I’m so glad I took a photo of Danielle O’Halloran while she was DJing at the opening of a coffee shop in Torfaen.
She has an incredible story that I had no idea about when I walked up and pressed ‘click’ at Grounded (run by mental health charity) in Sebastopol.
Her 17-year-old daughter, Chloe Hayman, died in a car crash in July 2022. The man driving the car she was in had taken drugs and was over the drink-drive limit when he crashed in Fochriw, Caerphilly county borough.
A private social media message from Danielle, who lives in Mountain Ash, told me that she now brings music to any business or event that doesn’t sell alcohol.
We arranged a time for a phone call, where she proudly said that Chloe was the “soul of the house, always getting up and dancing”. Any car journeys with the pair would be accompanied by music.
But becoming a DJ was never something that crossed her mind during her previous career as a hairdresser.
When the first lockdown happened in 2020, she came out of her salon’s tenancy without a plan of what to do next.
‘Being free’
She took a course that introduced her to “being free” and spending more time in the mountains around her home, including meditation and cold water therapy.
This new look on her life and beliefs later helped when she made the decision to forgive the driver of the car (who had been jailed) as she knew “holding onto aggression and anger” wasn’t good for her mind and wellbeing.
Even listening to music following Chloe’s passing was difficult because of the special memories different tracks brought back.
A friend invited her to a women’s circle event in Cardiff – an alcohol-free event- where there was someone playing music, “a drum and base track that I listened to just before Chloe passed.
“That opened me to feeling Chloe. I was able to free myself and love me, not just myself, and just other people there.”
This moment led to a realisation that she needed to work with music. Over the next few weeks and months, she started on a steep learning curve behind the decks.
Alcohol-free events
During the same period of time, she found out more about DJs in sobriety, an area of music where they avoid alcohol and drugs.
Danielle told me this has given a new “purpose” to her and Chloe’s life saying: “We don’t want that to happen again. The problem is, it starts [music and alcohol] when you leave school.
“We want to introduce music into spaces where there is no alcohol, so people can learn euphoria and love without alcohol. But the only places we can do it are alcohol-free spaces.
“The purpose for me is to bring sober DJs, authentic and aligned.
“We want to find other young DJs who stay sober and bring music to those spaces.
“We don’t want DJs who then take drugs on the weekend. This will benefit businesses, showing they’re connected with communities, bringing people together through music.
“We bring sober music to anyone we can, we don’t care where.”
The alcohol-free DJ movement isn’t big at the moment in South Wales and the valleys, but Danielle is confident her vision and beliefs will help it grow.
She said: “It will happen here, the right people need to come together so we can make it work.
“Music doesn’t have to be listened to through alcohol. If anything, that’s you putting your fingers up to music. Just be you, and let music flow through you.”
📸 Danielle and her daughter, Chloe Hayman.
📸Danielle DJing at an alcohol-free event- the opening of Tidy Butt’s Grounded Coffee & Wellness centre in Sebastopol.