Inside Sonder Festival: DIMA & GiGi and the Art of the Perfect Set
Rising from Mparntwe/Alice Springs to the stage at Sonder Festival, DIMA and GiGi bring more than just a DJ set, but rather a community with them.
Sitting down with them after their sets at Sonder, it becomes clear pretty quickly that what they’re chasing is something harder to define and way more instinctive.
Written by Sofia Perica
Rising from Mparntwe/Alice Springs to the stage at Sonder Festival, DIMA and GiGi bring more than just a DJ set, but rather a community with them.
Sitting down with them after their sets at Sonder, it becomes clear pretty quickly that what they’re chasing is something harder to define and way more instinctive.
When asked how she’d describe her sound, GiGi laughs. “It’s so hard to say,” she admits. “I don’t want to go into genres because I’m really bad at describing it like that. I’d say it’s progressive, tribal, psytrance, but I also mix in house and bass music. Lots of snippets because I want to tell a story. It’s very bass heavy, more prolonged sound… like building it out and then a heavy drop.”
DIMA cuts in with something simpler but just as telling. “Super dancey,” she says. “Bumpy. Comfy and euphoric at the same time.” She pauses, then adds, “It goes across heaps of genres.”
GiGi grins and sums it up in her own way. “Dirty, skanky bass.”
What they’re both getting at is more about feeling. For GiGi, DJing is ultimately a form of communication. “It’s my way of connecting,” she says. “It’s self expression. It’s like being able to talk to people through music.”
That connection shifts depending on where they’re playing, but nowhere more so than at Sonder. For both of them, the festival feels personal in a way bigger events don’t.
“This is my favourite festival because it’s all my friends,” GiGi says. “Childhood friends.”
DIMA agrees. “Looking down and seeing my friends, that’s just special in itself,” she says. “Having a bunch of other people there is just an addition. People chose to be here. It’s such good vibes, you don’t have to worry about the people around you.”
That sense of familiarity shapes how GiGi approaches her sets. “With Sonder, it’s a lot of friends that I’m playing for,” she explains. “So I feel like I’m doing references for them, using memories with friends. It’s more communal.”
It’s a very different energy to the scale of festivals like Dark Mofo or Strawberry Fields Festival, both of which they’ve played.
“That was so nerve wracking,” DIMA says of opening the main stage at Strawberry Fields. “We were playing in front of like 15,000 people. Having my mate there helped calm the nerves, but yeah… it’s a lot.”
Even as their profiles grow, both keep coming back to smaller, community-driven spaces like Sonder, where the line between DJ and crowd feels almost nonexistent.
Both artists grew up in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, and that environment has quietly shaped their sound. “There’s a lot of doof culture in Alice Springs,” GiGi says. “So much outback.” She pauses, then adds, “I use a lot of that in my sounds. Indigenous sounds, and also being Filipino.”
Her relationship to that Filipino identity has shifted over time. “I moved to Australia when I was seven, so I just wanted to be Australian,” she says. “But now I’m like, it’s actually sick to be Filipino. I’m finding more artists I resonate with, exploring old sounds, old instruments, tribal sounds.”
For DIMA, place shows up more in the feeling than anything explicit, in the looseness of his sets and the way they move without restriction.
That same openness carries into their production work. DIMA’s track You and I marked an important shift for her creatively. “It was made with one of my best mates,” she says. “It’s really personal, but it also feels like the start of actually putting things out.”
Letting go of perfectionism has been part of that process. “You could work on it forever,” she says. “At some point you just have to stop rinsing it out.”
Working with friends has made that easier. “It just makes the process so fun,” she adds. “You’re bouncing off each other’s energy. It’s like your world together.”
GiGi is in a similar place, currently working on a collaboration with Alex Coffee. “He’s so talented,” she says. “That should be coming out in the next few months.”
When it comes to performing, though, she’s learned that mindset matters just as much as preparation. “The worst sets I’ve played are when I’ve been too in my head,” she says. “Worried about everything else and making people happy.”
The best ones are the opposite. “When I’m locked in, in my own zone, not even looking at anything, just doing it for myself… that’s the best time. When you’re present, you just tune in.”
As a woman in a still male dominated scene, both are also aware of the shifts happening around them. “We’re creating a platform for female DJs,” GiGi says. “They’re getting the rep they deserve now.”
She struggles to define exactly what feels different, but knows it when she sees it. “It’s a different energy,” she says. “You can be playing the same genre as someone else, but it just feels different.”
And when she sees that reflected back at her from the crowd, it matters. “When I’m dancing and I look up and see a female DJ doing her thing, I’m like yes. Spotlight on you. You deserve that.”
At Sonder, all of these elements come together in a way that feels effortless but is anything but. The storytelling, the friendships, the cultural influences, the instinct to let go rather than overthink it. It all collapses into something shared.
Or, as DIMA puts it more simply, “the best, yummy, dancey festival music.”
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! - But Gigs?
The holiday season is in full swing, and while festive events are of course booked on every block, we wanted to push a reminder of all the local artists performing and doing their own thing over the Christmas and New Year period. Here’s a small collection of what caught our eye, from late December to the earlier half of January 2020 - because yeah, we’re pretty much there already…yikes.
Photo Credit: Bree Wallace
The holiday season is in full swing, and while festive events are of course booked on every block, we wanted to push a reminder of all the local artists performing and doing their own thing over the Christmas and New Year period. Be honest, would you rather go see a sick band or listen to Aunt Gladys talk about her food baby from Boxing Day leftovers.
Here’s a small collection of what caught our eye, from late December to the earlier half of January 2020 - because yeah, we’re pretty much there already…yikes.
This isn’t an extensive list by any means and is primarily focussed around Melbourne because being the ‘Live Music Capital of the World’…there’s a lot goin’ on
(and it’s hard to find extensive gig guides for the entire of Australia so…I tried)
FRIDAY DECEMBER 27
We Got You: Bushfire Relief Benefit Show
BENDIGO HOTEL, 125 JOHNSTON ST, COLLINGWOOD VIC
6PM
LINEUP: DESECRATOR, HARLOTT, HYBRID NIGHTMARES, INTERNAL NIGHTMARE, BUNYIP, AWOL, SHREDDER
GENRE: METAL
PRICE: $15
Harper Bloom
Memo Music Hall, 88 Acland Street, St Kilda, Victoria
7:30pm – 10:30pm
GENRE: COUNTRY/FOLK
PRICE: General Admission: $10.00
Reserved Seats: $15.00
STEPH BITTER / FRANK BELL
THE THORNBURY LOCAL, 635 HIGH ST, THORNBURY VIC
10PM
GENRE: ACOUSTIC
FREE
Make Emo Great Again – The Live Band Edition
STAY GOLD, 133 SYDNEY ROAD, BRUNSWICK, VIC
7:30PM
LINEUP: THE FIOR, IN VANITY, THE MOTION BELOW
GENRE: PUNK
PRICE: $10
SATURDAY DECEMBER 28
Feeling Good As Hell Party
STAY GOLD, 133 SYDNEY ROAD, BRUNSWICK, VIC
9PM
GENRE: POP
PRICE: $10
Earl Grey’s Breakfast Tea
HOTEL ESPLANADE, 11 THE ESPLANADE, ST KILDA VIC
8PM
SUPPORT: CALICO SUNDAY, ELIZA JOAN & THE RENEGADES
GENRE: ROCK
FREE
SUNDAY DECEMBER 29
Hoodoo Gurus With Special Guests
Driftwood Estate, Caves Road, Wilyabrup, Busselton-Dunsborough and Surrounds
5:00pm – 11:00pm
PRICE: $59.61
GENRE: ROCK
HARPER BLOOM + PENY BOHAN
OLD BAR, 4-76 JOHNSTON ST, FITZROY VIC
3PM
GENRE: ACOUSTIC
FREE
SPIDERBAIT
GRAND HOTEL MORNINGTON, 124 MAIN ST, MORNINGTON VIC
8PM
GENRE: ROCK
SOLD OUT
BOATS
THE TOTE HOTEL, 67-71 JOHNSTON ST, COLLINGWOOD VIC
4:30PM
GENRE: ROCK
FREE
Photo Credit: Bree Wallace
MONDAY DECEMBER 30
NYE ON THE HILL
NYE On The Hill Site, Loch Wonthaggi Rd, Kernot, Bass, Phillip Island and District
DECEMBER 30 2019 – JANUARY 1 2020
PRICE: General Admission - $269.00
GENRE: VARIOUS
TUESDAY DECEMBER 31
British India NYE
Solbar, 19 Ocean Street, Maroochydore, Queensland
8:00pm
Part of New Year Celebrations
GENRE: ROCK
PRICE: General Admission: $34.70
FRIDAY JANUARY 3
RUBY FIELDS
GRAND HOTEL MORNINGTON, 124 MAIN ST, MORNINGTON VIC 3931
8PM
SUPPORT: LOSER
GENRE: ROCK
PRICE: SOLD OUT
PAGAN
BENDIGO HOTEL, 125 JOHNSTON ST, COLLINGWOOD VIC
7PM
GENRE: PUNK
PRICE: $42.59
Dancing In The Dark – A Bruce Springsteen Dance Party
STAY GOLD 133 SYDNEY ROAD, BRUNSWICK, VIC
11PM
GENRE: ROCK
PRICE: $10
ALI BARTER
HOTEL ESPLANADE, 11 THE ESPLANADE, ST KILDA VIC 3182
8:30PM
SUPPORT: BAKERS EDDY
GENRE: ROCK
PRICE: $22.50
Convenience Store + Majak Door
BENDIGO HOTEL 125 JOHNSTON ST, COLLINGWOOD VIC
8PM
GENRE: ROCK
PRICE: $10
Excuse For An Exit
WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, 524 LYGON ST, BRUNSWICK EAST VIC
8PM
SUPPORT: ALL WE NEED, A NEW WAY HOME, REPEAT SCRIPT
GENRE: PUNK
PRICE: $15
Photo Credit: Bree Wallace
SATURDAY JANUARY 4
CRATE DIGGER RECORD FAIR
HOWLER, 7-11 DAWSON STREET, BRUNSWICK, VIC
11AM
FREE
FOMO
Brisbane Showgrounds, 600 Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills, Queensland
11:30AM
PRICE: Second Release: $139.90
GENRE: VARIOUS
PRODUKTVE: REJINALD, EKINSPLIF, FACELESS, ROWAN RENNIE, CONNOR WALL
LOOP PROJECT SPACE & BAR, 23 MEYERS PL, MELBOURNE VIC
8PM
GENRE: ELECTRONIC
FREE
GARLIC NUN
CHERRY BAR, 68 LITTLE COLLINS STREET, MELBOURNE, VIC
11:30PM
GENRE: ROCK
FREE
TAKING BACK SATURDAY
STAY GOLD 133 SYDNEY ROAD, BRUNSWICK, VIC
11PM
GENRE: PUNK
PRICE: $10
SUNDAY JANUARY 5
Sunset Sounds 2020
Victoria Gardens, 361–381 High Street, Prahran, Victoria
5:00pm – 8:00pm
GENRE: VARIOUS
FREE
DAYDREAMS
GASOMETER HOTEL, 484 SMITH STREET, COLLINGWOOD VIC
12:00PM
FREE
GENRE: ELECTRONIC
Photo Credit: Bree Wallace
TUESDAY JANUARY 7
NOW.HERE.THIS
THE TOFF IN TOWN, 2F/252 SWANSTON ST, MELBOURNE VIC
9PM
GENRE: JAZZ
FREE
FOREVER RENTER
RETREAT HOTEL, 280 SYDNEY RD, BRUNSWICK VIC
7PM
SUPPORT: BELLHOP, HEIR TRAFFIC
GENRE: ROCK
FREE
ur welcome
