Jenny Feterovich
By MJ Galbraith
January 31, 2014
Jenny Feterovich is one of the hardest-working women in showbiz, though being a woman hardly has anything to do with it. She says that she's one of those people who like to multi-task: to never do one thing at a time, to never be bored. No kidding.
Though she's still probably best known as international house
DJ Jenny LaFemme – spinning 185 times a year in countries all over the world – she's no longer touring as much. But that doesn't mean that she has retired. She's still DJing. It's just that she's also producing a documentary, a television show, running a production company, and opening a boot camp-style training gym with an indoor obstacle course and aerial yoga. She keeps busy with charity too, traveling with Habitat for Humanity to help build homes in Guatemala later this year.
Born in Moscow, a 14-year-old Jenny and her family came to the United States as Jewish refugees in 1989. Growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, Jenny was exposed to the city's flourishing techno scene. By 1996, she had become DJ LaFemme. Women DJs are not typical in the electronic music world. Jenny says that women make up six percent of DJs and that the number is getting even smaller. She's currently producing a documentary,
Girls Gone Vinyl: The Untold Story of Female DJs, that examines gender dynamics in the world of electronic music.
"I played in South Africa and these two guys were completely baffled that I could mix two records together. I probably have more experience than both of them. And they opened for me and they were very shocked that there's a girl and she can mix two records together. They were literally shocked," says Jenny. "It was as if they think we do these things with some other parts of our bodies."
In her film, Jenny is exploring and exposing. She's trying to find out why there aren't more women DJs being hired. "I just got sick of hearing, 'You're pretty good for a girl'," she says. She's also sharing tales of fellow female DJs, like one that a New York club owner refused to hire unless she slept with him. These things happen, says Jenny. They are realities of DJ life.
She's making the movie through her production company,
Parliament Studios. Calling it a passion project, Jenny is hoping to finish filming this year. She's also partnered with another production company, Corktown's Big Bang Detroit, to film
Start Up. It's a television show that profiles start up companies around the country. The team originally pitched the show to Michigan PBS stations and had planned on keeping their profiles local, but their focus has since expanded nationwide. PBS liked the show so much that it's being shown in about 70 percent of the country.
"It's basically to inspire people, to show that entrepreneurs are no different from me and you. They just had an idea and followed through," says Jenny. "It could be anything from McClure's Pickles to a tech company to a hotel and spa to a bed and breakfast."
As for her own startup, the soon-to-open
Detroit Tough gym in Corktown, Jenny says that a monthly food or clothing donation will be tied into membership fees starting with
this event in February. She's fortunate enough to be in a position to help others so she does. It's part of her worldview: Stay busy. Keep passionate. Help where you can.
"I think everything is about loving what you do. If you love what you do, you're going to be good at it. Passion. Same thing with the entrepreneurs I interview. Every person who became successful put their passion and love for what they do before money. Money follows," says Jenny. "Whether you write or you DJ or you make music or you cook—if you love what you do, you're going to be good at it. Because you're doing it with love. That's all it is. It's very simple, you know."
All photos by Doug Coombe.