Five minutes with the Soul Sistas’
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No, you’re not seeing double: Soul Sistas’ are the twin DJ/MC duo act taking the capital by storm.
Fresh off the heels of their appearance at HerCanberra’s ACTIVE Night and ahead of their performance at New Year’s Eve in the City, we caught up with Angela and Sonia to find out what the pair have in store for 2019.
Firstly, how did you each start DJ’ing?
Angela: It all started five years ago. Our sister opened a club in Canberra called Digress, and we both used to work there as bartenders. We watched other DJs get hired and noticed they couldn’t keep a crowd.
We come from a family of five girls, so one of our sisters learned to DJ and thought we should all upskill and learn, so we did. Even though our technique wasn’t perfect at first, we learned what music would keep people in a venue and how to read and cater to diverse crowds.
Sonia: Given the clientele of the club, we actually learned to DJ spinning ‘70s funk. A lot of this music was originally recorded with live instruments and with no DJ intros, so it was very challenging to mix. But I almost think that’s what set the foundation for our careers because we learned the hardest genre first. Music these days is predominately computerised so we feel we can conquer any genre now!
When did you get the idea of performing as a duo?
Angela: Well we had our individual brands for a while, so I DJ’d as DJ Lipgloss, and Sonia DJ’d as Fresh Princess. We’d often go to each other’s gigs and started to notice people were quite entertained when we were both there. Particularly if one of us used the bathroom or went to get something to eat, we’d just switch, and people would get confused thinking the DJ changed clothes, and then when they saw us side by side they would just be mesmerised. So eventually we reached a point where we both thought ‘why are we trying to pursue our careers individually?’ We love dancing, we love having a good time, we vibe together all the time and crowds enjoy that energy. So we realised that ‘together we can achieve more than we ever will as individuals. It’s our X Factor.’ And that’s how the duo was born. Once we played a few gigs, we decided to introduce the MC element as well so we could capitalise on engaging our audiences and provide value for people that book us.
Do you have different styles?
Sonia: Yes definitely. Although we’re twins, we’ve always had our differences. I personally started to develop a love for Bollywood and Punjabi music, that really became my niche. Whereas Ange got a little more into Afro beats. Since combining forces though, we regularly share our music library with each other and we teach each other. We cross skills between us so that we can really take on anything.
Are there particular kinds of gigs you love to do now?
Angela: We loved when we played Bass in the Place for NYE last year, that big stage sort of stuff. Our duo is very much about entertainment, it’s an experience for people. We really like doing headline sets, festivals, any gigs where there are big crowds with all eyes on us because we bring a really good energy.
It seems like there’s a lot of male DJs in this industry, has that been a challenge?
Sonia: Most definitely. We are some of the only female DJs in Canberra now. It brought us challenges mostly when we first started because people would often question our skill and whether we could actually DJ. Plus we noticed a lot of people felt comfortable coming up to the DJ booth and standing close to us because they assume women are more inviting, or that we DJ because we want the attention. I think male DJs get this as well from time to time but we’ve always found it to be the biggest challenge, and why our Mum constantly calls us at 4 or 5 am after a gig just to make sure we’re safe.
Adding another layer to that, we’re women of colour as well—our ethnicity is Indian. So we’ve had instances where people approach us asking how we’re allowed to be out at night because a lot of Indian parents don’t allow their daughters to do this kind of thing. Ridiculous right, we’re meant to be in the 21st century!
But look once we started breaking the barriers, we became known in Canberra so we get less questions now. To be honest, we just really enjoy opening up the forum for other young females that want to do this. I’ve done some private functions where young girls come up to me saying, ‘oh my god, you’re the DJ? Do you think I could learn to DJ one day?’, and I’m like ‘of course you can!’. That’s a really good feeling.
You both work full time, Angela you’re a part owner of Ex Fitness in the city and Sonia you have a YouTube channel – so how do you both balance everything?
Angela: For me, the gym launched this year, which has been a bit frustrating for Sonia being half my duo, because she knows my time goes towards the gym and personal training as well. I think the good thing about having two of us is that we can cover each other. When Sonia covers my gigs, people sometimes don’t even notice!
Sonia: Yep and we each have our strengths too, so we honestly just work to that. We were raised to be very hardworking and strong from a young age through working in the family business – Indian Affair Restaurant in Phillip – so we’re used to grinding and hustling our way through day and night, it becomes so normal.
Tell us about New Year’s Eve in the City.
Sonia: We’re pretty excited, it’s going to be a big public event! We’re hosting the event, so we’ll be on the mics talking to people between acts, and then once the midnight fireworks happen, we’ll play a set afterwards.
We really want to do Canberra justice, it’s our home. People tend to bag it out a lot but we love our city. Ange always says ‘Drake put Toronto on the map, and I want to put Canberra on the map’. It’s a great place, and we never want to forget that this is where we came from. Canberra harboured our love for performing, so we really want to give back to our city and this New Year’s Eve event is us doing that.
Slider image by 5 Foot Photography.
The essentials
What: New Year’s Eve in the City
When: From 6pm Monday 31 December
Where: Civic Square
Details: visitcanberra.com.au
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