Music has always played a large role in Baby Weight’s life. Long before she played Coachella, Baby Weight played violin in her middle school orchestra in Annapolis, Maryland. Reading music was incredibly difficult for her, but she persisted and found other ways to ensure she played the right note at the right time. Her high school didn’t have an orchestra, so she pivoted to learning guitar instead. “My taste in music was very informed by the internet between the years of 2004 – 2013.” This was when Tumblr was at its height and bands like Death Cab For Cutie, The Strokes, and Bright Eyes were popular.
It wasn’t until she attended Virgin Mobile FreeFest in 2010 that she fell in love with electronic music. That year, the lineup included EDM titans like Deadmau5 and Calvin Harris, but also Empire of the Sun and LCD Soundsystem. She was convinced by some friends to be in the pit for LCD Soundsystem. They opened with “Dance Yrself Clean” and she remembered, “The moment that beat hit, I could feel every bone in my body vibrate. Being part of a nucleus, being part of a sea of people gyrating in the same motion, that solidified my love of electronic music.” After that, she went down the rabbit hole and started getting more into house music through artists like Moon Boots and the Dirtybird crew.
While attending college, she started throwing parties with her friends so they could play the kind of music they loved. During that time she was curating playlists and collecting vinyl records. A friend had some CDJs set up at a bar and said she could come in and use them, so that’s when she learned to DJ. From there, she downloaded Logic and started learning to produce dance music.
When it came time to choose an artist name, she didn’t remember exactly how the name “Baby Weight” came to her. She knew she wanted to reclaim the phrase and turn it into something body-positive. As a trans woman, she wants to give people who look like her permission to exist in a scene that has become increasingly homogenous.
Baby Weight has been producing for 12 years and her sound has evolved over time. “Now the music I make is much more influenced by music I’ve rediscovered as an adult that I was really into as a young person. The music I’ve been writing recently has a huge Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, and Moby influence.” A full circle moment came in 2023 when she released her track “Fear Is The Weapon” on Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried Records. This year she wants to get back to “making music for the sake of making music, not music for the sake of being a single to be played in a club at peak hour for other people.”
In the last few years, Baby Weight has had some very memorable moments happen in her career. What stands out most was having her track “House Princess” featured in a Calvin Klein Pride campaign in 2022. “As a trans person, one of my holy grails is this documentary “Paris Is Burning” about drag and ballroom culture. One of the people in it is Venus Xtravaganza. The people in the commercial are from the House of Xtravaganza and they’re voguing in the commercial to my song.”
Other big moments include playing the DoLab stage at Coachella last year and having her Lavender Lemonade EP released on Justin Martin’s What To Do record label. A goal she has as someone who loves movies and goes to the movies all the time, is to have one of her tracks used in a movie.
In 2025, she wants to focus more on her label Chub Rub. It was founded in 2018 but COVID caused everything to halt. She wants to “get back in the swing of putting out great, boundary-pushing, forward-thinking music.” In addition to working on her label, she has a few of her own tracks lined up for release including one on LP Giobbi’s Femme House imprint. She also plans on sharing more tracks through vault.fm.
Another big area of focus for Baby Weight will be rebuilding community. This includes traveling to places that haven’t always been the most friendly to LGBTQ people to play shows and create spaces where people feel safe. It also includes helping rebuild the scene in D.C., which hasn’t been the same since COVID. She is currently helping those impacted by the recent Southern California wildfires. All proceeds from her remix of “Messy” by Lola Young will be donated. You can grab it from her Bandcamp.
Outside of making music, she has a degree in film. So it’s no wonder she enjoys watching movies in her free time. She also enjoys cooking, going to amusement parks, self-care, and taking in some peace and quiet. Keep up with Baby Weight’s latest releases and upcoming shows using the links below.
