‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’: Leeds Queen of Spin on proving it’s never too late to find your beat

There is a comfortable certainty that settles into adult life: by the time we reach our 40s, most of us have spent years refining our careers, managing our responsibilities, and operating safely within our fields of expertise.

We rarely volunteer to be bad at something, and we certainly don't often volunteer to look foolish.

But in September 2024, Caroline Joynson decided to step right off the edge of that comfort zone.

Today, she is known to growing crowds as 'The Queen of Spin,' a rising house music DJ preparing for a major collaborative showcase in London. Yet less than two years ago, standing in front of a neighbour’s DJ equipment in Farsley, she was facing a completely unfamiliar sensation: total, unadulterated panic.

"I was petrified," Caroline admits, looking back on the moment she decided to finally pursue a latent, decades-old itch. "Because you just get to the stage where most things that you're doing in life, you've already done - you've got a skill in them, you've got some experience.

“This was completely, completely new and really daunting."

The roots of Caroline’s musical obsession stretch back to the dancefloors of the 1990s. As an 18-year-old clubber, she found herself completely captivated by the unique, unifying energy of the UK house scene.

"I always loved the music - house music particularly - and just, yeah, being on the dance floor all night, with the DJ kind of commanding the audience and enjoying the dancing," she reminisces. "I kind of had just a little inkling of wanting to do it."

An early attempt to spin on vinyl decks during her student days yielded zero results, prompting her to park the ambition entirely. Life took over, a professional career was built, and the decks remained a distant memory - until a casual conversation with a neighbour who DJ'ed locally coaxed the dream back into the light.

When he offered to let her try out his equipment, Caroline decided it was time to confront the intimidation head-on.

Armed with nothing but lifelong enthusiasm and a healthy dose of trepidation, she took her first genuine steps into the mix, proving that while a passion can be sidelined, it is rarely truly gone.

Finding the groove at The Music Box

Initial bravery is one thing, but sustaining it requires a community. After a few tentative practice sessions at Pirate Studios in Kirkstall, Caroline realised that if she wanted to truly command a room, she needed to understand the mechanics behind the music.

The breakthrough came via a Facebook advertisement for a beginner’s DJ course at The Music Box in Pudsey.

Alongside her close friend Heidi, whom she originally met years prior at antenatal classes, Caroline walked through the doors and into a completely level playing field.

For a lifelong music fan, pulling back the curtain on the art form was an eye-opening experience.

"The first lesson we had was a beginner lesson just to kind of understand how music is phrased, how it all comes together," Caroline explains. "Because as someone who enjoys music, you don't necessarily know all of how a track is put together."

What they found in Pudsey wasn’t a room full of intimidating, hyper-trendy teenagers, but a diverse, welcoming collective of like-minded adults, predominantly aged 40 and upwards, all wrestling with the same pre-performance jitters.

The Music Box provided a safe harbour to make mistakes. In a world that often demands immediate perfection, the course taught Caroline the vital art of the pivot.

"They give us opportunities to play out at events, which is very daunting," she says. "But you start to overcome the nerves, or just feel the fear and do it anyway. You realise if you go a bit wrong, you just have to correct it and carry on.

“You learn from your mistakes as much as from your successes. Each time, I've become more confident."

Serendipity and the London stage

For months, Caroline and Heidi had been following Bradford-born TikTok star and DJ, Crazy Auntie Ann, drawing inspiration from her viral videos and her own late-stage journey into learning how to spin. Then, fate intervened.

"We were driving back from the Lake District, and we went into a café on the A65," Caroline recalls. "I was sat there with my family, and I was like, 'That's that Crazy Auntie Ann from Instagram and TikTok!' I let her finish her meal, and then I just thought, I'm just going to go and say hello."

That brave introduction sparked an immediate connection.

Ann mentioned an upcoming London show, ‘Crazy Auntie Ann and Friends,’ and later launched a social media competition asking rising DJs to tag her in videos of their live mixes. Caroline put her skills to the test, submitted her mix, and ultimately beat out the competition to land a coveted spot on the line-up.

As she prepares to step up to the decks this weekend, the dominant emotion is no longer panic, but a profound sense of anticipation.

"The nerves are absolutely there because stepping out in front of a live crowd is always incredibly daunting," Caroline says. "But the excitement is definitely winning right now.

“I just want to get out there, play some brilliant house music, and completely lose myself in the moment."

Follow the Queen of Spin on her Instagram account, or watch her when she next plays in the city on July 17 at Mirror Mirror, 10 Duncan Street, Leeds LS1 6DL.