Jayda Abello shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Jayda, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I had a good little chuckle recently when I was on a flight from New York on my way to play a big event at the Georgia Aquarium in my hometown of Atlanta. I thought about how when I lived in Atlanta in my early twenties, I was dating guys who really didn’t support or encourage my creativity in any way. Every single one of those men considered themselves musicians, but none of them ever found tangible success playing music. And here I am, doing exactly that, on a level a younger version of myself never would have even dreamed I could achieve. Those moments are really pleasant reality checks and I’m really grateful for how far I’ve come in both my career and in my personal life.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Jayda Abello, I’m a DJ and entrepreneur originally hailing from Atlanta, currently based in New York City. I recently moved back to NYC after living and working in the Tampa Bay area for 4 years, where I closely collaborated with the Gulf Coast’s own independent streaming radio station, Sector.FM, held multiple DJ residencies across the bay, and really got my career off the ground. I still regularly work with my clients in Florida, so I’m kind of based there too. People and brands come to me when they need music to set a mood and atmosphere that deviates from the norm a bit, taking you to places you haven’t danced before, while still delivering that fun, familiarity of singing along to a forgotten favorite song you haven’t heard in ages. I’m known for both my vinyl and digital sets, playing a wide range of music from all eras and areas. I love unexpected blends of music. If I had to pick three words to describe my DJ sets, I’d say they’re groovy, irreverent, and lush.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
Lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the messages I received as a child. I grew up in a household with pretty limiting beliefs and an energy that didn’t exactly inspire me to reach very high. For a long time, I felt like my story was already written for me. Coming from a single parent, low income household where I witnessed violence and substance abuse from a young age, I thought I was destined for a life of struggle even though I always dreamed of having more. For much of my life into early adulthood, I had just kind of relented to that mindset, like I had given up on myself before even really trying. Over the last 10 years, I’ve really started to take control of the narrative and recognize that what happened to those who came before me doesn’t have to happen to me. The stories we’re told when we’re children can imprint very deeply onto us and it can take quite a bit of work to decondition yourself from them. The deconditioning is crucial to meaningful, lasting change and growth in both my career and my personal life. Now, my whole world revolves around giving myself the life I want. I really do my best to prioritize peace and give myself the soft life I wish I had when I was a kid. I stretch myself to reach my goals but I don’t run myself into the ground trying to prove how productive I can be. I spoil myself with things I thought I could never have, I exchange time and energy with people who make me feel seen and appreciated, I operate my business and work in a way that satisfies me and makes me feel proud. It’s a lot easier to see what’s possible for me now that I’m letting go of those old narratives of scarcity and struggle.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I’ve felt most held back by my fear of being seen, I guess. Whether it’s being seen as successful or as a failure or just being seen at all–I have a tendency to want to hide myself away. My job requires me to promote my business and gas myself up, so that can be uncomfortable on some days. And, of course, there is often a good bit of filming and photography that happens while I’m DJing at certain events, so you don’t want to be feeling camera shy in those moments. It’s really important to show up and just be proud of who you are and what you do, regardless of where you’re at and regardless of what you think people will say or think of you. So I’m working on and making progress on that.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
It definitely gets easier as you get older. When you’re young, you just don’t have enough years under your belt to have seen cultural patterns play out and watched the cycles complete. Age gives you the authority and wisdom that you need to operate your internal bullshit detector. My bullshit detector usually starts blaring when the new thing is not only unnecessary, (although as a soft life proponent, of course I do appreciate frivolity) but also expensive enough to be just out of reach for a lot of people. I guess the first thing that comes to mind are Labubus. To some, it may be a monocultural moment, but is it changing, disrupting, challenging anything enough to actually leave any kind of mark? Is Labubu significant enough to take Snoopy’s job? Hell no. It’s future trash that’s expensive for no reason, just like Beanie Babies were. Being in an age of virality right now, where just about anything can be a fad is, in itself, a foundational shift.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When have you had to bet the company?
That’s kind of what I felt like I was doing when I moved back to New York last January. Hurricane Helene had flooded the home I shared with my boyfriend and our dog in September 2024 and it was such a hard time. I decided it was finally time to get out of Florida, something that had been on my mind for about 3 years. It was a pretty difficult decision to make, though, because my career had really taken off in Tampa Bay. I was hitting my stride and making good money, I had definitely worked hard and gotten my name out there, had a lot of happy clients and was pretty solidly booked. Working as a DJ in Florida was giving me that soft life that had become so important to me, but in a lot of ways, it just wasn’t working out. I just wanted to move back to New York, which felt good and scary to think about. On one hand, I felt drawn to NYC and was really excited to live there again…but on the other hand, I was freaking out because I’m not super established as a DJ like I am in Tampa Bay, and the market for my industry is not only totally over saturated but also filled to the brim with some of the most talented DJs on Earth. But I knew that moving back to New York was going to get me to that next level of my career. New York brings out the hunger and natural competitiveness in me. The challenge of living and working as a solopreneur here is the same thing that makes it fun. Now I’m going on 10 months being back in New York and I know it was the right decision. I swear I make a new friend everytime I leave the apartment. I’m being stretched creatively, I’m getting amazing opportunities I couldn’t get in Florida, I’m making connections with amazing people, I’m hearing amazing music every day, and crate digging in some of my favorite record stores. I love living in New York and I’m so glad to be here!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jayda-abello.com
- Instagram: @americansquirm
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/jaydaxabello/
Image Credits
Edwina Hay, Avid Shotz, Leo Trevino
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