ADSR Mix 017: Aida

June. 27. 2016

This week in the ADSR mix series, we welcome an up and coming Vancouver DJ with a passion for good sound and good music.  Aida’s quest for the groove started many years ago beginning with Trance and progressive and eventually making way to her current sound of deep, tech, and minimal house.  Time spent at various design houses in San Francisco and Berlin helped Aida to further shape her artistic tastes and musical vision.  Read more below as we talk music, travels, and good sound, plus be sure to check out the hour long mix she’s left for us.  Also if you happen to be in Vancouver Wednesday. June 29th, head down to the ANZA club to see Aida in action for the Subduction underground music series.              

Hi Aida, what’s up?
Heyhey. Not much. Just moved to a new place and I’m supposed to be unpacking everything.

Take us back to the start.  Where did your love of Tiesto and electronic music begin? :P
Haha Tiesto…I think it’s time I start keeping that a secret. It all started in my best friend’s bedroom when I was 13 or 14. She played the song In My Memory and my young heart felt that chest ache you feel when you’re in love. The obsession started there with Trance. I would spend hours on end watching videos, reading articles, downloading songs, and trying to convince my friends that these songs were amazing. House music and other offshoots of electronic music naturally followed. At 15, with great enthusiasm, I started to rent CDJ’s and a mixer for my friend’s parties and DJing for them. I recently found my CD collection from those days with half of them having the word “Ibiza” somewhere on the title. 

How do you find your tastes have matured since first getting into electronic music?
The evolution is entertaining to think about. I went all over the electronic map like a fruit fly.  Whenever I’d hear something that got to me, I’d rapidly change direction and start discovery mode in that range. From trance to funk house, progressive house, ambient, and so on. Although it wasn’t too often that I’d fully divert without a return. The only long term diversion I had was with Trip Hop when I put everything else aside for about 3 years. The dark melancholy of it had a strong impact on sounds that I am attracted to today. Coming down from the Trip Hop trip, new phases and people in my life brought me into deep/tech house and techno. 

Talk to us a bit about your travels, having spent time in San Francisco and Berlin, how do you feel this has shaped your sound?
The travels were very impactful. I spent half a year in Europe in 2013 and was motivated to go to as many festivals and parties as possible. From then on, I started to notice how different cultures in every place fully come through in their parties. I especially felt the cultural impact in the two icons Berlin and San Francisco. To me, the scenes in these two cities are very different from each other. Yet, there are underlying similarities that you can’t miss when you look closely. Kind of like two sisters who make opposite choices just for the sake of trying not to have anything to do with each other. The music coming out of the dark culture of Berlin hit home with the impact that trip hop had in my taste. San Francisco and the burner crowd gave everything a multicultural and colourful twist. In the last few years there has been plenty of talent out there producing beautiful music that is an amalgamation of these two vibes. This is more or less where I am now. 

You also do some work with a Vancouver startup called “Serene Audio” tell us more about that. 
Yes. Serene Audio is the brainchild of my brother who cares a great deal about audio. He started the company to share his love for great sound and design with the world. Being really impressed by his achievements and the great deal of care that went into every aspect of the company, I decided to join in. Our first product is called the Talisman speaker which is a hi-fi desktop speaker hand crafted in our workshop here in Vancouver. We are working on a new product now that we are very excited about. I’d say we are taking things to the next level with this one. 

What does “good sound” mean to you?
Good sound is what sounds good to each individual’s ear. In my subjective opinion, good sound is about how tasteful someone can be with minimal ingredients. It’s like cooking. Where a little dash of this and a little pinch of that is carefully and thoughtfully thrown in, in the most minimal way possible, to create a beautiful composition. They say good design goes unnoticed. Sometimes I think good sound does too. 

Speaking of “good sound” you’ve left us with some goodness in the form of an hour long DJ mix.  Take us through the journey.
This mix is full of those little dashes and pinches, especially in the beginning and end. The vibe of the whole thing is quite grey and blue and for the most part its quite deep. It starts out slow but quickly gets playful. Midway through the deeper more serious sounds come in which later transition to a dark melancholy vibe . I’m particularly excited about Francis Harris and Roi Okev in there, both of which I find to be extremely tasteful producers. The ending is also a fun one to pay attention to with its juxtaposed melodies. 

You’ll also be playing this coming Wednesday at the ANZA club for the Subduction series.  What can we expect?
Yes yes, Subduction at Anza which I am very excited about… I think its going to be a bit on the darker and dirtier side of tech house. I’d like to throw in a bit of “multiculti" in there as well. 

Let’s see how it goes!