Stefny Winter
DJ/Producer
For the majority of Stefny’s life music has been her very core. She played multiple instruments as a child. While growing up embraced by California’s warm sunshine and beaches she encountered her first dance musical influences from her mother – who brought home a freestyle record Debbie Deb’s “When I Hear Music” – and her brother – who introduced her to acid house. Later on The Wicked Crew plus The Funky Tekno Tribe and The Hardkiss Brothers were deeply imbedded into her heart. These influences left a lifelong imprint.
A transplant to Montreal, Stefny began to DJ in 1996 shortly after moving to Colorado. Her very first events took place within people’s houses until she received a contract to perform a DJ set for a fashion show. Naturally following this came performances at an assortment of raves and club nights.
She quickly attracted attention for her mixing skills with which she used to bring together a wide range of music with fluid ease. She was then invited by Red Bull to perform at some of their earlier events when it first hit the U.S. market in the 1990s as well as performing a weekly night at Herb’s Hideout.
In 2002, ready to challenge herself further, Stefny moved to New York City where she became involved with multiple projects. These projects included: a residency at Direct Drive, becoming a member of the all female collective called “Sister”, aiding in the initialization of another all female DJ collective by the name of “Waxx Dolls” and helping out with a radio show called “Jeannie Hopper’s ‘Liquid Sound Lounge’” on WBAI.
She also promoted a number of events in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami’s WMC. In addition – and on a different artistic tangent – Stefny helped start – along with her brother, the founder – the Bicycle Film Festival. From this, she tag-teamed with Mike G from the Jungle Brothers. This was one her her most memorable and magical of all her moments as DJ.
As for her production side, Stefny increased her momentum with her first release in 2005, a remix on San Francisco’s “Hector Works”, followed by a number of further remixes. In 2007 she released her debut EP called “Radiolaria” on New York’s “Addon”. The release was critically acclaimed and widely supported by a number of DJs.
In 2008 she released “Migratory Insertion” on Montreal’s Archipel Musique which was followed by “Speakeasy” released on Berlin’s Contexterrior. In 2012 she released her debut album “Wind Walker” on Archipel of which one of the tracks “When The Rain Fell” was licensed to Joris Voorn’s “Cocoon Heroes” mix CD.
When Stefny is making music she always finds a method to impregnate her sounds with with her personality and soul. Her most influential musical loves evolved through the years, beginning with early 90s Jungle and House which then evolved to a taste for Detroit and then Minimal Techno.
When she blends all of these influences together she extracts a music that is uniquely hers; a music that is perfumed with elegantly quirky melodies, sound design intricacy and charming narratives which leave her listeners spellbound. She remains true to herself musically and, much like an evolving cloud flowing through the atmosphere, she can never be pinned down with specific definitions.
Over the last few years Stefny has performed at a number of events ranging from appearances at the Bunker in New York City, Resolute in New York City & Detroit, Montreal’s Piknic Electronik & Igloofest, as well as numerous additional events in North America. On the international front she has performed in Japan, Germany and most notably at Fabric in London, United Kingdom.
This lead to an increase in musical requests during 2010 which kept her very busy. She created a number of remixes for labels including: Soma, Adjunct, SiteHolder, Klectik and Smut. Her most cherished work was for an Italian label called “Opilec Music” for whom she furnished a remix of The Units’ “Run” which was featured on a special triple CD compilation entitled “Connections”.
This compilation featured over 40 artists – including notable appearances from Losoul, I-Robots and Q-Burns – who reworked, remixed and re-edited original songs from The Units’ legendary back-catalogue of 70s and 80s San Francisco synth punk – the first of their genre in the United States. Stefny’s most recent remix is of Platypus’ “Argyle” which appears on Thoughtless Music.
2012 saw Stefny’s live performance debut which took place in July at Resolute’s NYC party featuring Sammy Dee.
Always keeping healthily busy, in 2013 Stefny has launched a non-profit record label – Goodnight Moon Recordings – where all proceeds are donated to The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. The debut release on Goodnight Moon Recordings is scheduled for release on January 28th, 2013.