Sophie Sugar - Sweet Like Sugar
Sophie Sugar’s life has been full of music, from early childhood right through to today – so it’s no surprise the lure of producing was strong when she began DJing. Words by 3D’s Ghostwriter Killah and Rezo.
“As a child, I always loved any kind of music that had emotion in it – I know that sounds a bit cheesy,” she says. “Things like film soundtracks or classical music, for example, I loved. Then when I hit my teens I fell in love with dance music and the two of them came together really. In 1999 and 2000 UK trance was huge – it was the Paul Van Dyk For An Angel era and that’s where it began for me. I also went on a holiday to Ibiza and that was the holiday that really got me into trance! In fact, there was a track called 7 Days and 1 Week and that was it. That’s one of those songs that puts you at a point in time if you know what I mean.”
In 2004 Sugar returned to Ibiza, spending the entire summer on the island and landing a few shows at smaller night “you might not have heard of”.
“By the winter, when I came back to the UK I decided that I wanted to take the next step and I wanted to start making my own tracks,” she recalls. “I would get into the studio with various engineers and started making my own stuff. On the DJ side of things, I won a competition via DJ mag in conjunction with a London club called The Gallery and that promoted me a little. I was then playing Passion and big nights like that and things snowballed from there. My first track got signed to a Dutch label and other stuff came from there. Once I ended with my Armada things really took off.”
Sugar’s latest project was working with our very own BeXta for the eleventh instalment of her signature Mixology series – the first time the Sydney DJ/producer had collaborated in the series. The two had been introduced in Indonesia.
“BeXta and I play trance so I guess we have a fair bit in common and we spent a lot of time together and naturally stayed in touch afterwards,” she says of the duo’s first encounter. “Then I was booked to come to Australia and the subject of the compilation came up and that’s how Mixology 11 was born. It’s an institution so choosing the tracks wasn’t hard – it was the things I was listening to – but we also actually thought about the music we wanted to put on there. It wasn’t necessarily about putting anything on, although I ended up choosing a few of my own songs, and a few others that I’m caning at the moment.”
Aside from Mixology, the Brit is working on a follow-up to Redemption.
“I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now,” she says. “I don’t know what it’s going to be called yet. I’m also working on anther vocal track and to be honest, it’s something I’ve been working on for the last year so I’m excited about that. I’ve also got a few ideas about some 80s tracks to see what I can do with them in the studio. I’d like to do an album at some stage but that’s towards the end of next year or the year after.
“As for the tour, it’s my second time in Australia so I’m really looking forward to it. I didn’t get to Sydney or Adelaide last time so this time around I’m covering a lot more cities. I can’t wait!”
WHO: Sophie Sugar
WHAT: Mixology 11 through Central Station / Plays Freedom Festival, Hordern Pavilion
WHEN: Out now / Saturday 23 August
MORE: myspace.com/sophiesugar