ONTARIO - LOCAL ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
A staple of the Niagara electro-house scene, Ontario
music fans should be very familiar with The Sour DJ’s.
Now Matt Jones, one half of the duo, is pursuing the next
step in his solo production career under the moniker of
The Sour DJ. Earlier this year DJMag.ca had the pleasure
of premiering ‘Lullaby,’ a somewhat departure from
the hard-hitting electro sound typically associated
with Matt’s work. The track was a breath of fresh air
in an already stacked market full of electro-house
anthems and gained some ground as an experimental
electronica piece. Minutes after stepping off the stage
after a two and a half hour set opening for Krewella in
the Guvernment Koolhaus, we were able to talk with
The Sour DJ about some upcoming projects and some
inspirational changes associated with his production
and branding.
With your current rebranding, moving
forward from here, what is that sound you
are looking to bring to our tracks?
I’m still looking to bring that big, fun, electro-house,
grinding bass line that the Sour DJs were known for.
Now that it’s just me, I really want to start heavily
introducing classical sounds again. I love working with
classical sounds and I want every single track that I
produce to have some sort of classical inspiration and
instrumental melody.
Are you ?nding that this change and the
process of moving from Niagara Region to
Toronto has been inspirational unto itself?
De?nitely! The place I moved to is in the hipster area of
Toronto, Liberty Village, and the studio I put in looks
right out to the CN Tower. So my view is all of Toronto
and the CN Tower from my studio. It’s really nice to
work, and have an area where you know the scene is so
large, and to have a following out here that pushes you,
too. There’s lots of places to go, like Trinity Bellwoods
Park or High Park. It’s nice just to go there, put in your
headphones on your laptop and work. You can’t do that
in Niagara, I know I couldn’t.
In Toronto your bookings as of late have
been exclusively with INK Entertainment.
What has that relationship been like?
It’s a dream come true. Every DJ in this area starts out
wanting to play at The Guvernment. Having these guys
helping me with my career and giving me bookings.
Today for example I played in the Koolhaus and I played
the main room at ‘Labour Of Love’. Those are two
legendary rooms that I’ve had the opportunity to play
in.
44
For the most part Niagara is a region where the party
scene caters to the university crowd, the big bookings
happen around frosh week. In Toronto there is a
multitude of touring artists that you have the ability to
play with.
I’ve had the opportunity to play with some amazing
guys. I mean, tonight I played with Seven Lions,
Krewella and Candyland. At Labour of Love I played with
Tommy Trash, Kill The Noise, and DVBBS as well as Nicky
Romero twice last month. It’s quite inspiring to play
with people you look up to.
While on the topic of other artists, which
producers do you ?nd closest to your own
sensibilities as a music creator?
I have a lot of producers I really look up to. Someone
like Knife Party for example. Their stuff is so clean! Their
production level is just so unbelievable and it sounds
amazing in the club. Another guy, Hailing Jordan, I
think his stuff is great! I like listening to them and
trying to ?gure out what they are doing to get to that
level of production. I don’t exactly what to make sounds
like them, but that their production value is so clean it’s
something I look towards.
Do you pride yourself on being uniquely
Canadian?
I was born in the UK, I moved here in 1996, so I was
just turning ten when I moved to Canada. England,
when I do go back there, still feels like home to me. I
feel Canadian though. England has this nostalgia for
me, but I am Canadian as far as I can say. I am proudly
Canadian and it’s one of those countries that you can
say where you are from and people respect you for it. I
think the music scene and the party scene is next level,
it really is. People here really love the music and I’m glad
to say I love this country.
Change can be inspiring. A note taken straight from the
success of The Sour DJ. It’s no wonder why some of the
most polarizing names in Canadian dance culture work
and reside in the countries largest city. Many dance
music producers move south of the border these days,
though some of the heavy hitters in the industry have
used Toronto as a workable environment that is one
of North Americas largest hubs for dance music. With
several major collaborations in the cooker, we look
forward in anticipation to what The Sour DJ does next.
www.djmag.ca