Dani Pimenta Interview
Dani Pimenta is a journalist, music researcher, cultural producer and DJ, focused on Jamaican and Brazilian music relations. She is the founder and editor in chief of Groovin Mood, a website founded in 2008 dedicated to the reggae and sound system scene, as well as the creator of the Mapa Sound System Brasil project, which has mapped sound systems dedicated to reggae/dub in the country. It became a book in 2019 and an online platform in 2021.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
Well, I started diving into this world around 2006, collaborating with some local websites, doing interviews with Brazilian independent rap artists, doing weekly schedules and tips of shows and cultural events, and stuff like that. Music and music journalism always interested me in some way. Around the same time I had my first contact with sound system culture and a deeper layer of reggae music, and I fell in love. So I decided to create my own blog, Groovin Mood—has been online since 2008. Creating this blog opened many doors for me over the years, and allowed me to test, make mistakes, learn and also create other projects that gave me countless fruits.
Besides music journalism, I worked for many years as a copywriter and also as a press agent—this last function I still work with, attending startups and technology companies, besides music projects, of course. I’ve also been doing independent cultural and events production for many years, and I’m very interested in musical research, which is also another side of my work. This interest has made me a DJ since 2012, so in my life music connects at many points.