Patricia Baloge on the Virtual Sessions presented by The DJ Sessions 8/6/24

In this vibrant Virtual Session, Darran Bruce connects with Brooklyn-based DJ, vocalist, and producer Patricia Baloge, whose eclectic sound fuses dreamy grooves, Afrobeat undertones, synthwave textures, and an unmistakable 80s-inspired flair. Patricia discusses her latest single I’ll Do It Again, a joyful, lighthearted shift from her earlier, more emotionally weighted productions. She shares how self-transformation, life experiences, and musical memories guide her creative process, often blending genres freely rather than working within strict stylistic boundaries.

 

Patricia opens up about her journey as a self-published artist, navigating industry rejection as redirection, and the importance of understanding music rights before partnering with labels. She reflects on her pandemic experience, choosing to step away from the “look at me” livestream wave to focus on producing her first EP, allowing space for personal and artistic growth.

 

The conversation touches on the challenges of staying inspired, her belief in taking creative breaks without self-criticism, and the freedom that comes from releasing the need for external validation. She highlights her jewelry brand, Studio Baloge, as both a creative outlet and a way to support her music career, emphasizing the importance of diversifying income streams.

 

From her track Victory—a celebration of overcoming life’s challenges—to her evolving vision as an artist, Patricia’s story is one of resilience, authenticity, and self-determination. Whether DJing, producing, or designing, her focus remains on becoming the truest version of herself while inspiring listeners to do the same.

 

Host: Darran Bruce
Guest: Patricia Baloge
Location: Virtual Studios, Seattle WA & Brooklyn, NY

Overview:
Darran Bruce sits down with Patricia Baloge to explore her genre-blending style, personal transformation, industry insights, and the release of her latest single I’ll Do It Again.

Topics Covered:

• Musical Identity: Dreamy, bouncy, groovy with nostalgic Afrobeat and synthwave elements
• Latest Release: I’ll Do It Again – a shift toward joy and lightness
• Creative Process: Guided by experiences, memories, and emotional states
• Genre Experimentation: Blending influences without boundaries
• Inspirations: Self-transformation and life lessons as artistic fuel
• Favorite Track: Victory – an anthem of overcoming challenges
• Industry Navigation: Viewing rejection as redirection and valuing music rights
• Pandemic Approach: Stepping back from livestreaming to focus on producing an EP
• Creative Blocks: Taking intentional breaks and exploring other outlets
• Letting Go of Validation: Focusing on authenticity over external approval
• Entrepreneurship: Studio Baloge jewelry brand as a creative and financial complement to music
• Future Goals: More music videos, DJ sets, and genre exploration

Call to Action:
Follow Patricia Baloge on Instagram @patriciabaloge and stream her music on all major platforms.
Discover more episodes at thedjsessions.com

[Darran]
Hey everyone, welcome back. Wow, get that graphic off the screen because it’s ready for a fun time for the DJ Sessions Presents the Virtual Sessions. I’m your host Darran, and right now I’m coming to you from the virtual studios in Seattle, Washington, and coming in all the way from, Patricia, where are you coming in from today?

New York. New York City, yeah. I was actually gonna be planning a trip out there recently for my 50th birthday.

I was gonna take a friend of mine out there for a bucket list vacation. Take him, gonna go stay at, probably gonna stay in Chelsea or we’re gonna stay a little bit more uptown and go to the Brooklyn Mirage and kind of see New York. He had never been there before.

Was super excited, but then he couldn’t go. Oh. I know, New York’s such a fabulous city, isn’t it?

Where are you at in New York? I’m in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn.

You go to the Brooklyn Mirage a lot? I’ve been a few times. It’s a nice club.

I cannot stop talking about that place. I love it. I went there.

I think we spoke about it the last time we spoke. Yeah, I was probably still all like, eee. It was so fun.

That club was just like, it was such a magical moment for me. I mean, it was just beautiful. Everything was, it was just the perfect nightclub experience that I saw.

The way they handled everything, the way that it was laid out, just phenomenal. But enough about my endeavors and exploitations and everything. We’re here to talk about you, Patricia.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong on this, but is it Balazs? It’s Balazs. Balazs, Balazs.

All right, cool. I think I got it right. You know, for our DJ Sessions fans who haven’t caught one of your past episodes, this is gonna, you know, we’re gonna who, what, we’re not gonna who, what, why, where you at, but we wanna let them know a little bit more about you.

So if you could describe your music in three words, what would those three words be?

[Patricia Baloge]
I’d say, dreamy, bouncy, groovy, a bit nostalgic, I’d say. I like that too.

[Darran]
Yeah. I was listening to your Spotify before the show, we’ll be talking about one of your new releases that was up there, but I was feeling, like I said, you know, pre-show is like, I feel like I wanna get a martini and put on some black, nice nightlife attire, go jump out in my limousine and get on a plane and fly somewhere really tropical, you know, and dance the night away or just, I like that. Or have that martini while looking off my balcony at the cityscape of like downtown Manhattan, like all of Manhattan and the whole island, or something like that.

You know, is that your, is that kind of a goal or an aim you’re looking to create in the minds of people when they’re listening to your music?

[Patricia Baloge]
You know, I don’t have something I’m trying to create. I just go with how I feel in the moment. So for the last track that I released, for example, I’ll do it again.

I don’t know if that’s what you listened to that made you feel that way, you know? But when I was creating that track, I was at a time where I was ready to bring joy into my music, more fun and something more lighthearted. That was quite a shift from what I was doing previously, because I feel like my music was still fun and electronic, but it had a little bit of underlying emotional weight into it that I don’t think we find anymore, because I just wanted to get rid of that and to bring something fresher.

Yeah. Into the track.

[Darran]
So maybe that’s- You know, out of that, you know, were you talking about, I’d do it again? Yes, I was talking about that. We’ll talk about that and just say, what are three major things that really create inspiration for you when it comes behind making a track?

Is there a special place you go to? Is there a ritual that you do? Or something you say, oh, I saw that.

I was walking down by the beach and I saw this and just maybe wanna write something. Is there three things that create inspiration for you?

[Patricia Baloge]
It’s just me, my experiences. I go by something that’s very important for me is self-transformation. Okay.

I believe that we’re here, we go through things and we become something and we decide whether we wanna stay what we become or if we wanna create from there. So to me, what inspires me in my music is the vision I have for myself and my memories, my musical memories. So all the music that I’ve been into my whole life, I can tell you that I sit down and I’m like, I’m gonna make an Afro house because when I do, it never happens.

That’s not what I make. So I just go with the flow. I go with the flow.

I play around. I get inspired in the moment with how I feel and how I want to feel.

[Darran]
I can understand that. I just recently went through another kind of life transformation process a few months ago, not a few moments ago, a few months ago. And it definitely was a 180 flip with my lifestyle, what I was doing to get back on track, to get back into the zone.

You hear this when athletes get in that zone and you’re on fire, you’re in the zone, everything you’re touching is just falling into the right place and things are moving. It led to an experience where I was on an interview with somebody a couple of weeks ago and they said, not that they were saying, don’t go to Amsterdam and go to ADE this year, but they said, you gotta come visit Berlin and here’s an event that we’re doing next month in Berlin. And I found myself, I had to talk with them.

I booked a plane ticket the next morning and a hotel the next morning to fly to Berlin for this huge 250, 300,000, 350,000 person festival, one day festival called Rave the Planet. And I was taking that opportunity. It probably wouldn’t have happened a month before that.

I wasn’t in the zone, I wasn’t focused. I was like, oh, I don’t think I can do that. Or, oh, I was being held back by things, just whatever it was.

And once I released that and changed around, I was like, let’s go forward, yeah. And a lot more opportunities have come off of that, which is just awesome. Kind of also, not going to New York, kind of led to, that was kind of one of the things, is like, going to New York, oh, that didn’t fall through.

Berlin’s happening. Kind of going for it, I can understand that in the transformation. So talking about your new release, I’d do it again.

What would you do again?

[Patricia Baloge]
Everything I’ve done. Everything I’ve done. It’s, I say that, you know, everybody says, I have no regret.

Like, everybody’s trying to say, I have no regret. Of course, there are things that I wish I could have done differently sometimes, because we’re humans. But when I look at my life, or when you look in the present moment, and you realize who you’ve become, it’s because of everything and anything you’ve gone through.

And if you are a smart person, you’ve learned, you’ve had lessons. When we go to school, we learn lessons to become something. Without these lessons, who do you become?

Nothing. So I’d do everything again, if it is to become a better version of me.

[Darran]
You know, it’s funny you bring that up, because sometimes, I’ve been asked in the past, I bring this up in many shows, especially with the next question I’m about to ask you, is that, you know, do I ever go back and watch my old content? And I’m like, well, I have 2,500 plus episodes online. If I went back and just to watch one, or even put it on in the background, I’d never listen to any music ever again.

I’ve never, if I had to watch it, I probably wouldn’t get much work done. You know, even if I watched two a day, it would still take me 1,200 days, or it’d take me like four years, four and a half years to go through it. If I watched two a day, you know, and listen to all the music that’s been on the show and everything.

So even if I kept it on the background and did four a day, I mean, it’d still take me like 600 days, like almost two years to get through. You know, it’s like, okay, so, you know, I get asked, what’s my favorite episode? What’s my most memorable thing?

And I’m like, all of them are. I was there. I don’t like, you know, I don’t go back and watch my old work in that regard.

But you’re right, what would I do differently, or would I do it all again? I would do it all again. I would do everything again.

I mean, maybe I might take a little steps and go, oh, maybe I shouldn’t have made that financial investment. Or maybe I wish I would have used my better judgment to do this. But how would you know this?

You wouldn’t know it. You wouldn’t know it. I wouldn’t, you know, hang on a few seconds.

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah.

[Darran]
And that’s why microphones have mute buttons and you live next door to three hospitals.

[Patricia Baloge]
I have a hospital next to me as well.

[Darran]
Yeah, so, you know, no, you’re right. Doing it all again, I wouldn’t change anything around. I, you know, obviously there’s things I could change around.

I’d like to go into the multiverse and be like, well, what would happen if this happened? I could watch it like a TV show. And then, oh, I’m glad I didn’t do that then.

Darn it, I wish I would have done that. And, you know, hindsight though is always 20-20. And if you focus, to me, if you focus on looking backwards, you’re spending time going like this, not like this and what’s in front of you, what’s going forward, but take those as experiences and say, ah, probably not gonna do that again moving forward, but not dwelling on the past.

Yeah, so. Absolutely. I’d do it again.

Now, I was looking at your tracks on Spotify. I was listening to them beforehand, obviously I mentioned. And, you know, do you ever make music sometimes completely out of your own genre that never gets released?

Do you ever experiment and like, I like this and nope, it gets shelved and never gets to see the light of day or I’m gonna go try this out and it doesn’t work out. Do you ever do anything like that?

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah, that’s actually what I do most of the time when I make music. So when I started making music or when I fell in love with music in general, it wasn’t because of electronic music and it wasn’t because of the DJ. It was just because I absolutely love music.

And I grew up listening to everything. African music, very heavy on that. R&B, hip hop.

Now, I don’t listen to hip hop anymore, but I still like R&B. I love Afrobeat. So yeah, when I do music, I don’t think that it has a genre, but I would mix everything that I like.

So it would have an Afrobeat element with some synth wave, which I love synth wave. Yeah, I make a little bit of everything. What I haven’t experimented with is R&B, but I think that because of my vocals, I can always bring that vibe into it and I think that’s what I already do.

I think you can hear that and I’d do it again.

[Darran]
You know, it’s funny you mentioned synth wave. I’ve been listening to an online internet station for years since about 2002, 2003 by Soma FM called Groove Salad. And it’s a lot of down-tempo ambient chill.

I would almost call it, some people would come in nowadays and call it synth wave. And I love that down-tempo. It almost takes me back to the 80s.

Music that I grew up with, the synthesizers of the 80s. Because I grew up with it as a kid playing with my brother’s equipment. We had a synthesizer in the studio and I would just get in there and play with the pans and their eyes and all that.

It’s just fun to be on that, having that kind of instrument in your fingertips. And it wasn’t a piano, it was an electronic music instrument that you had so many different types of keyboard. I don’t even know what they would call them back then.

It wasn’t like a Casio keyboard with like preset sounds, but it did have preset sounds, but it had like hundreds. And this was a professional, like $4,000 keyboard, that I was playing with at eight years old. And I just fell in love.

I think that’s where my first experience of falling in love with electronic music was, or using an electronic device to produce sounds. I was no way in shape or form a musician by any means, never classically trained or anything, but just playing with the equipment, I think that was my thing that I liked to do. So making music out of your own drum that never gets released, I assume that must help in your creative process.

Oh, at least I experimented doing that. And it doesn’t get released, but you can branch out that. And then maybe one day you’re like, let me go back to that collection and let me see what happens there.

And here’s that one ultimate question I love to ask everyone. If you could pick one of your productions as your most favorite one, which one would that be? And is there a thought behind why it is your favorite?

[Patricia Baloge]
Victory from, yeah, it’s from my second EP, I think came out in 2022. And why? I just love the sound.

It’s bouncy and groovy, like I was saying. It has this little bit of Afro influence into it. And it’s about having victory over your life.

Over negative forces in your life. And so going through all the negative things that you’re supposed to go through in order to learn and realize who you are, but also finishing victorious. So that’s what it’s about.

And I don’t listen to it because I don’t always listen to those songs anymore. I feel like, again, they have a lot of emotions, maybe not for the listener, but for me, because I know what was behind. But I know that it really makes me feel like a winner when I listen to it.

And that’s what I want it to feel like. So I hope that the listener listens and feels that way as well.

[Darran]
That was the last track I was just listening to on your Spotify. There it is. Yeah, if I could show you my camera right now, Victory right there, I’m 1 minute and 40 seconds into it.

That was the track. That’s awesome. Yeah, definitely.

We were talking a little earlier in the show about personal struggle, strife, overcoming things, having that victory moment. It’s very interesting, especially when you’re your own self-made artist or self-made entrepreneur. People don’t see the…

This is one of my to-do list. This is for the last few weeks of a to-do list. And this is a secret.

This is my secret. I don’t know if anyone can read my handwriting, but to me, this is a very secret list. But I have to-do lists.

And I save them all so that one day, I have a system that I have that I do a lot of things on computer, but I do my paper lists as well. But I’m gonna make a coffee table book one day of how I made it big. I don’t know if that’s a working title, but it will be a coffee book with anecdotes of different timeframes of my periods of life but you’ll be able to see my notes and know what was going on in the back.

So it would be probably like 700 pages long. Are you gonna sell that? I don’t know if I’m gonna make it and make like 500 copies and gift them to friends and family or something.

Or it’s just a project I wanted to work on for a long time. But it kind of would… I could look at the history of this and know exactly what was going on, what I was thinking as a timeline of projects of what was happening.

And like, I could give you like one keyword that says, let’s take Megan contract notes. To you, that doesn’t mean anything. To me, that means a huge legal process battle that I have going on over here.

But I know that that’s like a trigger keyword for me. But if I don’t do that, I don’t stay on topic and I don’t get any victories. I want my victories.

So every one of these is completing this is like a victory in a sense. And I like that you know, in overcoming a struggle or something comes up and you gotta figure out that hurdle to get around it. You feel like you’re running a race and you’ll win the race and you get a victory.

Life is a battle, ongoing battle.

[Patricia Baloge]
It’s a war that you always have to be on top of. And we learn how to be on top of it.

[Darran]
Exactly. Now, are you self-published or do you work with a label specifically?

[Patricia Baloge]
No, I’m self-published.

[Darran]
Self-published, awesome. You know, one of the things that I love to see, well, the incident that created what I love to see wasn’t awesome, which was Pandy. But seeing all the independent artists and DJs in the world being able to jump online during Pandy and go start using methods like Twitch or Facebook or whatever streaming that they were doing because they were in their house, they weren’t able to get out and use this live streaming method as a way to reach audiences.

Was that something you did during Pandy and did you find success or any benefits of doing that?

[Patricia Baloge]
I did a few DJ sets, but then I realized that, you know, it’s so easy to get lost, especially during the pandemic where I feel like everybody wanted to be seen. And I think that in the very beginning, I was in that thing where, oh no, I need to be seen, I need to be seen because I need to get gigs and blah, blah, blah. And then at one point I was like, no, no, no, no, no.

Like, calm down and create music. This is your opportunity. So I decided that I was gonna shut the world down.

The world was already shut down, but around me. And I decided to create my first EP. That’s how we met after that.

And no, I never actually used, besides doing my music videos, but I never used internet in that way. I haven’t yet. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to, but I feel like I needed this time to find myself as an artist, but also as a person.

The artist is the extension of the person. So I needed to realize what my vision really was. I needed to know, do I really want to DJ and sing?

Do I just want to sing? What do I want to do within the music? Because you don’t know who you’re going to become.

You just know who you are at the time and who I was at the time making all this music was a person who was healing from many things. You know, like when you start life, you’re surprised. And as a young adult, I can say that I was a lot surprised I came to America and alone without family.

So I went through a lot of things that took me aback. And the only thing that would get me out of that negative phase was going to be music. And it wasn’t because it was going to be sold or commercialized.

It was just me pouring myself out into an outlet. So once I was able to do that, I was like, okay, wow, I can create music. I never knew I could do that.

I always was a listener and I wanted to sing but I didn’t know that I could produce. But once I sat down and I decided that I was going to do it, I did it. So I was like, okay, now I can do this.

What am I going to do? Who am I going to be? I never imagined that this was what I was going to do.

So during the pandemic, this was the time to make music, produce, make music videos. Yes, it’s good for promotion, but I wanted to see who am I? Who am I as an artist?

And I will do things and I’ll be looking at it. I look at it now, I’m like, oh, you could have done this, like this, like this, like this, but it’s a progression, you know? So it just allowed me to progress into the person that I am as a person.

And now the person that I am can really visualize the kind of artist I want to be. So I think that it’s best sometimes to stay away from the internet, if you can. Well, as much as possible, I’m not completely away, but sometimes some mistakes are best behind your computer, making music, figuring things out.

And I think that now I’m in the mindset where I’m ready to do more on the internet.

[Darran]
I can relate to that because during that time, I saw after doing a live streaming DJ show for 10 years and pushing DJ mixes out there, watching the entire world of the electronic music industry, from the number one DJ producer in the world to somebody who’d never thought about DJing in their life, everyone jumped online and I call 2020 the look at me year because every other post you saw on social media was, look at me, I’m live, look at me, I’m live, look at me, I’m live, look at me, I’m live, look at me, I’m live, look at me, I’m live, look at me. Oh, Insomniac, look at us, we’re live.

Live Nation, look at us, we’re live. And all the big name artists were on and you could only watch one show at a time. So people who didn’t understand live streaming at the time would say, I’m gonna go on at Friday night at 11 o’clock because that’s when the nightclubs go on and I wanna go on at that time.

Well, they didn’t understand, everyone else in the world was thinking that too. So they’d have no audience when they could have gone on maybe at Tuesday at nine o’clock when nobody was on and find people that were just scrolling through and build a following that way. That’s all internet strategy stuff that I kinda helped people out with over the years.

I didn’t know about that, but you’re right. You waited, you said, now’s the time to get out there. The noise has died down a little bit.

I don’t feel so many people are doing the, look at me, look at me, look at me, or people are out there wanting to consume that content. They know what they’re looking for and they’re gonna find it. When you’re out there and you’re self-producing, you’re self-releasing, have you knocked on the doors of record labels?

What’s your experience been like kind of submitting? I know I was on the interview yesterday with an artist and before he got signed to NJUNA, he was like, I was knocking on all these doors and as an artist, it’s disheartening when you get these rejections or you just don’t hear back. And I just kept going and kept going and kept pushing.

And finally I got my stuff in front of the right people over at Silk Music and then Silk Music became Monstercat and then he got up with NJUNA and he just kind of started going up the ladder from there. But what’s that process been like for you or do you just, nope, I’m not going down that road?

[Patricia Baloge]
No, so you know how they say rejection is redirection?

[Darran]
I like that.

[Patricia Baloge]
Okay, so of course I’ve knocked on doors and it’s natural to do that because you wanna make it if you dedicate yourself to something, whatever it is. So it’s important to go and knock on doors. Even if somebody does not expect the door to open, at least you can expect people or somebody to say, oh, you could have done this this way or maybe you can improve this way.

So I have knocked on doors and yes, I know rejection and it can be disheartening if you don’t understand what it means. You could think, oh, I’m rejected, my music sucks. I’m done, I’m not doing music anymore.

It’s expensive, I just don’t wanna do it anymore. But for me, I’m not where I’m meant to be yet. Maybe the music is good.

Maybe they will hear my music in five years when I will be more advanced within my craft and within myself and they’ll be like, oh my God, this is amazing, where was it five years ago? But I believe in God and I believe that sometimes God protects us because we’re not ready. So I believe that if I’m knocking on the door and the door is not opening, either that door is not for me because if I enter through that door, it will completely destroy me or maybe I have to grow a little more and soon they will be knocking on my door because I’m dedicated into growing.

And once you keep growing, somebody is gonna come and knock on your door. So to me, it’s like, just keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going.

[Darran]
Yeah, absolutely. It’s interesting in this world of online media. Back when I started in broadcast television or even public access, there was a very limited, you didn’t have YouTube, you didn’t have the internet.

You had public access and you had broadcast television and getting on public access was a treat in itself because you could watch your shows that we were working on, put them on a TV and sit back and have the family or have your friends and they could see the show on public access or you could put it on broadcast television and it’d go out to thousands of people in your local market, wouldn’t hit 50 miles away or into another city or you know what I’m saying. So that was really cool.

But once the internet hit, now what do you do? Once YouTube came out and the video iPod came out, I of course was in public access and then went to broadcast television and then got into podcasting right as the video iPod came out and we were one of the top video podcasts in the iTunes Music Store, like one of the first video podcasts listed in the iTunes Music Store in 2005. And then later on, got into live streaming as well.

You know, and it’s weird, you’re knocking on the doors of everyone for 10 years. Two things for me over 10 years before Pandy hit was I’m knocking on the doors, I’m talking to people going, yeah, I do a live streaming DJ show and people are like, who would wanna watch a live streaming DJ show? And I’m like, well, have you ever listened to the radio before?

You’re listening to a DJ play music on the radio. This is just with visuals. And then I would say something like, oh yeah, we’re a Twitch featured partner.

And they’d be like, what’s Twitch? And I’d have to explain to them what Twitch was. I go, well, you know that thing called YouTube?

You know, Google owns it. Twitch, well, that’s backed by Amazon. And so it’s not going anywhere.

It’s gonna blow up, it’s gonna be big. But the third thing people thought I was crazy for was QR codes. I was using QR codes in 2010.

Told everyone that you’re gonna be the most awesome thing that changes the world. And this, this, gotta get QR codes, QR codes, QR codes. And now look, everyone knows how to use a QR code now.

So, you know, but it was still, I never gave up on the belief of live streaming. I never gave up on the belief of podcasting or QR codes or the belief in the series. And we’ve actually revamped our series a little bit over time just to change with the times or to change our brand, to go more international.

So when somebody in, you know, Brazil is watching this or Australia is watching this or in Japan is watching this or in Europe is watching, it appeals to a much more broader audience and that sense of thing. So we wanna be on that worldwide level. That’s it, and it’s going strong.

We’re doing good. So I’m really, really happy for that. So, you know, but you got a lot of doors you gotta knock on and get kind of like, no, don’t wanna work with you.

No, don’t wanna work with you. But wait, all of a sudden we start making a million dollars and everyone starts knocking on our door.

[Patricia Baloge]
See, you know, that’s where it’s at.

[Darran]
So I was just curious, you know, as you’ve seen though in the music industry, knocking on some of those doors, what’s the most important thing that you think record labels should be doing for their artists? And are they doing a good job with that?

[Patricia Baloge]
First of all, I haven’t worked with a record label. So if I was to work with a record label, what I would work with them for would be promotion.

[Darran]
Okay.

[Patricia Baloge]
Because that’s what the artist, the underground artist needs more than anything. It needs more eyes and more ears. So yeah, I don’t know what more they could do because that’s what I would want.

And I believe all record labels do different things and you have different type of contracts. So it would really depends on what they’re looking to do with you and what you’re also looking to do with them. And how much you’re willing to give away when it comes to your own music.

[Darran]
I was just in another conversation that I’m glad you brought that up about how much they’re willing to give away with their own music. You know, I had an independent artist that I was on a Facebook kind of conversation with about music rights. And a lot of the independent artists, I don’t wanna say that they don’t understand, but a lot of people don’t understand the legalities of the music business.

You know, they think, oh, I make a song, I put it out there. Okay, great, you’re an independent artist. But when somebody comes in and they’re taking your track and they’re wanting ownership of it, probably because they wanna put money behind it and they wanna recoup on those earnings behind it, they put the money behind it.

You know, they’re not gonna say, you know, we’re gonna give you 100% rights and everything. We’re gonna spend $10,000 or $100,000 on your song and then not be able to control it. You can just take that and walk and sell it to somebody else.

No, that’s not how this works. You know, and so, you know, a lot of independent artists will be like, well, that’s okay if somebody exploits me because I need the exposure. I go, well, wait a second.

What happens if somebody takes your entire library and goes and makes $10 million with it? You’re bet your ass you’re gonna go sue that person for trying to say you took my music, it’s copyright protected. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t.

And that’s what these companies, that’s what the protection is there. So it protects the small person from being copyright infringement, but it protects the bigger companies and their investments they make as well. I get it’s a billion, billion dollar, billions of dollars a year industry and everyone thinks because they make billions of dollars they have the money, but they still have to protect their product just like everyone else does.

And it’s a general protection for everyone. You know, so you can’t be exploited or taken advantage of. So, you know.

[Patricia Baloge]
I mean, today we see a lot of artists from the 90s, early 2000s, way before we could put our own music online and be independent. When we see their stories, they were exploited. A lot of them.

I’d say 80% of them were actually exploited. I think that once you educate yourself on that aspect, you understand that you always have to give something away if you wanna get that, you know, big thing that you’re thinking in your head or that you’re seeing on TV. Are you willing to do it?

Are you willing to sacrifice a part of your art, a part of yourself? And it’s a decision you have to make. I don’t think that it’s always fair for the artists.

Maybe now more than before, because now we have more power with the internet, but before the artists had no say. Because the artists, all the artists want to be is a star. So if I’m gonna make you a star, then I gotta control you.

And I don’t like to be controlled.

[Darran]
Well, I mean, it’s funny how most people don’t even understand contracts. I have, you know, a difficult time sometimes working with people, not difficult, but even getting them to sign a personal release form and they don’t understand, I have to have you sign this because I’m putting a lot of work and a lot of effort into doing this. And I’m gonna put you on my show.

If I put all that money and time and work and effort behind it, how do you say, no, I don’t want you to use that episode. It’s like, well, now all that work just goes in the trash can.

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah, I think I asked you if I could use my DJ set on my YouTube and you’re like, no, it’s an exclusive. It’s an exclusive. But it’s the same thing.

I understand you have your rules. So if I’m doing the show with you, I need to accept that I’m giving this away to you.

[Darran]
And so, yeah, and the reason why I’m not trying to sound like I’m a controlling executive producer or anything. No, but this is your show. It’s like everything, you know?

Well, I mean, the reason why I look at it and I say, it’s a lot when DJs come and perform on the show or people perform on the show, it’s like, well, why do you need to share it on your channel? Why can’t you just share our link from our channel that you made it for? You know, come on, we’re trying to help distribute your work to our viewership.

Could you help promote and plug us a little bit on your end as well? You know, it’s a symbiotic relationship is what we try to work for in that. But, you know, totally know what you mean there.

I’m very, I mean, I think out of all the hours and episodes I’ve ever had, I’ve only had like one DJ come back and say, take that mix down. I’ve had one person I interviewed said, I didn’t like the way the camera, I didn’t like the way my makeup looked or something. It was an interview and they were too hot under the lights or something.

And I was like, okay, whatever, you know, but I make sure that I make sure all my paperwork is signed. I’m, you know, this is professionalism. You come out and at least it’s on a dotted line and a person can look at that and go, no, I don’t want to sign this.

And I go, okay, no, I don’t want to work with you. I had a production company once, they put me in their office, they sat me down. They said, okay, pitch to us your television series you want us to help you produce with us.

I go, okay, here’s my nondisclosure. They said, we’re not signing this. Well, then I said, I’m not telling you my shows because you can take my ideas and walk away with them and then go do it yourself.

You have the product, you have the capability to produce, you have the distribution, you have the crew to produce, you have the distribution means to produce. And I’m going to come in here and give you my ideas for free and watch you walk away from them. And guess what?

They are non-existent and have been around for over 20 years. Bye thieves. With that show, you got to protect yourself, you know, and protect your music and protect your rights.

But you’re right, you know, artists are going to, to go on that same story about an artist with their music, very famous artist, had them on the show, had them in an interview and he said, people always ask me for this track to use in movies. And he has to tell them, he has to turn them down and say, sorry, I don’t own the rights to that anymore. Such and such, go talk to the big dog.

When I say big dogs, we’re talking like Sony, BMG, Universal, they own that song now. I have no, and they’re like, come on, you own it, you wrote it, you made it. And it’s like, yeah, but my contract, it went there to the label and then boom.

And, you know, so, you know, you do that if you want to, if you want to be big and be in those catalogs, you know, what do you do? So, but that’s, we could talk, that’s a whole nother subject about copyright law and stuff.

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah, it all depends on what you really want. And I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying that you have to know what you’re getting into and you only being controlled if you’re not knowing what you’re doing and what you’re getting into.

If you know what you’re getting into and you agree with it, that’s not control, that’s I agree and you agree, we’re doing this together.

[Darran]
You know, and that’s the one thing, like in our market or smaller markets, in New York, you could probably find an, you could probably find an entertainment attorney pretty quickly, you know, especially one that represents musicians, artists, bands, you know, in that field. You know, in Seattle, Washington, there probably isn’t a huge pool, even though we’re a tier two, top tier two market, a huge pool of entertainment attorneys. I mean, there are some here, don’t get me wrong, but where’s the business really at?

If they wanna be down there and meet with their clients and be a lawyer, they can practice law in that state, they gotta, you know, either live somewhere and have a pass the bar in that state to practice law there or live in that state and practice law in that state where those clients are or where they’re gonna be. So, you know, unfortunately we don’t get a lot of contract stuff up here that people see time and time again in Seattle. That’s why we get an export of a lot of our talent and they go to these major markets like New York, LA, you know, Chicago, wherever it is, and then they get schooled really quickly on professionalism or they get their asses handed to them and taken from them because they think, I’m here in the big city, okay, fine, I’ll sign on the dotted line and realizing, oh, I didn’t read that, I didn’t have somebody look over it. Wow, you own my name, image, likeness, my band name, everything, and I’m screwed.

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah, exactly, and that happened, it used to happen a lot, it still happens today, but because it used to happen a lot, now we all know about it. So you talking into that means you haven’t educated yourself on these kind of practices.

[Darran]
Exactly, getting back to the music though, let’s talk about the music. Where’s the weirdest moment you’ve ever heard one of your own tracks play?

[Patricia Baloge]
I haven’t yet.

[Darran]
Hasn’t happened yet? You’ve never been like somebody like, how do people say they’ve been walking down the street and a car drives by?

[Patricia Baloge]
Fortunately for me, I have not, but I can see that my songs are being shazammed. So some people are hearing them, which I’m happy, I hope one day I can, that will be a really good thing.

[Darran]
You know, I should, wow, I guess nobody would really shazam a podcast. Ha, ha, ha, ha, that’d be awesome, but that’s awesome, congratulations on that. Yeah, I know, good idea, huh?

Well, now with AI and everything and I can separate it out, maybe I can pull the transcripts out. That would be interesting, but yeah, well, you know, you’re an artist, you’re making it, you’re getting it through, and one of these days you’re gonna be out there in a nightclub and somebody’s gonna drop one of your tracks and you’re gonna be like, that’s me. Awesome, do you ever get fed up with making and playing music?

And what is your go-to to break out of that, in writing they call it writer’s block, I don’t know if there’s a specific term for musician’s block, I probably should know that term, but do you ever get fed up with making and playing music and what do you do to kind of get yourself back on track?

[Patricia Baloge]
So yes, I do, I do have times where I sit in front of the computer and I’m like, I’m gonna make a song today, I’m gonna make a track, nothing works, nothing I do works. It’s like, I’ve never touched this thing ever. And then I start doubting and I’m like, okay, and then I leave it alone.

So I feel like sometimes I just have this calling in me, I’m like, it’s like, oh, you need to go, you need to go, you have something. So sometimes for three months, I won’t touch it, I won’t make anything. I may go and revise some of the old stuff that I have, but I wouldn’t make anything new.

But one day I sit down and it just flows, in three hours I have this beautiful track and I’m like, where did it come from? And it’s, yeah, I think it’s magical sometimes, it’s interesting how it works.

[Darran]
Yeah, I can relate to that, I’ve had a few burnout periods in my life where I’ve just not wanted to pick up a camera, didn’t wanna do an interview. I still, this last time that happened, it was like all through 2023, I moved into a new place, was trying to readjust and get some things up and rolling and things just weren’t, they weren’t getting me any victories. And I just wasn’t feeling right.

And finally came out of it and just kind of pushed through it and then all of a sudden, everything just flipped and went, whoa, everything’s back on track, everything’s like a light switch. Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go, and then everything just started firing off again. And I’m like, okay, I’m back on track, rolling right down the tracks and full steam ahead.

So that does happen where you just need to take a break from things time to time and not burn out. The last thing you wanna do as an artist or a producer or anything like that is burn out so much that you just throw it all away and you never come back to it.

[Patricia Baloge]
I think it’s cool to lean into those moments and do something else because music is all about inspiration anyways. So if I’m not up to writing a song because maybe I’m trying to write, it’s not coming, then I can think about a music video. I can think about, I don’t know, outfits.

I can think about a lot of things. Or I also make jewelry. I have a jewelry brand, so I can think of that.

I can think of organizing a party. There’s so many other things you can be doing if you have a block. Life is huge.

Just go outside and walk. There’s so much to do. Just lean into it.

Don’t hate yourself. Don’t say, oh, that’s not true. I’m not a producer.

I suck. No, it’s just not the moment. Do something else.

Relax. That’s all.

[Darran]
Speaking of getting out of the funk, getting on track, what is your worst habit and are you planning to get rid of it?

[Patricia Baloge]
Yes, I can’t say my worst habit because not everybody needs to know all my business, but what is it that I’m trying to get rid of, right?

[Darran]
Yeah, yeah.

[Patricia Baloge]
That’s a good question. I know, but I wanna get something else. Okay.

Something I got rid of, maybe. Seeking validation. Seeking validation.

Oh, seeking validation, yeah. That’s not something I need to get, we all need to get rid of a little bit of it, but I think that mostly I got rid of that. And that’s so important as an artist or as a business person, as anything in life.

And once you get rid of that, you are free to become whoever you want. And I think there’s just a stage in life where you get there. Not everybody is born there.

Some are lucky they’re born there, but I think that you have to have a lot of things happening in succession for you to get to a place where you’re like, whoa, that needs to stop. And it just goes away. It’s like, okay, it’s disgusting.

I don’t want it anymore.

[Darran]
It’s interesting you bring that up because you see that on the rise with a lot of social media influencers or people that normally didn’t go after, stay, like back in the day, to be popular, you were a musician, you were an actor. You went into musician, you went into acting, or you were painting, or it depends on what market you were in. But nowadays you have these social media influencers and they might not be musicians.

They might not be artists. They might not get that stage presence or be in front, like a DJ or performer in front of an audience. And they just all of a sudden make it big overnight.

And now they’re these big social media influencers. Everyone’s hitting them up. Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.

And that’s their validation. And there’s a movie out that came out, a documentary. I can’t remember the name of it, but it followed these social media influencers and what happened, like it followed the ride, followed their success, showed all this stuff.

And then all of a sudden they went offline and they became like majorly depressed and like almost suicidal depressed because they weren’t getting that attention anymore. And I think if you were an artist and you were building your career up, naturally you’d get, you’d play that room to zero people. You’d play that room to five people.

You were on that stage show maybe as an actress to 25 people in the audience, or doing that open mic night, or playing that small bar and getting your road kicks on. Maybe you start touring with another opening band and the band that opens has 300 people and you have 25 people or 50 people, but you’re getting that experience on. So when it hits, you’re kind of like you already did all that and that validation isn’t there because now you know you are there about the music or you’re there for what you’re doing it for rather than the fans and the, although that can quickly escalate.

And that’s where a lot of artists can get into depression most. They’re not used to that attention or that validation. So you’re right, when you release that validation and let that go, you really go, what am I really focused on?

What I wanna do? This’ll come, let me focus and do this because you can be good at that and then it takes away from doing this.

[Patricia Baloge]
And I feel like maybe, because it’s very recent, I’m still growing, but maybe after that, you become the leader you need to be in whatever you’re doing. And that’s when people actually need you because now you’re not saying, oh, I’m gonna wear red because they like red. No, you’re saying I’m gonna wear red because my heart says I’m gonna wear red.

And everybody’s like, we’re wearing yellow. How come you wearing red? Oh, I like the red, let’s follow her.

So it’s you dictating what your world is going to be like, is going to look like, and whoever likes it can come with you. But you’re not doing things for people anymore. You’re just doing it for yourself.

[Darran]
Exactly, it’s like the fish, everyone’s swimming this way and you wanna swim this way. And you just find your own slipstream, you find your own moment to rock out what you wanna do and feel and be comfortable with that. When it comes to influences, who’s been your biggest influence when it comes to your artist as a career?

And why is that person, that one person, there is one, I know it’s always hard to pick. That’s like asking me what my favorite movie is. That’s impossible.

But if there was a biggest influence you’ve had when it comes to your career, who would that be and why?

[Patricia Baloge]
Okay, so in 2015, I believe, or 2014, I discovered Christine and the Queens. I don’t know if you know her, Christine and the Queens.

[Darran]
Christian.

[Patricia Baloge]
Christine, Christine, like C-H, like Christ in Christine and the Queens. She’s a pop artist from France and she sings in English and in French. And I discovered her, I was in New York and I discovered her music.

I completely fell in love with her sound. To me, it sounded incredible. It has a lot of, a little bit of synth wave.

It’s pop music. She has influences from Michael Jackson to Madonna. All the things that I like.

I wasn’t born in the 80s, but my heart is in the 80s. So she had all these influences and at the time I wasn’t making music, but I was also in that funk that I was telling you about. A bit of darkness and blah, blah, blah.

And so I became a little obsessed with her music and she was also French. So the fact that I could listen to French music and English music at the same time, and she was mixing both, it was like all my world combined into one. So it felt really fresh.

And so when I listened to her interviews, so that’s when I was like, whoa. She also got into music because she was going through some dark times and music saved her. But now she’s like huge.

She’s a pop star. She’s on stage with Madonna. And I think that when I started music, she was always in the back of my head.

It was like, she did it. I can do it. She did it.

I can do it. And she produces, she writes, she does everything herself. I was obsessed with her.

I’m less obsessed with her now because I’ve kind of moved on, but she was a catalyst in me choosing to go for music. So yeah, I’d say Christiane Underquist was a big influence.

[Darran]
Nice, that’s a good reference and a good story, good backend story. You mentioned that they started out, they weren’t very big. Now they play on stage with Madonna.

It’s a she. She?

[Patricia Baloge]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darran]
She, yeah. And how would you define for yourself, how would you define success as a DJ or a producer? Would that be a Beatport top 10 hit, sold out tour?

What are your thoughts on this?

[Patricia Baloge]
I think to me, I love DJing. I love sharing music with people. So I feel like gigs where there is a crowd dancing to you playing, that’s success.

Like when that happened, I come home and I sleep like a baby. I’m happy. So yeah, having that happen in successions is something that I would love to see.

Having my music maybe on the radio once where I walk into a store and I hear my song, that’s also success. But when I started making music, I was so attached. Like I felt like my music and me were the same thing.

So if my music wouldn’t go forward, that would mean that I am a failure. So now I’ve come to terms with that. I make music.

I put it out. It does whatever it needs to do. I don’t put pressure on myself.

If this is what I’m meant to do, then I will get where I need to go. So that’s how I like to see it because I don’t like the pressure. It’s just not healthy for a human being.

So to me, success is just right now. It’s making the music, continuing the journey, being authentic all the way. So from the sound in the computer when you’re writing and making the music, which I have been, to everything else, meaning your persona, who you’re becoming as a result of the music you’re putting out and the work you’re putting into it.

So once you have all of that, even if you’re not on the top 10, big part or whatever, you are already successful because you’ve become something you weren’t before. So I think that I am successful. Yes, I am not on big part, but I think that I am who I’m meant to be because I’m going after what I’m supposed to go to work.

[Darran]
I had somebody yesterday in an interview say, I have a roof over my head. I have food in the fridge. I have clothes on my back and I get to make music.

And that is successful for me. And just being able to have my base needs met. And I think they still work a day job, but they get to tour and do things and be a DJ.

They’re actually more of a producer than they are a DJ, but they’ve been recognized as a DJ too and get bookings. But they’re like, as long as I can do that and my basic needs are, I’m cool with doing what I do. There was no ego behind it, I got to make another million dollars this year or I’m suck.

Anything like that, it wasn’t about that. So it was a very humbling, interesting interview. You find a lot of people that really do say that.

It’s like, if I could just get paid to make music and do this as a living, to make my base needs, I don’t need a G7 or G6 or Black American Express card or limousine or expense account. Although those are all nice things to have.

[Patricia Baloge]
It doesn’t hurt to have these things, hold on. I’m not saying it’s bad or I’m not saying that I wouldn’t want it. But what I’m saying is that the pressure that comes from wanting more than doing and becoming, that’s something that can kill you.

And it’s all about the becoming because becoming is something that I can control. I can control who I become. I can control whether I’m going to sit down and make the music and put the music out and work on this and promote, that I can control.

So the becoming part is going to call whatever has to come my way. So you’re successful if you’re becoming more than if you have money. There are so many people in the music industry who are great artists, who made a lot of money, who had the G6, they’re dead today because they were taking drugs, they were not doing good in their mind because they had pressure.

And so is the money all there is to identify success? I don’t believe so. Because money will control you if that’s the only thing.

And it won’t hurt you.

[Darran]
I can agree with that. A friend of mine has that philosophy. He always says that you get the money, the money controls you.

Because he thinks that I say that I’m all about the money, money, money, money. I’m trying to get the money. I’m like, no, I’m trying to get the money because I’m trying to run a company.

I have to pay people to work for me. I’m not going to be able to hire somebody who’s highly qualified and they’re being offered a job for 150,000 a year. And I’m going to say, come work for me for free because I believe in my vision.

And they got to pay their rent. They got to take care of their kids or go on vacation, pay their bills, pay their student loans back, whatever it may be. So yes, I have to make money for my company so I can make my company successful and hire the right people to keep it successful in that sense of what I see success being.

And I don’t need the Learjet or the Black American Express card. Those would be nice. Always.

Fly wherever I wanted to and buy anything I want. It’s amazing. That’d be awesome.

But it’s definitely, what you said, people sometimes put that pressure on them and it destroys them because it’s always the next gig, next month, you got to do the money, money, money, money. So speaking of money or success in that sense, it doesn’t always last forever, especially for an artist. Once they make it, it’s not like, ah, what’s the percentage of the percentage of the percentage of the percentage?

Really going to keep doing this for 40, 50 years. That really doesn’t really happen for artists. What do you do to save up for the future?

What do you invest your earnings in? Is there a backup plan or you said you have a jewel, you do jewelry or fashion.

[Patricia Baloge]
I have a jewelry brand that I am now focusing on and I do want to grow more because I love music and I want to keep making music. I do have my ambitions when it comes to music, but I also am becoming more and more realistic with life in general. So yeah, I still like to be my own boss.

So going to a job is not something I want to do, but I still want to grow my way. So yeah, I have my brand, Studio Ballage, and that’s what I’m doing on the side to pay for my music and do all the rest, yeah.

[Darran]
Awesome. Well, you know, we’ve talked a lot about a lot of stuff here today and I really enjoy having you on the series.

[Patricia Baloge]
It’s been an hour.

[Darran]
It has been an hour. Is there anything else you want to let our DJ Sessions fans know about before we let you go?

[Patricia Baloge]
I have a music video for I’ll Do It Again coming out. I don’t know exactly when because I’m still working on it, but yeah, that’s something in the works. I have more music coming out and I’ll be sending you my DJ Sessions.

[Darran]
Awesome. Yes, we are looking for that exclusive mix again and getting it into our library and getting it out there. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Where can people find out more information about you and what you got going on?

[Patricia Baloge]
So you can find me on Instagram. That’s where I post mostly. Otherwise, you can find me on all streaming platforms.

So iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify. These are, there’s so many. Everywhere you can find me.

YouTube, I have a few music videos there. I’m also planning on doing more DJ sets. So yeah, if you follow me, you’ll see more about me.

[Darran]
Awesome. Well, there’s the Instagram right there. Type it in, go look her up.

Patricia, a pleasure having you on the series again. We’ll follow up with you. Letting our DJ Sessions fans know more about what you got going on, your career, and all the things you’re up to.

And if you don’t know, go check out that new release, I Do It Again. It’s online, it’s on Spotify. I was just listening to it.

It’s dope. Dope, check it out. All right, Patricia, thank you for coming on the DJ Sessions.

Thank you. You’re welcome. On that note, don’t forget to go to our website, thedjsessions.com.

That’s right, thedjsessions.com. Pop it up right there. Take a QR code, picture of it, go to our website.

Find us on all our socials are listed there. Our new app is coming out. It’s gonna be up there soon.

That was Patricia Baloge coming in from New York City. I’m your host, Darran. For The DJ Sessions Presents, The Virtual Sessions.

And remember, on our website, thedjsessions.com, over 2,500 past episodes, exclusive mixes, 600 news stories, a virtual reality nightclub information is there, our app is there, and more at thedjsessions.com. Find us on the Apple Store as well, the Apple Music Store, and go ahead and click subscribe. Our shows will download right to your mobile device or your computer, and you can leave a comment for us.

Give us a five star if you want to. Again, I’m Darran, that was Patricia Village for The DJ Sessions Presents, The Virtual Sessions. And remember, on The DJ Sessions, the music never stops.