We recently connected with Chandra Peterson and have shared our conversation below.

Chandra , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I feel incredibly fortunate to say that I have the most supportive parents in the world who never put me in a box based on what society thinks about how a girl should act or present herself. Because of this I ended up in the sport of wrestling and in Iowa there were no girls teams at the time so I wrestled the boys. My parents always supported me 110% – driving me across the country to compete in tournaments and never missing a match. They stood beside me when parents of boys would complain to coaches and refs about a girl wrestler and assured me that I had every right to be where I was, no matter my sex. Being instilled with that kind of confidence during my formative years is certainly the reason I am where I am today.

Chandra , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started learning how to DJ right before the beginning of the pandemic as a way to relieve stress from my day job as a federal public defender. I have always found music to be an outlet for the kind of stress, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma that comes with my job, and DJing took that to a whole new level. What started off as DJing for my friends at parties and on Twitch during COVID blossomed into a residency at Hard Rock San Diego’s summer pool parties (Liquid Sunshine) and eventually to DJing at all of the major clubs in San Diego. Over the Holidays, I was lucky enough to land my first international gig in Panama!

I started producing music last year as well. My first track comes out on March 17th!

At the end of the day, my mission as a DJ and producer is to cultivate a community that brings people together and supports disenfranchised groups with exciting house music that transcends genres and speaks to people of all paths.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Our world is so divided – and frankly, rightfully so in a lot of ways. Racism, sexism and homophobia have been sewn into our societal structures and the fight for equal rights has divided our community. Music is an opportunity to bring people together. To share emotion and compassion with people who you might not otherwise would have ever met. Being at a festival or a concert and sharing a human moment with thousands of strangers can be one of the most moving feelings and reminders that we are all human and we need to cherish our differences and learn from each other.

I love how music can bring people together and in my sets I try to incorporate all kinds of different genres to do just that. I want someone who likes hip hop to find elements of that genre in my set juxtaposed with elements of classic rock or even something like jazz and blues. I think creating music that speaks to everyone can help bring different communities closer together.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The book “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life (Learn In and Use It for Life)” helped me understand that anyone an be creative, and this broke everything open for me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdjalibi/

Image Credits
Ashley Kaplan (all except the shot where it is mostly crowd and me in a white shirt with my back to the crowd – the photographer for that one is Justin Perez!)