Meet Alice Valkyrie | DJ, Producer, Recording Artist, Multimedia Marketing Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alice Valkyrie and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alice, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
I remember earlier this year I DJ’d a house music event at Cobra Arcade bar and there were a bunch of traveling nurses there. These amazing people were just so burnt out after what has happened through the pandemic that they were really living it up.

You could see the daily trauma in their eyes. The years of therapy most of these heroes are going to need ahead of them. They were decompressing, living in the moment, and finally letting it all go just for the night. There are many ways to do that but sometimes we do that in a nightclub, with loud music, fog, lasers, dancing, drinking, kissing, and living this life passionately.

My job is simply to play a good musical soundtrack for people to have the night of their lives out on the town. Yes, sometimes we wake up with a hangover, but I really feel like it’s worth it and good for the soul; especially when these parties happen in a space populated by people who are living authentically and unashamed.

For some of us like myself as a trans-woman, it really feels like just existing publicly is a political revolutionary statement. As Alan Moore once said “A Revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.”

My community regularly sees me performing and gaining acceptance/support from a crowd and the lovely people in it. I like to think it gives them hope for a world where they don’t have to think twice about liking who they want, wearing that dress, or just dancing it out awkwardly.

The art, the music, the party, the authenticity, the life, and the family we find in these spaces and events, these things make our lives worth living. They are the reason we want to heal each other to get back out and keep living, the reason we work for a little extra cash to have fun, and the freedom to do these things. It’s the reason why we fight for the freedoms to exist, so we can exist there with all the rest of us weirdos.

I am so honored to be a part of some people’s best nights of their lives.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Thank you so much! That means a lot. I feel like my diversity as a DJ is becoming one of my strongest assets. I play to different crowds every day and cater to those crowds, through my fashion choices that day to match the vibe all the way to the flyers. I understand that I’m an artist but also a business.

I like to make new friends everywhere I go and treat everyone with respect, especially the staff. I think this is super important because we’re going out to feel included and accepted. These spaces and the humans there really do that for me and it’s becoming more and more important to give that feeling back to them as much as possible.

Honestly, right now my mission is to stay local to Phoenix. I’ve built a well-respected artist brand here but as a self-employed businesswoman I’ve been living a little hand-to-mouth and I need to be thriving to continue my transition with the cost of surgeries.

Like many trans people who lost their careers, I rely on Medicaid for my healthcare. Even if I was able to manage somehow getting a dayjob in Arizona, Insurance companies aren’t required to cover gender affirmation surgical care like breast augmentation, so most of them don’t. Medicaid won’t cover them here like in many other conservative states with discrimination built into the laws. So it’s up to me to either increase profit by 30-40% possibly kicking myself off of Medicaid or start over as a DJ in states like Washington or Oregon.

My mission over the remainder of the year will be to establish whether or not staying here in Phoenix is a viable option. I’ve invested a lot in this city and my community and they’ve invested in me. I really don’t want to leave.

There’s a chance if Katie Hobbs wins the Governor’s race that she might be able to do something about it ideally within her first year. She does support the Equality Arizona platform which includes prohibiting trans exclusions in private health insurance and lifting the existing bans on gender-affirming surgery in AHCCCS (Medicaid); among many other great policies.

These will be super important for trans people like me who are self-employed, unemployed, or underemployed. Portland doesn’t need more trans representation but Arizona does. I’d love to focus on putting out records and just living my life but for my own mental health, these surgeries and the local politics involved need to be my priority. I’ll want to be getting more involved with letting my community know that trans healthcare equality is on the ballot this November.

Beyond that, I have just started a GoFundMe to help out with my surgery costs on my website at AliceValkyrie.com . I’m hoping to do a DJ Livestream with a bunch of my DJ friends to help raise funds in October or November.

If I do stay I have some great ideas for monthly events I’d like to host like:

Queer Open Stage – Featuring rotating performances by singer-songwriters, burlesque, drag, queer bands, vocalists, and comedians.

Coven – A femme DJ goth night.

Goth Brunch – A dead but delicious open format goth event for the weekend daywalkers.

Goth Night Swim / Goths At The Beach – A series of summer goth pool parties.

Alice’s Mad T-Party – An Alice In Wonderland themed, all-inclusive transgender dance party featuring rotating electronic musical genres. We’ll host non-binary, genderfluid, Transmasc, and Transfemme GoGo’s, as well as other trans guest DJs.

I think these events would really fill in some gaps in representation and musical diversity that I see around town and build the richness of Phoenix’s queer culture. I really hope I get to stick around to see these through.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
All right (cracks knuckles with excitement) buckle up buttercup! You picked the right bestie today! You gotta come in on a Monday morning or mid-day. Cuz we’re doing the Postino’s happy hour with a bruschetta plate before we hit up Regina’s T-Girl Revue at BS West, tipping generously to the beautiful trans baddie dancers and performers. We’re staying at the Saguaro hotel in Scottsdale for most of the week but we’ll be back for their legendary pool party on Saturday. Hopefully, my good friend DJ Slippe is spinning that week.
Tuesday morning we’re having breakfast at The Saguaro’s La Senora Cafe and I’m getting a breakfast Roasted Veggie Burrito with some Pressed Juice. We’re gonna hit Fashion Square Mall and do a little shopping and then we’re hitting the Intro to Pole class at Pole Palace Studio at 5PM. Then we’re catching the Queer Agenda drag nightlife experience at Kobalt to see some next-level drag performers, including one of my favorite queens Bennadiction.

Wednesday morning we’re hiking Camelback cuz ya have to. It’s a right of passage here and maybe hit a dayspa afterwards. We’ve gotta grab dinner at Culinary Dropout in Old Town, for the best Gochujang Brussel Sprouts in town, and I will be drinking the Two Birds One Stone(D) cocktail. They also make the best Moscow Mule I’ve ever had. The Dropout Classic Mule that made me fall in LOVE with the cocktail. I’m getting the Spicy Vegan Curry but back when I ate meat the Fried Chicken was worth dying for.

Then we’re going back to BS West for College Night (AKA Valley Wednesday Tradition), the 2-4-1 drink special that’s been around since the 80s but this time we’re tipping the fab, smoke-show gogo boys. Either I or the lovely DJ Robot 5000 will be DJing that night.

Thursday morning we’re scoping out Mill Avenue and doing some shopping, grabbing some amazing vegan pies at The Cornish Pasty Co. Then we’re going to sing our hearts out with Elite Karaoke at Boondocks Tempe. They’ve got one of the most awesome Karaoke libraries in town with loads of awesome Goth tunes no one else has.

Friday we’re moving out to the gayborhood and checking into the Clarendon Hotel And Spa because they’re cannabis friendly and LGBTQIA+ friendly. Then we’re off to check out Phoenix’s mini vegan district on 7th Street. They’ve got the Giving Tree Cafe, Nami has great Coffee & Pastries, and Green New American Vegetarian.

If possible we’ve gotta dress fancy and stop by Wren & Wolf in downtown Phoenix for an upscale dinner and wine/cocktails on a Friday or Saturday when the Herizon Collective DJs play multiple genres like deep house, liquid drum & bass, indie, funk, and electro-swing. You’ve gotta try the Fried cauliflower with pipian mole.

Then we are off to Walter Studios for Happy Hour and an amazing fusion menu designed by one of my favorite people in the world DJ and Chef Monica Lavander. I’m getting the Kalliope Fries and Korean Cauliflower Bites.

At this point, we can mix and match Friday and Saturday events. Either we can check out the phenomenal Electronic Music talent that gets brought in by Walter Productions at their new venue put together by the creative, talented lovely people who are absolute treasures from the Burning Man community.

Or we can do awesome Goth things like 6 Feet Under at the Palazzo or a Desert Runners Future Club event at Club Endgame, on the East Side. If we do go East then we’ll definitely want to grab a snack at The Grid: Games & Growlers where we can play lots of old video game consoles and arcade games no other video game bar has in town. The Grid is LGBTQIA+ owned and has done a lot of great work in supporting local talent.

Saturday Mid-day we’ll have to stop by The Saguaro one last time for their pool party and grab a Cabana with some friends. Phoenix & Scottsdale are best enjoyed by the pool with a cocktail in your hand and great tunes.

Then we can do Sunday Funday at one of the many Drag Brunches around town. If we can make it out to The Hutch, they have a phenomenal one called “Sunday Ho Brunch!”, hosted by another one of my favorite Queens Ashley Hoe. We can then continue the Sunday Funday at the local lesbian bar Boycott or do a pool day part two at the Clarendon.

If you’re feeling generous with your time we can head to tempe town lake by 3 PM and help groups like Shot In The Dark, Arizona Human Rights Fighters and AZ Hugs do so me mutual aid, getting bags, food, dog food, OD medication, fans and water to help people dealing with poverty, struggling with addiction and the unsheltered communities.

You’ve now officially done almost all of my favorite things in Phoenix but there is so much more. I’d need a month or two for you to really see most of my bubble in this beautiful city, flourishing with culture.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
That’s sort of a hard question to answer simply because I really have felt so much support from so many different directions just in the past year. I’m involved with the Goth, Queer, Trans, Lesbian, Gay, Drag, Burning Man, and Rave communities; and all of them, as well as the people within them, have really played their part in giving me a shot, at every step of the way.

However, I really feel like BS West and the Phoenix Queer community at large have definitely propelled me forward in my first year of being a fully self-employed DJ / Recording Artist / Creative.

I started working with Regina Gazelle, host of the Monday night T-Girl Revue as a DJ and I certainly talked a big game in regards to my abilities as a DJ / MC and Multimedia Marketing Specialist. That confidence that may have made it hard for me to maintain my career in marketing after coming out as trans, didn’t really phase her or the staff, but they were pleasantly surprised when I followed through with the high expectations I set.

Regina introduced me to Robert Salvato, the owner of BS West and it took us all a while to build trust. I tried my best not to let any of them down when they gave me an opportunity to DJ on another night, when I started producing some of their flyers, or even when I took the lead on marketing the nights I was involved with on social media.

I’m really amazed at how much trust and respect I’m being given as a performer and creative. I’m a new face as a DJ to many of the regulars that attend BS West on Wednesdays and Saturdays but I love getting to know them as much as possible and hearing that they love my sets.

Of course, all of that is great for building support for me as a DJ so I feel like at the end of the day BS West has really invested a lot into building my presence there and it’s helped me gain the momentum to get booked all over town.

Robert, Regina, and the sweet, beautiful, welcoming staff at BS West have really given me a home to grow and I will forever be grateful for that.

I would say that’s only half of the story though, the nice thing about queer people is that we are everywhere, especially where good music lives.

There are so many queer leaders in the local music scene throughout niches like the Goth community and the Burning Man community.

I’ve been so lucky to have worked with the amazing DJ MIJITO, as they brought the NITECALL: Queer Goth Nite to Gracie’s Tax Bar in Phoenix, from their home in Tucson. This gave me a chance to play some of the most fun gigs I’ve ever played. It was amazing because of how much of the Queer and Goth community showed up for us. We featured multiple queer vendors. I couldn’t take more than a few steps without being stopped by someone who was just excited to finally meet me or just expressing gratitude for being a part of creating a safe space for so many queer goth people to be our authentic selves.

Queer goth DJs will generally play some different tunes than our cis/hetero goth allies, who also throw us so much support. But seeing us up there really helps make queer people feel welcome, it means just as much to them as it does to us. So they show up for us in droves and I am just so incredibly grateful for their support. I’m ecstatic to play out our next Queer Goth Nite on Halloween Weekend Saturday, October 29th. This will be our third one in Phoenix and our second with our newest addition to the crew DJ sXter.

The support from the queer friends and our allies of Burning Man and the Electronic Music community at Walter Studios / Walter Where?House, can not be understated. Earlier this year I got to sing with one of my favorite humans in the world Monica Lavander of the Herizon Collective, on the Kalliope Stage. This stage travels to massive music festivals like EDC, and was at last year’s Phoenix Pride Festival. It’s just meant so much to us to have performed on it. I’m so thankful to those that helped make that happen like Matthew James of the Festival Farmers Market and Synesthisia, as well as Walter Productions.

Last but certainly not least, I’m just so incredibly thankful for anyone and everyone that comes out to the events I’m lucky to be a part of. Without our friends showing up to support us, we couldn’t do what we love for work and these amazing spaces for queer people to exist. I’m especially grateful for the other event companies that book me regularly like 6 Feet Under, Desert Runners, and the Inferno Drag Show.

Website: https://alicevalkyrie.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alicevalkyriesound/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0hqhBK6yozBfn-s_ons0g

Image Credits
Jonny Stalnaker of Shot By Jonny