GREEN CLOUDS OF SMOKE emit into the limelight as fluorescent beams aim and
fire at random. The crowd shifts with anticipation. With needles set to
blast through thousands of wattage, DJ Sonik of Lá Resistánce mans the
stage with fierce presence. Already featured in URB magazine (Oct. ’00)
as a notable DJ in the school of the west coast hardcore movement, Sonik
energizes the crowd with clenched fist in constant rotation while
releasing a 150 bpm string of terror, feeding and serving large quantities
of electronika mass.
EM:
When did you start?
Sonik: I started towards the end of '96…it was something that had
always been an aspiration of mine since I was really young but I never
really had the funds…I'm still young I'm only twenty but by the time I
finally started when I was sixteen I was just barely able to piece
together a broken down ghetto system, some old Geminis and a broken down
borrowed Numark from an old friend of mine Chris Kozmik, and I worked on
that for like two years until I finally got a job, got my shit together,
and got the system that I use now, and it was all over from there you know…a
lot of people they get discouraged at first but for me it was something
that I could never really get tired of and I've strived to be the best
that I could be, even training myself in the art of turntablism… It's
really easy to not get sick of it with turntablism cause there's always a
new scratch you can work on or a new juggle or somethin'… I don't know…for
me just playing in the rave scene wasn't enough you know, I wanted to go
on to compete with other deejays, international deejays representing from
countries all over in world competition…
EM: So when people label you as a deejay, do they associate you more
with hip hop/turtablism or someone who's more involved with hardcore?
Sonik: I'm pretty much labeled mostly as a hardcore deejay just because I
play hip hop for myself and in the competitions but I don't really play it
at clubs and parties and what not, because the hip hop scene, not to sound
rude or nothin', is kinda shady and not really dance oriented, it's much
more just social you know, most people just going to try and pick up girls
and what not, or the opposite…and the thing I always loved about
spinning hardcore and spinning in the rave scene is watching people react
to the music I play…just watching people go off to the music they love
that they don't get to hear everywhere so I pretty much stick to the rave
scene, I spin mostly all styles of hardcore…a lot of new style…gabber…a
little speedcore…I pretty much play it all as far as hardcore goes…I've
been even known to play a little Happy Hardcore in the past even…I just
love watching people go nuts you know what I mean…
EM: What was the first type of genre you spinned?
Sonik: Hardcore…
EM: When you started in '96 Hardcore wasn't really as accepted as it is
today right?
Sonik: Actually back when I started hardcore was much more appreciated
inside the LA rave scene then it is today…It was very common to see a
main room hardcore party back then which was even said by many to be
deteriorating from the way it was before even when Hardcore was being
featured at almost every event in LA, with present day house/trance
favorites like DJ Dan, Jason Blakemore, Thee-O, and many more, even
throwin' down the Hardcore beats along side LA Hardcore legends like Ron D
Core, RAW, Demigod, etc…it started to deteriorate over the years and
people think it's because the audience left but really that's not it at
all…it's just the promoters in LA pretty much stopped featuring it, or
if they did it'd just be the same old lineup each time on a very small
sound system pushed off into some corner of the venue. most of the older
promoters that were doing main room hardcore either moved on to doing more
concert style larger scale events or just moved on from the rave scene in
general, that's pretty much what caused the so called "death of the
LA Hardcore scene" the Hardcore people have still always been here
they're just sick of being taken advantage of by being tricked into paying
$25 or more just to here they're favorite style of music get disrespected…after
the original members of Technostate (which was one of the promotional
crews that helped lay down the foundation for the LA Hardcore scene) split
up, one of them tried to still keep it alive and was throwing a consistent
stream of Hardcore parties in warehouses trying to get back the feel of
the way things used to be until financial and legal troubles forced him to
drop out as well, which was when the LA Hardcore scene reached it's
absolute lowest point and was considered by many to be dead…that's when
we decided to form Lá Resistánce …
EM: Lá Resistánce?
Sonik: Yeah that's my promotional team…from the South Park movie you
know (laugh)…we do main room hardcore parties…we've thrown a few
events…we did "A New Beginning" last November which was our
first event, we had a really cool venue in Anaheim which we used for the
first time…we wanted to try to do it up like it was a big spectacle not
like it was like a straight underground Hardcore event…we wanted to make
it like it was like a regular party but just featuring hardcore in the
main room instead of house or trance or whatever…and since then we did
do a more intimate underground style warehouse event in attempt to capture
some of the old feel ourselves , which went really well also…then we had
the nightmare party in August which was one of the most amazing events
I've ever attended, we sold out and the crowd was one of the most
energetic crowds I've ever seen in my whole life…it was amazing the
energy that was generated in the Hardcore room that night…our last party
we did was the sequel to "A New Beginning" it was our one year
anniversary which we called "A New Beginning 2"…that was
really cool because we had Paul out here for his first live performance…it
was strictly live…no DAT show, it was all done all off the MPC…they
did crazy megamixes of all their old songs and the crowd just went nuts…usually
other promoters were very skeptical and didn't really understand why we
were doing what we were doing at first but now when they see us still out
and going strong it makes them raise an eyebrow and start to show a little
interest and think, "maybe the LA Hardcore scene still has a little
life in it yet" you know and I think that might be a lot of what is
making the promoters start to feature more hardcore at their events
because they see people like us…see people like Planet Core doing the
gatherings and I don't know hardcore is really starting to pop off…you
know URB magazine did their little piece on hardcore…I think it's really
thriving right now and all the parties we have coming up…"Digital
Hut" and then "Hardcore Taking Over" in April and
everything…it's looks really good.
EM: I once went inside a hardcore room where Inyoung was spinning and
there was a mosh pit forming…is that typical?
Sonik: Actually it is 'cause the music is still really aggressive and
that's just how a lot of people express themselves to it you know what I
mean but it's a lot more mild than you would get at say a punk show where
everyone is out to hurt each other…I mean there's still a unity involved…people
think that hardcore heads are negative people its' really not true at all…because
I have people who slam into me and then come up give me a hug later you
know…there's a real strong unity inside the hardcore scene….people
just don't really see it because they just don't want to open up to let it
in and see what it's all about…
EM: Right...there seems to be this stigma that hardcore venues is a
place where it's seedy, it's negative, it's not a safe place, the music
isn't positive… what is your response to that?
Sonik: Well I think to me personally I view hardcore as really positive
music because of course there's stuff out there that's a little rougher,
but that's not hardcore as a whole…you'll get some songs that are pretty
brutal…you got the speed core and the terror core element but most of
the stuff that I play is still generally dance music…its ranges from
like 150 to 170 bpms and it's much more dance oriented…it's just a
little bit harder…a little more aggressive…
