The Track - E037 - Sam Carroll

The Track with Ryan Swift

In this episode, I am joined by international swing DJ, Sam Carroll. Sam started playing music for swing dancers in 2005 and has since DJed at events around the world. In addition to numerous events in her native Australia, she has DJed at Herrang Dance Camp and Snowball in Sweden, Authentic Jazz Weekend in South Korea, and Lindy Focus in the United States. In her home scene, she is one of the organizers of Swing Dance Sydney and JazzBANG weekend.

Sam sat down with me on New Years’ Day 2019 after a late night of DJing at Lindy Focus to talk about her observations about dance in the US, why being a DJ is about more than just playing good music, and how her experience in Australia was different from the American dancers riding the pop culture swing wave of the late 90’s.

We also discussed what it’s like as a DJ and attendee at Herrang, what goes in to running her own successful events, her grad school work on women in media, and how that has shaped her approach and experience writing her blog, Dogpossum.