Something unexpected is happening in Collingwood and Owen Sound. There’s a critical mass of DJs in these bayside towns that the parties concerned have organized into the Georgian Bay DJ Collective (GBDJC) and the Proper Party Project (PPP). Simultaneously, more and more spaces, in particular Owen Sound’s Rumpus Room, are being curated to host an eclectic rolodex of talented and passionate selectors adept at spinning dance floors into frenzies late into the night.
These collectives are motivated by more than their love of bass, beats and mixing: their motives are wholesome and, lucky for us, their aim is true. DJ Efsharp aka Sam Fleming, was the downtown Toronto CPDJA leader for two years, hosting networking events and for another two years was their social media manager nationally. Shaun Dooley, owner of The Rumpus Room along with his wife Maxine Kitto, began the Proper Party Project with friend Eric Cohen, aka DJ Strobe.
Cohen, says about starting the Proper Party Project with Dooley “my goals were to foster a sense of community and collaboration.” DJ Limoncella aka Lina D’Andrea, who designed GBDJC’s logo, talks about wanting “to see more opportunities for people to come together.” Regardless of how small town Ontario may feel about late-nite dance caves, beyond the particular flavours of local DJs or the far ranging trajectories that have brought these EDM proselytizers here and now, everyone’s motives are coming from the same place Limoncella deejays from: the “heart and soul”.
“If you want to have a party, create one.”
DJ Pizzy aka Sarah Pi (Sarah Pickford) says that “music has always been a source of comfort and I’ve always wanted to share it with the people around me.” You can read this as her wanting to share the music itself and, especially, the comfort it brings. This bears up when you consider that the Rumpus Room’s guiding vision, in the words of owner Maxine Kitto: “our space, your place”. A sentiment echoed in DJ RC420 aka Ryan Clark’s attitude of “my house is your house”, a special place indeed when you factor in that RC420, in the same breath, talks about the Rumpus Room as a “refuge”.
These sonic collectives have come to life because of more than music. Nights on the town, in Cwood or the Scenic City, are filling DJs’ and dancers’ buckets. When Pizzy talks about local deejays, she phrases it as going to “check out the fam spinning.” Maxine talks about the Rumpus Room “fuelling the community’s need for connection”, a dream that comes true every time she sees rumplings “connecting with one another and connecting to the music”. No small feat when you consider the context; an increasingly fractured and divided cultural moment AND an EDM culture almost as genre obsessed as metal.
Strobe tackles this when he says of the Rumpus Room: “it’s a whole new vibe, where different DJs playing different genres get a chance to flex their musical muscles in a room that appreciates it, with owners that promote and encourage it.” Efsharp likens this approach to how Las Vegas hotels, after decades of competing, figured out that everyone wins when you, literally, build bridges instead of walls. Case in point, that time Andy H, then a complete stranger, lent Efsharp some Technics decks in a snowstorm to help out a fellow DJ. Pizzy revels in the fact that the scene “brings folks of all backgrounds and races together and that’s beauty in itself.” All these folks are consciously choosing to focus on common threads rather than what divides us; perhaps most explicitly, Limoncella with her belief “that deep in our humanity there is an innate need to move to music.”
“Meeting new people who are happy to have a spot in town like this is why I throw parties”, says Strobe. DJ Hami-G aka Mike Vair-Haley talks about finding something “fresh and special” with “good people in attendance”. Limoncella hosts Rebel Sound Dance Party, “an event to bring amazing people together.” These DJs think the world of the dancefloors they spin for. Pizzy, when comparing her experiences in T.O. to spinning here, talks about “a smaller crowd, but they are mighty, passionate and know their music.” This might just be the natural consequence of Maxine’s reason to host parties: “to fuel people with joy, total freedom and a place to express yourself free of judgement.”
DJs in both collectives are thankful to have places like the Rumpus Room. RC420 says he’s “so grateful to get down” while Strobe says the Rumpus Room “frankly just makes my soul happy”. Hami-G “felt like [he] got some of [his] mojo back” after spinning a Deep Dark Night there. Limoncella, recalling her latest Rebel Sound, “looked around to see a full room of people totally getting down and it brought me so much joy.” Rumpus Room’s Maxine says “when I see the community moving, laughing and, in return, giving such gratitude to the DJ, and the space, it really fills my heart.”
Local DJs are here doing what they’re doing as a direct result of their travels throughout Europe, South and Central America and South-east Asia, of their decades of listening and their wealth of experience. For example, Strobe has a few gold records, close to forty Billboard #1 remixes and 38 years of deejaying in Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York to draw upon when crafting sets for lucky locals. Efsharp has been at it full time for 20 years, he once headed the Canadian Professional DJ Association and now runs Evolved Entertainment where he manages a stable of 15 DJs who sometimes work up to 7 events a day.
No matter which facet of this scene we’re looking at, the people who come out dancing, the DJs who are spinning or the hosts who are curating these spaces, in the end we’re talking about people with the energy and vision to manifest the moments we all need.
Maxine says the Rumpus Room was born out of “a real visceral urge that we needed to create this community bar.” Limoncella started deejaying “in order to create the parties [she] wanted to go to.” Strobe, even though he’s one of the few local deejays who didn’t grow up in the area, summarizes this area’s DIY attitude most succinctly: “if you want to have a party, create one.”
Written by Tom Thwaits
Feature photo by Pief Weyman
