DISK JOCKEY

My Passion

Rachel Slater and her newfound obsession with the decks.

Photograph by SWPix.com

I’ve always been interested in DJing. In November last year, I got myself some decks and started to teach myself. It’s quite a long process and to start off with, I was just mixing songs by myself. Now that I am very comfortable with the basics, I’m starting to move more into the production side, such as editing or starting songs from scratch.

I think it’s something I can use to help my cricket. When you start something as a complete beginner, you have everything to learn. Patience is required when putting in the time to get better: this approach has helped me with cricket. When I’m learning to bowl a new slower ball, it has allowed me to be happy with taking time to improve and not expect immediate success.

Since turning professional, doing something with absolutely no pressure at all has been really good for me. It can be quite hard to get away from cricket, even if I’m just sitting on my phone, subconsciously it might pop into my head, or I’ll see something on social media. But when I’m DJing, I put all my focus into it and simply enjoy the process. It is a very good escape for me, something that I can just enjoy that allows me to switch off from everything else.

I definitely want to get into DJing properly, it’s almost a bucket-list thing, maybe one day I could DJ in clubs. Having mates who’ve done that, it’s made me realise that it’s not out of the question. That said, I want to see where it takes me. In 15 years-time when I retire, maybe I’ll have done enough and think this isn’t for me. I took all my stuff with me to The Hundred and my teammates were always asking me to DJ… even if they were a tough crowd.

Maybe in the future when I’m more comfortable and knowledgeable, I’ll look to move forward with it. But at the minute, I want it to come with no pressure and keep something that I can simply enjoy.