Barbie Bertisch
Born in Buenos Aires, moved to Miami at 14 when Argentina underwent a turbulent crisis. Grew up naturally attracted to dancing, making mixtapes and coordinating dance routines throughout elementary school. Lived in Miami another 8 years before moving to NY in early 2011. In Miami, I had my first nightclub experience at 16 and went out every night between 2007 and 2010, pretty much. Got heavily into punk, post punk, new wave and inevitably, 00s dance music until one night around '09 hearing Louie Vega at the now defunct club Vagabond changed my life. Upon graduating with a degree in fashion design in early 2011, I moved to NY. I wound up disillusioned with the endless stream of sketchy internships that was the norm at the time. Switched careers around 2014, when DJing found me via friends and extended Loft family members. I threw myself fully into learning more about this music, New York music, and it led me down a path of self-discovery. I began to DJ, stringing Salsoul singles together at (the also defunct) Kinfolk 90 on Thursday nights. 10,000 hours. In early 2015 I met Paul who mentioned he was starting a fanzine dedicated to NY dance music past and present. I told him we should throw a release party. The rest unfolded quickly and beautifully. In 2018 I lost my remote tech job and rode off into the unemployment sunset to learn to play bass. Joined a band. Wrote some songs. Discovered I had a lot more music in me than I first imagined. In 2019, after another short job stint, quit and decided to fulfill my dream of working at a record store. I ran the place for two years and broadened my horizons greatly. Covid happened, first band kinda fizzled. Then, life got hectic so that ended. Started a new band and gathered enough courage to embrace music I made on my own. Here we are today. I run a label with the aforementioned Paul, have a solo album out June 17th on our label, zine is 65 issues in, we have a weekly radio show on Brooklyn's finest, I write a lot of words (obviously), still DJ and am finishing another album. Curiosity is a powerful thing.