COMMUNICATE

On Waitangi Day morning we were honoured to play the closing set for 2023's Taniwha's Den. It was a beautiful morning and the cathedral of trees was humming with the sound of cicadas, as it transpires, they like house and techno! There are a few people who we would like to thank for making this happen.

Grant and Leon thank you for trusting us with this years close, the Den stage is such an unbelievable setting and playing at the end of it all was such an incredible experience.

To Mike and Pete, once again the sound was out of this world! Every year it gets better, you are both magicians.

To the VJs, DJs, crew and volunteers, thank you for making our time onsite such a pleasure, we had the most insane amount of fun all weekend and already can't wait to do to all again.

Huge love and thanks to the amazing Miss B for the image, HAZARD WARNING!

TO ALL OF YOU DANCERS! Wow, what a floor to play for! Thank you for coming on the ride with us, we will never forget this morning and a huge part of that is because of your energy you brought. thank you, thank you, thank you.

And finally, our crew slash backup dancers, Bronte, Lara, Lawrence, Nikki and Tina, it was so much fun having you all in the booth with us, and so much fun out of the booth as well. The love, laughter and support you all gave us means the absolute world.

We loved every minute in that booth playing for everyone on that floor, it was a magical morning, it was a privilege and a joy to share COMMUNICATE with you all at the Den for the first time.We hope you all enjoy listening to this as much as we loved playing it. We can't wait to dance with you all again soon.

Live at Taniwha's Den

Taniwha's Den 2023 Closing Set

On Saturday 12 August we gathered with 300 or so other members of our Burn community at Neck of The Woods to raise money for our incredible Kiwiburn sound camp, Hijinxx. And what a night it was! 

There is something very special about the Burn community, it's freedom and acceptance, it's love and inspiration, it's kindness and hedonism, it's support and it's absolutely no ego. These are just a few of the reasons we go back to burn every summer and why our community of like minded humans create some of the best parties we've ever been to, and Saturday night was a perfect example of that.

We want to say thank you to our incredible Hijinxx family, life is so much better with you all in it, and my god do we know how to throw a party! Thank you to Neck of The Woods for everything you do for us and for providing the space for yet another successful fundraiser, to Patsy Skeet, Miss Mixtape, Cooper Khan and Becky & Rayza for all the epic music all night long, to everyone who rocked that floor, To Mike Weinstock for the photo and a massive happy birthday to one of our Hijinxx founders and favourite humans, Ange. 

We hope you enjoy this set, we had an absolute ball playing it and already can't wait to dance with you all again soon.

Let's get ready to burn!

Live at The Freak Show

The 2024 festival season was filled from start to finish with good times, incredible music and amazing humans across all the wonderful events we played. This season we were asked by Earth Beat Festival to run a stage takeover right at the end of the season, what a way to cap it all off!

We put together a lineup the we are incredibly proud of; it was diverse, fun, filled with talented musicians and didn't cater to just one type of four to the floor. We asked our artists to record if they felt comfortable, we are very grateful that most of them did. We are also very grateful they are all allowing us to release their work.

We had planned to release another one of our epic friend's sets this week, but we felt that in the lead up to our first XCOMMUNICATE this Friday (and the fact that it's Heylady's birthday today) we would release this recording into the wild.

When we programmed the line up for our stage, we nestled ourselves in between the amazing Rob Warner and Becky & Rayza, at the very respectable time of 9pm. This was one of our final sets of the summer festival season, and much like the others we had so much fun playing it. 

We want to thank Issac and the Earth Beat team for trusting us with the stage, the sound techs who kept it humming through out the day and night and were straight on it when we felt it needed adjusting, Kat Ellis for the incredible stage design, the stage managers for making sure we had everything we need, our epic crew for helping pack in & out and being so much fun all weekend, to Rachelle for endlessly putting up with us taking over the lounge, the house, the farm with our noise and for having everyone to stay on this particular weekend, we love you so much! To all of our AMAZING DJs, without you there would be no party, you all brought the absolute noise and we are so proud of what you produced from the opening tune to the very last. And finally, to everyone on that floor, thank you for coming for the ride with us!

We hope you enjoy this almost 3 hour set, we are at our happiest playing for you all, thank you all for your support. So, turn it up loud! We can't wait to dance wit you soon.

COMMUNICATE live at Earth Beat Festival 2024

On November 8 2024 we threw a party for Cyril Orson's birthday. Sonik Tonik consisted of us, MissB and Yunset on the decks, and it was a pleasure to play with two of our closest and most talented friends. It was a night of great music, in a space that means a lot to us, surrounded by a floor filled with some of our closest humans. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us.

As always, we are eternally grateful that we get to do this. Music means everything to us and in a time that is very uncertain in NZ's entertainment world with venues closing all over the country, it means so much that we are able to get out regularly and do what we love the most.

We would like to extend huge love and thanks to Yunset and MissB for both playing great sets before us, the Ink crew for always looking after us, Leslie for rocking the door, and to the floor for coming on this ride with us. 

Turn it up and enjoy, we hope to dance with you again soon. 


Sonik Tonik

Heylady is an Auckland reprobate who is known for her speaker-rattling basslines and ability to light up the floor with a vengeance, she is all about slick, solid sound.

Dedicated to constantly improving the house and techno scene, Heylady has worked with some of the biggest and best over the past 25 years, as well as some of the smallest and coolest. She mentors, writes articles, works with groups to encourage social change and never misses a beat on the decks.

Cutting her teeth as a promoter, she has run multiple party series under the Casio Circus and Back on Track brands. She’s run festivals, stage managed, curated, collaborated and collected music and musicians, and she’s brought through some of the biggest names in house music.

She held a much desired residency at The 7 Deadly Gins at Burning Man, she rocked stints in LA and Melbourne, she’s a part of Kiwiburn’s infamous Hijinxx soundcamp, she is one half of COMMUNICATE and runs Sonik Tonik and XCOMMUNICATE with Cyril Orson and she’s one of the founding members of Taniwha’s Den. Heylady has cemented herself as one of the forces to watch, from big festival sets to small, intimate club spaces, from promotion to performance, her diversity, range, passion and drive always ensures a stomping dancefloor.

Born with a soul infused with a love of all things tech, ponies, sneakers and dressups, Heylady believes fun and frivolity is paramount. Which is why her sets never conform to one silly sub-genre, it’s all four-four isn’t it?

COMMUNICATE

Heylady [COMMUNICATE]