Up, close and personal with DJ Lischen
• By Rosalia David
WITH 12 years of musical experience and being the in-house DJ at XS Lounge, a popular hangout spot in Windhoek, Confidente this week chats with the multi-talented radio personality, vlogger and female disc jockey Lischen Khachas to get a glimpse of her social life.
RD: Kindly provide a brief background on who you are and where you are from?
LK: I was born in Otjiwarongo and grew up in Windhoek. I’m from a very supportive and loving
family including my late mom and grandparents. So far it has really been a heck of a journey.
I had left the art of music and dee-jaying for quite some time as it was not lucrative at that time.
So it has been an upstream and downstream journey of +/-12 years for me.
RD: Kindly provide a brief background on when exactly you started doing music and
what inspired you?
LK: I have always been musically inclined growing up. I was a performer and singer from a young age influenced by my mother’s love for music. I started doing music in high school
and I started dee jaying around 2010 while entering the world of radio and doing my diploma in
music and sound engineering at the College of the Arts.
RD: What type of music do you play and what would you say inspires your selection?
LK: At this point I can play all kinds of genres of music because I have been dee-jaying for long and I’ve played at weddings and parties, shows and many events and for those events one can’t just play one genre, you have to try and please your crowed as DJ.
Currently the focus is on Amapiano and I definitely have my hand in that too. What inspires are my sets are my surroundings. I watch my crowd. I consider the time of day and I play my sets according to that. As a resident that’s what I’ve learned to do. But for shows I like to bring out a different side of me.
RD: With 12 years of experience in music, if there was anything to change in the industry, what would you change?
LK: Support! I would love more support from the public and the business community.
When we look at other countries like SA and Nigeria, artists and DJs are doing so much better because the support from the fellow countrymen is really there. Here in Namibia it’s about who you know and what tribe you are. It’s so sad.
There’s really only a handful of people who show support to artists and DJs thus you see many people giving up what they really love and live a frustrated life because they’re not living out their passions.
RD: With an industry that comes with so much pressure but less profit, what would you say is the one thing that keeps you going?
LK: Well it helps that I am multi-skilled so I don’t just do music and dee-jaying. I am a radio presenter
at one of Namibia’s youngest commercial radio stations Touch FM under the umbrella of the
NBC. I also have other side hustles and I’m currently also the resident DJ at one of the coolest
hangout spots in town XS Lounge and Restaurant.
So yes, I am doing everything to make my dreams come true, and that helps me financially. What keeps me going is my passion for music, for the entertainment industry and the fact that I want to make a difference.
RD: Apart from being a one of the few female DJs in the country, you are a radio personality, vlogger and a mother, how do you manage to juggle all at once?
LK: To be honest, it’s not easy! Lol I get really exhausted but I can’t help it! I’m a right-brain,
left-brain person, so I get bored easily doing one thing and since I am multi -talented I do it
all.
I love being a mother, daughter Naima just turned 13 a whole teenager gosh! I enjoy
vlogging because I am making memories while showing a different side of me, the simple
home girl in me comes out in my vlogs.
With radio it’s been my career since I was at college so it’s all I really know how to do, so I embrace it as much as I can. I also love cooking so I started a seafood business during our first lockdown which I will be officially launching soon.
RD: Over the years, artists have blamed radio stations and DJs for allegedly ‘killing the industry’ through playing international tunes, what is your take?
LK: Speaking as a radio presenter I can say that most of the time it is not up to us what we get to play on air. We follow instructions, so I think the blame to should go to places like NASCAM or CRAN to enforce 90 percent local content and actually take it seriously enough to monitor this enforcement so that the radio stations actually adhere to it, otherwise face a penalty.
As a DJ personally I try to include local music in my sets especially the good old school and yes currently there’s a lot of great music from our local artists and I make sure to rock them.
RD: How do you maintain uniqueness in a male dominated industry and how do you feel when you’re put on a line up full of male DJs?
LK: It’s always a matter of having to prove yourself as a female DJ so I show up with the aim to impress every time I go on. Mostly I’m just being my best self as a creative. I still find I am intimidated by it but I just show up and do my best. When I’m the only female on the line-up it feels great because I will kick their asses and represent all my ladies out there. Lol!