Above Photo Credit: Henry Woodley
One of the best things about going to a festival are the new people you meet. Festivals bring together people from all walks of life in a bubble detached from day-to-day life and often leave you with memorable stories that help keep you positive during the dark winter months. This was especially true in 2021 after the cancellation of virtually all festivals in the UK over the summer of 2020. We were lucky enough to meet Malissa, founder of Sisu at this year’s edition of Cosmic Roots Festival while catching a breather on Saturday evening, and a few months later we have been lucky enough to catch-up about her love for music, life in Edinburgh and plans for Sisu and herself in 2022.
Hi Melissa, can you give a brief introduction and maybe explain what it is you do as your day-to-day?
Hey, I’m Melissa, I DJ and produce under the name Malissa – creating a range of stuff through experimental, breaks, party and techno sounds. I was born in Liverpool, grew up in Southport and currently live in Edinburgh.
Each day for me is very different which I really enjoy. For my day job I work across various organisations in the creative industries from theatre to music in fluid roles from event manager to administrator.
I really enjoy exploring artistic and cultural expression through different creative projects, most of which are DIY organisations which kickstarted to work towards positive social change and from passion in doing so. One of the places I call home is Southbank Centre in London, I trained in Community Arts Management there and it was an incredibly eye-opening experience. Having this platform behind my creative ideas enabled me to produce a DJ course for women which led to the birth of Sisu – a community which platforms women and non-binary DJs, producers and recently Behind the Scenes staff in the music industry.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to work remotely during lockdown which has enabled me to travel for work and move cities. I enjoy being outside and exploring even more so with the increased amount of time I am spending on my laptop over the past few years.
I think it is important living in such a complex world to be able to express yourself and share artistic vision with others and how this can better help us understand one another.
I love scrans and tasting new foods – huge part of my day to day – also trying to up my cooking skills which has gone from burning everything to slightly more acceptable. Made Arrinchi from scratch the other week with cheese and chilli inside which was a journey but successful! Tip: do use stock not gravy. I’m terrible for not following recipes and winging it just guessing measurements, can discover something new and go alright or be completely terrible and ruin the meal.
Huge daydreamer! My mind is constantly thinking about new projects, what is happening in the world or where to travel next. I love riding my bike around, enjoying pedalling through the hills of Edinburgh at the minute, such beautiful sights.
Can you tell us a bit about some of your favourite music and bands growing up, and also what led to your discovery of electronic music?
I was born and grew up in the 90s so I had Spice Girls on cassette and I guess a lot of cheesy pop and grunge bands on my MP3 player, it’s interesting thinking back about the evolution of music players. I remember having Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz on Walkman – which I still love – seeing them perform at Boomtown Festival in 2018 was one of the best live experiences I’ve ever had and with not knowing what to expect their performance blew my mind; they collaborated with loads of different artists throughout the performance like bringing Little Simz on stage! Growing up music was produced with a lot of electronic music elements, samples, loops, mpcs, synths and so i think that was ingrained pretty early on.
I used to go camping with my sister and her husband and around that time they were travelling the country raving so they used to play a lot of loud dance music, I think this also had some influence.
My other sister took me to my first concerts when I was a wee kid holding onto my shirt at NME rock concerts. She has rows and rows of CDs that she’s had since I was younger. She is one of those people who knows tracks inside out and someone who I learnt from to really listen to the stories being told in songs, I can sometimes get distracted by the instrumental side of music and not process the meaning behind the lyrics. Spending a lot of time with my sister when I was younger blessed me with the sounds of Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Guns and Roses – all of that grungy rock goodness.
My mum brought the soulful side of music into my life, growing up in the 60s she is all about Motown; Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra the Rat Pack etc so I have a lot of vinyl from the 60s that I have collected mostly from charity shops since my teens. A hopeless romantic – I love songs about love and songs that are jazz infused with emotive vocals.
I played clarinet in an orchestra throughout high school, one highlight was playing at Liverpool Cathedral with a full orchestra. I have always loved classical music, I find it truly fascinating and hugely influential to how music is where it is now and I’ve still so much classical music to explore!
In college I met people who were going to raves in Liverpool and mixing at home and this was kind of the entry into wanting to learn mixing whilst also being in awe of going to see DJs and live acts at events, opened up a whole new experience from the world clubbing into the world of raving. My feet are definitely praising me now for wearing DMs and trainers to go out dancing all night. One night whilst I was out in Manchester, I remember being at an event looking at the DJ thinking I want to be up there playing too!
What led to you moving to London?
I moved to London after finishing studying Events Management at Liverpool Community College. I was already travelling to London regularly for nights out such as Fabric’s 16th Birthday, that was a stormer seeing Marcel Dettmann and Steffi for the first time blew my head off, it can be such a mad feeling can’t it when you’ve listened to an artist for ages and then they are right there playing in front of you in such a boss space. I also enjoyed going to a few Superstition nights at Village Underground, some super highlights there was seeing Shifted, Anastasia Kristensen, Ben Klock and also Matrixmann who you can catch playing Astral in Liverpool on Boxing Day!
Liverpool is a special city but at the time I felt the need to explore somewhere new. I’m quite unpredictable with where I want to be and don’t give so much thought to that, I kinda go with feeling. I don’t find packing a bag and moving cities daunting, I already had a friend Yasmin in London and so we shared a room and I worked on bars until I landed a job at the incredible Southbank Centre.
And what led to your move to Edinburgh? How is the electronic music scene?
I left London when the first lockdown happened, working as a freelance events manager meant my work stopped instantly. I moved back home to my mums which was lovely and after a year and a half of being home I wanted to move somewhere to have some space and independence. Being by the coast is a huge thing for me. I have always liked the ocean and fresh air and after living that slower pace of life I didn’t really feel like moving back to a fast-paced London.
I visited a friend in Edinburgh years ago during Kelburn Garden Party (one of the most magic festivals which is built around a Glenn – highly recommend to check) and remember the houses being really old and spacious which after being inside so much during lockdown felt like something I really wanted!
I haven’t yet fully experienced the nightlife in Edinburgh, Vera is running her wicked event EPiKA at the Mash House which is going really well. She is doing a great job, she’s a kick ass DJ and a wicked promotor at the same time! Having just landed a residency with EPiKA I will be experiencing some of the local talent and audiences more regularly which is cool.
I’m hoping to go to some more nights over the next few months in Edinburgh and explore what’s going on a little more. Clubs open at 11pm and close a lot earlier here with the music ending at 3am compared to venues in Liverpool and London flying up to 6am + closing times; events feel like they fly pretty quickly, definitely a thing to get used to or not – we will see!
I went trawling through the SISU website and it’s absolutely amazing! You and your crew have created a really special platform – it is honestly one of the best platforms I have seen in this ‘underground’ scene and really showcases all of the DJs in your crew to the fullest. What was your inspiration behind founding SISU and how did it all come together?
Thank you so much, very kind words! We have such a special, passionate and energetic team that really makes the magic of Sisu happen.
There were a few elements I found inaccessible whilst first learning how to DJ including the male-dominated spaces, the expensive equipment, the support of people also trying to learn a new skill. These things combined led me to create a DJ course at Southbank Centre. The course sold out and the energy from the people on the course all learning together in a space that was confident building and empowering really enabled a focused learning space and a space to make mistakes, there is so much to learn and these learnings can sometimes happen whilst playing live which can be so scary and can sometimes knock a person’s confidence, supportive spaces can really help with this.
After the first DJ course we planned an event to showcase the course participants, then we started getting booked by other spaces and we landed a year long residency at Number 90 in Hackney Wick. Sisu has grown in such unpredictable directions. Having such a welcoming warm ethos and support network we have all worked together and this way of working creates a strong community which then people want to get involved in not only to DJ but to create new ideas and Sisu is a space for both of those things. We have had some of the DJs want to release a podcast series, radio shows, play a particular venue etc and so we work together to create new directions which is magic.
Does being based in Edinburgh rather than London feel more detached from the core DJs and rest of the team – how do you keep in touch and keep things running smoothly?
It does and I miss everyone a lot. We were fortunate enough to grow a team and function remotely during lockdown which was incredible as we kept up the momentum of building up our artists online and the collective as a whole, we dived straight into events as soon as things opened. A lot of our team and artists have built beautiful friendships and see each other quite regularly to have a mix or go to each others gigs, radio shows and so the in person aspect of our Sisu meeting up still happens, two of our DJs and team members actually now live together which is amazing there is a real love between everyone. I travel between Liverpool, London and Scotland regularly and so try to see everyone as much as I can whilst passing through the city.
A wonderful thing about Sisu is that we aren’t based in one place, one of our team members Vera is also Edinburgh based and Sophia is moving in the new year too and so we have been meeting up mixing and cultivating relationships in Scotland, whilst continuing to develop projects in other parts of the UK.
Everything has been a little hectic since things opened up again, as I’m sure it has been for a lot of people. We will be getting back into the swing of our monthly meetings again in the new year, both in person and online. We are constantly evolving as a team and so we check in regularly with each other to see what’s going on and to just have those general catch-ups.
What future plans do you have for SISU?
We have just dropped our new roster call out for our 12-month rolling programme, this closes just before Christmas. We will be working with a new roster from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023, we are so excited for this! New music, energy and dreams! If you want to find out more about applying you can visit our website for all the information on this, please do feel free to share.
To also have regular rolling education programmes is super important, we put a lot of our education strands on hold during lockdown as meeting in person was tricky. We focused on working 1-1 with our roster artists via Zoom, aiming to work through their goals and aspirations as best we could at the time.
We have also just landed a Youth Music Incubator Fund to start working on training young people in behind the scenes roles, starting with artist manager and event producer across Liverpool and London. This will be dropping in Jan, stay tuned via our socials!
We are in conversations with some promoters and festivals to play next year too, it would be wicked to host a stage takeover with Sisu. We really enjoyed the 5-hour stage takeover at Cosmic Roots festival. I remember seeing Garage Girls curate and host a stage at Boomtown a few years back and thought yes this is sick and would be so sick for us to do one day!
Photo Credit: John Liddell
Collaboration too, we have worked with some fantastic people co-hosting events including Meraki, Dance Floor Mechanics and Earful of Wax at The Cause which saw some of our residents like Airali, Sita Shah and Ama play, both of these events sold out was poppin.
Keep on having as many conversations as we can too on how to continue diversifying spaces together with venues, promotors, labels and more.
Your aspiration on your website was that you want to start your own festival one day which I thought was pretty sick – what vision do you have for your festival (where would you want it to be, size, the type of music, etc?)?
I would love that so much! I really like festivals that don’t need much to create the different worlds you experience, the site or landscape is the festival kinda thing as is Kelburn and Cosmic Roots is similar too with the wormhole experience built out of wood from the site itself. Cosmic was magic with the view of that sky, really is something else!
Having a diverse range of artists on the line-up of course, including all sorts of different types of music; DJs, cross-arts performances, orchestral, live acts/ bands a bit of everything. I have also recently grown to like much longer DJ sets, giving the artists time and space to immerse themselves into their creations.
Being from Liverpool, it would be nice to work with local Liverpool artists and communities such as Melodic Distraction, Girls Don’t Sync, Lupini, Watt Hz, Keep It Cryptic, Social Hours and working with the Invisible Wind Factory’s event production team would be cool too. Different stalls and involvement from local artists such as Kirsty Richardson’s fashion design, Ellie Jane’s graphic design, Cal Medforth’s Graffiti and Henry Woodley’s photography.
I also like creative and interactive spaces at festivals, to have Chessendicy at a festival would be wicked, live music and chess. Spaces to learn and experience holistic well-being I think is important too. I also would like it to be as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible, really reducing the waste and environmental impact that festivals create, I think Headroom Festival are doing a fantastic job of this.
It would be cool to have collaborative projects like music collectives working with visual artist collectives creating different areas.
More women and non-binary behind the scenes staff; event mangers, sound engineers, artist liaisons, programmers and more.
Oh and loads of different food and drinks stalls at affordable prices like boss festival food is essential, always made with love by independent stalls. Proper buzz off the food at festivals! So good.
Who are your favourite DJs, producers and labels at the moment?
One of the best mixes I listened to recently was by Ciel who’s also just released an EP. I also saw that she has been featured on Mantissa, which is wicked! The mix is a gradual exploration through electronic music and builds up energy with really strong crisp sounds and exciting patterns – it kept me locked! ona:v old school 90s rave tunes, Ben UFO deep dub dance, Kyle Tool’s pure party vibes, Lucrecia Dalt, Karen Gwyer, Clemency rolling dub, Mor Elian, Mystique’s energy. Huge one at the minute is Giant Swan, they are on my to see list! Really relate to their experimental, heavy, unpredictable sounds.
The Physically Sick label co-run by Discwoman and allergy season really shows a fantastic range of talented artists, showcasing a range of genres whilst donating and supporting important causes.
Låpsley will always be one of my favourite producers, I got so emotional seeing her perform for the first time at Soundcity, where she also very kindly invited Sisu to open the stage. Her music production is outstanding and really takes you on an unpredictable, authentical, artistic, powerful journey. Logic 1000 also remixed a Låpsley track – another exciting artist! Music coming soon from Låpsley, can’t wait.
I really love Or:la’s label Céad too, I have been grabbing some EPs off there recently and always feel excited by and look forward to her creative output.
What plans do you have for the remainder of 2021 and 2022?
I have been lucky enough to land Arts Council funding to dive into learning music production and live performance. As well as working on a new EP, this is to give me space to create away from my laptop. During lockdown I got a job which required me to work from my laptop and so after finishing work I find it really hard to then concentrate on being creative in that same space. In April, I released my debut EP on a label called System in Ukraine, as part of the fund we are working together to curate a live cross-arts installation in April 2022. It’s going to be absolutely magical.
Checkout HÖR BERLIN on 18th December between 18:00 and 22:00 (CET) for a 4 hour livestream takeover by the Sisu crew!
Socials
RA – https://ra.co/dj/malissa-uk
Insta – https://www.instagram.com/maliss_a/
Sisu website – www.sisucrew.co.uk
Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/malissa08
Interview By: James Acquaye Nortey-Glover