Pool Of Sound - Paige Tomlinson

Paige Tomlinson, 26, lives in Widnes but is originally from Huyton. Eight years ago as an 18 year-old, she noticed something very quickly while she was out clubbing in Liverpool city centre. Speaking to the local Liverpool Echo, Paige said: "I started going out to the clubs in town and just realised there were just not a lot of female DJs, apart from the likes of Lauren Lo Sung, especially playing house music at the time, and I was like a big lover of music. So I thought, what's stopping me from buying a set of decks, laptops, speakers, headphones, you name it, and just giving it a good go?" She soon became inundated with so many requests for performances that she had to quit her full-time job at BT in October 2022, where she was an engineer, climbing up and down the telegraph poles and so was made up to pack that in. As she says, "It was getting to a point when I had a full time job where I was travelling around the country and Wales every weekend, and getting back Sunday night, absolutely knackered. And then it was straight into work on Monday, and I was absolutely done in." Now a rising star, she has secured her position as a serious one-to-watch, following a run of high profile shows across the UK and Europe over the last 18 months, and her first official releases as a producer, she says, "A huge piece of advice which I done when I first started was to enter loads of DJ competitions, the first one I entered was for Mouvement, didn't end up winning it and I was so gutted. Which is funny because I'm mates with all the lads now and we laugh about it. The second competition I entered was for Moxy Muzik, Darius Syrossian's label, which I won and he's kept me on since." The turning point for Paige came in 2023, when she was one of the 10 winners of a DJ competition organised by Defected, a house music brand, which massively helped her career. "It's important to hone in on your sound that you love the most, too many people these days are trying to follow the crowd and following a certain sound. If it's not something you love you are just going to get bored of it. What I found is that I started playing really minimal music years ago, got sick of it. Then moved into disco and got sick of that. Now I've moved into more house records which I love and I don't think I'll ever get bored of."

Her rich musical knowledge and technical prowess is continuing to turn heads as she symbolises the talent of musicians in her home city. With her DJ sets spanning a unique selection of house, electro, techno and breakbeat, she traverses the underground spectrum with a sound heavily influenced by the 90s records she grew up listening to. "I’m very inspired by the 90s club era, artists like R.M project, Direct 2 Disc, X-Press 2, Klubbheads & Bass Bumpers… I think this is reflected in how I play,” she explains. Starting 2023 by spending time with her head down in the studio working on a string of EPs for need-to-know labels, her debut release 'Get Funky, Get Down' landed on Archie Hamilton’s MicroHertz imprint in May as part of the One Year of Microhertz compilation. She then revealed her first solo EP, 'Butts Bumpin' on essential Manchester label Dansu Discs in August, featuring remixes from Baby Rollen and KOKO, A natural affinity for production continues to become abundantly clear. 2023 saw Paige’s busiest touring year to date, playing shows at world renowned venues such as London’s Printworks and fabric, Barcelona’s La Terrazza, Cova Santa Ibiza and Mint Leeds, as well as major festival appearances at Glastonbury, Hide & Seek, Baltic Weekender and Appetite Manchester. Championed by the likes of Circus boss and legend of Liverpool’s club scene Yousef, she has already ticked off many bucket list gigs for burgeoning DJs, supporting the likes of Enzo Siragusa, Chris Stussy, Dan Shake and Tristan da Cunha.

Having secured residencies with local events Rhythm and Zuku, a very exciting year is ahead of her as she was nominated for DJ of the year at the inaugural Northern Music Awards, with Burnley’s DJ Woody, Djinn and DJ Paulette, both from Manchester, all in the running. The ceremony took place on April 23 and was won by Manchester based DJ Paulette. Paige is delighted to be keeping up the tradition of Merseyside’s love of house music. She said: "I obviously want to do Liverpool proud, wherever I play."

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/07/pool-of-sound-ben-whitley.html