Womankind – August 2019

49

When I was young, I could work

for 48 hours straight, drinking gin at

the same time, and I’d be perfectly

fine the next day. But not today. To-

night, I am playing until five in the

morning, but I’ll take a power nap

during the day or I won’t get through

the night!

I make a lot of noise. That’s my

job. I’ve been a DJ for the past 30

years. I’ve never had a proper job,

except for when I was 18 and de-

livered books to bookstores for six

months. At 58, I am the oldest DJ

making a living out of it. The typ-

ical DJ is a male between around

18 and 30. When he’s 30 he’s ‘very,

very old’ in this business. To DJ is

to work all the time and work crazy

hours. Most DJs drink too much. I

started when I was almost 30. But

I’ve never found drinking all that

interesting, and I’ve never been

into drugs. I got into this because

of the music.

I grew up in a family of artists.

My father was a writer and paint-

er and my mother was a sculptor

and visual artist. My parents were

well-recognised artists in Copenha-

gen who’d socialise with other artists

and writers, journalists, musicians,

the whole crowd of the intellectual

and art scene in Copenhagen. Ev-

eryone always ended up at our place,

which meant it was difficult for my

parents to get any work done. And

then they had me. So, they decided

to move out of the city and head to

the countryside. But the only place

they could afford to buy a house was

Lolland, two to three hours drive

from Copenhagen. If you go by

train, it takes about five hours. And

so, in Lolland, very few people came

to visit us. But that was a good thing

for my parents who were really pro-

ductive during those years. Looking

back, it was a brave move.

In Lolland, about four cars would

pass our house on any day and that

would be ‘rush hour’. Our neighbours

were mostly people in their late 60s,

living a harsh life, so they always

seemed far older than they actually

were. They had their gardens, where

they grew potatoes and carrots and

other vegetables. In the summer, ev-

erybody worked in the fields, growing

turnips that we turned into sugar by

hand. My father and mother, who’d

never been physical, worked in the

fields as well.

Katrine Ring chose music as her first love and has been

working as a DJ ever since.

LETTERS FROM COPENHAGEN

Words

KATRINE RING

Interview

STAV DIMITROPOULOS

Photographs

DAVID LETH WILLIAMS

Portraits

49

When I was young, I could work
for 48 hours straight, drinking gin at
the same time, and I’d be perfectly
fine the next day. But not today. To-
night, I am playing until five in the
morning, but I’ll take a power nap
during the day or I won’t get through
the night!
I make a lot of noise. That’s my
job. I’ve been a DJ for the past 30
years. I’ve never had a proper job,
except for when I was 18 and de-
livered books to bookstores for six
months. At 58, I am the oldest DJ
making a living out of it. The typ-
ical DJ is a male between around
18 and 30. When he’s 30 he’s ‘very,
very old’ in this business. To DJ is
to work all the time and work crazy
hours. Most DJs drink too much. I
started when I was almost 30. But

I’ve never found drinking all that

interesting, and I’ve never been

into drugs. I got into this because

of the music.

I grew up in a family of artists.

My father was a writer and paint-

er and my mother was a sculptor

and visual artist. My parents were

well-recognised artists in Copenha-

gen who’d socialise with other artists

and writers, journalists, musicians,

the whole crowd of the intellectual

and art scene in Copenhagen. Ev-

eryone always ended up at our place,

which meant it was difficult for my

parents to get any work done. And

then they had me. So, they decided

to move out of the city and head to

the countryside. But the only place

they could afford to buy a house was

Lolland, two to three hours drive

from Copenhagen. If you go by

train, it takes about five hours. And

so, in Lolland, very few people came

to visit us. But that was a good thing

for my parents who were really pro-

ductive during those years. Looking

back, it was a brave move.

In Lolland, about four cars would

pass our house on any day and that

would be ‘rush hour’. Our neighbours

were mostly people in their late 60s,

living a harsh life, so they always

seemed far older than they actually

were. They had their gardens, where

they grew potatoes and carrots and

other vegetables. In the summer, ev-

erybody worked in the fields, growing

turnips that we turned into sugar by

hand. My father and mother, who’d

never been physical, worked in the

fields as well.

Katrine Ring chose music as her first love and has been

working as a DJ ever since.

LETTERS FROM COPENHAGEN

Words
KATRINE RING

Interview
STAV DIMITROPOULOS

Photographs
DAVID LETH WILLIAMS

Portraits