One of the biggest music festivals in the world occurs in a place where there’s a vibrant, growing music and arts scene—yet in the last couple of years, very few local musicians have performed at Coachella, despite nearly a dozen stages.
A few days before Coachella’s first weekend, a local DJ announced that she would be performing at Coachella: Alexis Spencer, aka Ay-Lex Song, is a Palm Springs DJ who has performed all over the valley.
“When I received the call, I literally had to ask like 10 times,” Spencer said during a recent phone interview. “‘I’m playing at the Coachella? Inside the fest?’ l was just like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I’m still processing it, but it’s a cool gig, because I’m not only getting wristbands for both weekends, and exposure, but I’m also getting paid, too, so that’s pretty cool.”
You can find Ay-Lex Song performing at the Tampax tent, in between the Heineken House and Travis Scott’s art exhibit, from 5 to 8 p.m., Saturday, April 19. Spencer said her first major music festival experience, at Coachella 2013, led her to fall in love with music fests.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to come to these every single year, like forever,’” she said. “This was my first year back in a couple years, and I just realized it was so much bigger. I feel like it’s grown a lot.”
While she’s not performing on one of Coachella’s stages, Spencer still is in awe about performing at the festival in any capacity.
“It’s a unique experience, because the way the Tampax tent is set up, is you (go inside), and you just get hit with the coldest AC in your face. It’s pink and purple everywhere, and I’m just right there DJing,” she said. “It’s so funny to see people’s reactions, and then I just get to DJ and have fun. I’m getting so much exposure and meeting so many cool people. I’m just so happy.”
I stopped by the Tampax tent on Friday and was immediately met by that aforementioned cool air—and even cooler jams being spun by Spencer. The unique mix of genres and seamless transitions between jams were causing a dance party.
I saw a few locals jamming out to Spencer’s mix on Friday, including local musician Miguel Arballo, who was dressed in a penguin suit.
“I have my business cards there, and people are actually shocked when they find out that I’m local, and they want to come back and see me again,” Spencer said. “I actually had quite a few people show up last week, and Sunday, I played a really huge show for Goldenvoice, at the Surf Club. It was an all-female lineup of really big female DJs who were all headlining Coachella, so to be on the lineup with them was really cool.”
She said that appearance at the Goldenvoice Surf Club, hosted at the Palm Springs Surf Club, was another career highlight.
“The Surf Club is actually one of my residencies as a local DJ here in the valley,” she said. “I live in Palm Springs, and I’m there every Sunday DJing, but this was like a whole other experience. This was a huge Goldenvoice stage, and they have this huge screen right in the middle of the wave pool, and I was on every single screen all over the Surf Club. … It was the pick-me-up that I needed. I just want to just keep this momentum going and just keep going.”
Ay-Lex Song said she is proud to represent as female DJ.
“I love that there are a lot more female DJs playing bigger festivals,” she said. “I never like playing the same set twice, and I play so many different kind of genres. … I’m putting four or five different genres in the same set. You’ll be hearing a house track, and then I’ll build up into the drop of some crazy dub-house set. I just love hearing that, ‘Ohhhh!’ … I love to tell a story with my sets. I love to have fun and just high energy.”
Spencer is aware that few locals get the chance to perform at Coachella, and she said she hopes her performance slot can raise awareness and perhaps get more locals involved.
“I wish that they would show a little bit more love to the locals,” Spencer said. “Slowly, it’s getting better.”