weareequaliser

[weareequaliser]

Siren’s Sybil talks music, dancefloors & behind the decks

Ahead of our winter party on the 8th December, we chat to Siren member, DJ & producer Sybil…

What does dance music mean to you?

Everything! No, but really, for some reason I’ve been possessed with an obsession for this music which means I could happily listen to it 24 hours a day without getting bored. I’m always looking for new music, and actually decided to pursue doing something in music when I told a friend I’d been YouTube digging for about 5 hours without moving, and he said “You know, you should really consider doing something with this passion, if it’s something you love doing so much.” And he was right! So I guess I’m riding this music train until it dumps me and I am no longer interested in it.

How do you feel gender plays into DJing? do you think it’s important for non cis-men to be visible in the music scene?

I don’t feel like gender affects my DJing much as I’m just a human or lil’ alien playing music that I like. I came to want to DJ through being obsessed with going out and dancing and listening to music. Dancer first, DJ second. I guess there is something that feels ‘feminine’ about dancing to me. So for me, dancing whilst I DJ or listen to dance music feels like embracing some kind of femme force through movement, but that’s not even much to do with being a woman, but more just enjoying feeling femme. Otherwise, I wouldn’t say gender affects my djing at all really. What is frustrating is if I am discriminated against because of my gender in spite of my djing. E.g. People judging me based on my gender. Like when Lauren (re:ni) and I were playing some techno and some guy leans over the decks to say “Why are NICE girls like you playing DARK music like THIS?!?” There’s still a lot of sexism in the scene, and in patriarchal society women and non-binary people must be twice as good as men at something before they are given half as much respect, as that old saying goes.

I think it is very important for non cis-men to be visible in music. We should prove that there’s no need for sexism or any other kind of discrimination based on someone’s identity when it comes to DJs, the more non cis-men the better. Everyone has music to share with people and move dance floors, there’s never too many DJs. When I started going out most of the DJs were alllll dudes, so it was hard to ever see myself as a DJ and for so long I just didn’t think it was something I could do. So it’s very important for inspiring more non-dudes out there that they can do this too if they want. It’s been so so great to see so many more non-cis men behind the decks in the last few years, now I feel like most of my favourite DJs are all women and non-binary people.

Where do you feel your music production and tastes are headed? What has your musical journey been so far?

My tastes are probably headed in a rogue direction, I am always looking for new sounds, and it’s cool to be able to observe my own tastes morphing. I’m currently really into 145-155 BPM techno and other fast dance music experiments, strange alien sounding things. It’s fun. My musical journey has basically been a continuous search for new music and new sounds. I started off as an obsessive indie kid at school going to gigs every week, but quickly started getting into electronic music first via bro-step ‘dubstep’ like Nero, Flux Pavillion and Doctor P, then Four Tet and Nicolas Jaar. It’s been a rather stereotypical journey through every shade of dance music since then, and I’m nowhere near done yet. More weird musical creations, please!

What is one tune you can’t get out of your head, why is this?

I adoreeee emotional 90’s IDM, this track is my new fav - Vespers - I feel like it’s saying “I see you, you are not alone, everyone is alone, none of this matters, one day you’ll be where you really belong.” It’s like it’s accepted confusion for now with the promise of resolution in the future. That’s what I see in it anyways, it resonates with me on that level.

What is the most important part of djing to you? Is it all about selections, technical ability or is it more than that?

It is about emotions for me. I feel music very emotionally and very visually. I have a kind of synaesthetic thing where I feel music in colours and ‘auras’. When I’m djing I’m mixing tracks together based on how I ‘see’ them to be related. I try to build up swells of energy and then pools of release. My djing style is based on what I would want to hear on a dancefloor, and I’m always trying to keep people moving and keep people feeling. That’s not to imply my music is soppy, it can be every shade of feeling: frustration, introspective apathy, mourning, longing, hoping etc. Obviously, track selection and technical ability are important, but for me, those are just the tools by which I can paint colours with sound and move people.

What excites you about being part of SIREN and why do you feel groups like SIREN are important? What is one thing that Siren has done that you’re most proud of?

These days I am just so so grateful for the amazing friendships I have formed with everyone in SIREN. It’s thanks to this crazy ride we’ve all been on together that I have formed close friendships with other people who are interested in music as much as I am. It’s so important to form groups and communities with people like you who like this stuff too. I feel like by working in a group, you can achieve so much more than if you’re on your own. I think the thing I’m most proud of is seeing people blossom who we have supported from the beginning. It’s so fulfilling to see people getting opportunities and being able to share their talent with the world. There are a few people who we gave their first gig, object blue, SPFDJ, Ifeoluwa, who now have burgeoning careers in music. That isn’t to say that’s because of us, no, not at all, but it’s so wonderful to see them getting the recognition we feel they deserve, and maybe the opportunity we gave them came at just the right time, and now they have more opportunities. We try to use the opportunities we have to help others where we can. Such as by having a guest on NTS each month, it’s a platform we can provide to artists we believe in. I hope people feel we have left a positive impact on the scene, all I could really hope for is that we’ve helped even one person.

You recently interviewed and wrote about Eris Drew who has a really interesting perspective on spiritualism and raving, do you hold any similar philosophies?

Talking to Eris for three hours certainly strengthened my pre-existing spiritual views. I relate a lot to what she is saying. When djing, I definitely am thinking about moving people in a way that is more than just ‘here is a track I like’. Music is this inexplicable force which I still can’t wrap my head around. I find it truly amazing that I can listen to music and so quickly be immersed in a vision or feeling, something so specifically strange. Eris’ philosophy gave me a lot of clarity on these intuitions. I think music is the universe speaking to us somehow and is a way to access planes of mind that are otherwise hard to reach day to day. If I can take people to those kinds of imaginary worlds while I DJ, then I’ll be very satisfied with that. When I’m out listening to music, I live for those moments where you and a friend are dancing together, and suddenly something happens in the music, and you have this shared experience, and somehow this music is affecting everyone in the same way, and you have all these feelings and it’s just unexplainable why that is. That’s the magic I’m looking to create when I DJ. I certainly don’t hit that mark every time, and it’s rare that all the factors lineup to create moments like that. But that’s the ultimate goal.

Do you mainly use turntables? How do you feel about USBs vs Turntable conversations?

So I learnt how to DJ only on vinyl, and didn’t feel comfortable using CDJs for a long time. But as I got used to CDJs more and more, that’s now the dominant way I DJ when I’m playing out, bringing along just a few special records. When I started djing more regularly, I realised the advantages of using CDJs and playing digital tracks are huge from an organisational perspective. I have playlists upon playlists, and I can be pulling together and downloading tracks for sets I have coming up as and when I have free time on my laptop. It’s so much more affordable too. I love my records, I love playing them, I love having music on vinyl, but realistically I go through music so fast and can’t financially justify buying tracks on vinyl I’ll quickly get bored of. I have shelves and shelves of records I’ll just never play now. These days I’ll buy something on vinyl if I really love it and want to keep it forever, or if I can’t get it digitally. Also since reading about the really bad environmental impact of vinyl (it’s totally indestructible and made of super toxic material), I made a pact with myself not to buy any more new records. So I only buy second-hand records, and the handful of new records I have bought have been by friends or on friends’ labels to support them. I’ve also grown to absolutely love hot cues and the loop functionality of CDJs, they add so much dynamism to my djing which I just can’t get on vinyl. But I mean the format is just the format, everyone should just DJ on whatever format works for them, it’s great there are so many options, but it’s about the music at the end of the day, not what you play it off.

How did you get into djing? What was your first introduction to dance music?

My first “DJ set” was for a charity night at university and I played off Virtual DJ on my laptop, this was just because I liked music and somehow ended up volunteering last minute to do it, but I wouldn’t really count it as I hadn’t ever DJ’d before that. I took up djing properly when I graduated from University and bought my turntables. I was living back at home and just practising constantly. I got introduced to dance music when I started going out at Uni, though had been listening to bad ‘dubstep’ at school, but not sure that counts.

Do you feel music is inherently political or has the ability to be? Does it provide you with any solace or liberation?

Dance music is inherently political yes. It’s very privileged to even consider that it wouldn’t be political… Dance music was formed in marginalised communities, and this must not be erased or forgotten. It is empowering to see groups formed of non-cis-men reclaiming dance music and taking up space in the scene. Music is such a powerful creator of communities, and so so important as an axis through which marginalised groups can come together and feel free of the oppression of the world for a night. It’s also a wonderful tool through which people can express their identities, something Eris spoke about with me very articulately. Sadly the structures of oppression which affect marginalised groups day to day play out in dance music as well. As a very privileged person in so many ways, I try to be conscious of this and do what I can to counter this in dance music spaces.

Music definitely provides me with both solace and liberation. Solace from the insanity of the world. Liberation from my own mental limitations. I can be feeling apathetic or confused and music will take me away from that to somewhere else. Sometimes I wish I could just vanish and exist within some kind of musical consciousness space forever. I ultimately feel that that feeling and place you access when listening to music is much closer to the realm we all came from than most other things you can experience living in the physical world. Because it isn’t physical, it’s pure imagination, but still real. You know when you’re lying in bed in the dark listening to music? Like that feeling of total immersion. I just want to stay there forever. I guess that’s why I’m not bored of it yet, nor suspect I ever could be. It’s where I feel most myself and most free to be myself and most alone and at peace. I hope I get to keep sharing that with other people.