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Music

Keeping Busy with Sydney Blu

How this Canadian found her calling in house music.

Toronto's underground house and techno scene is stronger than ever. Artists who were spinning after-hour clubs and barely getting noticed have now blown up on an international scale exporting some of the best sounds Canada has to offer.

A few weeks ago Toronto celebrated World Pride and Digital Dreams festival on the same weekend. Sydney Blu was able to spread her music across both platforms, where she played a set at Pride's OLG stage moments after landing, followed by an after party at Coda and ending her weekend of madness with a performance at the Echo Beach stage.

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I managed to catch Sydney in between sets during our cab ride to Coda. We talked about her change in sound, the growth in Toronto Pride and what's next for her documentary series.

THUMP: A very stacked weekend for you! What's going through your mind right now?
Sydney Blu: I am having a big adrenaline rush right now because I just finished playing for over a thousand people and this is my favourite gig of the year. I am very happy now that I'm back in Toronto. After the flight delays I came on stage where Cedric from Starving Yet Full did some live vocals. We were about two songs in and I started to feel in my element again. I'm just really happy to be back and am pumped for the rest of the weekend.

You lived in Denver for a little while, where are you residing now?
I live in Los Angeles right now.

Why the change of scenery?
I moved to LA because it's very active in the industry at the moment. It's a good place to live and a lot of people in the music industry live there. It's a major epicenter for musicians, so when you're around people like that everyone feeds off each other. You can also be a complete weirdo and everyone still accepts you. Even if you are a fucking crazy and bizarre person you can go there and make something out of that [laughs].

You played OLG stage last year as well.
I play it almost every year.

So you've seen it change over the years, how is it coming along?
It has definitely evolved into something more professional. It used to be a crapshoot, where you showed up and the equipment was really ghetto. They're a non-profit organization in their defense, but they've really grown over the course of the last 10 years. As a result the stage has improved and so has pride week in general. Even their business practices have improved and they've clearly learned how to do it. Tonight they had a great sound system in there and the turnout was packed. They have built a following and I'm happy to do it every year.

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Last year you where involved with Blackhole Recordings, a label known for trance releases. You made some progressive trance, but now you're back into spinning house. Can you tell us more about that?
I am still signed on Blackhole and my new album will come out on the label and it will be house. About a year ago I decided that it wasn't in my heart to make big room stuff. I evolved in the scene when I moved to the United States because of the surge in popularity you had to follow that sound. It was a sink or swim type of situation. The clubs weren't into tech-house around 2010 to 2011, so to get bookings you had to follow that style. I was happy with it but it became far-gone and everything sounded too similar and I couldn't do it anymore. I was making music based on what other people would like and not based on what came from my heart; that's not how you write music, you do it from the heart.

The dance music scene has always been connected to the LGBT community and for the longest time the only events that offered electronic music were the gay parties, do you think in present day that community still has an impact on the music?
Absolutely! It's so much more open now. Look at gay marriage, it has started to become legalized in the US, it has been legal in Canada for a long time. In the underground it was very big back then and now it has become a norm for the gay community to be forward thinking when it comes to music and throwing great parties. Who's never gone to a good gay party? [Laughs] They don't throw a bad party that's for sure!

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Tell us some of your roots in the Canadian music industry.
I come from Thunder Bay, Ontario. I used to dance, play piano, partake in the school band and I used to be a cheerleader! When I discovered electronic music, it was around the time I used to pick the music for the cheerleading competitions and I always used to play house music. When I moved to Ottawa to go to Algonquin College, that's when I felt like I found my home. I used to go to a club called Atomic and that changed my life!

You have Blu Music going on, you've been pushing that and the radio show quite a lot in the past couple of years, how is it coming along?
Amazing! I always like to break in new talent and some of them are ranking high in the Beatport charts. My radio show is what I am really excited about right now because I have great guests on it every time and it's syndicated in over 36 countries. Names include Nathan Barato, Carlo Lio, Riva Starr, My Favorite Robot, Tube & Berger, Nervo and so many others! Next edition will feature Christian Smith.

How is your documentary series going? Give us some details.
It's a story about me going from city to city. It's a little bit of a travel show and I want to profile each city and the scene there. It touches on my history, my experiences and also if I have a connection with a specific city. We have a new episode, the sixth one in the series, where it's about me and my one-year in LA. It will be out this summer.

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So you have Blu parties in Miami and New York coming up, can we expect one in Canada?
There will be, I think there is some chatter about doing a reunion party at The Gallery room of The Guvernment. Coda is my main venue right but we're definitely working on a Blu party in Toronto soon.

Ani Hajderaj is an advocate of electronic music and loves soda water. Follow him @AniHajderaj.

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