We were lucky to catch up with Shalini Randall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shalini, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

To skip to the end- yes, I wish I had started sooner. But it wouldn’t have happened if the other stuff didn’t first.

When I was young, I actually wanted to be a lawyer. There isn’t anything to say that I couldn’t have pursued that path, but as I got older and started a pre-law program in college, I quickly learned that wasn’t for me. Throughout my life, art and music had always taken up a lot of space. Early 20s, you would find me in the clubs not just one the weekends, but many weekdays too. It was one of those, “DUH” kind of moments, to be honest. I had a background in singing, dancing, acting, writing- art & performance was always a recurring theme. When I fell in love with the club scene, the rest of the pieces of becoming a DJ just fell together.

As much as I wish I had started sooner, I think I needed to realize that a conventional life and job wasn’t for me. I had to have a taste of it to see that to me, it was sour. If I had started pursing music and performance, I’m not convinced I’d be as driven to make it work as I am today. However, I do wish I had stuck with my piano lessons as a kid.

Shalini, 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?

My name is Shalini, I go by Confetti The First. I am a House, EDM, an Open Format DJ in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area, but I’ve traveled all around the country to perform. Years ago, someone called me “The House Queen of Baltimore,” & I’m still flattered it sticks to this day. I started in the rave scene, moved to clubs, and now to help pay the bills, I DJ weddings and similar events as well. I’m gay, brown, fat, and feminine. Growing up, I didn’t have anyone like me to look up to. So, a large part of my purpose with CTF is to be the representation I wish I had had when I was a kid.

My brand is mostly about having fun. Not all artistic endeavors have to be so heavy (it is fine if they are!)- laughter and fun are extremely valuable. When you think of confetti, you think of a good time, a celebration! That’s what I try to leave with every dance floor- a really good time.

I’ve had the pleasure of traveling the country a bit for work, also to teach workshops, play on radio stations, host events, and be goofy online; who doesn’t love a dumb meme, after all?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I wish to be the representation I so desperately wanted as a child. I’m gay, fat, brown, and feminine. I didn’t encounter anyone in my real life or in media that was like me. I firsthand understand how isolating that can make a kid feel. No child should feel like that. So, a big part of my mission is to a representation that kids and adults alike can be proud of. No, I won’t make everybody happy. But if little brown tween happens to come across my page or a show, I hope they can feel like, “so there ARE other people like me, cool!”

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Pay them. Art isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Life is hard, humans are complex- we need art as both escapism and a mirror on what’s going on in our world. We need that, just as much as we need science and tech studies.

The issue is, art is often seen as just a hobby, or not a valid way to earn a living. But, working a traditional job is taxing enough on time, energy, and labor. So often after a long day/week of working, you don’t have energy to create. Art shouldn’t have to be this thing we pull out of ourselves, against all odds. It’s a study, it’s a practice. If all artists were given the time, energy, and space to create, I think 1) society would see the value in investing in our artists, and 2) we would see incredible art, incredible acts of human expression, and even incredible unity. Music, in particular, is such a universal language. If we as a species all understood the value of music, we’d invest more in the creators and facilitators of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/confettithefirst
• Instagram: instagram.com/confettithefirst
• Facebook: facebook.com/confettithefirst
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shalini-randall-0551681a6/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConfettiThe1st
• Youtube: youtube.com/c/confettithefirst
• Other: confettithefirst.com is under construction!

Image Credits
AJ Jacobson Dior Dior Rafael Rodriguez Kari Nash