Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

She Has 1984 on Vinyl

Margaret Noble says local clubs gave her the cold shoulder when she set out to become a DJ here. “The Underground Lounge was the most receptive. Bar Dynamite was a great place to play, and then Lips on Fifth Avenue, when it was this hot house music club.”

But there wasn’t enough work, so she moved to Chicago in 2002. She says she was into house music, that Chicago was ground zero for house, and that Chicago clubs were more receptive to women DJs. For the record, Noble spun vinyl records. She calls the skill of matching beats a sport as well as an art form.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Everybody’s watching you, and the expectation is that you’re gonna blow it even more if you’re a female. But,” she says, “there’s only so much satisfaction you can get from mixing two records. I killed it, like, pretty hard for three years, and I felt that everything I had wanted to achieve I pretty much did.” Noble went back to school and finished her master’s degree in 2007.

“That’s when I learned production and let go of dance music.”

These days, Noble calls herself a sound artist and a producer. “I mess around with a lot of toys,” she says, meaning various noisemakers, such as a kalimba, or thumb piano, and a zither-like bowed instrument. “There are pickups on them and they’re running through [electronic] devices, and then I’m overdubbing and looping them and mixing textures and layers.”

It’s music, but can you dance to it? “I don’t like to alienate people,” she says, “but I want to challenge them on some level. I want anybody to be able to walk in and get something. But I don’t want to be so soft and so pop that it’s generic.”

Noble, 37, teaches digital art and sound production at High Tech High School in Point Loma. She says that her students like the experimental pieces she generates.

Her newest performance will be a mixed bag of industrial noises, recorded dialogue, and connective music. “I’m going to do a surround-sound experimental radio piece that is actually a remix of George Orwell’s 1984. I have an old vinyl recording of it,” she says. “I’ve been taking snippets of it and comparing it with media now, and it’s kind of morphing into a satirical pop, electroacoustic thing.” Noble will channel her soundscape through eight speakers, a process that she calls stressful.

“But,” she says, “hopefully, it will be worth it and the audience has a good experience.”

Margaret Noble will appear with Susan Naruki as part of the Fresh Sound Series on January 5 at Sushi Performance and Visual Art.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema

Margaret Noble says local clubs gave her the cold shoulder when she set out to become a DJ here. “The Underground Lounge was the most receptive. Bar Dynamite was a great place to play, and then Lips on Fifth Avenue, when it was this hot house music club.”

But there wasn’t enough work, so she moved to Chicago in 2002. She says she was into house music, that Chicago was ground zero for house, and that Chicago clubs were more receptive to women DJs. For the record, Noble spun vinyl records. She calls the skill of matching beats a sport as well as an art form.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Everybody’s watching you, and the expectation is that you’re gonna blow it even more if you’re a female. But,” she says, “there’s only so much satisfaction you can get from mixing two records. I killed it, like, pretty hard for three years, and I felt that everything I had wanted to achieve I pretty much did.” Noble went back to school and finished her master’s degree in 2007.

“That’s when I learned production and let go of dance music.”

These days, Noble calls herself a sound artist and a producer. “I mess around with a lot of toys,” she says, meaning various noisemakers, such as a kalimba, or thumb piano, and a zither-like bowed instrument. “There are pickups on them and they’re running through [electronic] devices, and then I’m overdubbing and looping them and mixing textures and layers.”

It’s music, but can you dance to it? “I don’t like to alienate people,” she says, “but I want to challenge them on some level. I want anybody to be able to walk in and get something. But I don’t want to be so soft and so pop that it’s generic.”

Noble, 37, teaches digital art and sound production at High Tech High School in Point Loma. She says that her students like the experimental pieces she generates.

Her newest performance will be a mixed bag of industrial noises, recorded dialogue, and connective music. “I’m going to do a surround-sound experimental radio piece that is actually a remix of George Orwell’s 1984. I have an old vinyl recording of it,” she says. “I’ve been taking snippets of it and comparing it with media now, and it’s kind of morphing into a satirical pop, electroacoustic thing.” Noble will channel her soundscape through eight speakers, a process that she calls stressful.

“But,” she says, “hopefully, it will be worth it and the audience has a good experience.”

Margaret Noble will appear with Susan Naruki as part of the Fresh Sound Series on January 5 at Sushi Performance and Visual Art.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.