Rocky Mountain News

Friday, February 16, 2007
Alex Neth

Memo to all mandolinists, jazz trombonists, dobro players and other practitioners of the instrumental arts: Keep that up and your kids are gonna become DJs. "My dad was a bluegrass musician and my mom was
a singer/songwriter," said DJ MLE of her childhood in Texas. "Bluegrass is very upbeat, and I was raised to dance to music." She's dancing these days. In addition to hosting a biweekly radio show on breaksfm - an Internet radio
station devoted to breakbeat music - and being a regular on the underground scene as part of the Supabreakz crew, the self-described purveyor of "hard, funky breakbeats" is aiming to make her work behind the tables full time.
Along with a sponsorship from Stanton (maker of mixers, needles and headphones) she's recently hooked up with At Large Entertainment, a booking agency that aims to get her spinning at clubs around the world. It's a career that almost wasn't: Emily Amanda Green was interested in electronic music before she moved to Colorado in the mid-'90s to attend nursing school, but even after an ex-boyfriend taught her to spin, she saw it merely as a fun hobby. The late-night lifestyle took its toll. "I got really sick in 2003 and had to stop," she said. "I was ready to sell my turntables." An invite from her friend Jamie Kent to join the Angelic Crew - a group of local female DJs, now disbanded - changed her life.

"It didn't start out as a career," she said. "That's when I realized it was more than just a passion. It was bred into me."

the scratch

• Track she can't live without: "Only a Few by Eskmo. I've been playing it for the last year, and I can't take it out."
  
• Local DJ she'd pay to see: "DJ Ishe. He's been producing a lot, lately - he's a great breakbeat DJ. I love to watch him."
  
• Where she spins: "Everywhere. I don't have a set weekly residency. I spin a lot at The Shelter, Tabu- mainly underground parties."
  
• Records in her collection: Close to 1,000
  
• Day job: Registered nurse/poison information specialist at Rocky Mountain Poison Center.
  
• On the Web: www.djmle.com

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