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Nestled in the corner of a sleepy coffee shop, rather than deep on the dance floor, I had the pleasure of slowing down and talking directly with Alex Padilla, known as Tomb in the Phoenix DJ scene, about her approach to spinning, past and current collaborations, and unapologetically being yourself. She imbues a compassion and awareness into her pop queen sets akin to the confidence she facilitates in herself, looking to get people dancing with a “to be cringe is to be free” poise. One hand held out to the girls scared of wasting their potential, the other on the board. And somehow, a third holding that ever-present cigarette right up to her glossed lips.
Be kind!
Read the room!
Shake your ass!
Kill your social anxiety!
Become a girl DJ NOW!!!
Tomb’s telling you to. <3
JULIET REYNOLDS: If I were at your set right now, what kind of music would you be playing?
TOMB: I really do like to lean towards more techno and pop girl music. Honestly, I need a lot of girls on a dance floor. I do it for . . . the gays and the theys and the bitches. I feel like I’ve just been to so many sets where it's just like… boy music. I'm sorry, I love Playboi Carti but I don't want to listen to it for twenty-five minutes straight. Like, there's so many girls in the crowd and you're playing boy music?? It doesn't make any sense to me.
JR: Who are they playing for at that point?
TOMB: Half of the job of being a DJ is reading the crowd. If you're playing a song and no one's bobbing their head to it or dancing—you're playing it for yourself.
JR: Are there times ever that you are playing music for yourself, though?
TOMB: Oh, for sure, yeah. But, if I'm playing something for me, it's gonna be something that everyone knows. I play Paris Hilton’s Stars Are Blind at the end of every one of my sets because I fucking love that song.
JR: Would you say then that's who you play for? The pop girls, the baddie girls?
TOMB: Baddie girls, baddie-adjacent.
JR: What is a baddie to you?
TOMB: A baddie to me is a girl who takes two hours to get ready to go out. She pregames with her girls. You feel good about yourself and you’re kind.
TOMB: Oh, for sure, yeah. But, if I'm playing something for me, it's gonna be something that everyone knows. I play Paris Hilton’s Stars Are Blind at the end of every one of my sets because I fucking love that song.
JR: Would you say then that's who you play for? The pop girls, the baddie girls?
TOMB: Baddie girls, baddie-adjacent.
JR: What is a baddie to you?
TOMB: A baddie to me is a girl who takes two hours to get ready to go out. She pregames with her girls. You feel good about yourself and you’re kind.
JR: You not only feel good about yourself, but you're kind. So you feel good about everyone else, too.
TOMB: When a girl feels really good about herself, you can really tell because she has that confidence. When you go into the bathroom and it's flooded with girls, reapplying their lip gloss or something, and you’re like, “Oh my God, I love your boots! I love your outfit!” That's the kind of shit I live for.
JR: How did [your DJ group] GSTRING come to be?
TOMB: I was really drunk, and I was talking to [my friend] Sebastian like, "We should start a group together." And I just really wanted it to be, like, slutty techno music.
TOMB: When a girl feels really good about herself, you can really tell because she has that confidence. When you go into the bathroom and it's flooded with girls, reapplying their lip gloss or something, and you’re like, “Oh my God, I love your boots! I love your outfit!” That's the kind of shit I live for.
JR: How did [your DJ group] GSTRING come to be?
TOMB: I was really drunk, and I was talking to [my friend] Sebastian like, "We should start a group together." And I just really wanted it to be, like, slutty techno music.
JR: I do love the name SO bad.
TOMB: Thank you! [laughs] It came to me in a dream. Sebastian brings a great element to [GSTRING]; he’s mostly techno and hard-style, and I play the pop stuff and bring the sex appeal.
JR: Well, as you should.
TOMB: He's more of the business side and I'm more of the promoting. When we booked at Bad Jimmy's, we really went all out.
JR: How does that process usually go with promoting and booking?
TOMB: I'm friends with the entire Bad Jimmy’s crew; I work in the [service] industry, too. So, like, we all kind of know each other. We filmed a promotional video for it, we bought plastic cups with our logo on it, we hired a Spiderman and a Venom for some reason—we were just like, “What can we do?” Like, what was the most ridiculous shit we could do until someone told us no?
JR: That's good branding: “Playing slutty techno doing the most ridiculous shit until someone tells us no.”
TOMB: There you go. That’s GSTRING. And that was our first show. We played [Club] Contact a couple times… that was really fun. My last solo show was at Gracie's [Tax Bar] with Miniskirt.
JR: Can you tell me about that night—Girls Just Wanna Dance—being on a lineup of all girls? What was that like?
TOMB: I love that they put it together. It was very much needed. That night, I get to Gracie's, I see the line, and I'm getting a little nervous... The line is wrapping around the block.
JR: It'll go around the first corner, but I remember it was almost around the second corner.
TOMB: I was getting a little shaky, . . . frantically trying to get to the back. It was maybe fifteen minutes before my set. I wanted to be there an hour earlier . . . but I was overthinking my outfit. [laughs]
JR: Do you have any sort of pre-set ritual?
TOMB: I get ready, and I give myself a pep talk. I'm like, It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be fine. You're overthinking everything. I get nervous before every fucking set. Do I have enough songs? I’m double-checking everything that I have on my USB, and then…
It was probably one of the best sets I’d ever played.
JR: That's good branding: “Playing slutty techno doing the most ridiculous shit until someone tells us no.”
TOMB: There you go. That’s GSTRING. And that was our first show. We played [Club] Contact a couple times… that was really fun. My last solo show was at Gracie's [Tax Bar] with Miniskirt.
JR: Can you tell me about that night—Girls Just Wanna Dance—being on a lineup of all girls? What was that like?
TOMB: I love that they put it together. It was very much needed. That night, I get to Gracie's, I see the line, and I'm getting a little nervous... The line is wrapping around the block.
JR: It'll go around the first corner, but I remember it was almost around the second corner.
TOMB: I was getting a little shaky, . . . frantically trying to get to the back. It was maybe fifteen minutes before my set. I wanted to be there an hour earlier . . . but I was overthinking my outfit. [laughs]
JR: Do you have any sort of pre-set ritual?
TOMB: I get ready, and I give myself a pep talk. I'm like, It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be fine. You're overthinking everything. I get nervous before every fucking set. Do I have enough songs? I’m double-checking everything that I have on my USB, and then…
It was probably one of the best sets I’d ever played.
I knew I was gonna play some ass-shaking music, so I start with . . . Thootie by Ice Spice. The girls are dancing, they're bopping their heads- This is the time where I have to start reading the room. So I start playing charli [xcx] and everyone goes crazy.
JR: I really like this aspect of having to read the room. Do you literally look up and look at everybody while you’re spinning?
TOMB: If I really like the song, I'll let the entire song play. So then I have time to dance and look at the crowd. I was getting a lot of requests, and I was just like, “Nope.” I never take requests at my shows.
JR: Is there a reason why?
TOMB: I mean, I would if I could. It depends on if it's a bop or not, but also, most of the time I'm not connected to the internet where I’m playing, so I don't have time to just download it on the fly. There was this one guy who held up his phone, and I couldn't see because I didn't have my contacts in, and it said "You’re iconic, I need your Instagram." And I thought it was a song request, so I went:
[sexy alluring finger wag No]
JR: [laughs] Imagine someone being like, "I love you." And you're just like, “I know.”
TOMB: [laughs] And I try to translate that into my sets. Just like, unapologetically being yourself. I used to be really, really introverted. I wasn't really the type of person to start a conversation with a random person, you know what I mean? And then when I started working in the industry, I was like, Okay, these people are really fucking intimidating. I need to match their aura or I'm gonna get fucking fired. It really brought out that side of me where I'm just like, I could be a normal human being now. I can talk to people.
JR: Do you think you would have been able to transition into being a DJ and being up there in front of such a big crowd without those skills?
TOMB: Probably not, honestly. It took a lot for me to even just start DJing. It was my friend Drew who actually convinced me. We used to go [to Open Decks at Central Records] every Monday and we’d have a thirty-minute slot. I got more confident playing there, and then eventually, Drew would have me play with him and Midnight Club every once in a while. The thing I'm more afraid of is wasted potential. That's why I don't want to be that person that doesn't do anything because of my social anxiety. So, I really just have to get through it. There’s no other option. It's still kind of scary, but it gets easier.
JR: Would you want more events to happen like Girls Just Wanna Dance at Gracie's [Tax Bar] with Miniskirt and Codeen and Cammieoto?
TOMB: For sure. I love the resurgence that, I mean- I don't even think that there was a moment where Phoenix was dominated by a bunch of girl DJs.
JR: For this moment right now, is there anything that you want to change with it, to evolve?
TOMB: Part of me is, like, just having fun. But I also feel like we do need more girl DJs. If you want to learn how to DJ, fucking do it. It’s kind of scary being perceived by so many people, and throwing your music taste out there, but I feel like more girls should get into DJing. I know Elusiva and T4yana hosted an all-girl open decks at [Club] Contact. Very much needed. I want to see more of that.
JR: I'm so curious, where did you get your name?
TOMB: A generator.
JR: [laughs]
Go back to music
JR: I really like this aspect of having to read the room. Do you literally look up and look at everybody while you’re spinning?
TOMB: If I really like the song, I'll let the entire song play. So then I have time to dance and look at the crowd. I was getting a lot of requests, and I was just like, “Nope.” I never take requests at my shows.
JR: Is there a reason why?
TOMB: I mean, I would if I could. It depends on if it's a bop or not, but also, most of the time I'm not connected to the internet where I’m playing, so I don't have time to just download it on the fly. There was this one guy who held up his phone, and I couldn't see because I didn't have my contacts in, and it said "You’re iconic, I need your Instagram." And I thought it was a song request, so I went:
[sexy alluring finger wag No]
JR: [laughs] Imagine someone being like, "I love you." And you're just like, “I know.”
TOMB: [laughs] And I try to translate that into my sets. Just like, unapologetically being yourself. I used to be really, really introverted. I wasn't really the type of person to start a conversation with a random person, you know what I mean? And then when I started working in the industry, I was like, Okay, these people are really fucking intimidating. I need to match their aura or I'm gonna get fucking fired. It really brought out that side of me where I'm just like, I could be a normal human being now. I can talk to people.
JR: Do you think you would have been able to transition into being a DJ and being up there in front of such a big crowd without those skills?
TOMB: Probably not, honestly. It took a lot for me to even just start DJing. It was my friend Drew who actually convinced me. We used to go [to Open Decks at Central Records] every Monday and we’d have a thirty-minute slot. I got more confident playing there, and then eventually, Drew would have me play with him and Midnight Club every once in a while. The thing I'm more afraid of is wasted potential. That's why I don't want to be that person that doesn't do anything because of my social anxiety. So, I really just have to get through it. There’s no other option. It's still kind of scary, but it gets easier.
JR: Would you want more events to happen like Girls Just Wanna Dance at Gracie's [Tax Bar] with Miniskirt and Codeen and Cammieoto?
TOMB: For sure. I love the resurgence that, I mean- I don't even think that there was a moment where Phoenix was dominated by a bunch of girl DJs.
JR: For this moment right now, is there anything that you want to change with it, to evolve?
TOMB: Part of me is, like, just having fun. But I also feel like we do need more girl DJs. If you want to learn how to DJ, fucking do it. It’s kind of scary being perceived by so many people, and throwing your music taste out there, but I feel like more girls should get into DJing. I know Elusiva and T4yana hosted an all-girl open decks at [Club] Contact. Very much needed. I want to see more of that.
JR: I'm so curious, where did you get your name?
TOMB: A generator.
JR: [laughs]
Go back to music