DJ Feature:
Ayanna Heaven
BIO
Ayanna Heaven is a DJ, radio producer, and artist based between Brooklyn, New York and St. Mary, Jamaica. With sets ranging from Roots, Dub, and Rocksteady Reggae, to Afrobeats, Hip-Hop, and Brazilian rhythms, she builds a vibe with her distinct selections and mixing style. You can hear her weekly on WKCR’s Across 110th Street show on Saturdays from 12-2 PM and monthly on her Sounds of Heaven show on The Lot Radio.
35s & 45s:
She has a musical heritage deeply entrenched in locality from family and records from her father. Ayanna’s mixes go a journey through time- from Dub-Reggae, or maybe disco and soul on her show “Across 110th Street”, she finds the right place to give the song it’s room to impact a listener.
IG: @ayannaheaven
SC: @ayanna-heaven
Listen to Ayanna Heaven’s Series Shift Mix:
Tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where are you based now?
My name is Ayanna, Ayanna Heaven. That's my real name! I'm Jamaican and lived in Jamaica until I was seven, then I moved to Atlanta, Georgia where I lived for 10 years. And then I moved to New York in 2010. I went to [Eugene Lang College] at The New School, where I studied anthropology and contemporary music. I feel like my mind just opened so much to just music and culture and how these worlds come together in my time at Lang. I already was into music prior to then, but that was a catalyst for me being like, I gotta do something more with music as a career.
Upon leaving Lang, I worked at the Department of Education for four years, before deciding I wanted to try DJing full time. I had DJ'ed on and off over the years at that point; I started DJing when I was in high school and I just would do it on and off in college and then stop. I just had anxiety around it, like, I didn't want to play what everyone else is playing and I didn't want to be forced to play music that I didn't like, that was my whole thing. I wanted to be able to have my own niche and for people to enjoy it. And I didn't quite have the confidence at the time to believe there was a space for my uniqueness in the DJ world. I put it off for a while, but at a certain point, music kept pulling me back.
How long have you been collecting records, DJing, etc?
I play and definitely own records, but I wouldn't say I'm a record collector. I started buying records in college back in 2012 when I took a class at Scratch DJ Academy where we learned how to DJ with vinyl.
Madvillainy was probably the first record I got, one of my favorites, Madvillainy and also the instrumentals! I just had to have them both when I started my collection. At the time I also picked up a fair amount of Disco as well as some Jazz and Bossa Nova. No Reggae really, not until much more recently. I've actually recently acquired a bunch of records from my dad and some other family here in Jamaica.
Across 110th Street, your radio show on WKCR, that’s how we discovered you! Can you tell us how that started and what its all about?
It's going to be a year of shows in like two weeks! I actually started programming right as the pandemic started and New York went into quarantine. I had featured on WKCR a few different times. I'd gone to the studio a few times and one Sunday I got the opportunity to play a two hour set, right around this week, last year. The pandemic was just starting and everything was hella stressful! It was just like a lot happening, they basically shut down the studio the next day. The program director was there and the opportunity to run a show remotely came up - I basically volunteered essentially at that moment! I was like, Oh yeah, I can do this, and it would be an honor! It’s been a ride. One of the biggest things I decided from the start was, I'm not going to play a song twice on the show, which I’ve maintained outside of maybe around three to five songs in the past year.
That's my thing, every week I just keep digging deeper and deeper. There's just so much music. It's never ending.
On your show you have interesting facts about the records sometimes, is this something that comes about from curating the show or is it just stuff you picked up over the years?
A lot of my interests in school were around Black music traditions and how music genres developed over time, starting with the blues. I pulled from a knowledge base that I got from just being at Lang and engaging in that coursework. At this point though I do a lot of research. I have a book that I use pretty much just like my textbook. I spend probably like 12 to 16 hours each week, creating a show. Reading, digging through Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube... I’m not a record collector, I wouldn’t call myself that, but the way I dig for music, it’s very similar. There are crevices of the internet, where you find some deep information, I think we sometimes don't give that type of research enough credit.
Initially, I was digging from this general knowledge base to like, Oh man, I got to learn some more stuff! So let me start actively learning each week. ‘Rough Guide’ is a great book series. If you already love music, it’s just interesting to read. There's a Rough Guide of like every genre, I have the Soul and R&B book. It can't cover everybody, but it covers a lot of important names and has been a great resource for me. It's really, really good!
“I wanted to play music that people young and old, from all walks of life could enjoy, together.”
How has it been running your show remotely?
It's been great and also definitely a labor of love! I write a script every week for my show, I kinda see it as like a research paper each week. You know, I want it to sound as clear as can be. I don't trust myself to just like riff as I’m recording.
But it's always worth it. Like every week people reach out, I get so much love! It's all kinds of people. And I feel like it's my early dreams of being a DJ coming true because I always wanted a DJ just for everybody. I wanted to play music that people young and old, from all walks of life could enjoy, together. Not just young party people or not just people who look like me. I get messages from delivery guys being like ‘Oh man, I enjoyed your show on my route today’. I think that's like the beauty of WKCR too. It's like a lot of longtime listeners. It's dope.
How would you describe your musical tastes in a general sense if you had to, or maybe you don’t want to?
Yeah haha, I used to always be annoyed by musicians who were like, ‘don't force me to give you a genre’, but I'm becoming that person. I’m like, don't box me in! I really equally enjoy doing a full reggae set to doing a soul and funk set, to playing a dancehall, hip-hop and afrobeats party vibe. I would say that I’d assign a mood to my taste. Sunny or vibrant. I feel really eclectic even though that’s a played word, but I really love to play a wide range of music.
What are your favorite spots to go digging and why?
In New York, definitely A-1 Records. I used to go there a lot, had a friend who worked there and at that time I was very into Hip-hop, and I always discovered great finds.
In Jamaica, it's not so much just a record store, but the idea of going to or checking out random people selling other people's records or selling their old records. You go to someone's house and you dig through their stuff, and you give them a price for something, for a stack of their stuff and you just go through it. I feel like that's really personal and I like seeing a collection together and you get a sense of someone's tastes and vibe. It's almost like a window into someone's world, a collection that lives together that was meant to be together in this way.
Do you find you’re more emotionally attached to a particular record depending on where you got it from?
It was really amazing to acquire a little of my dad's records, because the records that he passed on to me are so aligned with my DJ path at this moment. It was like 50 records that he gave to me, pretty much all from between the years 1970 and 1980. Like definitely just the peak time of a lot of music, like soul, funk and reggae too. One particular record that comes to mind is Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey, it was in my dad's collection. It’s one that I really love, and was very dope to encounter in his collection! Burning Spear is not someone that I’d ever talked to my dad about, but his records gave me special insight into his life and interests at that time.
Was there a lot of music for you from Jamaican origin growing up?
My dad has always been a music lover. It was he who truly introduced me to Reggae, just being at home and always hearing Dennis Brown or Gregory Isaacs or Beres Hammond, I always heard it. Lots of Bob Marley too! My dad loves Bob as many people do. So I would constantly hear it. I know that he used to go to shows and be into sounds and stuff like that, but not like any more than the average, maybe music loving person in the 70’s, you know, collecting records so there's some to listen to at home.
Jamaica has such a rich music culture. Like when you're here, it feels like there is always music blasting wherever you go. You can’t escape it!
Can you tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us (where it was recorded, the vibe, etc.)?
Yeah, well, so I have a chest of records that I pull from when I'm in Jamaica. That's kind of like the Jamaica record box and me and my boyfriend pretty much share it. So when there’s a need to play records in Jamaica, we pull from this collection of carefully curated 45s. Because it was February, I was thinking of people in particular I wanted to play. February being the month of Dennis Brown who was born in February. Bob Marley was also born February, and February is Reggae Music Month. I didn't have any access to non-Reggae records to play here, but I was also like, yeah, that would be nice to play an all Reggae mix in February.
I really just went over some favorites. I love the opening tune “Party Time” covered by Dennis Brown. In general the original by The Heptones is probably one of my favorite Reggae records ever, and Dennis Brown’s cover is wicked too. I also love the song “Warm and Sunny Day” by Barrington Levy, that tune holds some special importance to me. He's amazing. He has so many great records beyond what people usually know, “Murderer” etc. “Sun Shines For Me” by Bob, Andy, I love that. And the last three tunes, I played “Change The System”, “Is It Because I'm Black” and “African Challenge”, I was thinking about Black History Month with those. And I don't know, they just, those three songs together, there was something about them that just felt right for the end of the mix and African Challenge in particular. I love that record. I just love it. It's just so beautiful!
So started with one of my favorites and ended with a new favorite. Amazing!
How do you see the music you play and djing as a whole impacting the broader audience of today’s music listeners?
I really think it's so important to show the origin points of the music we love. Telling stories about the cultures these sounds emerge out of is just so important to me. I think that's why radio has been like a nice fit for me because sometimes on the party scene, I'm not able to tell stories in the same way. I still try to do it though, and if I’m not able to tell a story about the music, I will aim to, at minimum, introduce the listeners to new sounds through my sets. I will do this sometimes by playing song combinations that people might not expect, but then realize, ‘this is really cool’.
Also that's my favorite compliment from people - I got this really nice message on one of my Sounds Of Heaven shows on The Lot Radio. He said ‘listening to your mixes is like watching a movie, like a really good movie where I literally don't know what's going to happen next, but I'm just like there for the ride.’ And I'm like, wow, that's dope. If something flows well together, I'm like, why not? I’m all for just opening people's minds to more than what people are obviously going to hear at a party or in a set.
In a nutshell - I like to give people what they're not expecting, tell stories and give credit where credit's due.
Top few favorite records to play on the regular?
I don't know why “Choice of Colors” by The Impressions immediately came to mind when you said favorite records. That’s a recent favorite of mine for sure. I've also gotten really into a lot of Reggae covers of Soul tunes. “Go Away Dream” by The Chi-Lites has a reggae version by Delroy Wilson that I’m obsessed with. I also really got into Boris Gardiner at the beginning of this year and I’ve been digging into his records. And then there are also some newer people out like The Far East. I love them.
I really like Liam Bailey too. There's a vibe that I'm just so into. And I would say that The Far East and Liam Bailey definitely are in the same playlist. That's just one of my personal favorite sounds at the moment. There are quite a few people out of Jamaica right now that are really great too. Jaz Elise, She’s amazing, her record just came out this past week. Zac Jone$ is someone else out of Jamaica and it's kind of a Dancehall, R&B, Hip-Hop vibe and I love that combo.
What has been one of the most memorable sets or parties you’ve played?
I've had a lot of great shows. I'd say that the Vinyl Club Jamaica party I did in Drapers, Portland, Jamaica in February 2020 was amazing. I played only Reggae. I was playing records from that box I mentioned earlier. I played a bunch of Bob (Marley). I always get super nervous when I'm DJing vinyl for new people. It's nerve wracking, but it went so great. I was also on the mic! That's one thing I never do, but I got on the mic and I was telling jokes, it felt right. It felt like this is what my reggae ancestors wanted for me, to be comfortable on the mic in front of people just out on a street party, total vintage vibe. So that was really fun. I'd also just say that my Sounds Of Heaven mixes (via The Lot Radio) have been really fun to put together and I want to just transform that into just something bigger. I just want to host a party where I just play whatever I want with no agenda. Like I can go into a super chill dub moment and no one's gonna look at me and think, what is she doing?
Sounds of Heaven is also a morning show, which is fun for me because I'm a morning person. And I'm able to play Reggae and Soul and Hip Hop and everything there. So that's kinda my experimental space and I'd say my shows I've done so far have been really fun to produce.
What is something you want a listener to walk away from this mix or you playing live and think or feel?
I think I'm just deep down also a teacher. However I can have someone walk away with more knowledge than they entered the space with. I think a lot of people are scarred from traditional spaces of learning (read: school!). That’s one of my other passions, how can I kind of inject learning into really fun and unexpected spaces, such as a DJ set.
It doesn't even have to be me talking, but it can just be me playing a Harry Belafonte “Banana Boat Song” remix that a listener might not not have expected. And maybe that opened their mind to who Harry Belafonte is. And if they were to look up the song itself, they would learn that the original version was a folk song sung by workers loading bananas onto ships to be traded at the turn of the century in the Caribbean. And then there is so much history to discover down that rabbit hole! I think there are just so many ways you can walk away from a music experience and feel like you just gained something more than enjoyment, gained some insight as well.
Ayanna Heaven Series Shift Track List:
“Party Time” Dennis Brown
“Get Myself Together” Dennis Brown
“Satisfaction Feeling” Dennis Brown
“What About the Half” Dennis Brown
“Let Love In” Dennis Brown
“Tune In” Gregory Isaacs
“Stop the Coming and Come” Ranking Joe
“My Woman” Barrington Levy
“Warm & Sunny Day” Barrington Levy
“When the Grass Is Green” Barrington Levy
“Speak the Truth” Little Junior Reid
“Them Belly Full” Bob Marley
“Coming In From the Cold” Bob Marley
“Hypocrites” Bob Marley
“CB200” Dillinger
“The Sun Shines For Me” Bob Andy
“Mysterious Nature” African Brothers
“Joy In the Morning” The Gaylads
“Stars” The Eternals
“Hit the Road Jack” Big Youth
“Right Time (Dub)” Mighty Diamonds
“I Need A Roof” Sugar Minott
“Change the System” Ronnie Davis
“Is It Because I’m Black” Lloyd Williams
"African Challenge" Zoot Simms