Meet Sydney’s Ivy (aka IV Drip), part of Sydney’s Nectar family, co-founder of Headroom (alongside Nat James) and host of ‘Home Time’ on Nomad Radio.
A well known face and sound in the scene, Ivy has headlined the likes of Outhouse (Melbourne) Pickle (Canberra) has played in support for the likes of Giant Swan, Mama Snake and Pangea. With an affiliation for glitchy electro and breaks, she presents H&S with something special (and a little bit different from her usual ‘staunch’ sound) for our 19th instalment in the series.
Tell us a little bit about this mix - from what you’ve hinted at it’s a little less ‘staunchy’ IV Drip? Is this a sound you’ve been slowly progressing to or wanting to try for a while?
I think that over the past year or so, my taste in dance music has broadened quite a bit - I’ve been listening to a lot more house, tech house and a lot of UKG and just wanted to try and put something together that was really fun.
For a while I feel like I’ve kind of been pigeon-holed as a DJ that only plays moody techno and electro, and I just wanted to do something different because I was getting bored listening to and playing the same kind of music all the time. Not that I still don’t love the darker side of electronic music! I definitely still have so much time for it, but I just felt like changing it up a bit :)
Tell us a little about your show ‘Home Time’ on Nomad Radio and what can we expect to hear from it in the future?
Originally I had a show on Nomad Radio called Thanks For Sharing - that was a two hour show where I would get a different guest in every month. Usually it would be a friend or someone local who’s taste I really like but haven’t been given much of an opportunity to play/ record mixes - sorry about the shameless plug lol but there are some really incredible guest mixes in that short archive (which is currently hidden until I can pay my SoundCloud Pro bill)!
After a while though, I wanted to try something different and started Home Time - an all Australian music show. The great thing about it was that I could still play whatever genres I wanted but still had the constraint of ‘Australian music’ to work within. Unfortunately though, Nomad Radio went on a hiatus a bit after lockdown started so I only got to do two shows! But hopefully they can start back up again at some point - or maybe I’ll find another home for Home Time.
“The great thing about it was that I could still play whatever genres I wanted but still had the constraint of ‘Australian music’ to work within. ”
Your one of the co-founders of Sydney’s Headroom - will they be resurfacing anytime soon!? Or will they be resurrected in a different form?
It’s pretty hard to say at the moment because events still aren’t really happening in Sydney yet. There’s a few bar gigs here and there, but for what we wanted to do with Headroom there isn’t really a space for it. I’m hoping that one day we can bring out Giant Swan again like we were meant to in April, but for the foreseeable future that seems pretty unattainable.
Aside from our own shows, Headroom is part of a collective of Sydney crews that (up until covid) put on a bi-annual fundraiser party called Community Chest. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that it’s my favourite event/s of the year, I literally daydream about drinking mimosas on the dancefloor at 10am - but considering the circumstances, I think it’ll be a while before we can put on another one.
I can’t see us getting back into Headroom things too soon - but who knows?
P.s . Love + miss u Nat <3
BB FRANKIE :)
You’re a resident of the amazing NECTAR family, how have you found they’ve shaped the underground Sydney scene?
As Nat James mentioned in your recent interview with her - Sydney’s music scene has been a giant dude-fest for way too long. The scene was (and still is) super intimidating when you’re not a cis-man, and even though there is still a long way to go, NECTAR has definitely been an important step in the right direction.
I think what makes NECTAR stand out from other agencies is that they don’t just focus on their own events and artists. They put so much work into the local electronic music community by creating & promoting safe spaces, organising workshops, and being supportive to those starting out in the industry or anyone who might need some advice.
I think because of all the support they give within the community, it’s made everyone realise ‘hey - just because I’m not a cis-man doesn’t mean I can’t DJ/ throw a party/ etc!’ which in turn has given space to a bunch of incredible local emerging artists and promoters.
What else have you been up to during this turbulent 2020? Are you working on any other projects at the moment we can look forward to hearing/seeing/being a part of?
When lockdown first started in March, I didn’t really do anything for a few months until I enrolled into uni. I spent a lot of time going on walks, reading, hanging out with my cat Frankie and went through a month-long phase of cooking savoury pies and watching The Bachelor. I think pre-covid I was always making myself busy by trying to come up with new projects either on my own or with friends - but I’ve realised that I need to chill out a bit and not put so much pressure on myself to be productive all the time. There’s a couple of mixes I’ve got to record soon that I’m looking forward to, but aside from that though there’s no upcoming projects :)