Here at ISLA we believe in girls supporting girls so were super excited to have Austrian female DJ collective, Bad&Boujee, play a set for us in-store last month.  We caught up with them to find out more...

ISLA is all about representing strong, independent women like yourselves so we were super excited to have you play a set in our store.  How did it go and how did you find out about ISLA?
We heard of ISLA through friends who got their nails did.  When we had an appearance with Ebow at ISLA we were very excited and then we were asked to do a set.  Being at ISLA was fun. We met Francesca who works at ISLA and is also a DJ and talked with her about doing and events in Vienna.

Tell us a little more about the concept behind Bad & Boujee and what you are about… 
Our collective is the first all black, all female DJ/MC collective in Austria.  Our main focus is on queer BPOC womxn with the goal of creating safe parties and spaces for Queer, Trans and Non-binary BPOCs.

What was it like growing up in Austria and how did you get into the music and club scene there? 
Well, Vienna is the "most liveable city”…it’s beautiful and affordable to live here but we still have a big problem with racism and other forms of discrimination.  In a population that is predominantly white, the result is that there are very few spaces designed for us to be in.  Occupying spaces in which we can DJ is a political act for us.
Bad&Boujee c/o Instagram by  @marie_haefner

What inspired you to create a community uniting and supporting fellow young black women and what changes do you hope to make through music?
When you go to parties or walk into clubs, all you see is white dudes DJing. You rarely see womxn or womxn of colour so for us it was important to create a space where you can have a safe night out and enjoy yourselves.  It's important to have room for womxn not only in the club scenes but also the music scene.

How does the nightlife and club scene in Vienna compare to Berlin? 
You cannot even compare them tbh. Vienna doesn't really have a party scene, it is just evolving right now and new parties are coming up all the time.  If you want to find a good party, you have to navigate yourself through DJ’s rather than clubs.

Berlin is known for it's music scene.  Does Vienna have it’s own particular musical vibe? 
This is a difficult one haha…Vienna is always pretty late on the wagon!  When you think of Vienna, it has to be classical music really.  As a city it’s still very much stuck in time.

Coming from Vienna, you seem to have formed a strong connection to Germany.  What does it mean to you to be able to play here and spread your message? 
We have been on tour with German rapper Ebow which gave us an opportunity to spread the word about us.  Meeting so many great people on the road was very overwhelming.  Our connection is more to Berlin than Germany because we met so many amazing people that are now our friends here that made our connection very strong.

Tell us more about the type of women you represent… 
We represent young black womxn who were told they cannot achieve certain things in life because they are black and womxn. We want to show younger generations that they are representatives for them and share the same stories as them.

Finally, what’s on for the rest of 2019? We hear you’re running some DJ workshops in Berlin later in the year….tell us more!!
Yes, we'll be giving a DJ workshop at Popkultur Berlin (https://www.pop-kultur.berlin), we'll be touring with Ebow and we will be collaborating with other collectives. We are very excited for the rest of the year.

Check out Bad&Boujee on social media:
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/badnboujeevie

Written by Hazel Hedges


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