From/About Me/Fun Facts: Okay, well, I’m from the Inland Empire, about 60 miles out from the more famous part of SoCal that’s already had enough attention. About 60% of my collection was given to me as someone else’s trash (shout out to University of Redlands, University of Riverside, and the Hernandez, Gomez, & Rodriguez families). A fun fact about me is that I’m fun and full of facts. It’s called liner notes people.
Favorite genre: I can’t say, even though it looks like it’s funk. Anything with four on the floor or a moment to roll your body.
Favorite musicians: – Are you trying to retain readership?
Q&A:
How did your journey into vinyl collecting and DJing begin?
My journey into collecting vinyl started when my neighbor gave me a bin of albums from the UCR/UoR trash. I was a teenager when I figured out how to make purses out of the “useless” records. Once I eventually got a suitcase, I played the records and recorded them before drilling the edges, aka permanently damaging them. By the time I went to university, albums were piling up on the floor. Today, my vinyl has its own room.
I came to Instagram to show off the purses, but in 2019 I didn’t understand Instagram. I saw everyone posing and discussing their albums under #vinylcommunity.
The suitcase has been long retired, and I started buying records to hear them. Somewhere along the way I became a fellow woman of wax online. In 2023, someone local in the vinyl community asked me to DJ his friend’s new bar. He literally said, “It’s the same thing you do at home, just with a second turntable,” and “…you just turn the volume up and down” lol. He was right and I’m still at that bar 
Thanks for believing in me, Cahn. Hi Overland 
You’re a live DJ as well as a radio DJ with your show “The Beesides”. What do you think live broadcasting can give to people that streaming services can’t?
Yes, I am alive no matter where I DJ. Humans offer connection over the air. Community radio offers a rare glimpse into someone’s head. Where I live, the top stations are run by the same conglomerate pumping out the same script, ads, and playlists tailored to keep them making money.
On ElectroMagnetic Radio, we’ve got fireside chats, podcasts about new ways to live your life, nature sounds, people with vast vinyl libraries, or people who just want to read the liner notes to you. Mainstream radio wants you to buy something; community radio wants you to learn something. Sometimes we’re teaching you, sometimes we’re teaching ourselves, but either way, it’s not another dealership ad.
(check out this archived episode below AND tune into The Beesides with France Bee every Sunday from 7Pm-9PM PST here!)
What’s one of the funniest or wildest moments you’ve had as a DJ?
For funny, working with Red Light Vinyl means DJing our own event, packing up what feels like 500 lbs in equipment, and pulling up to support a friend DJing across town. Did we eat? No, we had invoices to send. Was that dance floor cut up? Yes it was, thank you Soso.
Physically wild, but the energy was wonderful. Here in the Inland Empire, we take vinyl/open turntable nights seriously. In Riverside specifically with the usual suspects in the lounge, new DJs came pouring in for a moment on the decks. It felt like a festival of vinyl DJs, filled with sharing knowledge of what’s in each other’s crates. We took pictures and videos of each other. We aren’t a cult, we just really like vinyl, we like telling each other about it, and given the chance, we love playing it for you. Hi Wolfskill fam!
Share two rare records people may not know about, but NEED in their collection.
Rare is a construct. My most valuable records are the ones given to me and signed by peers. For example, in my early Instagram days, I was showcasing a Richard Pryor album, and a stand-up comedian said he had the same one. I ended up going to his show, meeting more comedy people, and having him sign the Richard Pryor record. Shout out E.L. Smith, Patrick Lopez, Nikole Denise, and all of the awesome comics I know. RIP Angela, #Vivalasmilf
Right now, my most valuable record is First Light Greatest Hits, signed by DJ Wolfgang, host of KUCR 88.1’s Last Chance to Evacuate. He’s someone I aspire to as a radio host, ensuring people are both learning something new from the bargain bin and enjoying the favorites. He’s the best and I can’t wait to learn more.
It’s common for fellow vinyl people to pull stuff from their shelves to give away and I can create a crate of “pal pulls”. People outside of the DJing/vinyl collecting world just remembering “France likes records, let’s get her one” is priceless and always makes me unreasonably excited. (Hint hint wink wink anybody, lol).
As an engineer, what turntables or DJ decks do you recommend?
As a vinyl collector, I’d tell the engineer to get out of my way before she overthinks equipment setup and brings in $8k worth of gear to satisfy her supervisor’s safety & cooling requirements.
“Audiotechnica LP120 or better” — Bratmix.
My twins are fraternal: one is a used eBay find that just needed a slight adjustment. You can get great equipment, standard or high-end, from used marketplaces. We’re always selling our stuff… and upgrading… and then downgrading… then upgrading again– the cycle never ends.
As for controllers or decks, I’m playing DJ Hero on PlayStation. Honestly, I’ve seen 3D printers produce sturdier plastic than the switches, knobs, and buttons on recent controllers. So, no comment, but I guess comparing digital DJ controllers to a short-lived video game is a comment.
If you could design a DJ tool or piece of software from scratch, what problem would you solve for DJs and record collectors?
We have no problems. We just need education on what to do, what to get, what to buy, where to buy, how to maintain, how to use, how to store.
Everybody has their own mad way of organizing their library. I personally just want to RFID locate my records using the jackets like the real library. In California libraries, there’s a magnetic strip scanned when you check out books. You run it through a gray bin so it doesn’t beep when you leave. Why don’t we have something like that for vinyl libraries? Imagine pulling records from shelves for a back-to-back DJ set and instantly knowing where everything went, crate, gray bin, or back to shelf. And it’ll match your preferred cataloging system. However, having permanently scrambled records makes for a fun time.
Favorite album art of all time and what makes it special to you?
My favorite album art is Slave’s Showtime (1981) painted by Attila Hejja. Hejja spent much of his career creating space art and here he depicts the band in this otherworldly space concert. At the time, a lot of the funk groups were leaning into an Afro-futurist aesthetic. It’s as if outer space was the only place expansive enough to describe their sound, and the only place Black people could imagine true freedom. People who like Sun Ra and my black-ademics know what I’m saying. As a kid, my dad over played “Snapshot” and now I over play “For the Love of U”. It doesn’t help that my dad and I are both space enthusiasts. Space funk is in my DNA, watch out.
Which era of music are you currently discovering or re-discovering?
Recently, someone mentioned electro music, and I realized their “electro” wasn’t the same as my “electro.” I believe they were leaning on a Digitalism or Simian Mobile Disco sound. My dad’s electro was Planet Rock and Kraftwerk. Mine was Hot Chip, Royksopp, Friendly Fires, and Junior Boys. Now I’m asking what happened to electro? Where did it split from “electronic”? Why did 2000s indie kids call Friendly Fires electro when, technically, it wasn’t? I’m unpacking that whole timeline right now; don’t send help.
What is your ultimate goal as a DJ and music curator?
My ultimate goal as a DJ and curator is to teach somebody something. Whether it’s a new song, a story behind an album cover, or a fun fact about who played drums on track three and that she has her own band. If you leave knowing one thing you didn’t before, I’ve done my job.
Any tips, hacks, or advice for fellow record collectors and DJs?
Don’t spend all your money trying to look cool on the internet buying all of the new releases and variants. We don’t care. Stuff from the cheap bin has always been more impactful than your $60 RSD re-release. Play your music, enjoy your own company with it. I’ll be happy to validate you as you are because people did that for me.
***Hope you enjoyed our vinyl talk with the brilliant and hilarious DJ Françe Bee! Her journey reminds us that vinyl isn’t just about collecting music, it’s about connection, creativity, and passing knowledge forward. Follow her on IG @frncs_bnvdz to keep up with her vinyl & DJ adventures and tune in to her radio show “The Beesides” every Sunday on ElectroMagnetic Radio! If you want to share your collecting journey with us next, hit us up on IG @soultaurean!
