Misstress Barbara Crosses The Borderline

Mistress Barbara

international news _ 18th December, 2006

Misstress Barbara Crosses The Borderline

Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)

Misstress Barbara has signed to James Holden’s Border Community and ditched the hard techno she’s best known for with ‘more melodic, stripped-back- dare we say minimal’ music, the label revealed this week.

“Border Community is proud to announce the latest new recruit to our burgeoning roster of supremely talented genre-benders, “ BC declared.

“In an era when traditional genre boundaries of dance music are becoming increasingly blurred, it is entirely fitting that techno heroine Misstress Barbara should now find a second home in the Border Community.”

Barbara’s first (excellent) track Barcelona fits seamless alongside existing BC gems including Nathan Fake’s Sky Was Pink and Fairmont’s Gazebo and should dramatically reposition her at the top end of the minimal-techno tree. It’s also likely to prove financially rewarding, representing yet more vindication for the raised-in-Canada Sicilian star.

“I remember my father saying to me one day 'OK, you spend several hundred dollars a week on records, you don't have gigs every week and when you do have them, how much do they pay you?',” Barbara told Skrufff in an interview in 2004.

“I was like ‘$75’ and he was like 'OK, if you do the maths this is not really good for you' and I was like 'sure, you're right, if I do the maths. But this is now; one day I'm going to earn much more money and I'm going to make all my money back.'

He was like 'OK, but what if it doesn't work?' To which I said 'Dad, you don't understand, it's going to work'. He was looking at me with that 'yeah, right' expression but I knew it would.”

Friends were also particularly doubting, she added, with few believing she’d succeed.

“I was really insulted by so many people when I said I’d decided to become a DJ , I remember thinking 'f++k, they don't know what I'm talking about', but I knew it was going to happen,” she said.

“Nowadays my father speaks about me to all his neighbours and so many articles have come out in local magazines and on TV shows. And my friends are also always calling for guest lists.”