4 minute read
Ashibah
Putting it all in the mix
Basketball prodigy, karate black belt, zookeeper, global house-music producer… Ashibah proves you can be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of one
Words RACHAEL SIGEE
From DJing to composing and producing to recording her own vocals – all self-taught – Sarah Finne Christensen, better known as rising house-music star Ashibah, can do the lot. It’s fitting, then, that her recent single with London producer Saffron Stone, On the Line, includes the lyric: “Don’t break the rules, define them.” It’s a mantra she applies to life. As a teen growing up in Cairo, the Danish-Egyptian earned a black belt in karate, taught herself to DJ, and at 16 became the youngest member of the Egyptian national basketball team. Later in life, she also briefly worked as a zookeeper.
“Basketball was my dad’s biggest dream for me,” she says. “I wanted to make my parents happy, so I began playing as soon as I could walk.” But, having written her first song – “about a crush” – at the age of just seven, music won out: “It’s the one thing that made sense to me, that calls the loudest inside me.”
Intent on a career in music, at 19 Finne Christensen returned to her country of birth, Denmark, where she built up a reputation on Copenhagen’s club scene. Following a brief relocation to Brazil in 2013 after the success of her breakout banger Circles, featuring Brazilian DJ Vintage Culture, Denmark is now her permanent home, shared with wife and writing partner Nikoline and their dog Pablo.
With dancefloor hits including We Found Love (her 2019 track with South-African deep-house producer Nora en Pure) and 2020’s Devotion to her name, Ashibah is riding high. In August this year, she released her third track with Defected Records, My Eyes Only. And with lockdown restrictions relaxing, she’s back doing what she loves best, playing live at events that promote the causes she most values: diversity, equality and human rights. “We had WorldPride and Fluid Festival [both in Copenhagen in August],” says the 37-year-old. “[Fluid] is run by some amazing women. I got to close that stage and it was absolutely insane. I’m ready to get out there again.”
the red bulletin: How does it feel being on stage?
ashibah: Completely euphoric. No drug in the world could give you that. When that amount of energy is coming at me, it’s like rocket power. House music has a pulsing vibe you get totally drawn into. I remember the first time I went to a rave – the energy, the way that people were connected. What I love about rave culture is that it’s about community. I was always very different, so it was hard to find a place where I felt at home, but I felt it on the dancefloor.
How did you cope in lockdown, being unable to play live?
I channelled all my frustration and energy into the studio, trying to make as much music as possible and develop as an artist, because when you’re on the road you don’t always get downtime to figure out the next steps. Usually when I make music I test it on a dancefloor, so I had to learn to trust my instincts.
For many years, dance music was a largely male-dominated scene. What’s been your experience?
The same as for other female producers and singers. I’ve always used it as fuel, because I believe the work speaks for itself. Thank God, I’ve never experienced anything that crossed my boundaries. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in sessions where I’ve done everything and people are like, “Yeah, but who produced this?” “Me.” “No, but who made this?” “Still me.” But it’s changing, because there are so many amazing females out there showing we have a right to sit at the table.
Your 2018 track Intro Rework has had more than 140 million plays on YouTube. How does it feel to reach so many people?
Quite crazy. There’s a funny story to that one. Vintage Culture and [fellow Brazilian DJ] Bruno Be, who made that version, played it to me, and I was going to include it in my set. But I love to do live mash-ups, so I was in the north of Brazil and I put it on and was like, “Ooh, I think I got an idea,” and I just grabbed the mic and started singing. From that day, it went absolutely mad. The vibe was right, the energy was right, and that’s when you try things. Taking those risks is the best part of being in house music.
And a world away from zookeeping. How did that come about?
I was on a trainee programme in Exeter for two months, and I picked up a lot of elephant shit. When I was younger, I wanted to be either a singer or a vet. As a musician, you get scared that you need something to fall back on in case it doesn’t work out, but I realised halfway through that it had to be this or nothing. I don’t want a safety net. Music is the only thing that makes sense to me. ashibah.com
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