DJ Of The Week: Karítas

Karítas Óðinsdóttir hasn’t been part of the Reykjavík music scene for long, but she’s making waves with DJ sets at many well-known downtown venues. Meeting her for the first time, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s the shy type, but her sound is anything but—she plays an upbeat mixture of hip-hop, trap and R&B that always get the room jumping.

When did you start making music?
Ever since I was a kid I’ve learned how to play instruments and sing, so it’s always been there. I first started making music and writing songs when I was around nineteen-twenty years old, and I’ve just been making music for myself until I’m ready to put it out there. As for DJing, around two years ago I asked a good friend of mine to teach me how to DJ—shortly after I got my own gear, and after a while things just kind of happened.

Is DJing the only way you make music nowadays?
I make short mixes from time to time, which I put up on my SoundCloud page, but I’ve also been learning how to make beats. I’ve just been learning by myself, it’s at a very early stage, and for now it’s only to help me to improve my songwriting.

What gear do you use for your music?
I just use a Macbook Pro and a Numark Mixtrack Pro 3 controller. I’ve always used the Numark controllers for my gigs, but I’ve had to borrow gear from friends a few times after a very unfortunate incident where my controller was spilled on during a set. It was last June I think on a Friday night, I was playing at Dúfnahólar 10 and around 3am my friend came by to say hey. The DJ booth there is in front of an old piano and it’s a bit high up, so he grabs the side of the piano to pull himself up and knocked my drink over the controller. Luckily I was able to finish the gig. These things happen all the time, I was just glad that it was the controller instead of my computer.

What is your favourite venue to play at?
Prikið. It’s been my favourite place to go to for years, and to finally be playing gigs there is pretty cool. I like playing for people that have a lot of energy and love to dance, it’s much more fun to play when the crowd is losing it but it all depends on the evening, sometimes you really have to read the crowd to find out what they want. The only place that I got steady gigs at the moment is at Prikið, but I’ve also been playing at Tívolí lately.

What are the five essential tracks at the moment?
It depends on what venue I’m playing at, but for the dance floor these usually do the trick: “Smokin & Drinkin” by Danny Brown, “That’s Not Me” by Skepta ft. JME, “Everybody In The Club Gettin Shot” by Father, “That Part” by SchoolBoyQ, “Tala Um” by GKR.

She’s playing at Prikið September 19 from 10pm until 1am!