Artist Spotlight: Sisters of Sound

The shesaid.so Artist Spotlight is a monthly series where we highlight new artists from our global community that you should keep an eye on. If you’re interested in submtting yourself or your artist please contact us at hello@shesaid.so

LA-based duo Maddy and Tottie, aka ‘Sisters of Sound’ are both artists and champions of other artists. Having met in 2018, following independent moves to LA from London and Barcelona, the pair connected over a love of music and saw opportunities to highlight the international influences within the underground electronic scene. What began as a radio show on DUBLAB and Worldwide FM quickly expanded into a record label and through the curation of that sound, also inspired their own productions. Here they share their journey with shesaid.so and how they’re prepping for their upcoming show at Primavera Sound LA.

shesaid.so: Tell us more about your artist journey and how your sound has developed to where it is today?

We both met in 2018 having moved to Los Angeles from London and Barcelona respectively, and instantly bonded over a shared love of esoteric music having originally come from similar circles – raving in parallel for many years but never meeting. We started to play together for pleasure as we were both still exploring the LA underground music scene and getting to know the city. Regular DJ sets evolved into our DUBLAB & Worldwide FM shows, where the emphasis originally was highlighting the international influence of the Los Angeles underground scene. In 2020 we started the label - SOS Music - focused on championing female and gender minority electronic talent.

DUBLAB really gave us space to share our love of music, online radio was and still is a very important beginning for SOS Music. We will forever be grateful to the station for having us grace the airwaves and bringing us into the community. An important reason for us starting SOS Music was that we wanted to see and hear more from artists like us – just starting out, navigating what was and still is a heavily unbalanced industry.

shesaid.so: How do your individual tastes compliment and play off each other when you’re collaborating?

Both of us love to dig, so we often introduce each other to new and undiscovered gems, from all corners of the globe. Our day jobs also heavily influence us musically, both being embedded in dance music - (Tottie is at Resident Advisor and Maddy is A&R for Ninja Tune), so A&R inevitably plays a large part as we are constantly looking for new talent to sign to the label and to feature on our radio shows. Our tastes are constantly evolving, but generally what led to our friendship was a shared love of diverse, electronic music - mostly from new and underground talent. As the label has a strong focus on championing emerging female and gender minority electronic talent, so a lot of our sets lean towards that naturally as we’re surrounded by so many great artists.

We like to straddle genres, something our Worldwide FM residency has really encouraged, but generally always bring it back to more of a dance floor focus.

shesaid.so: Sisters of Sound begun as a radio show and event series. What was the inspiration behind releasing your first bandcamp compilation?

SOS was originally started as a means to give back to the community during the pandemic - we wanted to support the community we’ve grown up in and showcase in a time when so many artists’ livelihoods were impacted by the lack of live. But it’s also about curation - SOS is, in some ways, a rebellion to an artform increasingly dictated by algorithms and playlists – a return to curation in its purest form. We give our artists absolute creative freedom when they deliver music to us. Both our careers have been narrated by an acute awareness of so many external factors in music, and it felt good to strip it back. We really want this platform to be a go-to place for discovery, highlighting the unknown and ultimately surprising listeners.

shesaid.so: You’re British born, but L.A. based. How have you found your location has influenced you creatively (if at all!)?

The LA underground electronic scene is very different to that which we grew up in musically, so we think in some way it inspired both of us to be more proactive creatively as we felt there was room for musicians and curators like us here, doing something different. We wanted to bring something new to a relatively small scene and became inspired by the DIY nature of clubbing in this city. LA’s scene Is very unique and has made us very aware of the difficulties promoters face here. We love being part of the nightlife ecosystem and supporting it.

shesaid.so: Was it an easy decision for you to focus on female and gender minority art, in your curation?

It felt necessary - something we were always destined to play a part in. Our whole careers have been narrated by an acute awareness of male dominance, honestly. The label and community we are building is being developed as a long standing counter to that – we aren’t trying to do anything zeitgeisty here – it’s important to us that what we’re building isn’t a flash in the pan moment surrounding inequality. SOS Music is here to release music from the artists we love, but we also try to offer our artists support, connections, resources, whatever we can within our means.

We were both members of shesaid.so before we met, and saw how Andreea Magdalina had founded this incredible platform for women and gender minorities working in all different facets of the music industry and it was just so inspiring to see people wanting to help and support one another. Contagious in fact – and both of us wanted to put that into our own practise. Both of us through our work, were seeing so many amazing female producers both here in the US and internationally go totally unnoticed and we wanted to change that.

shesaid.so: Do you feel constantly inspired, or do you have certain practices you use to inspire yourselves?

One of the beautiful things about SOS, is that it I (Maddy) have been inspired to make music again. I’ve been focused on other artists’ careers for so long through my work in A&R, mainly making edits and producing in my bedroom on days off; this project flipped that, making me want to contribute to the incredible projects we’re curating.’

For me (Lottie) it’s definitely about making time to go out, and absorbing different dance floor experiences, seeing others play and how they take dancers on journeys that's a really important part of my practise as an artist and helps me continue to be inspired. I also listen to A LOT of music, mixes, promos and of course getting out there in the records stores and digging.

shesaid.so: You’re playing Primavera sound LA! How are you approaching your set?

We generally both have points or tracks we want to get to in the set, and we have been sharing music and ideas for the past 5 weeks. We are opening the last day of the festival - which is not only an honor but also a particular mood - its day 3, people might be tired - we want to make sure its not too hard but also flows well into the next artists we are setting up the stage for. We have been playing together for a good few years, and generally we’re aware of each other’s flows and can improvise quite easily as we know each other’s record collections so well, but we also love surprising each other. It’s generally always fun and high energy during our sets - having fun on the dance floor is something that we both feel strongly about and try to bring to any gig regardless of where it is.

shesaid.so: What else are you working on which you’re excited about at the moment?

We’re signing more longer-term projects from some phenomenal new artists, so excited to (slowly) expand the SOS catalogue.

shesaid.so: shesaid.so is a community guided by intersectionality. In your opinion, how could the music industry do better in terms of inclusivity?

I (Maddy) do just want to take a moment to celebrate the change in narrative that’s taken place since 2020, and how intersectionality and inclusivity has permeated through so many institutions; media, the work place, releases. I’ve been working in dance music since 2008 and I never thought I would see such a disparity in culture and shift in conversation in my career. It’s obviously incredibly important to focus on the work that needs to be done (everything from more diverse festival line ups to closing the gender wage gap in DJ fees and music execs, and everything in between ), but so often it’s easy to forget that this is a process that is going to be imperfect and take a long time. Obviously this is coming through a lens of indie music who are at the forefront of chance and exclusivity, but I do get a sense that a dialogue is present now in so many areas that it just wasn’t before.

It has been incredibly important for us in developing the narrative of SOS Music, as this project was about elevation and celebration - we are not looking to criticize or call anyone out with the label for doing things imperfectly, or alienate anyone. More just providing a platform for discovery of amazing new art, whilst hopefully doing something to amplify voices of women and gender minority artists in the process.