First things first: MEN is the DJ/production duo of Johanna Fateman and JD Samson. The two women formed the project last year after Le Tigre — the feminist electro-punk band they are in with Kathleen Hanna — went on an extended break for the first time in almost a decade.

“We call it a hiatus, and it’s undefined in that we haven’t set a time to regroup and start writing another Le Tigre record,” explains Fateman from her home in Harlem. “But we see each other pretty frequently and we’re tossing around ideas about doing a live album and DVD because we’ve collected so much material over the years.”

In the past year and a half, each Le Tigre member has pursued other creative outlets, with Hanna teaching art and music, JD touring as the keyboardist in Peaches’ band as well as DJing, and Fateman co-owning the hip Seagull hair salon in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Last March, Fateman also caught the DJing bug when she and Samson were invited to spin at the opening of WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution, an exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

“We had a really fun time, and also found it refreshing because it was a new way to interact with a crowd, where it wasn’t quite so much about everyone staring at you,” Fateman recalls. “It was more about sharing a vibe, and it was really inspiring musically to see what people responded to on the dancefloor.”

Since then, the two have played together regularly, both on the decks and with recording gear. When deciding on a project name, they chose to have some fun while debating “the name that would freak people out the most.

“We were also talking about the fact that it can become sadly comical when you’re so identified publicly as a feminist,” Fateman elaborates. “You’re always asked the same questions, and regardless of how you articulate your politics, you’re still totally a victim of sexism. Despite our public image and the fact that we’ve been doing this for a while, to this day we’ll walk into a club and people think that we don’t know how to set up our equipment. It’s a constant frustration.
“So we thought that if we called ourselves MEN, not only would it be totally ridiculous because people would be forced to say things like ‘Oh, MEN are over there setting up,’ it also reminds us ‘We’re MEN; you can’t treat us that way.’”

While the name may simultaneously raise eyebrows and cause chuckles, MEN’s core spirit shows in the underground-to-overground range of tunes they choose to play at the women’s, queer, art and hipster indie dance parties they’re booked into.

“We’re not afraid to just look silly and pedestrian and play the songs that people want to hear when they’re drunk,” laughs Fateman.

Still, I know from experience that being publicly aligned with and a part of specific communities — in this case feminist and queer — means additional responsibilities in the DJ department. It can be extremely challenging when an audience comes together through identity rather than a shared love of music. Some folks wanna party all the time while others expect much more explicitly political tuneage.

“It’s hard because I really respect that point of view — ‘We’re here at a queer party, we’re here at a feminist party, why are we listening to Justin Timberlake and Ludacris?’” Fateman allows. “I totally get it, but I think that there’s this other school of thought that’s like, ‘We’re queer and we’re feminists, but we’re allowed to identify with pop pleasure and recontextualize these songs from here.’”

Which is why, in a MEN set, you’ll hear the above-mentioned mixed with the likes of Yelle, Santogold, Yo Majesty, The Gossip, M.I.A., ESG and Diana Ross. And while you’re unlikely to hear them play a Le Tigre tune (“It’s a little bit embarrassing”), MEN will be road-testing and posting their new electro originals.

“That’s the spirit of MEN as a project — we’re really doing what we feel like doing at that moment. We decided ‘Hey, it’s really fun to DJ together’ so that became something more formalized, and then that evolved into ‘Actually, let’s write some new music,’ and now we’re doing that. That’s what’s amazing about this digital world — you can be a bit more impulsive and make things happen faster.” 

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