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DJ HoneyLuv shows she can do it all and then some

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DJ HoneyLuv
Niki Cram / Courtesy

Few people have lived as many lives as Taylor Character. At one point, she was a celebrated NCAA basketball player. Then she became a skilled drone operator in the U.S. Navy. And now? She’s an internationally known house DJ and producer, spinning under the name HoneyLuv.

The Cleveland-born artist shattered expectations in 2022 with the career-defining Black Book Records track “365 (Thr33 6ix 5ive),” a playful, bass-forward tech-house cut currently nearing 9 million streams on Spotify. And let’s not forget “Your Tongue,” a flex of HoneyLuv’s clean production, mantra-building earworms and thrumming basslines.

Her breakthrough year continued with the 365 Tour, which took her overseas and to major U.S. music festivals like Outside Lands, Electric Forest and Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival (for the second time). Now she returns to town for a set at Downtown’s We All Scream.

Traveling to that many markets and experiencing so many variations of house has greatly influenced the HoneyLuv sound, Character says. “By me just doing my own research,” she explains, “I found out about the Jamie Joneses, The Martinez Brothers, the Honey Dijons, and I felt more at home with that type of music. So that’s where I have shifted my focus.”

Character taught herself how to DJ in 2018 while stationed near Malibu, California. She’d practice until midnight on her Pioneer DJ starter pack in her barracks, then awaken around 5 a.m. to start her next shift.

But even before she was spinning, Character had a passion for producing. In middle school, she’d create beats on her keyboard and write poetry over them. Back then, she had Black female producers like Missy Elliott and dancehall divas like CeCe Peniston, the voice behind ’90s classic “Finally,” from whom to cull inspiration, thanks to her mother’s eclectic taste in music.

“At the time, I didn’t think of [CeCe’s music] as dance music—maybe I was too young—but I liked it,” Character says. “I knew it was music that made you move. That’s where it all started.”

That exposure to groundbreaking Black artists left a lasting impression on Character, who often finds herself as one of the only Black female DJs on a festival bill. That isn’t lost on her, especially because house music is so deeply rooted in Black culture.

But seeing mainstream giants like Beyoncé earn accolades with works like 2022’s Renaissance, which highlights the Black pioneers of the genre, gives Character hope the narrative will change, she says.

“Sometimes it’s sad when we have to look to other bigger pop artists to actually give us those flowers for those types of things,” she says. “But I greatly appreciate it, because I think some people forget. A lot of the artists that do come in here don’t know the history of it.”

As HoneyLuv, she continues to carve her own path, starting with her first single of 2023, “Inside My Mind,” featuring house heavyweight Harry Romero. Three more features are on the way, with Michigan tech-house DJ Seth Troxler, longtime producer and vocalist Roland Clark, and Will Clarke, who has made several trips to Vegas for RVLTN Events’ Holy House shows (“I call this year the year of collabs,” Character laughs).

Don’t expect another career shift anytime soon from a beatmaker who has fully hit her stride.

HONEYLUV With Danco, Sigi, Faceto. February 16, 10 p.m., $15. We All Scream, seetickets.us.

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Amber Sampson

Amber Sampson is a Staff Writer for Las Vegas Weekly. She got her start in journalism as an intern at ...

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