Thalia
Location
Johannesburg
Gauteng
About Thalia
DJ/Producer/Singer-Songwriter/Performing Artist.
“She was born to make music” is a statement Thalia’s name is synonymous with. Daughter of well-known jazz bassist Pete Sklair and a vocalist & classical piano player herself since the tender age of 9, Thalia is a highly skilled musician and no stranger to diversity.
She is entering her fourth year of her BAPVA (Performance and Visual Arts) Degree at Wits University, undertaking Film, Performance, Script-Writing and German as her subjects, and majoring in Physical Theatre and German Language.
Thalia has written many songs and done many vocal recordings over the years. Her hit Woven, produced with Eric M, reached number 29 on the World Dance Chart in 2008.
Certificates Attained:
*DJ course 1 – Beginner,
*DJ Course 2 – Advanced Turntablism,
*Music Production: Reason & Cubase,
*Music Business.
Thalia’s DJing career began in 2005 when she was 18, where after completing a beginner and an advanced DJ course at Soul Candi and Retro Music respectively, she gave DJ lessons at Capitol Music Café in Rosebank.
Her true soul is progressive in feel, but she is versatile and plays a selection of genres to her dancefloors:
Progressive house, Tech-house, Deep House,
Acid-Jazz/Downtempo, Progressive Psy-Trance, Techno, Breaks.
Thalia has done audio sampling and scratching work with electric jazz band Unofficial Language and continually uses these techniques in her sets, as well as adding her own improvisational vocals over the tracks.
Her break into the club scene came after she won the annual Gemini DJ Battle 2007, being the only female djette making it to the finals. She also made it to the semi-finals of the SYLD (Support Your Local DJ) competition South Africa, where she dropped out due to unfortunate circumstances.
She has played all over South Africa: Johannesburg, Centurion, Cape Town, Durban, Kimberly, Welkom, Knysna, Port Elizabeth, and has even played as far as Zambia and Namibia.
Gigging Experience
She has played (and plays) at the following venues and events:
(JHB)
Cafe New York;
Fashion society;
DJ lounge;
Black Orchid;
Ku-De-Ta;
The Crazy 88;
Newscafe;
Corona Cafe;
Club Skandal;
Partyhouse;
Roka Lounge;
Liquorice Moon;
Roxy’s;
Stones;
Aruba Lounge;
H2O;
Sutra;
Submission;
Malabar;
Milounge;
Mibar;
Taboo;
Cheri Rouge;
Groovebar;
Sugar;
Gypsy Lounge;
Sudada;
Truth;
Le Mix Room;
Fever Sport’s Lounge;
Voodoo Lounge;
Psy In The City;
A Fu-Cha Gathering;
Tswa’ing Crater Gathering
Teknotribe
(CENTURION)
Club Mojito;
Stones
(KIMBERLEY)
Wacjaw ;
(WELKOM)
Sportsman’s
(DURBAN)
Origin;
Raffles Nite Club;
(CAPE TOWN)
The Bang Bang Club;
Velvet;
M-Bar;
Karma;
Caprice;
Bambu;
La Med;
Baraza;
Newscafe;
(KNYSNA)
Zanzibar;
(PORT ELIZABETH)
52 Parliament (Funk Shui);
Earthdance;
(NAMIBIA)
Masquerades;
(ZAMBIA)
International Awareness Event.
(MOZAMBIQUE)
Areira Fest, Guinjata
Thalia is not just a great DJ, she is the whole package. Featuring on (DSTV) Go’s GoChat, MK89’s MKchat, Vuzu’s Verge and Yo.TV’s Wildroom it is clear that she has the allure, ambition and just the right amount of attitude to compliment her skills. She has shared the stage with top SA DJs such as Munro Munnik, Roger Goode, Lady Lea, Erica Elle, Ryan Dent, Ricardo da Costa, Doctor Stone, Roger d’Lux, Missred, Coco Loco and many others, as well as international DJs such as Riva Starr and Lee Haslam.
Thalia is dedicated to paving the way forward for the underground scene in South Africa, continually applying new and exciting aspects to her sets and thus she never fails to deliver, no matter what the style of music is required to get a crowd in-tune with their bodies on the dancefloor.
UNDERGROUND REVIVAL with PROGRESSIVE MESS was an on-line radio show on Dance Web Radio which was hosted by Thalia and DJ Gavo (Aka Progressive Mess). The show, titled Underground Revival, focused on spreading intelligent underground sounds across the genres of dance culture from all four corners of the Globe.
The show was put on hold when Gavo left South Africa, but hopefully will be relaunched in future when the two meet again…
Besides for her DJing career and her studies, Thalia is also involved in the Brazilian martial-art form Capoeira, in which she has been training for four years. She has participated in many Capoeira shows including the Soccer Expo 2009, the MTN GLC conference 2010 and the biggest yet, THE FIFA WORLD CUP opening and closing ceremonies 2010.
With a passion for what she does and a skill second to none, Thalia is arguably one of the hottest prospects in her profession at the moment, and there are still many sizzling hot surprises on the way…
Check out some of her tracks here:
Grab some of her mixes here:
