You’re a 20-year-old third-year film student who has decided to walk alone into a TU Dublin DJ Society event on a whim. You don’t know anyone there, and you don’t know what to expect. You hope you might make a friend or two, or that you’ll get some fun nights out of it.
What you don’t know is that you have just made what you will describe later as one of the most important decisions of your life.
Learning to DJ doesn’t come easy to you, and the technical side is difficult, but your love for music prevails, and you keep coming back. You learn from the people around you, practice, and when you don’t understand something, you go home and teach yourself on YouTube.
Three years later, you’re playing in Amnesia Ibiza, one of the world’s most famous clubs.
That student was Dublin native Leah O’Riordan, better known as LIA, whose unexpected hobby would change the course of her life.
Now 23, the Irish DJ has spent the last three summers holding residencies in Ibiza, while her career has taken her far beyond the island. This summer alone brought her debuts in Portugal, Tenerife, Greece, and the UK, a reality her 20-year-old self could hardly have imagined.
Pictured: Leah O’Riordan playing in Amnesia Ibiza.
Just a year after she began DJing, O’Riordan was living in Ibiza for a working holiday when she and fellow DJ Society member Viki Dos Santos were offered the chance to play a B2B (back-to-back) set at Eden.
Pictured: Emmie Finnegan (left), Leah O’Riordan (centre), Viki Dos Santos (right), at TUD DJ Society.
“I really couldn’t believe my luck,” she said. Still relatively new to DJing, the pair practiced relentlessly, determined to make the most out of an unexpected opportunity, and it paid off. “We practiced and practiced our set so it would be perfect and we would make a good impression, and afterwards we got offered several more gigs at the club.”
Not long after, Leah was given a residency at Itaca Ibiza, where her skills strengthened considerably.
“It feels like the place I truly learned how to DJ,” she said. Playing for over five hours multiple times a week gave her the experience and confidence she needed. “It was that winter that things snowballed for me back at home in Ireland.”
Pictured: Leah O’Riordan playing in Limelight, Belfast.
Snowball they did. O’Riordan soon found herself playing opening and support slots for major artists such as Kettama before reaching another milestone this summer, when she closed the Smirnoff Stage alongside Viki Dos Santos at Electric Picnic, Ireland’s largest music festival.
Pictured: Viki Dos Santos (left) & Leah O’Riordan (right) playing at the Smirnoff Stage at Electric Picnic.
This was particularly poignant for Leah; the pair who began their journey together at TU Dublin were now sharing one of the biggest stages of their careers. “Being trusted to close a massive stage at a festival that big is a whole different ball game and felt like an incredible honour,” she said.
As her notoriety grows, O’Riordan has become increasingly aware of the different experience that comes with being a young female DJ.
Leah feels she receives different treatment in the booth due to her gender. “Sometimes in the form of a guy that’s playing after you trying to hop on five minutes early, or in more intimate settings where the dancers are up closer to you, men just coming up too close to me or nearly knock off the music,” she said.
O’Riordan has also faced suggestions that her success has less to do with her ability and more to do with her being a woman.
“I have experienced people trying to insinuate that the opportunities I’m receiving are because I’m a woman, and in a way where they didn’t even think that was an outrageous thing to say at all,” she said.
Leah’s experiences have left her with mixed feelings about being labelled a “female DJ” rather than simply a “DJ”.
“I understand that historically it has been a male-dominated industry,” she said. “But then I also think, why? Is it a subtle jab of some sort, or is it trying to draw some sort of novelty or spectacle out of the fact that it’s a woman DJing and not a man? I can’t help but feel sometimes it is.”
Away from the booth, however, the person behind LIA is somewhat quieter.
“When I am Leah and not LIA, I am a bit more reserved and quiet than I might come across online or playing gigs,” said O’Riordan. “But when I’m comfortable with you, I’m fun, loud and adventurous.”
Before DJing became her full-time career, Leah already had a passion for creating. O’Riordan holds a first-class honours degree in filmmaking and has written and directed four short films, including award-nominated Water Weight.
Despite her success, Leah admits that it has not come without pressures.
“I think the hardest part that people don’t always see is the self-doubt and comparison,” she said. “I really try hard not to compare myself to others because we are all on our own journeys, but it can be tough at times, truthfully.”
With new music to find, production to learn, sets to prepare, and an online presence to maintain, Leah struggles to switch off. “It can be tough to let yourself rest as it feels like you can always be doing something to better your career.”
“The goal post is always moving,” she said. “I don’t always get the time to appreciate how far I’ve come because I’m always looking forward.”
Although much has changed for Leah, she has not forgotten where it all began: TU Dublin’s DJ Society, where she credits the community of friends who pushed her to improve.
“The community within the DJ society drove me to want to get better every week, and seeing the people around me play inspired me,” she said.
Pictured: Leah O’Riordan playing in Café Mambo, Ibiza.
Three years on, the 20-year-old who walked into that first session alone is almost unrecognisable from the DJ now touring Europe and playing some of the world’s most renowned clubs.
When asked what she would say to her younger self if she could return to that day, she said, “I would tell myself that this moment is ultimately going to change your life.”
All photo credits go to Leah O’Riordan.
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