Electronic Music Australia ep.43 aired 24 January 2023
Sydney's Mixed Methods (Felicity Smith) is proof that you really can do it all when you have the passion! Aside from being a successful DJ and Producer, she also runs the event series Method Project, works as the Promotions Manager and A&R for Motive Records, is an ICU Nurse, researcher, sneaker enthusiast, and a mother of three! Best of all, she's also kicking stereotypes of the typical DJ in the proverbial and is also a downright fabulous human. I was super lucky to have a great chat with her recently. I've included just a few of the highlights below and a short version in the recording of the show. Make sure to follow Mixed Methods everywhere, and I hope you enjoy her deliciously Housey guest mix!
On Method Project
Method Project is an event series that I put together. It was sort of like an accident really. It happened just before COVID and then COVID happened and I kept running smaller events in a bar just to kind of keep people connected socially. It's more of a collaborative project, so it's something that I work with other promoters to run side rooms for in order to collaborate. And it's my way of trying to trying to bring the Sydney industry or the scene together. I'm seeing a lot of the impact, mostly on the community on mental health. That's what kind of really pushed me to keep running that project, even though it was a sit down event in a bar and we couldn't dance. People could still get together. And have some sort of social contact and that's part of it was really a motivating factor for me to keep doing it...This project just keeps getting bigger and lots of DJ love playing for me and because I was given a platform by promoters to start my career, I feel like it's a good opportunity for me to provide a platform for someone else.
The ADE Experience
ADE was absolutely off the chain! What an experience that was. It was very life changing both professionally and personally for me. I was very fortunate enough to to go. To spend the time with the team over there with my with my boss Matt we had back-to-back meetings in the day and then we would spend the evenings out at all the events and then like two or three hours sleep, and then we'd be back up again ready for the next day's meeting! And it just went like that for the whole entire week and it was non-stop but it was a great thing. You know the thing that really sort of stands out to me from that whole experience, there's a couple of things, but firstly - there's always, this concept that there's not enough room for everybody, and the thing is, there is room for everybody. And if there wasn't, all of these incredible amazing artists and DJ's from all over the world, ADE would not exist. The other thing that stood out was that you are part of a respected global community, and so I think for any artist that is wanting to take themselves seriously and and be on a global stage ADE is a very important part of your yearly journey. From a personal perspective; both first time going to Amsterdam with an incredible city, incredible culture and amazing shopping. And I bought 3 pairs of sneakers...
Listen to the January Mixed Methods guest mix
Tips For New DJ's
The hustle doesn't stop! I've had the fortune to meet some very big name DJ's in the last six months and the common theme is the continuation of the hustle. Keep working! And another thing I would say it's about giving back to the community as well and not necessarily expect a gig. It's also about contributing to the promotion, building your following, building a brand, and that's also going to help you forward - that's that's my experience anyway! I get a lot of people wanting to come and play on Method Project - and I consider myself to be a very small promoter and the small part of the scene. But I get people hitting me up a lot, sending me mixes on SoundCloud and things like that and I generally do listen to them because I'm always on the lookout for talent and things like that, and the majority are really good mixes with really good selections but I have never met these people and so I say to them, "come and meet me, come to one of my events - come to Method Project". You can't just be connected on Instagram or Facebook ... it's only a small part really. So there's definitely a component that you need to get out and support, Especially coming out of this period with promoters really struggling, you know? Go out. I also get a lot of messages from up and coming artists asking me for my advice on how to get gigs. What I always say is know the events that you want to play for. Who are the promoters that you're most interested in and and the sound that you're looking for? And then - go to those events. Go and attend. It's as simple as that.
New Tunes?
Prior to ADE I started working on a track with Roland (Clark) and that is now completely finished and mastered and being sent out for demos. It's a really great record. I'm really proud of it so and I've been playing it out all summer and it's been having some really great responses - people will automatically sing along to it even though they've never heard it, so I'm really pleased about that collaboration. And then I have another collaboration that's come out of ADE, but I can't obviously talk about the name as yet but it's someone that I met in ADE and we're now doing a collaboration for a record for Motive Records. So I'm really excited about that and we should be starting that in the studio this week, but we'll be collaborating remotely because they're overseas and then also for production. I've got another track in the works at the moment with an an artist from the UK. I really loved one of her tracks that she put out and was playing it out a little bit and tagging her and things like that. And so we stayed in contact and 've just written this instrumental with her vocals in mind and sent that off to her last week and she's agreed to work with me on that. So what she's just working on the vocal stems right now, so I have a lot there in the pipeline and I've been working really hard in 2022 to just work on my production and and now I'm I'm at the point where I'm gonna start to see some fruit for that. From my own personal perspective, this is not a race for me, I want to have music that I'm proud of and I am feel that is worthy of something that I can leave as a legacy.
A very massive thank you to Mixed Methods for the guest mix and a really great chat! So that's a wrap on our January guest mix, February's guest mix is super exciting too. Don't forget to tune in next week on Tuesday night at 11pm AEST on 105.7 Radio Metro for 60 minuts of Aussie goodness on Electronic Music Australia!
Keep it four on the floor,
Ky Mi x
Mixed Methods Guest Mix Playlist
1. Tania (Steve Lawler Remix) – Harry Romero (Bambossa Recordings)
1.1 Resist – Roland Clark Acapella (Defected Records)
2. Brighter Days (Marco Lys Remix) – Cajmere Ft. Dajae (Cajual)
3. Get Loose – Stacey Pullen – (Saved Records)
4. Hallelujah (Supernova Remix) – (Lapsus Music)
5. Mixed With Catch The Beat (Derrick's Black Catcher Vocal) – Honey Dijon, Cakes Da Killa, Derrick 6. Carter (Classic Music Company)
7. The Joy – Supernova – (Mother Recordings)
8. Breakfast Club (Dennis Ferrer Morning Mix) – Dennis Ferrer, James Burton (Four Thirty Two)
9. Promised Land (Floorplan Extended Paradise Remix) – Joe Smooth, Floorplan (Armada Electronic Elements)
10. So Sweet (Extended Mix) – Dennis Cruz (Muse)
11. Revolution (Deep In Jersey Extended Mix) Harry Romero (Dftd)
12. Honey (Torren Foor Extended Mix) – Eats Everything, Torren Foot (Ffrr)
13. Take Some House (Riva Starr Edit) Riva Starr, Roland Clark (Saved)
14. Struggle (Kormak Remix) – Tinush, Kormak (Astrx)
15. Impossible Beat (Extended Mix) – Fletcher Kerr & Keffi – (Toolroom)
16. A Black Man In Space (Sax Mix) – Son Of Raw, Sax – (Objektivity)
16.1 My Beat (Acapella) – Blaze (Tommy Boy Music, Llc)
17. Lucky Star (Mike Vale Remix) – Ron Carroll, Mike Vale (Kontor Records)
18. Gotta Have House (Johan S Remix) – Dj Spen, Johan S (Subtractive Recordings)
19. Need U (Original Mix) – Dale Howard Downtown Underground)
20. Festival Track – George Smeddles (South)