Star Eyes: A Life in the Electronic Underground

Umoja Hi-Fi Soundsystem

Welcome to the Umoja Hi-Fi podcast. Umoja Hi-Fi is a seven person DJ collective formed in Los Angeles in 1992 and we are active to this very day! Subscribers to this podcast may be used to the various DJ mixes we’ve been dropping on this channel, and those are going to continue, but today we’ve got something special - we'll talk to DJ Tomas's long time friend and colleague Star Eyes, a.k.a. Vivian Host, an accomplished DJ, producer, music journalist, radio host and podcaster in her own right. DJ Tomas met Vivian in LA in the early '90s around the same time that Umoja Hi-Fi formed. Tomas booked Star Eyes for one of her first gigs at, an after-hours event at Nova Express cafe, he wrote and edited with her at URB and XLR8R magazines, and watched her career flourish at Red Music Music in New York. Speaking of Red Bull, Vivian's New York party crew Trouble & Bass won the 2013 Red Bull Culture Clash event -- a true underdog upset, besting Max Glazer's Federation Sound, Que Bajo and hip-hop producer Just Blaze. Since then, she's only continued to rise. Dubbed "Brooklyn's Queen of Heavy Bass," hear how Vivian discovered reggae sound system culture, became a pioneering US drum & bass DJ, and forged a successful music journalism career along the way.