Building her profile over the last decade as one of Australia’s most exciting talents, Ayebatonye is known for her blend of global electronic sounds, infectious rhythms and drive for community betterment. 

In an exciting next step in her career, Ayebatonye the self proclaimed ‘club rat’ has taken a step back from the hustle of city culture, finding space to breathe, explore and reconnect with her ‘why’ in the Northern Territory. 

Ahead of her show at Club 77 this Friday, we took the opportunity to catch up with Ayebatonye - learning about her new rituals; ease and restoration - and how she practices community care in her new home. 

You've recently relocated to the NT after years of city-based hustle. What’s changed for you — personally, creatively, spiritually — since the move? What does being closer to nature bring to your process, your sound, or your sense of self?

Yeah I arrived in the NT a little over a year ago both for love and to give my burnt out body and soul a break. I'd been hustling way too hard for too long and I was really starting to feel it. A lot has changed for me, I think personally I had this deep desire to slow down and look after my body in a way that I hadn't before. I've had the privilege and pleasure of being able to take extended periods of time offline within the last year to really understand what it is I want for myself with music and remind myself why I got into djing in the first place. I began to feel I was going in a direction that felt incongruent to who I am for the sake of feeling this pressure to chase a career rather than work with music in a way that feels good and sustainable to me.  

Being amidst nature has been so calming for my nervous system, hearing birds every day and living amidst a tropical jungle is wonderful. I'm big into gardening, I bake a lot, I realised I quite like camping and I bought my first pair of hiking boots recently (who is she?) . That's not to say I don't miss living in Sydney, while I've transitioned into the cottage core gardening and boiled bagel making portion of my life, I was born and shall die a club kid/rat.

Creatively I feel I'm leaning into a path that feels more organic as opposed to forced, that feels authentic to me and is more about the music (sound, history, feeling)  itself.

You’re constantly building space for others — through Irregular Fit, Club Abundance, Four to the Floor. What have you learned about yourself through that process, and how have recent conversations or community needs been shaping the way you build?

I've learnt and continue to learn so much, I don't feel I'll ever stop learning! I love community work and collaboration because everyone brings something to the table, similarly to a dancefloor community spaces work through symbiotic relationships. Through mutual reciprocity that's done with support and care. Having said that, it's not always easy work. We all come with our own baggage which can impact how we work and connect with each other. 

Over many years I've learnt the importance of having to put your ego aside during certain conversations and listen without judgement, sometimes you'll receive feedback that isn't easy to hear. Maybe it's about your event or project not being accessible in ways, or not considering certain factors . Constructive feedback is generative and key to continuous improvement which I feel is an important part of community building.

More recently I think that taking into consideration where I live has been a big part of shaping how I aim to build or contribute to community building. Living in Darwin the community needs differ in a lot of ways than in Sydney or Melbourne.  Here I'm working to understand how I can positively contribute to addressing social issues in a way that doesn't take away from any great work already being done here with music. I'm focused on relationship building, and developing a deeper understanding at the roots of the social issues here and acting accordingly. 

You’ve described music as joy, memory, and medicine. How do you channel that in your sets — and how do those emotional undercurrents shape the experience for you and your audience?

I LOVE music and how it makes me feel every emotion under the sun depending on what I'm listening to, it truly is my medicine, it's the very reason I got into djing. My relationship with music is unconditional, love embodied. Sonically what I want and need is to play music that feels good to me and to those who experience it, but to also tell a story with peaks, troughs and everything in between. I want to be having conversations with the crowd through the sounds I share and movement alone. A call and response, to feel catharsis and euphoria on dancefloors.

With Irregular Fit, you've created a model that’s artist-first, care-driven and deeply intersectional. What does truly ‘safe space’ curation look like to you today — and how has your vision evolved?

I learnt a long time ago that there is no such thing as a safe space. At best you can facilitate a "safer" space and collectively we can all do what we can within our power to contribute to that safer space which includes being respectful to one another, practising enthusiastic consent. 

I think my vision has evolved in a way that I lean even deeper into co-design within projects that are community oriented. I don't think I have all the answers as one person so taking an intersectional approach to Irregular Fit means asking questions from conception through to the evaluation stage of any project or idea in the most considered way I can. 

Prioritising the needs of the collective instead of the individual.

Finally — what’s lighting you up creatively right now? Whether it’s a track, an idea, or a moment — what’s feeding your fire?

Creatively I think writing about music has been lighting me up, learning more about what was and is, delving into the archives and history of the music I love has brought me back into a realm of excitement about music. Imagining new ways of playing music on decks and through production has been feeding me.