In 2011, Boots Bowles, better known by her stage moniker, Brazzabelle, burst into the limelight with her incendiary release, ‘Break Your Body’. In the wake of her debut, Brazzabelle rapidly solidified her position among dance music’s elite with remixes for Crystal Fighters, a sultry collaboration with the LA-based duo gLAdiator, and main stage performances throughout last year’s festival circuit. After a relatively quiet start to 2014, EDM’s femme fatale is back once again with her latest collaborative record with Shintaro Yasuda entitled, ‘Borena’. Lucky for us, we had the chance to chat with Brazzabelle to get the lowdown on the future of her brand as well as the inspiration behind her newest electro house tune that is destined to ignite dance floors across the globe. Read more and stream ‘Borena’ below!
What can listeners identify with the brand “Brazzabelle”?
I want listeners to have as much fun as possible when they are listening to Brazzabelle. The reason I started making music was because I remember the way that music made me feel and the memories that certain songs gave to the soundtrack of my life. I just wanted to be able to create something that would make people feel the same way. I want people to celebrate birthdays to my music, I want them to fall in love to my music, I want my music to get them through hurdles in their life, and just overall be a musical escape and happy place. 
Before pursuing music full time, you worked as a fashion merchandiser. When and why did you choose to leave the fashion industry and return to music production? Creatively do you feel your time in the fashion industry influenced the music you produce today?
I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to in the fashion world and was ready for a new challenge. I decided to make the switch to music when I was approached by AM Only and it was a huge risk for me at the time but it was a once jn a lifetime opportunity that I knew I would have regretted not taking.
I think that I doubted myself creatively for a long time and being successful in that environment gave me the confidence I needed to believe that I was capable of being successful in music as well.
In many ways, 2013 was a break out year for you with appearances at HARD Summer, Electric Zoo and EDC Puerto Rico; how do you think the last year helped shaped you as an artist?
I got so many amazing opportunities in 2013 and I think it gave me the chance to prove myself as a DJ and producer and gave me so much inspiration and motivation to push myself farther as an artist. It changed my mindset from “I think I can do this” to “I can do this” which was really a big hurdle for me to overcome.
You’ve been producing dance music since you were 14 years old, what is a production tip that is important to you that you are willing to share with us?
One thing that really helped me take my productions to the next level was stripping apart tracks to figure out how they were made. I started collecting stems and downloading midi files from popular dance songs to work backwards and see how they were layering melodies and filling out space and I would also try to recreate their sound design. There are so many tutorials available online now that you can often find out straight from the producer themselves what they did to achieve a certain aspect of their production. I watch Future Music’s YouTube channel religiously.
How would you describe ‘Borena’ in three words and what was the inspiration behind the track?
BANGING PANTY DROPPER – LOL. I really love this track, its super easy to mix and gets the crowd going wild, it’s always a really high-energy point in my sets. I get bored easily with 4 to the floor kick tracks so Shintaro and I had a lot of fun adding the break beat at the end of the track with the B-more drums. Just the overall diversity of the track is awesome because it’s a main stage banger but you could still transition into more booty type tracks with it.
As a DJ you are required to keep your ear to the floor and highlight new talent/tracks for your sets, who are some of your favorite artists at the moment?
Some of my favorites right now: Anything on Main Course Records (s/o Astronomar), Ape Drums, Alvaro, Kenneth G, Samual James, G-Buck, Gregor Salto, GTA, D.O.D., Sikdope, Kennedy Jones, Henry Fong, MakJ, TJR, Diplo, Sander Van Doorn, W&W, Carnage, Zoo Funktion, Moska, Wiwek, DJ Snake…
Also really stoked to watch yung Shintaro Yasuda’s career evolve in the dance space. Hes such a huge talent with a diverse background in pop, jazz, classical, and hip hop and I’m excited to help him breakthrough the dance world see where his productions go.
What can we expect from Brazzabelle for the remainder of 2014? Collabs, remixes, originals, touring?
I had a major production breakthrough the beginning of this year where all of the sudden everything just clicked. The tracks started coming together with ease and my confidence and direction of my sound is breaking through more and more with each track. For 2014 you can expect more new material from me than ever before starting with my remix of Elliphant and Skrillex’s “Only Getting Younger” coming out on Mad Decent July 15th. I also plan to continue putting out new episodes of #Raverices every month or so as well as making more “Festival Remixes”. Although I will still be touring I think the focus of 2014 has been content and focusing on releases.
Thanks to Brazzbelle for taking the time to chat with us and make sure to pick up your copy of ‘Borena’ which is available for free download here! Also, stay tuned for Shintaro Yasuda’s forthcoming release, ‘Louder’, which is slated for released on July 7th via Crowd Records.
Wallpaper Photo by: RUKES
