Ministry in music

Ahead of her headlining set at this year’s Mother Pride Block Party, The Blessed Madonna spoke to Sarah McKenna Barry about spirituality, international fame and her love for Michael D. Higgins. Photo by Eva Pentel.

Music — Spirituality — Pride

When I video-call The Blessed Madonna for our interview, she immediately addresses what she feels is an elephant in the room: her bedhead. The internationally renowned DJ has just woken up and is sipping on an espresso. She apologises, grabs a cap and energetically tells me that she was out all night having played a set in Ibiza.

“Every once in a while, I have to live up to the reputation,” she says with a smile.

It’s a reputation she has certainly earned. The music producer has carved out a seriously impressive career and counts Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Madonna, Missy Elliot and Kylie Minogue among her collaborators. Last year, she released her first studio album, Godspeed, and this summer, she is set to headline the Mother Pride Block Party.

Indeed, she’s come a long way since her first memories behind the decks.

“I’ve been told my first word was ‘radio’, and I had my first record player when I was two or three,” she says. “They have these little Fisher-Price record players—not pretend ones, real ones.”

The Blessed Madonna’s early record collection featured the likes of The Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Neil Young and Prince, and thus began her musical journey, guided both by her family, the church and the Appalachian culture she grew up with.

“My father was a musician, so music really is our family business for better or for worse,” she says. “I come from a part of Kentucky where music is just integral to life. I’m from Appalachia, and Appalachian arts are their own world. It was a combination of being forced and also being lured into music.”

Thanks to MTV, The Blessed Madonna explored other genres and ended up falling in love with dance music.

“MTV was really good then, they had this show called 120 Minutes at night which showcased all this amazing alternative music,” she says. “You would see Depeche Mode and stufflike that there. And they had this thing called Club MTV and about half of it sucked, but then you’d get Deee-Lite or LaTour or CeCe Peniston, so it really depended and I watched that religiously.”

Inspired by the music around her, The Blessed Madonna entered the industry herself and started selling mixtapes from the back of her car in the 1990s. In 2012, she released her own music, and her first EP, Lady of Sorrows, was released the following year.

From there, her star was on the rise, and she became embedded in club culture. For The Blessed Madonna, it’s a world that is not dissimilar to the spiritual realm. Having said that, she is reluctant to equate the dance scene with utopia.

“I always cringe when some dipsh*t who doesn’t care about anybody goes, ‘Oh, well you’re in the club, there are no problems here. We don’t have racism or sexism.’ Meanwhile, some girl has been drugged and dragged into the bathroom,” she says. “So there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘okay, bullsh*t.’ Bar none, dance clubs and underground raves are some of the most dangerous places I’ve ever been in in my life.”

With that caveat in mind, The Blessed Madonna feels that her journey through music has impacted her relationship with faith. Her grandfather was a Baptist preacher who converted to Methodism and eventually landed on Catholicism. The DJ says his anti-war, antiracism and anti-poverty views motivated his conversion.

“These were the things that people in Kentucky were dealing with,” she explains. “My grandfather was one of the many ministers who became part of the anti-Jim Crow protest. He lost his job for it, and he was beaten up by the Ku Klux Klan. He was a really big part of my young spiritual life.”

Her grandmother on the other side of the family, meanwhile, was a “closeted lesbian Pentecostal”.

“She was in a church that didn’t handle snakes, but was next to a few that did,” she says with a wink.

Religion may have played an integral role in The Blessed Madonna’s upbringing, and today, she feels more assured of her faith than ever before.

“As a DJ, you become a resident of the whole world,” she starts. “I have never felt closer to my faith than right now. We’re in a time where the meaning of the gospels—the real meaning—it’s important. These were radical people who picked up stakes, left everything they had and refused to go to war. If you could heal somebody, you would do it. In the sermon on the Mount, when Christ says ‘Blessed are the meek’, the actual translation of meek means someone who is stooped over on the street, who is maybe sick or hungry. I feel closer to that now than I ever have.”

The Blessed Madonna sees no reason why these values shouldn’t carry through to her music.

“These values are important to reflect—there is a little bit of ministry in music,” she says. “Sometimes your job is just to heal broken hearts, and maybe sometimes that is even your own broken heart.”

Evidently, The Blessed Madonna’s approach to making music has resonated with the people. In 2016, Mixmag named her as DJ of the year.

“I was the first woman to win it, it was a unanimous vote, and I didn’t have any PR,” she remembers. She compares the victory to winning the Super Bowl, but the new attention came with a few drawbacks.

“It changed things for the better and worse overnight because you become a public figure—even in the small fish tank of the underground dance scene—and that was hard. The internet was hard, a lot of bullying straight up. You win one of the very few awards that exists in dance music, and then suddenly everybody hates you. Even people you know, people you’re friends with on Facebook.”

Blocking out the noise proved an effective way to silence the trolls.

“I don’t have Facebook anymore. That solves about 90 per cent of my problems,” she says. “I don’t have Twitter, that solves the last 10 per cent. I can turn the comments off on Instagram, and at this point, people know what I’m about. So they can either take it, or shove it up their ass.”

There’s an expectation for public figures to use their platforms to push for change, and the political arena is one The Blessed Madonna feels very comfortable in, whether it’s standing by the trans community or calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I’ve never had any problems speaking on things,” she says. “I come from a punk and anarchist background. I was very much swept up in the completely informal Riot Grrrl movement that swept through the United States.”

However, as her public profile grew, so did requests for interviews, and the media circuit made her “gun-shy”.

“I would be doing interviews and just saying stuff, and then one piece gets cut out and you can kind of lose control of your voice,” she says.

Today, those feelings have faded.

“I’m a people-pleaser, but I come from a world where the ideas that I ride for were not considered terribly people-pleasing,” she shares. “There was just one point in the last few years where I just had to take every give-a-fuck that I had in my pockets and throw it down on the ground and stomp it to death. Now it’s different. I’m a little more confident in who I am. Also, I know I’m right. When I do speak on stuff, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe in it. I think that most people in the dance world are cowards, and we should not be cowards.”

When it comes to calling out political figures—from Donald Trump to Rishi Sunak—The Blessed Madonna is not shy. Having said that, she has thrown her support behind one politician in particular: Michael D. Higgins.

“Y’all have the best president,” she says. “I love pictures of him and his dog, he just takes that dog everywhere. And he is just right about everything!”

It’s not just our President she’s fond of; The Blessed Madonna is looking forward to reconnecting with Ireland on a broader scale ahead of her set at the Mother Pride Block Party.

“I love Dublin, I love Dublin people and I don’t get to visit enough,” she says. “It always feels like —I don’t want to say a homecoming because it’s not home—but there’s a spirit and a feeling that just feels nice. It’s nice to be a part of.”

Catch The Blessed Madonna at the Mother Pride Block Party in the National Museum of Ireland on June 28.