Why are there three d’s in sonidddo?
an interview with Sam Platten
Have you heard of Sonidddo? No? Then you are NOT up to date with what Club Rambutan’s been up to recently (make sure you’re following our Instagram where we’re the most active!). We tabled at their first event in May, and had a grand ole time.
If you’re a real Club Rambutaner, then you’ll remember that our second magazine launch party took place in a warehouse in Glendale, and had a DJ lineup. Crazy coincidence, one of the DJs from that very launch party, Sam Platten, is the founder of Sonidddo.
Sam Platten DJing our second launch party.
Now that we’ve established the connection, here’s the rundown. I went to Sonidddo’s first event at Club Contact, and intended to go and ask questions and generally be a curious cat. Unfortunately, I got a little drunk and by the time Sam had finished their set, I no longer was thinking, “What interesting and thought provoking question can I ask about Sonidddo to get a convo going?” and instead was thinking, “Mmmm I love Midori Sours,” as seen below. So, instead we did an interview via Google Meet.
Interview edited for clarity.
Maya: What’s the purpose of this event?
Sam: I was feeling this general state of yuck with the Phoenix music scene. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but it’s very disconnected and so many artists skip Arizona. We’re not as recognizable as LA or NYC or Chicago. I’ve lived here my whole life, and suddenly I was like, “What is happening here?” The collective output of Phoenix is so disappointing because there’s not a lot of visibility and the spaces that are meant for music and art and creativity have the same people and the same faces you see over and over again. It can become cliquey and you need to be in the know in order to get into those spaces.
I started to conceptualize Sonidddo around a year ago as a rotating club night, like where I play, some friends play, and there’s a rotating roster. It never turned into anything then because, you know, it was a random idea that crossed my mind. There also wasn’t a good space to host; I wasn’t going to pitch this to anywhere in Old Town Scottsdale or Mill Ave because it just wasn’t right. Then, Club Contact opened, posted that they were taking show proposals, and I realized that I could make this idea a reality.
I wanted to delve into the local Phoenix scene more, since people tend to congregate in their own groups. It’s so small in that way, and there’s not much crossover. There was an opportunity here to make an omakase of music for people to enjoy.
M: I had a friend tell me that it was going to be mostly experimental EDM playing… is that an accurate description? Would you call it experimental EDM?
S: Haha, it was definitely more electronic music. I know I give the vibe of experimental EDM, and I’m on the fence about that, about being outwardly experimental. Like, experimental music is awesome, but being experimental just to be experimental is a little annoying, like, “Oh, look, we’re different.”
Note from Sam: Electronic music and EDM are not contextually interchangeable, the acronym is usually interpreted as more commercial leaning electronic music. Typically people outside of that arena don’t use the term even if they are making/playing electronic music and it is danceable.
I tried to market this event in a more purposeful way. Club Contact really wanted us to feature our faces, and post a selfie, but I decided against that because it felt really unnatural to promote Sonidddo and myself in that way. To me, every facet of how this was perceived was important. I knew I didn’t want to bend on certain items since you can subtly turn people off if the appearance doesn’t match what’s being delivered.
M: Sonidddo - what does it mean? Why are there three D’s?
S: It doesn’t mean anything really, “sonido” means sound in Spanish. (Maya note: this is SO arizona.) The three D’s are, (laughs), I don’t know if this will make sense to you or anyone else. To me, it rolls off the tongue. In my head, I hear the D’s as a kickdrum looping. I liked the sound in my head, kind of like a DJ tag.
M: Is there a main central “sound” or is it constantly switching genres?
S: I wanted everything to be somewhat danceable, to be a celebration of dance music. Of course, that’s very up to interpretation. In the future, I want it to vary, but the main component is music you can dance to.
Sam Platten playing at Sonidddo event at Club Contact
M: How did you curate the lineup? What were your specifications?
S: Like the marketing, I was very particular about it. I was looking for a mix of different genres, different energies, vibes, etc. The night was intended to build into a crescendo, starting out slower and moving into higher energy as we went on.
LINEUP !
KILLTHEDJ - slower house
iraIRL - house
SPIRITOROS - music producer, eccentric style, palate cleanser
SAM - all over the place (music wise), ramped up the energy
ROBERCITA - latin techno, house, reggae
EDRICS - electro house, indie 2010s pop
The last few people were more established, to make sure the night would end on a high note.
M: Follow up - how did you know them or find them?
S: Three of them were friends, and two were people I’d played with before at other shows or venues.
M: Where do you see sonidddo going in the future? What’s the ideal?
S: I’m still fleshing it out. I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to have another Sonidddo night, because that hinged on the attendance of the first night. Ideally, I’d like to have one maybe once a month? Once a quarter? Either way, I’d have a rotating cast, probably have people back if they fit into the new “theme.”
For the future, I definitely want to take mix submissions so I can spotlight people who aren’t connected with me or my friends. That’s why I invited Club Rambutan and Envy Magazine to collaborate and table, I thought our missions were very similar in the creative world.
The long game would potentially be workshops, DJ open play where people can hop on and play for fifteen minutes, spaces where people can practice music or share their projects and receive feedback.
M: Are you happy with how the event on Sunday turned out? Give me your rose - bud - thorn. (My apologies to Sam on this one. We had a bit of confusion here. Unfortunately, I can’t physically stop myself from asking people, “what’s your rose, bud and thorn for today?”)
S: Rose of the event would be that there was a great turnout, around 200 people, great energy, people were dancing, and everyone was having fun.
Bud (potential) is probably that we could have done more with the visuals, I’d like to do something different and more compelling next time. I didn’t have a ton of time to put a lot of visuals together, so we mainly had one up the entire time.
The thorn was that the sound was super low for the first few people, and the lights were really bright in the beginning. Not a great environment for dancing. The house sound should have everything up on their end, and we had to redline (M: What’s that?), max out the audio. This can potentially damage the equipment, which isn’t… great.
Overall, I’m really happy with how everything turned out. I wasn’t sure if it would do well, Club Contact wasn’t sure if it would do well, but suddenly there was a line outside at the beginning of the night. Thanks to everyone who showed up, we’ll definitely be having another Sonidddo night.
