Sometimes it’s doomed from the start – if you have someone who is typically volatile and not up for giving a good interview, and you’re interviewing them in front of their band or their people, well, they’re just going to play up to those people. I was really upset afterwards and I felt really deflated, but I didn’t carry it for too long because I did a bit of research about the person and found out that it’s very common for them to be like that in an interview situation. In that situation you just have to not take it personally you have to know that it isn’t about you, it’s about them. I had one recently, I can’t name the person because it’s not out yet, but there was an awful lot of pressure and an awful lot of important people in the room, and I really wanted to get it right, and they just… didn’t… they were really up for sabotaging the interview.
I’m talking like I’m bloody Britney Spears… It was my choice to go in front of people but in retrospect, I’m really happy I had that time to be me, and equally with radio, I had two years working behind the scenes at Radio 1, learning what it was to be a presenter from the perspective of being a producer first, and making tea and writing notes for the presenters, so working on that side first really helped me to be empathetic to all the people around me at every level at Radio 1, and equally, not to be starry-eyed about the world of celebrity, and to appreciate what matters to me, anyway, which is real friendships and family and happiness. I feel lucky that all of this madness happened to me later in life I only got my show on Radio 1 when I was 26, so I had the chance to be an idiot when I was young and to go out and take risks and look stupid and forge friendships and discover my identity before I was thrust in front of people. The world that I live in – the world of celebrity and the music industry – can be fickle and quite ludicrous at times.
I think I’ve mastered it, but it takes longer to get into it and I still don’t know whether I’m a better or worse DJ.
ANNIE AND MAC MUSIC HOW TO
A huge part of being a DJ and growing up is learning how to DJ sober. I feel so incredibly self-aware and self-conscious, and when you’re completely sober, you overthink every move you make, you think, ‘Oh my god, why am I here, that person down the front is on their phone, why did I wear this top, I can’t dance’ – it’s constant. And a lot of the time that’s there, but sometimes you have to get there. Because you're in these situations that are so bizarre and – I lead a very normal life, I’m a very normal person, I’m low-key, I don’t go to premieres, I don’t live that life – but when you switch modes and you’re in DJ/performer mode and you go to a festival and you're playing in front of tens of thousands of people and you're on the main stage, you’re not just DJ'ing, you’re performing, you have to smile and be having a great time and exude this energy and joy. When I DJ, I have this very busy, intense internal dialogue in my head and I always think after a set that I need to write an essay on what’s just happened in my head. When you have even a couple of vodka tonics, you stop thinking so much. Obviously, real talk, when you DJ sober, it's much harder. I had another kid in January and I did festivals in the summer because… I mostly DJ on the main stage and it’s from 5-6pm or 6-7pm, so I can be home by 11pm, go to bed, get up and have a normal Sunday.
So much of being a parent is not knowing how you’re going to feel and how things are going to go, so it’s this constant game of Tetris where you’re clicking schedules into place and finding time to fit everything in. So I try to bunch club gigs together now because it makes it easier to have childcare come and stay over. Like in Liverpool last Friday, I got home at 6.30 in the morning and… it's just harder because you're going into the weekend knackered and exhausted after a week of work and sleep-deprivation, and then staying up all night to DJ, it’s like part-time jetlag. When I do club gigs, I pretty much come home as soon as I can, so I’m asleep in the back of a car at 5am on a Sunday morning. Then in 2015, I got the job on the radio, which is my dream job and I absolutely love it, but it means that if I gig two nights a week and over the weekend as well, it's just… too much, because club sets start at 1 and finish at 3 or 4am, and then you only have one recovery day a week. I used to do gigs pretty much every weekend.