Daily Inspiration: Meet Tiffany Bendelow

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Bendelow.

Hi Tiffany, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I believe in the power of supporting the creative community through action, collaboration, engagement, and presence. As a female DJ in an industry that is primarily men, I felt disappointed and discouraged by the lack of opportunities, collaboration, and support. Not only did I witness unequal representation and asymmetry of opportunities for women in the industry, but I also experienced it myself, many times. I began to ask about the experiences of other female-identifying DJs around Denver and the sentiment was the same; it is an uphill battle to get the same opportunities as non-female-identifying DJs, and there is a sense of being very alone.

I woke up one morning in the summer of 2022 and decided to create a female-identifying DJ collective in Denver. I wanted to create a safe container for us to come together and empower ourselves through community and action, to shift the paradigm and have a sense of belonging, support, and connection. Thus, Coven Collective was born and is growing and thriving due to the extremely talented, driven, hard-working, wonderful members we have.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, nothing worth doing ever is. It took several months to find others and build steam, trust, and community.

Because of our visibility, some people have not liked what we are doing and we experience push-back from time to time. One of the challenges we have had is from people suggesting we are “exclusive” because we are a female-identifying DJ collective.

Our answer to this is that in leading projects, group efforts, and initiatives, the more specific you can be with your mission, the more likely you are to succeed. I knew from my own experience that female-identifying DJs struggle all of the time and face many challenges in the DJ/music industry. I decided to direct my focus and build our mission in an effort to face this issue.

We celebrate diversity in all of its forms in the industry and stand in solidarity with all genders, all races, all creeds, and positions in life, and want to collaborate and support the aforementioned groups. We want to work together with other collectives and groups that share our same vision. We are not exclusive, rather we have a laser-pointed direction in order to affect the most change.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Given the challenges of breaking into and succeeding within the DJ, production and music industry, I also have a day job while I grow my brand and business. During the day, I am an Epidemiologist in public health and I enjoy the ability to work with people and vulnerable populations who don’t have the same access to healthcare and services as others.

As a scientist by training, I have had to relearn all the ways in which my brain is also extremely creative. Just before COVID hit, my Burning Man camp pooled their money together for me to get my first mixer and speaker set-up. I spent most of COVID playing for hours and getting lost in the music. It was a transcendental experience each time I stepped up to my decks, and continues to be every time. I realized how much joy and fulfillment it gave me to curate a musical journey for others. As the isolation bans started to lift, my mentor and friend (who led the effort to pool money for my first DJ setup), Chris Dugan, started finding and booking gigs for me. Albeit scary at first, it was the push I needed to realize my own power. I discovered “flow-state”.

Shortly after meeting my now husband, he came up with the DJ name; “The Duchess”. A passion and drive were born within me, and I have committed to learning, growing, and honing my skills, including learning music production. I also established a business called, “Resonant Medicine by The Duchess LLC”. Its mission is to curate music for highly intentional events, such as medicine ceremonies, art openings, retreats of various kinds, and workshops. The aim of this business model is to create something unique, in line with the event-holders vision for what they want the attendees to feel. My bespoke music curation accentuates and amplifies the experience through sound, frequency, and vibration.

My goal is to use “sound” as a modality/medicine to help people connect with deeper (perhaps undiscovered) parts of themselves and others, and to access places they may not otherwise have access to.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
To ignore the idle chatter from my inner-critic and from society, that say something can’t be done, or that I am an imposter. Nothing great has ever come from listening to those voices.

Validation of this truth comes through people telling me of the profound experiences they have from the music I create, and the community and support that the members of the collective feel. Our members express that they feel seen, valued and inspired to create their art unapologetically. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts comes in the form of women and female-identifying people in the community that come up to us and speak of how they are inspired to step into their own creative and individual power, despite their fears.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theduchesssessions.com
• Instagram: @covencollectivedenver; @th3duch3ss_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/covencollectivedenver; https://www.facebook.com/tiffany.bendelow/
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/covencollectivedenver; https://soundcloud.com/tiffanytheduchess

Image Credits
@ellelogan, @Codakolor, @hossphotography, DJ MARS, DJ Zenlily, @hossphotography, DJ NotMeghan, @Memorandum_Media, DJ MARO, DJ Ellechemist, and DJ Moody