As the party season starts to heat up for the long hot summer ahead the inthemix.05 tour gets set for lift off in just a few short weeks, bringing us the magic combo of Canadian dance monster Tiga and Sydney’s sweetheart of the decks Ajax. Semone Maksimovic got a chance to talk with the elusive Montreal born and bred Tiga Sontag to air all things inthemix.05 tour, CD and why he just can’t seem to get enough of Australia.
If you remember one of your first single most amazing dancefloor moments, as the blood pulsed violently through your veins, pulling at your heart and a simultaneous chill was sent straight through your body because things were just so perfect at that precise moment, you’ll more than likely find that it was as a searing Tiga track throbbed from the soundsystem, and whether you were in a tiny little garage of a venue or in a venue of super-club proportions his tracks always had the same thrilling effect. If you’ve been lucky enough to sneak a peak of his DJ sets on one of his last trips to our golden shores, then you’ll know that seeing him kick it live, the results are ten-fold, from the moment he honours the stage to the minute he vacates a room of exhausted expressions and blistered feet. So it was with great enthusiasm that I jumped at the chance to get inside this humble music genius’ head, only to find that he’s still down to earth and even possesses a slight hint of shyness at receiving a compliment and holds a secret passion for INXS and is prone to gushing about the results of their recent ‘search for a frontman’ reality show that saw a fellow Canadian taking the cake.
It’s been a long and gruelling year since we last saw the man on our shores, we’ve heard endless stories about his explosive sets throughout Europe and the UK, wishing we were there experiencing it all over again or that some new tracks from his highly-guarded forthcoming album ‘Sexor’ would surface in the meantime. Now at long last we’ve been served and I’m sure you’ll agree that the Sontag/Shears collaborative partnership still has smouldering effects when put to use. ‘You Gonna Want Me’ is the second time Tiga has teamed up with the Scissor Sisters’ frontman, the first of course being on ‘Hot In Herre’ a few years back. The new single has been picked up and soared it’s way up to the top of everybody’s end of year lists almost immediately, so how does one deal with these instant accolades bestowed upon him? Was it a finely crafted calculated track or just another dancefloor freakout that arrived from some unknown place?
“It was a pretty straightforward track to do and yes, it was probably the most calculated of the songs on the album. Which isn’t something I’m so happy about really, normally my stuff just comes out naturally and I’m left thinking ‘Whoa! Where did that come from?’ Whereas this one has a few certain elements I wanted and I put it together like a jigsaw puzzle,” he confirms. “After writing the track I decided I wanted a male vocal and the rest just came together easily, Jake’s in New York and I’m in Montreal (which isn’t too far) and it just happened. I like the idea of him being on my record, it’s incredible what the Scissor Sisters have done, I’m a big fan. So I think it was nice to continue that partnership.”
With his new, up until now top-secret longplayer done and dusted and locked away for a few months before it’s released for dancefloor domination to the highest degree. Is it likely that the disco darling’s feeling a little nervous about how his new baby will be received by the public? “One thing you have to do to stay sane when you’re putting your own music out there, is to be confident in your own opinions and if you love something, you just have to love it, you can’t question why and if you don’t like something, you shouldn’t have to think too much about why” offers a contemplative Sontag “It does get tricky, sometimes you’ll find that you love something and when you put it out there, you get a lukewarm response and then other times you might think something is horrible and people think it’s the best thing you’ve done,” he laughs. “It is hard because everybody wants to succeed, I mean I’d love a record to go to number 1, but you have to stay even-keeled about it. At the same time I have a whole bunch of peers and DJs that I trust and it matters to me if they love it and play it, but the rest you have to take with a grain of salt, you can’t take it too seriously.”
His inthemix.05 mix touches briefly on a few of his new sounds, but stands a world away from anything we may have heard from him on the DJ Kicks mix he released a few years back, with a stronger and punchier set that picks up the baton from the moment it opens with Tiefschwarz’s ‘Warning Siren’ and runs rampantly through a balls to the wall 70 minute mix, that holds all of the light, energy and excitement that his blistering live shows have become renowned for, even touching on a few of his newer tracks throughout the mix. Is this a sure-sign of what’s to come on the tour? Is it possible he’ll be taking ‘Sexor’ out of it’s high-security home to unleash on us unsuspecting revellers?
“The inthemix CD is a bit different from the past mixes I’ve done, I wanted it to be a bit more of an accurate representation of what I sound like when I DJ. I figured that because it was an Australian only release, where it’s not as much of a saturated market as Europe. I figured it was a good chance to showcase some of my big tracks from the past year and just do a party cd,” explains Sontag enthusiastically. “So I think you can expect my sets to sound similar, not with all of the same tracks, but probably in the same fun, party style. The CD is definitely much higher in energy than say, DJ Kicks, because I’ve been touring so much lately and I had the feel for it. Where say, when I did the DJ Kicks I wasn’t playing quite as much, so it’s was a bit more of what I was listening to at home. When I play live, depending on the venue, I usually like to take it a little bit deeper at certain periods, or go a little bit more disco and there’s usually a lot more of my own stuff,” he laughs, as he recollects a recent show he did in Portugal where he returned to the hotel after the four and a half hour set, only to find that he could clearly count spinning 16 of his own records. So I guess that blows the theory of DJs being scared to play to much of their own material in sets, right out of the water then.
Coming out to Australia 3 times in as many years seems to tell us that he loves it here, as much as we love having him here. But what is it about Australia that really strikes a chord with him? “I’ve been really lucky, the people that I’ve met in Australia so far have been really awesome, with the exception of the hardcore racist taxi driver I had in Queensland all of the people I met, like the Bang Gang guys, really impressed me with what they were doing. Everyone I met were just great and make it hard for me not to want to come back!” enthuses Sontag, before a more thoughtful take on the likeness our country shares with his homeland. “There’s one thing that’s interesting that I always feel when I’m in Australia is that there’s a lot of similarities between Australia and Canada, the net effect of it is pretty similar, we’re both pretty relaxed, fun loving and we don’t take ourselves too seriously, so I’d like to salute the Australian/Canadian union!”
With only a few short and restless sleeps, we’ll be charmed by the electro elite as Tiga gets set to highjack clubs around the nation with our own Ajax for the inthemix.05 tour. The inthemix.05 double CD mixed by Tiga and Ajax is released November 14th through Central Station/MRA.
Thu Nov 17 – Ambar, Perth (Tiga & Ajax) – [BUY TICKETS]
Fri Nov 18 – Metro, Melbourne (Tiga & Ajax) – [BUY TICKETS]
Sat Nov 19 – Home, Sydney (Tiga & Ajax) – [BUY TICKETS]
Sun Nov 20 – Mybar, Gold Coast (Tiga & Ajax) – [BUY TICKETS]
Fri Nov 25 – Monastery, Brisbane (Ajax & Illya)
Sat Dec 3 – Garage Bar, Adelaide (Ajax)
For more info on the inthemix.05 magazine, CD and tour check out http://www.inthemix.com.au/05/.
