DJs SONOS
JASMINE KABILING-
Imagine being in control of everyone around you, taking complete responsibility for the atmosphere of a room and having the power to change up the vibe of
Photograph by Louis Saturnino
your surroundings at any given moment. This type of control may seem out of reach to many, but according to Jordan Gardner, this is the exact power that DJs hold.
Gardner, a second-year Media Studies student, is one half of the DJ-duo called SONOS. The other half consists of Gardner’s childhood friend, David Patterson. As children, they both wanted to DJ with one other and that plan finally came to life last March. Since then, they have spun music at four venues, including reputable night clubs such as This is London and The Social.
As one of the many up and coming DJs in Toronto, SONOS provides a sound that is unique from their peers.
“Our distinct sound comes from a transitional point in our lives– from being the stereotypical black youth listening to hip-hop, to our search for alternative forms of music, which we found in the electronic genre,” Patterson says.
So if you happen to be at one of their shows, don’t expect them to play the usual top 40 hits. Electronic music is typically based on synthetic, hard hitting percussion and heavy bass driven sounds. Patterson says to “think of electro as hip-hop’s European cousin on ecstasy.
Gardner says that his taste in music started out as a mix of rock, alternative and hip-hop, which eventually manifested into electronica, a synthetic blend of elements from all three genres.
“When I was younger, my brother was a really big techno and trance head and he always played it before I went to sleep,” Gardner explains. “I think that’s when I started to get into that genre of music as well.”
Patterson talks about how the seed was planted for SONOS’ love of electro during their trip to North Carolina. “We were in the car for about 16 hours on the way home from North Carolina and we had nothing else in the car to listen to except for Steve Aoki’s album,” says Patterson. “It was one of those albums where the sound has to grow on you before you understand it.”
Gardner and Patterson’s stage name SONOS, is actually borrowed from the name of a dual hard-drive from the 80’s. “It sounded really cool and dual made sense because we’re a duo,” explains Gardner. “It used to be S.O.N.O.S. which stood for Stereophonic, Omniscient, Noises Of Sex until we realized it was corny. We weren’t trying to express sexy sounds we just wanted people to know that our music would sound sexy good.”
The name was suggested by Patterson after they were asked by Toronto’s DJ Cut Class to come up with a name to go by. They were approached by DJ Cut Class to fill up a party bus to one of his shows and in exchange, they were offered the chance to play an opening set.
There have been a couple of issues, however, regarding the duo’s name. “Universal just signed a group under the name SONOS, so if we were to produce anything under that name, they could sue us,” says Gardner . “As of right now, we’re still in the process of coming up with a new name.”
To listen to a couple of SONOS’ playlists, visit http://soundcloud.com/sonos-1.
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