They’re the ones that are constantly pushing me to be a better artist and person. Jelz: Definitely my friends, most of them are also DJs and creative people. I don’t restrict myself to just one genre I love to celebrate them all. Techno, baile funk, house music, hip-hop, dancehall, gqom, dembow, and so many more. The core of so many mainstream and popular genres come from us, Black people. We spin “world club”, blending dance music you’d hear in clubs in Africa and all Black diasporas. Our sound is a love letter to Black music all over the globe. PLAYGIRL: It’s the direct product of our environment, being from such a diverse city. Our stories deserve to be told and our city deserves to hear and PLAYGIRL, 22 and 26, co-creators of DJ duo REDLINERS I’d also like to see more opportunities for marginalised communities to be on big stages and platforms of events with bigger budgets. It feels like a hamster wheel a lot of the time because the infrastructure doesn’t support what we do. My hope is that the city begins to understand the importance of supporting nightlife and creative culture in general. What are your hopes for the future of nightlife in Toronto?
My upbringing and my queerness also deeply inspire my sound, so I love to play music that infuses ballroom culture, the Caribbean diaspora, soul and funk, as well as old school hip-hop and R&B, all of which essentially raised me as an artist.Īside from the music, what are the key elements of a good party?Ī great sound system, great lighting and a crowd with an open mind. I love to channel this through sets where I specifically gravitate towards house and techno and their derivatives. My job is to honour and celebrate them and uplift a new generation of artists. I really believe it’s important to progress to the future, but never to forget the past and the contributions of our pioneers. My love for dancing and the roots of house music, which is black and gay. Back when we started, there weren’t many opportunities for us (queers, women, BIPOC) to feel safe in a space playing dance music, so we decided to create our own. Pep Rally was birthed out of the desire to create our own space to congregate, dance and play the music we like to hear. Karim Olen Ash, DJ/producer and founder of Pep Rally We spoke to 9 leaders of Toronto’s queer underground club scene to learn more about local nightlife and how they advocate for their community from the ground up. “For us, it’s more than just a party it’s a chance for us to address and tackle the erasure of BIPOC and queer artists in underground dance music culture.” “A huge part of our community is uplifting and supporting other artists who deserve the platform to share their voice and perspective,” he says. For DJ and producer Karim Olen Ash, it goes deeper than just a fun night out. Though venues, funding and government support are still in short supply compared to other larger cities, people’s passion and pure love for their community is what feeds the culture. The police would shut us down in the middle of the night then we’d move to a different location, share the coordinates and the party would keep going like it was nothing.”
#Christina haak engaged full#
We were having parties in the middle of forests, under the highway, in schoolyards, packing full sound systems and generators in and out of U-Haul trucks to make it work. We had no idea when we’d get back to the club, but that summer I saw some of the most creative and iconic raves I’d ever been to.
“When every club and bar was closed, the girls were to rave.
“We always find a way to make things work,” says Jelz, one half of DJ duo Redliners.
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