DJ Hiroko Yamamura doesn’t confine her music taste to one genre. Though she’s technically a house DJ, you can catch her spinning anything from obscure techno to K-pop.
Yamamura will take the stage on Friday at ARC Music Festival in Union Park, an electronic music festival celebrating Chicago as the home of house music. She’s one of the few local DJs who has claimed a spot on every ARC Festival’s lineup since its inception in 2021, alongside Derrick Carter and Gene Farris.
Yamamura, who grew up sneaking out to raves and learned to DJ by observing club sets around the city, stopped by the studios of WBEZ sister station Vocalo to talk about her path to the turntable and her recent Boiler Room Chicago set. She also shared advice for aspiring DJs.
Nudia Hernandez: You’ve been at every ARC Music Festival so far, performing?
Hiroko Yamamura: Yes, knock on wood! This is going to be the fourth year of the festival. Really honored to be part of it, watch it grow. I’m still surprised and really excited to see what this festival is able to pull off every year.
When you have a big kind of music festival like ARC, is the prep a little bit different?
When you’re playing at home, there’s always the friend factor, right? That you don’t [otherwise] have to worry about. Because your friends are actually probably your toughest audience. If people don’t know you, maybe their criticisms don’t land as strong. So the fact that people you know and love will be there, and maybe they’ve heard you more than a few times, you want to make sure that you deliver something fresh.
One of the great things that I get to do is I tend to play with a guest from out of town, kind of hosting someone. This year, I’m playing a back-to-back [set] with DJ HAAi, who’s absolutely amazing. That always makes things a little bit different, to add someone else in the mix.
Do you consider yourself a house DJ?
I’ve probably played every genre under the book, and part of it is very, I think, built out of necessity. When I first started DJing, I probably didn’t really know what the genres were. At the time, I was using vinyl, and I could only buy so much vinyl — it’s expensive. If the person at Tower Records or wherever I was buying something from was like, “This is techno.” I’m like, “Okay, this is techno.” And someone in Berlin is on the internet being like, “That’s not techno.” I’m like, “Well, I don’t care.”
If it sounds good, it doesn’t matter if it’s pop music, underground techno. If the moment calls for that, my hand’s gonna reach for it.
You grew up playing musical instruments, first getting the violin put in your hand. Did you enjoy playing instruments?
I did. You know, growing up in an Asian American household, it was a bit punitive, it felt like, initially – having to go to orchestra every morning. My entire family went through that regimen, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Getting classic music training, or any kind of real music lessons nowadays, is a privilege, right? Music education is not required in a lot of public schools now, and you can really see that starting to have an effect on culture and people’s basic understanding of music literacy. I feel like I’m super lucky, even though maybe I hated it at the time, because I just looked like a dork with the violin.
A lot of these kids want to play these big festivals like ARC. What would be your advice?
If you know 100 DJs, and only one of them is successful, use those realistic numbers when you think about what you want to do. If you love music, do it, absolutely. It’s a passion. It is an addiction. It is everything. However, a lot of us have to do side jobs. We have to work the back line at concerts, we’ve got lots of other side gigs to make this the reality.
But if you really want to do this, absolutely do it, because the folks that I know that have put 100% into it, I think we have a 99% success rate. Someone like myself, I’ve just gotten lucky. You throw in dumb luck and maybe be a nice person to people along the way, and things might go a little bit better for you.
Looking to to ARC Music Festival, what could people expect at your set?
Gosh, I think we’re going to have a party time. Again, I’m playing with DJ HAAi, who is the most amazing producer. She’s been in a bunch of bands and I have this, like, “I’m not worthy” moment, playing with her. The stage, as well, I think it’s mostly women that day. I’m really excited about that. There’s a lot of Chicago artists. It’s one of those festivals that’s just different from a lot of places, and the representation there really matters. They care about it, and they’re not doing it in a corny way to check off boxes — everyone that’s there is amazing. There’s not an artist on there that I’m not excited to see, personally.
Morgan Ciocca is the digital producer for Vocalo.
Nudia Hernandez is the host and producer of Nudia In the Afternoons on Vocalo. Follow her @nudiaonair.
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