In the end, the lavender aura in the sky was not the aurora borealis but light emitted by another northern wonder: Björk. Last Friday, the Icelandic legend headlined a riotous club night under a Brooklyn bridge, because why the hell not. Surrounded by a fortress of tropical shrubbery, she and her DJ friends whipped up a percussive storm, blitzing from baile funk to drum ’n’ bass and even traffic beeps. In the middle of the night came British artist Shygirl (née Blaine Muise), raver extraordinaire who threw the best curveball by dropping the Challengers soundtrack. Brooklynites in tinted sunglasses and leather jackets lost their shit, shielded from residual rain by the concrete highway above.
Shygirl is a club-rat empress, a DJ-singer whose smutty, hard-hitting dance music will have you purring on the dance floor. Her tracks are bold, unapologetic, and sexually forward. She has released several EPs and an album, Nymph, and collaborated with every outré pop visionary in the game, including Björk, Arca, FKA Twigs, and even Lady Gaga. Recently, she returned to her London nightlife roots by dropping an EP of club-pop bangers — with remixes on the way — and hosting a rave series called Club Shy. DJ-ing under a bridge was novel for her. “You New Yorkers have a lot of venues, and always in the most random places,” she says, laughing. But her wildest arena is ahead of her. This summer, she’ll be DJ-ing Madison Square Garden as the opener on Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Sweat tour. “It’s not going to feel real,” she says.
What’s your approach to DJ-ing these days?
I want to have fun. After touring so much in a standard live setting, I needed there to be this laboratory space where I could experiment. The club had changed for me because I no longer had absolute anonymity at places I would usually frequent. This project really made me figure out how I could enjoy that space again.
So I just decided to do my own night. I never really announce the lineups, because I really want to bring back the essence of the clubs that I enjoyed growing up. I never cared who was playing because I knew the party was gonna be good. And then I discovered people — like Arca, Total Freedom, Kelela. I want people to have that same experience. The formula is different in every place. I’m just present. I even told my friends that there’s no backstage — if you’re on the guest list, you have to be on the dance floor.
What makes a successful DJ set for you, either your own or someone else’s?
You’ve got to have some crowd-pleasers. Lots of genre blending. I love when something’s going wrong — the decks aren’t working properly, I’ve been spinning out tempo — and I have to figure it out. I definitely think you should be having fun. Sometimes, I’m just like, I’m not going to be everyone’s taste. And that’s fine. I like seeing other people be fearless.
Arca will unravel a song to the point of being unrecognizable. And you’re like, Oh, where’s this going? I had the beat, I can’t really dance to it. And then you’re like, Wow, the fact that you’ve got me over here in reggaeton when you came from this Mariah Carey song—I find that amazing.
What’s the most inspired decision that you’ve seen a DJ make recently?
Eartheater at the Björk show. She was using a mic and a pedal, and what she was doing sounded like old-school British sound systems. Kelela did that with Bok Bok before, where she was singing a cappella over deep dub cuts and stuff like that. It reminded me of when I was younger and my friends used to have freestyle jam sessions with bands. There’s so much in DJ culture of, like, the perfect mix, or you have all the techno bros with their preplanned drops. It’s fun to find something that feels spontaneous.
Speaking of which, dropping the Challengers score during your set — how spontaneous was that?
That was one I put in my files that morning. I’ve been listening to that soundtrack nonstop. That track, “Challengers,” was perfect because it brought me back to the tension of the movie. I know everyone in the audience was thinking about how hot Challengers was.
I was listening to your Fabric mix, and one of your songs in it — “Making the Beast” — really sounds like it could have been in the movie.
I mean, I think so, too. I would love to have my music on a soundtrack.
Do you have a director in mind?
Luca Guadagnino is an amazing director and he has this fab queer lens that definitely aligns with how I see the world. Tom Ford’s A Single Man — something like that as well. I guess I just love a gay man, so that would be the most fitting pairing. But someone who prioritizes style and something visceral, then manages to give you this sentimental story — that’s what I tend to go for in my music, hard and sexy with a soft center.
I have to ask: Team Art or Team Patrick?
I am definitely Team Patrick. Don’t tell my boyfriend.
Isn’t Art the one with the soft center?
I like a harder exterior. I like to find that softness. Patrick has a softness where he’s constantly looking for validation.
What are your other favorite film soundtracks?
I’ve actually been referencing them a lot in my new music. The Batman Forever soundtrack. If you had to look what is inside my core, that is right there. Just because it has Seal and U2, which is really random. I love musicals. I’m really cheesy. I really like the Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge!. My earliest stuff, like Cleo, is cinematic, and I always lean toward strings because they’re an easy win. I’ve been trying to diversify a little bit with piano and guitar at the moment.
How do you decide what to wear in the morning?
Comfort, above all things. And then, at the moment, I’m really obsessed with green and pink. But I like to be able to wear something that can translate from day to night, which comes with traveling a lot — having to have clothes that feel multipurpose.
I’ve built up a uniform, almost. I have a lot of Rick Owens dresses, Charlotte Knowles trousers. I wear Supreme a lot. I like to go from being really comfy to being really glam in the wrong places, almost — like wearing a really expensive dress to go shopping. I think there’s too much pressure sometimes to make a statement and not reuse your wardrobe. I change my hair all the time. Sometimes, I’ll change my wig and the vibe of the outfit changes.
What does your ideal night out look like?
My ideal night out is Club Shy. That’s why I do it, so I can be in control of everything. All my friends who DJ, I don’t often even get to see them play because our schedules clash so much. Club Shy is my cheat code, so I can book my friends and see them DJ or book someone I’ve been wanting to see.
I don’t drink much, actually. But I love a sugary drink. Like I drink Appletiser — just fizzy apple juice, basically. I love apple juice. It’s on every rider.
Do you like hosting dinner parties or other types of hosting?
I always host the afters. I do really love cooking for people. But I think that’s more about me being praised. Like, I really love people eating the food and telling me how good it is.
What are the elements of a successful dinner party?
I like a homey environment. I love to be able to cater to everyone’s palate. I love a lot of East Asian food, and I tend to mix things with the Caribbean things I know. If I’m missing home a lot, I cook really classic British dishes. I had a real phase of making soups recently, because I was recovering from surgery. I never follow a recipe, so every soup I make tastes completely different. Like even when my brother was like, Oh, I loved that when you made it. I was like, Babe, that’s never happening again.
What are your afters like?
They go really late. Actually, I’ve developed this obsession with board games. All my friends are seasoned ravers, and we come back to play Trivial Pursuit. Because it’s funny. Sometimes, you know people for ages and you rehash the same shit, and I’m just like, I’m listening, but we’ve still got brain cells. We’ve been playing Shithead, the card game, anywhere we go — like at the pub the other day.
Are you competitive?
I wouldn’t say I’m competitive. But I do win all the time. [Laughs]
Since you’re constantly traveling on tour, what’s your routine when you touch base in a new city?
I kind of plan my days around where we’re gonna eat. I have a lot of friends in different places, so they usually give me things to riff off of. I try to do actual touristy things. We were just in Sicily and Rome for my birthday, and it was nice to go to the Colosseum and the fountain. I love going to places that remind me of the scale of what humans are capable of. I’m revisiting subjects that I really loved in school. Actually, I haven’t been to that many places in New York except the Met, so on this trip I’m gonna visit MoMA.
So you’re a history buff!
Yeah, I do really love history a lot.
Do you have a favorite period of history?
My favorite period is quite bleak. But generally, I always go back to World War II–era stuff. We’re in a generation, especially in the U.K. and America, where we don’t have any real memory of war. And I think it’s really important to see the correlation between events. I watched this Netflix documentary called Turning Point about the Cold War and satellite events, and they relate it to the war in Russia and Ukraine. I really recommend it. I’ve actually put all my friends onto it.
Are history documentaries mostly what you’re watching on Netflix?
Yeah, because Netflix has the formula down! I had a true-crime era for a while, but I had to lay off that. I don’t think it’s good to commodify things like that. I binge-watched Baby Reindeer the first day it came out, and it felt so nuanced. And then seeing the real-life Martha on Piers Morgan’s show and how easily people consolidate things into one line so the only takeaway is how ridiculous is this woman who obviously has mental-health issues — it’s taken away a bit of that experience. I watch a lot of things, and I enjoy being able to see the discourse around things.
How are you tracking the discourse? Do you have a burner Twitter?
I have my main Twitter. And I see the discourse. I thought about deleting recently and making a burner to just have the jokes, because I do get FOMO. The other day, there was a picture of a mountain lion, and by the end of the day, people had it as a meme of Lana. If I just showed them to someone, they’d be like: What? I don’t want to be the guy who’s like what? I want to be the guy who knows.
Now that you’re in your 30s, what advice would you give to someone in their 20s?
Be fearless. You still have so much time to do it over in your life. When I first started DJ-ing, I didn’t know how. I learned on the job. I had no CV to be making music before I started making music. And if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have found something that I love. Never tell yourself you can’t do something beautiful.
