One of Wales' hottest exports right now, Frisky has been wowing her home crowds with her tough European Hard Dance sounds for a while now, and now has her sights set on London. She will be debuting for Frantic at Hard House Academy vs HQ on February 25th at Brixton Academy in London, so we had a chat with her to find out a bit more about her...

Hello there Frisky. Please could you introduce yourself for those who might not know you!

Well hello there Benz! I'm Frisky (real name Holley) and I'm from little old Swansea in South Wales.

How long have you been mixing for? What inspired you to give it a go?

I've been mixing for just over 3 years now. I started clubbing not long before and was instantly hooked. I was like I wanna do that! I managed to scrape enough money together to get a cheap set of belt drive decks and it went from there.

What styles of music do you play? Which producers and labels are always big with you?

I play predominantly Hard Trance and some Hardstyle, I'm very much influenced by the whole harder European sound. As for producers who influence me, the main ones would be Isaac, Technoboy and Uberdruck. The types of labels you'd expect to find in my box (lol) are Dance Pollution, Blutonium and Fusion records. I also incorporate some of my own cheeky bootlegs just to keep my sets different.

How did you manage to break into the scene in terms of DJing?

When I first started clubbing I used to go to a night in Swansea called Breathe which was run by Juice (of Cally & Juice). One weekend Juice spotted me DJing back at a house party and offered me my first set - warming up for Brisk in Breathe. Fortunately my sets went down well and a couple of months later I became resident.

You live in Wales - that's near England right? 😛 What's the club and dance music scene like where you come from?

The Hard Dance scene in Wales is still very strong. We're lucky enough to have Bionic in Cardiff and Breathe in Swansea (which are now both in their 6th year). Anyone who has been to either event will know how friendly and up for it the Welsh clubbers are. I love playing to my home crowd.

You will be playing at Hard House Academy vs HQ in London on February 25th. How did you come to the attention of Frantic? Is this your debut for them?

I've known Will and Amanda indirectly for a couple of years through attending various Frantic events. I also met my good friend Maxine there, she also worked for Frantic at the time. About a year ago Max saw me DJing at a club in Wales. Since then, she has promoted me endlessly in London, giving out free CDs and bigging me up to anyone who would listen lol. I definitely owe a lot to her for all of her efforts.

This will be my debut for Frantic and I'm deeply honoured to be asked to play my first set in London at the mighty Hard House Academy. I've been to about 10 HHA over the past few years and I always have a wicked time there. I absolutely can't wait to hit the decks on the 25th. It's also my birthday the next day so it makes the occasion even more special for me.

Travelling to London from Wales must be a bit of a schlep do you drive or does someone else do the hard work for you? What do you normally listen to on the way to get you in the mood?

Luckily Cally & Juice (with MC Shocker) are also on the line-up for the night so I will be travelling up with them. I regularly travel up to London with the boys as Juice is my boyfriend.

As there are usually four of us in the car we tend to pass the time by chatting or playing word-association games that we've made up over the years (it's more fun than it sounds honestly - lol). Just to give you an example, if you had to think of famous people and cars, two examples might be  Lisa Pick-Up or Jean Claude White Van Man  see, told you it was fun!

Who else on the HHA line-up are you going to be checking out?

Obviously I'll be stompin' down to Cally, Juice and Shocker in the Foyer. I also want to check out Mark EG and Organ Donors and Kutski B2B. Other than these I'll be walking round the whole places taking in various different sets as this is part of the fun of HHA.

You are playing back to back with Shimmer, another rising star in the Hard Dance scene. Have you been in touch with her to discuss battle plans?

We're in the process of swapping mix CDs so we can get a good idea of each others musical tastes and mixing styles! We also hope to get together before the night to agree a plan of attack.

And finally, what are your views on the Top 100 Female DJs Competition? Is it something that is going to help female DJs or will it only serve to reinforce some people's opinions that there is actually a difference between male and female DJs?

I'm not against the idea of a separate female DJ chart although I don't think it will make much difference either way. As for male and female DJs being different, hopefully over the past few years, the female DJs coming through have helped to prove that they've got what it takes, both technically and image-wise.