“What inspired me most music-wise was the fact that I couldn’t actually make it. I’m not musically trained or anything like that. I wanted to do drumming lessons, but my mum politely declined,” DJ and electronic musician SHERELLE smiles, reflecting on her humble beginnings. At 29, she now has a monumental legacy behind her. In 2019, her particular brand of energy went viral after a set at Boiler Room. Holding a tenancy at BBC Radio 1, founding record label BEAUTIFUL and centring Black LGBTQIA communities, SHERELLE is a trailblazer on the contemporary music scene.
“I was quite obsessive over music and the closest thing that I could do was DJing. I started when I was 15 using VirtualDJ and then I properly started DJing with industry equipment in 2014.” An emotional endeavour, music supported – and continues to support – SHERELLE as a creative outlet, but she can’t help but wonder how it might’ve turned out had she had access to more disposable income growing up. “If I wasn’t able to do certain things, like not take driving lessons or particular items for schoolrelated purposes, the music was a way of me being able to forget all of that. It took a lot of worries and a lot of stress away from me,” she shares. In many ways, it was an escape mechanism. “The music I was choosing to play was very upbeat and very joyful. It was a form of distraction from what was going on around me, working out a way to support my mum.”