Meet Michelle Macrohon | DJ and Creative Director of ISOULATION

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Macrohon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
Back in 2019, before being a DJ, I did a boudoir photo shoot in order to combat my low-self esteem due to ACL surgery. My friend and I ended up creating an alter ego named Sedusa out of the photoshoot for jokes. I actually wanted to use the name if I ever became a rapper (I liked freestyling with friends). Few months later, I joined the Academy of DJs and “Seduza” sounded fitting. It was either that or “Notorious Michelle” which was my IG handle at the time from high school. Sedusa is a character from Powerpuff Girls who is a beautiful mistress supervillain of disguise who uses her feminine wiles and quick wits to influence men to do her bidding. In my situation, I hope to seduce people with the way I manipulate music. I want people to feel sexy and leave wanting more.

Aside from my personal DJ goal to hopefully become a worldwide DJ and producer, I started an event called ISOULATION that was made of Soundcloud edits. Isoulation was the name of a mix I made during quarantine. An opportunity arose to throw events in a side room of a club called Legacy where we could play whatever we want. I ended up naming the event Isoulation which is dedicated to house music, sound cloud edits, eclectic sounds, underground beats, and music that makes your soul feel good.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Please tell us more about your art. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, and what you are most proud of or excited about. I am most proud when I have folks from the crowd who tell me they had the most enjoyable time. I am most proud when I have other folks in the industry tell me I inspire them to pursue their own route in the creative sphere.
How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?
PUT YOURSELF IN THE FIRE. When I first started DJing I repeatedly told myself “don’t be afraid to suck at something new”. I would record myself practicing and I looked so lost but we can’t expect to be pros overnight. Good things take time. As a DJ, we are also known as performers and entertainers, so putting myself in the fire also meant jumping in the scratch sessions after class at the ACODJs studio and sounding trash. Failure is feedback is what I also try to remind myself of when I mess up or don’t know how to do something. Putting yourself in the fire also means I used to cold email places to hopefully put myself on their radar. A perfect example of this is when I cold emailed my local food mall, Haven City Market, to let me DJ there during the pandemic. I graduated from the ACODJS and started my DJ career right before Covid hit. I ended up working for my family’s health care but missed DJing. I hit them up and was able to play there on the outside patio on Thursday nights. My family would come and so did friends from OC and LA. I did this for 5 months until the quarantine mandate was lifted and clubs opened up. I hadn’t DJed in the club yet but got reached out from Rewind in OC to DJ for their re-opening and then my career in the club circuit started from there. If I hadn’t done the food mall gig, I wouldn’t have been DJing in public and getting the exposure during that pandemic which is one of the ways Rewind was able to book me had I never been to a Rewind event prior. I’ve definitely dealt with plenty of venues/people not responding to me but you miss 1000% of the shots you don’t take. But I also have learned so much valuable advice from the people who have made the time to answer my questions and am grateful for the opportunities groups have given me from a simple cheeky message on Instagram to potentially playing with them (Shoutout to The Hideout for being one of those groups who gave me one of my first chances in the House space).
What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?
The feeling of success is something I am still trying to paint for myself in this volatile lifestyle of DJing and music. One of the questions I ask myself is “what is it that I even want in this life? What are the core moments that make me feel like I am “succeeding?”.

Success is such a subjective situation and in a world full of distractions and opportunities, how do we stay focused? In this sphere of DJing and trying to pursue a creative directive role in my career, I’ve experienced a lot of noise: other peoples’ opinions + my own hopes and aspirations + my own demons and insecurities. Sometimes people will come into our lives and project their own subjective perception of what success is for us on us (with good intent) and that can be in many ways helpful and sometimes not (because it can also be very ignorant) but for me, I’ve just tried to take everything with a grain of salt. This industry is also constantly evolving and the market seems to be increasingly getting saturated with more and more DJs thus the challenge to try to “stand out” grows harder.

A habit that helped me was learning how to check myself constantly: how I am approaching challenges, questioning my perception of problems, and progress checking how I feel. So many factors to why I feel somewhat successful but for now I will try to focus on the topic of VISION:

Who I am when I first started DJing vs. who I am now are different people but my goal in life has never changed. This goal has been my goal pre-DJ which is “To leave people and places better than I found them.” This universal purpose in life has helped kept me grounded in what I feel can be a dog eats dog industry and somewhat majority of the time surface level as well. What I want in my career is to make people feel. To feel good, sexy, unapologetic, to dance, and to have an unforgettable experience.

The vision currently is to make MEMORABLE memories with people I care about, do what I do while hoping to serve other communities with love, and have a sustainable career in music for as long as I can while incorporating a healthy work-life balance.

In this industry and life we deal with a lot of ridiculousness. I’m cheesy af so here are s few of my favorite 1-liner lessons/lessons that truly get me through life:

Gratitude is the best attitude
A lot of the time, DJing is about recovery.
No growth in comfort and no comfort in growth.
the mind of a perfectionist remains always at conflict”
Don’t be afraid to suck at something new

What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

One of my goals is to be an empowering, respected, and skilled DJ. And by skill, I don’t mean to be super duper technical scratch battle DJ. By skilled I mean, how to provide a fluid, unpredictable, and unforgettable set. This takes PRACTICE. So #1 practice and effort are a must and I DJ every weekend so keeping things FRESH is also very important. I want to use my platform to hopefully inspire to not give a f*ck about what people think (easier said than done) and live authentically themselves. I used to literally wear cat ears not just to DJ but like around the house and grocery because for some reason they made me feel safe (and cute lol). Someone asked me “why are you wearing cat ears” and I said, “Why not.” At the end of the day, we are monkeys who speak and are literally going to die one day so I hope to inspire others to want to make an effort to live a purposeful and enjoyable life. YOLO.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend were to come to LA and wanted to experience a week full of nightlife and food, it would look a little like this:

Tuesday, I would take her to Hollywood and maybe hit Highlight Room for some rooftop vibes and then check out Bootsy Bellows for @paris_at_nightla for a lively night of house music.

Wednesday, we can eat at a Filipino-American fusion restaurant called “The Park’s Finest” or if we’re feeling a little bougier, we’ll go to Sampa which is Filipino-global fusion fine dining and make her try their Kare Kare tamales with dehydrated bagoong. Like holy sh*t. After, I’ll take her to check out Short Stop in Echopark for Four Play for rnb and party anthems hosted by my hommie Thurston or we can check out A Super Bad Party where we get to play open format Hip-hop/Rnb + more.

Thursday, I would also take her to Japan town because we love Sushi! But a particular restaurant is Marugame Monzo for their Sea Urchin Carbonara Udon for dinner and then later on the night hit speakeasy Wolf and Crane where they have an event called Le Dans every Thursday where DJs play soul, funk, and disco. If not here, check out Lock n Key because there is always something going on over there.

Friday, I would take them out to eat KBBQ in Ktown because Ktown is such a staple experience + my friends and I love demolishing food together. I personally am still trying to figure out my favorite KBBQ spot because there are so many. I would love to take them out to Hodori and or Sun Nong Dan for after hours because I just love Korean food! On a Friday night, if 143 Worldwide is going on, I would take her to this staple LA party that is hosted at Catch One LA.
Saturday, we can go shopping. My best friend loves thrifting so take her to Melrose on the earlier day and then have a nice beach day in the afternoon and watch the sunset and maybe take a cat nap and tan. Always a pleasure just spending a chill day and both went to UC Santa Barbara so the beach is a nostalgic pleasure. We love going to music concerts and there’s ALWAYS a show going on in LA so probably go to some music show and end our night with some LA tacos and carne asada fries and can’t forget the horchata.

For Sunday day food vibes, I would take them to Escala because they have bomb food and either has fire DJs or play fire mixes. We can always appreciate good food + good music for a fuego ambiance. We love our day parties, so if the time is right I would bring you here to either the D0-Over where they don’t announce DJs until day who have been throwing open-format (I’d say majority Hip-Hop) parties since 2005 in LA. at a dope Another day party that arose this year is Shaka Soul and is organized by one of my DJ sisters @lvvdy007 and is hosted on the rooftop of Apartment503 in Ktown for all-around good vibes!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Since starting to learn how to DJ back in 2019, I have met some of my closest friends and other incredible people.

Shoutout to my ex for teaching me how to DJ back in 2019. Shoutout to the Academy of DJs for creating a community that helped people like me who were interested in DJing learn fundamentals and the introduction to the industry. Shoutout to my family who hold it down at home and supports what I am trying to do. Shoutout to my besties from near and far who help me feel grounded, loved, and provide me a safe space to feel all my emotions. Shoutout to my mentors that have bestowed life lessons that help me stay mindful, inspired, and focused. Shoutout to the folks that have spoken well on my name when I’m not around, to the club owners and organizers who have given me opportunities, and to all the staff, security, sound, visual, and production staff that make these events go on. Shoutout to the loved ones who continue to bring peace and love into my life.

Instagram: @djseduza

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmacrohon

Twitter: @djseduza

Image Credits
@SHOTBYMARVS