Whitney Day

DJ • World Traveler • Trombone Player.

It’s a perfect metaphor for her recent accomplishments in gay New York’s cutthroat DJ scene: Whitney Day closed out the summer spinning at the pool at Shark, Josh Wood and Jared Needle’s Dream Downtown Hotel summer party, and—as temperatures dropped—moved up to the penthouse. “I got to really experiment with a lot of cool music. It was a great gig,” says the gay Manhattan native. Her fun, friendly vibe shines through during her sets, and it’s landed her gigs all over the city—FornabaioVoss’s Club 57, opening for DJ Honey Dijon at Haus at Cielo and Pride in the Dream Downtown Hotel’s penthouse, to name a few. “[Having fun while I DJ] is something I try to bring to the table a little bit more,” the 26-year-old tells us. “You know, for some people [DJ-ing is] like a job, or they kind of make it look so easy and they’re just very blasé about it. I try to get into it more.”

She’s long been devoted to music (she’ll still bust out her trombone if you pry long enough), and discovered her love of the decks around two years ago. “I started DJ-ing alone in my [bedroom] just sort of practicing ’cause I really didn’t want to put myself out there until I really knew what I was doing,” she explains. With help from her older gay brother, last June she amped up her efforts to make headway in gay New York nightlife.

Things have only gone up from there. After traveling in Israel in January, the coming months see her spinning at gigs in Mexico, Trinidad, Mykonos and Germany, as well as a slew of one-off parties in New York. “[I’m not doing] a lot of residencies for right now, which is kind of cool at the same time because it keeps it fresh and I get to play in a lot of different places,” she says. “I’m looking to expand. This is definitely the beginning.”

Visit WhitneyDay.com for more info and click here to check out Whitney Day’s exclusive mix for Next Magazine.