She started her Navy service in 2016 on a four-year contract at a naval base in Oxnard, California. While there, she underwent weeks of training and took part in a 24-hour boot camp before being assigned a role. “They built this fake ship for the boot camp,” she recalls. “You’re on the ship doing different tasks throughout the day and throughout the night, and when I was on the ship I thought, ‘oh, this is not for me.’” Luckily, she was assigned a desk job as a drone mechanic while others were sent out to sea. What did the mechanics do? “We would check the gas levels, change the gas, check the engines, what else? I tried to block out as much as I could,” she laughs. “We were just testing, making sure everything was good to go — if there were any faults you’d log them, nothing too crazy.”

She also began studying criminology at the University of La Verne, all lectures taking place on the naval base, and established a strict routine — up at 5am, a gym session, shower and then to work at 6am. But halfway through the contract, Character realised her mistake. “Year two, I was like, ‘yeah, this is not going to be for me.’ I saw what it was, I didn’t really agree with it and I just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again, like a rat on the wheel,” she says. Her upbeat tone becomes more laboured. “I didn’t have to think, everything was taken care of, and for some people they’re okay with that stability, but I’ve never been the type to settle. It started feeling like a prison.” Trump’s election to the presidency didn’t help either. “I was like, ‘yeah I definitely need to get out — there’s no way I’m fighting any war for this man.’”

She doesn’t go into too much detail, but Character fell into a depression and even began suffering panic attacks. The few friends she did confide in suggested DJing as an outlet, a way to stay focused for the remainder of her time. “They were just like, ‘Well, why don’t you DJ? You love picking music when we go out, you should do that.’”

One friend even gifted her first controller (they are still in touch, and they go to see Character perform whenever possible). After much persuasion, Character agreed to the idea, putting all the day’s remaining energy into DJing. “I just became a robot in order to make it through. I literally shut down to get through those last two years,” she recalls. “After I was done with my shift, I would go back to the barracks, play around, record myself and be on the decks for hours — sometimes till 1am, knowing I had to wake up at 5am to go to work. I put my full self into that. So over those last two years, I was just DJing in my barracks, learning the craft.”