Industry Interview: DJ and Perfumer Zernell Gillie

A niche house combining the love of music and fragrances

If you look at the profile of a fragrance house owner or perfumer, Zernell Gillie has an atypical background. He grew up on the west side of Chicago and eventually enrolled in college to study chemical engineering. He worked at Dow Inc. for 19 years during the day while living his dream as a DJ at night. His trips to Europe for gigs became so frequent that he would eventually move his family to Budapest for a number of years. They had just moved back to the U.S. for his wife’s job when the world stopped in March of 2020 because of the pandemic. He decided it was the perfect time to create a fragrance. Since then he’s launched multiple products, many of which are in stores around the country. This is his story.

Nick: Zernell! Appreciate you joining me today. Let’s start by talking about what it was like growing up in Chicago in the 80’s and how you originally found your love of fragrances.

Zernell: I primarily grew up on the westside of Chicago. For a brief moment we lived in Memphis because of my dad’s job. The company he worked at for 30 years eventually closed and it left him with nothing. After that I noticed things were different at home but they always found a way to provide. Once we made our way back to Chicago my love for music started to grow - I was an MTV kid. I was watching all the rock videos but hearing dance music on the radio solidified everything. That’s what led me to become a DJ. My love of fragrance grew at the same time. I used to dabble with my dad’s Pierre Cardin cologne but I bought my first fragrance from Marshall Field’s when I was 16 - a bottle of Halston Z-14. Fragrance and music always went hand in hand for me.

Nick: How did you progress through your fragrance journey?

Zernell: I went from trying designer fragrances to exploring niche fragrances. What really opened my eyes was trying fragrances while I was DJing overseas. I didn’t realize they had a completely different selection in other countries. I was in Harrods in London and was getting ready to buy a bottle but decided to just wait and buy it when I got home. But when I got back to the states, I couldn’t find it anywhere! I was sick when I realized I couldn’t get it.

Nick: Harrods exclusives will get you every time! You decided to start a fragrance line right after DJ gigs were hard to come by in the pandemic. Was this your first idea or were you thinking through other options?

Zernell: It’s funny because I’d be sitting around the house during lockdown wearing $500 perfume. And my wife would always ask, “Why are you wearing that right now? You’re not going anywhere!” I told her it was because it made me feel good. In those moments, I started thinking about what it would be like to create my own. The great thing is that I had made enough money from my music merch to be able to fund this endeavor. I had an interesting perspective because I wanted these fragrances to smell unique but also be at a more accessible price point. Usually mass appealing fragrances are the ones that are more affordable but lack originality. After a lot of trial and error we came up with something that my wife, someone who isn’t a huge fragrance lover, really liked. And that’s how my first fragrance Disco was born.

Nick: How was Disco received once it was commercially available?

Zernell: I ordered my first 100 bottles. They sold out in 3 days. That was great, but then I realized I wasn’t ready for the extra demand. I had to rush to order more, those got stuck in customs, and then they somehow disappeared altogether so I had to order more. There was a month long delay and I was freaking out because I didn’t have a product for people that purchased it. Luckily all of my customers were patient and didn’t mind the additional wait. The original box that went missing and the new order were delivered at the same time. Now I had 300 bottles, but they still needed to get printed. My operations weren’t as tight as I wanted them to be but that’s what I had at the time. Once I got into a few boutiques (Lucky Scent and The Ministry of Scent), everything started blowing up. I never thought I would see the day when I was ordering 1,000 bottles, but now I’m ordering 8,000 - 10,000 bottles per order.

Nick: That’s incredible growth. Since you’re an emerging brand, how do you think about positioning yourself in a crowded fragrance market?

Zernell: As you know, the fragrance industry is worth billions of dollars, but this is an art form too. It’s subjective. My brand resonates with people because they feel the authenticity of everything. “Oh this guy is a DJ!” They can go online and see me at shows and hear my music. Nothing about my brand is contrived. My tagline “music is life” is on each package. People feel it in the product and see the love and how I feel about fragrance. I haven’t spent any money on marketing or done any ads to this day. That might need to change now in order to scale, but things are still going well without it.

Nick: So how did the next fragrances in your line come about? And how did you think about naming them?

Zernell: I have an affinity for every fragrance I release and it has some tie-in with something in my life. Techno was the second fragrance I released. When I was traveling through Europe so many people thought the genre was a European art form, but in reality it came from black kids in Detroit. The music is bold so the fragrance needed to be bold too. Then came Hip-Hop for my love of rap groups like Wu-Tang and A Tribe Called Quest. After that I released House, which was perfect timing because it was house music’s 40th anniversary and I’m a House DJ. Jazz came next because I play a lot of Jazz and it’s also a big love of mine. Then I realized I needed something to pay tribute to 90s R&B and that’s the latest fragrance to date. Mary J Blige, SWV, all these powerful women and the guy groups like Jodeci. It reminded me of summer time, white linen parties, driving a convertible. Pure joy. So I made it into a summer, fruit-heavy tropical scent.

Nick: This was such a great conversation Zernell, thanks again for joining me. What can people expect from you next?

Zernell: I don’t want to tell you the name of this one yet, but I’ll give you a hint. When I played this genre of music, the older folks in the crowd used to jump up and down out of excitement. The notes blend together so well and it’ll be perfect for fall.