna vogue around for you and give you all the aroha for your set”. I cried when I found out.
NOTW: Finally, let’s talk about what you’re doing while you’re back in Aotearoa. Tell us about the Pasifika music project you’re coming back to work on.
I’ve been funded by the Arts Council England to do this project. It’s called “Oro Ancestral sounds of the Pacific”. Essentially the idea of my whole project is to learn taonga puoro (Māori indigenous instruments), to learn the different Pacific drums and how I can utilise them in my mixing, enhance my skills in ukulele but then also to produce a new Pacific club sound. I’m essentially trying to make a new genre of music using traditional sounds but in a sense where I could play it in a club and people are gonna be dancing to it.
NOTW: Moving into this path as a producer, what sounds are inspiring you?
I’m really inspired by the drums. Reggaeton has that really consistent drum beat, and then you’ve got like afro music that has all the different types of drums. For me, our Pacific drumming is so unique. Even the way our scaling happens. The beats aren’t always a count of 8. They might be a count of 6 or a count of 5. It’s kind of ...off. So, I found it really challenging to mix Pacific music together. I love our Otara Market Off The Hook Volume 1 remixes that you get, I’m here for all of it. I was inspired by that because I love the joy and happiness that brings our people. But also inspired by the new sounds that happen… like, all the voguing music, the sounds that I love. I even tried mixing drumming in with heavy metal and electric guitars. I want to create something that’s different but I want our Pacific people to love it but I also want it to be universal.
You can follow Lady Shaka’s journey on Instagram . Keep an eye out on Boiler Room’s Youtube page for that Filth Boiler Room set coming out soon.
Interview and story by
Rebekah Bristow