Brazzabelle Talks Ravercising and Doesn’t “Let It Go”

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Brazzabelle Talks Ravercising and Doesn’t “Let It Go”

With multiple club residences in Southern California along with a successful mix series called “#RAVERCISE,” Arizona-born Boots Bowles, aka Brazzabelle, is no stranger to the dance music scene. Not only has Brazzabelle made her appearance on the main stages of Electric Zoo and EDC Puerto Rico, but she has also been featured on other dope festival lineups such as EDC New York, HARD SummerTomorrowWorld, Mad Decent Boat Party, Mad Decent Block Party, and Holy Ship! With remixes from Crystal Fighters, Skrillex, and Madonna, along with original electro-banger tracks such as “OHMYGOD” and “Holy Shit” under her belt, she has intrigued thousands of fans with her groovy beats and unbeatable, energetic live performances. With that being said, Brazzabelle is an unstoppable ravercising beast and shows no sign of slowing down. Read what Brazzabelle had to say about how the ravercising revolution came about and her unforgettable experiences with the Mad Decent homies.

SR: What were you doing before you became an artist?

Brazzabelle: I was just going to school and was DJing in my free time as a hobby. I didn’t really think it would become anything. I just thought it would be fun to do and I had passion for it. I also worked in fashion as well, which was also another one of my dream jobs. It was hard to take the plunge and leave fashion to produce and DJ full time.

SR: What program do you use?

Brazzabelle: For producing, I use Logic. I use Ableton for a few things, but mostly just Logic for producing. Playing live I just use CDJs.

SR: Did you start off with Logic and just stick with it or did you start with a different program?

Brazzabelle: So when I was about 13 years old, I started on this program called Dance eJay. It was super ghetto. The sample packs were super 90s but it provided me with the right groundwork to get started.  In my junior year of college, I studied abroad in Barcelona. I had some friends that were DJs in Barcelona that told me what to buy and they encouraged me to get into it. I wanted to start earlier, but I just didn’t have the money to buy the proper equipment. Ever since 2009 or 2010, I’ve been using Logic.

SR: What’s your favorite Disney soundtrack?

Brazzabelle: That’s a good question, I don’t know this one! I would have to say Tron, that soundtrack is pretty sick. And actually at the time of Tron, they did this Tron rave (ElecTRONica) at Disneyland. I had the same haircut as the main girl in the movie, so I tried out to be the DJ at that rave.

Brazzabelle: I love Tangled, but I fast forward through the songs. I can’t stand them.

SR: I’m just so glad you didn’t say Frozen…

Brazzabelle: UH yeah I just….f-ing hate Frozen. I do not like Frozen.

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SR: I’ve never seen it…for a reason.

Brazzabelle: People love it.

Brazzabelle: I like Aladdin too, that’s pretty good!

SR: You’re really active on social media. You interact with fans on a regular basis, whether it’s snapchatting some works in progress or just replying to fans on Facebook/Twitter. Do you feel having that direct relationship has impacted your career?

Brazzabelle: I definitely think it helps. It’s so different from when I was growing up. I would go to shows all the time starting at the age of 9. My parents would take me to No Doubt shows. I was just obsessed with them, but all you got to see was press stuff about artists. I wanted to know what Gwen Stefani was wearing everyday. I wanted to know what she was doing, what she was eating…just everything! I think it’s cool to know what artists are doing when they’re not performing. It’s cool that I can share that with my fans. When I was doing my festival remix series, I would ask my fans “hey guys, I do this all for you, you’re the reason I DJ! What do you want me to remix next?” My fans would vote on what I would remix and that was really cool to get that type of feedback. Even when I’m working on projects on Snapchat (Snapchat: Brazzabelle) and snap the projects I’m working on, I get really positive feedback which is awesome!

SR: It’s also really encouraging too to get that positive feedback!

Brazzabelle: It’s just good gratification. Sometimes I’ll work on 20 different drops for a song and then someone will say “oh that one is tight!” It’s cool! I feel like I know a lot of my fans, even if we’ve never met in person. If we do meet in person, they’ll tell me their social media handle and I’ll be like “oh yeah, I know you! Thanks!”

SR: What’s your ultimate dream venue or festival?

Brazzabelle: I went to school at CU Boulder and I really want to play Red Rocks. The Gorge in Seattle would be awesome. They’re kinda like the same thing. Those two would be cool.

SR: What’s your favorite gig that you’ve played in the last six months?

Brazzabelle: I just played Mad Decent Block Party in Eugene and it was really sick! I’ve never played in Eugene and the venue was super cool. The fans were awesome and I just really like playing the Mad Decent parties. So that show has definitely been my favorite.

SR: Who else was on that lineup?

Brazzabelle: Keys N Krates, RL Grime, Major Lazer, Oliver Heldens…

SR: I really want RL Grime to show up on the boat [Mad Decent Boat Party] this year.

Brazzabelle: Are you doing on the boat too?

SR: Hell yeah I’ll be on the boat! 

Brazzabelle: Did you go last year too? Did you come to my Ravercise class??

SR: Yup I went last year and I was at the Ravercise class!

Brazzabelle: Oh my god awesome!!

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SR: It was so fun! I love boat party. I’m so excited for this year!

Brazzabelle: It’s so fun! Yeah I wasn’t sure how the first Ravercising class would go but then all these people came out and I was like “man this is amazing!”

SR: Turn upppp. How did Ravercising come about?

Brazzabelle: I was promoting the Sol Republic Relay headphones at the time it came about. I don’t know why, but my marketing friend and I were talking and I was like “I’m going to send you a prancercise meme.” I love memes, so I made a little my version of it. My roommate was like “WHOA…what if you made it ‘Ravercise?'” I was like “oh my god, you’re a GENIUS!” So we redid how she walked forward and added rave moves to it like twerking and the hand movements. I recorded this video really quickly and I sent it off to Sol Republic. They thought it was amazing and wanted to share it. After that, it kind of became a monster from there. It was super random.

SR: What was the most memorable moment for you on Mad Decent Boat Party? 

Brazzabelle: Wow I mean, it was all a dream…”I use to read Word Up! magazine.”

Brazzabelle: Haha, sorry. Um, probably when I played the Stardust stage at 5am. Were you there?

SR: Yeah I was there too! It was Deorro then you played right after him. I love that stage! That one is the best in my opinion. When Flosstradamus played there…I thought I was going to die in the mosh pit.

Brazzabelle: I just remember when Diplo came out and was like “I just had a baby!” *laughs* Yeah it was tight! It was turned up in there, but it was great!

SR: *laughs* That’s exactly how it happened. “Hey guys, just had a kid!” and we were all like “oh, NICE! CONGRATS!”

Brazzabelle: TURN UP! BABIES, TURN UP!

SR: And then we had Skrillex over there standing on the table like “YEAH!” and I’m like “wait this is a Flosstradamus set, what is happening right now!? This is awesome!!” Waving flags everywhere.

Brazzabelle: So many flags.

SR: But yeah, Stardust, 5am set.

Brazzabelle: Yeah it was cool. I was, not going to lie, pretty drunk because it was 5am. Let’s be honest. But I go up there to plug in and all of a sudden there’s all these people around us. I wasn’t sure what was going on but it was tight! I figured security was going to come soon but I was surprised that many people stayed that late and turned up with me. That was really special. That was definitely my favorite moment.

SR: Have you seen the MadFam [Mad Decent Boat Party] flag yet? *takes out flag*

Brazzabelle: I saw someone had it today when I performed! That’s great! When I saw it out there, at first I was like “oh it’s probably just some random flag” but then I saw it was the boat party flag and I was like “yeah Mad Decent!!”

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