WHEN BIOLOGY BECAME DESTINY
«The first time I came ear to ear with music was when
I was three and my mother took me to ballet lessons. The main purpose of me
being there was to dance, but instead of that I'd rather sit on a piano chair
and listen to music. So basically I was excited to go to ballet so I could sit
on the piano chair along the pianist who was playing the piano for dancers. As
my parents noticed that, they took me to junior music school, but I was too
stubborn to listen to the teacher there, so eventually I didn't go there
anymore.».
As witnessed by these words, photographed by Timi Letonja, new star
born DJ GLIA’s first approach to music came with the young age. Along with that,
her cousin, who was a DJ too at that time and still kind of a mentor to her, began
bringing home different kind of CD’s of famous music personalities as Eminem,
The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, and so on. Already at young age then, GLIA
was kind of advanced to music: «I
remember the time, I was eight and we all had to bring a favorite CD in the
school, and I brought a CD my cousin left for me from COOLIO and got in trouble
because that kind of music (rap) was too violent for a small town people I grew
up with.».
As years passed, the interest in music
grew fast inside her, and it included all kind of music genres from rock,
blues, rap, pop, rock n’ roll, classical music and electronics.
By the age of thirteen the advent of a
new era started: the download of her first mixing software gave her the chance
to start doing mashups, or edits. This, until the age of eighteen while GLIA
was learning to play guitar on her own.
«In high school I found really good new friends, and
they noticed my big interest in music. At that time a competition called DJ
Crown came out here in Slovenia, and they kind of forced me to apply, even
though I am as grateful as it gets, for making this big step because of them.
In the time of the competition, I learned to mix on real controllers and decks,
I was mixing probably more than five hours a day, because I wanted to be good
in my passion. As time passed by I started to get more gigs all over Slovenia.».
Around the age of eighteen GLIA moved to
Netherlands, where she found out a great new interest: «The funny thing was that back there I did not have any DJ controllers,
so the only thing left for me to express myself was Producer Software. I opened
the software and started producing. That was in September 2014. From that
moment on producing got me hooked. I returned to Slovenia, and it became my
biggest passion, to express my emotions. Since that moment, I'm learning to
play the piano, I decided to study music production as I figured this is the
thing I would want to keep on doing.».
At the question “What would you
personally say is your biggest inspiration?” she answered: «I like things that challenge me emotionally, make me feel, make me
think and moments that I breathe in and seize along the people I love or even
alone. I find my inspiration in things that are not perfect, things that are
controversial and that maybe are even an issue.».
And talking about aims, GLIA mentions
that she hasn’t a specific goal as a DJ, since her main passion is music at its
fullest term. «I would like to work as a
''musician/artist'' for a lifetime. I'm that kind of person that does not make
big plans for the future, I'm more of a type that goes with the flow. I try to
make the best I can and seize the moment at every step. Because one must be
ready to sacrifice time and everything that you are for the one you'll become.
That's kind of my philosophy, but I hope to be successful in what I'll be
doing, whatever that will be.».
Stating this, she mentions that she likes
producing music because it's the way she adopts to express her feelings. In fact
«for me it's something like feeling a big
fire wanting to overcome you, and when it is at its peak to do so, I have to
take that feeling and transform it into music. Every time I produce it's a
challenge and an adventure, I'm still learning big time, and hope to get better
and better. I try to be as creative as it gets, and make as original track as
it can be: it's a longer way around to be successful but you learn much more.».
Live performing is probably the most
important aspect of working a DJ. So what is your favorite place or club where
you performed in the past? «Probably the
high-light was KKŠ Summer Fest. It was a small festival on the North of
Slovenia, with the main performs Faul & Wad Ad. That was a really amazing
experience for me, the crowd was really into my set. Also a good party was one
time in a club in the third largest town in Slovenia, Celje, where there was
also one of the best crowds I had.».
Speaking of future instead, GLIA says
that she doesn't have a specific place she would like to perform in: «Surely the biggest goal of any DJ is to
perform in front of a large crowd, where there are people full of happy,
satisfied faces, and are there because of the artist himself/herself.».
What would you say is your favorite
music style or genre? «This is probably
the question I get the most. I respect all genres and listen to a large
spectrum of all sorts. I like classical music, composers such as Debussy, I
like rap for example Subculture Sage or old-school rap, I like R&B, I like
pop, I like electronics. I basically like a lot of things, I just find myself
most in electronic music and it's been like that for the most of my life-time:
I started to sink in electronic music with The Chemical Brothers, The prodigy,
Fat Boy Slim, Daft Punk, Modjo… I like to stay open minded about new genres and
I like hearing original new things I haven't heard before, that leave a mark on
me.».
Last but not least, a question that
probably many of you are wondering: how did she come up with the name “GLIA”?
She states: «It was funny as my first
artist name was not GLIA. I came up with GLIA in the middle of biology class,
when we were talking about human brain cells. Glial cells, provide support and
protection for neurons in the brain and nervous system. But I didn't care about
that so much. The word itself was so appealing for me and I was thinking I
would have probably named my next pet that way, or something like that. It was
just stuck in my head from that moment on and eventually I started to call the artistic
part of me GLIA.».
Timi Letonja - Simone Bronzi - Maja Čeh
Timi Letonja - Simone Bronzi - Maja Čeh
CEO & Founder of RooMXMatez TM - Creative Director of RooMXMatez TM - Contributing journalist
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2 commenti
and she is in love with music, and she is such a natural beauty ..... amazing GLIA
ReplyDeleteand she is in love with music, and she is such a natural beauty ..... amazing GLIA
ReplyDelete