When I meet Leah Julienne Bayne—aka DJ Julezz—inside a Downtown coffee shop, she’s sitting on a sofa in a bright-colored outfit, her platinum blonde pixie curled and coiffed perfectly. It’s the kind of conspicuous appearance you’d expect from someone who’s been putting on raves in Las Vegas for the past three years.
As a sort of welcoming gift, she hands me a small toy—a tiny Lego woman piloting a little Lego plane. Whether it’s a toy, a new album or an upcoming party, Julezz is always working on, or tinkering with, something.
“I really am pretty honest and blunt,” Julezz said in an email earlier in the week. “I don’t wish to be dramatic. I just have massive passion in everything I do.”
The 28-year-old DJ founded her event company, ZZ Entertainment, a few years ago with the intent of bringing a new type of nightlife environment to Las Vegas’ electronic scene. Since then, she’s been booking gigs and DJing house music all over town, from mansion parties to warehouses in nondescript locations.
“Nobody was really spinning what I spin,” Julezz says. “I play a full spectrum of house, depending on the crowd, and anything from disco to deep house and future house and break beats.”
Born in Las Vegas—“I was raised Mormon, so I wasn’t allowed to listen to anything”—Julezz moved to California to pursue a degree in theater. “It wasn’t until I went to college that I expanded my knowledge of music,” she says.
Julezz has spun everywhere from Oddfellows, Artifice and the Phoenix to Fuso Nightclub (the rooftop venue at Hustler) and beyond. In 2017, she DJ’d the Las Vegas Monorail’s first silent rave, with proceeds benefiting a local organization for the hearing impaired. These days, she holds down a regular gig at Downtown’s CMXX called the Wherehouse, alongside fellow residents Sotech, Roberto Patroni, Gold Mackin Rush and Afrodyte.
The DJ, singer and ukulele player describes herself as an introvert who feels most free when she’s in the booth. “I like getting people out of their shells,” she says. “I make a fool out of myself so people feel comfortable.”
She’s small in stature, but her larger-than-life presence rubs off—in the form of Legos, a new song of her own (she hopes to put out a record of original music sometime) or a favorite track she can’t wait to drop.
“I’m super-dorky. I’ll do the thing where you pretend to walk down the stairs [behind the decks]. I don’t take it too seriously,” she laughs. “DJing it’s difficult at all. People make it out to be such a huge deal, but I just get up there, make people dance and have tons of fun.”
