Ana Sia: Friday, May 29

Is there any dish as cosmopolitan as curry? Spices and ingredients from hundreds of miles away, refined, blended and condensed on your plate. It's no surprise that L.A. DJ Ana Sia turns to cooking Malaysian rendang curry when she's not making music: Her sets cross huge swaths of music, from techno to bass to dubstep, and the flavors don't compete—they complement.

"I'm given, what, 90 minutes of people's lives to play music?" she says. "I don't want to play one tempo or style because it brings only one type of music."

In contrast to the dumbed-down, multigenre ghostwriting currently choking commercialized EDM, Sia embraces the term "omni" for her varied styles. Her productions follow the same formula, from the moombahton-inspired "Clever Boy" to Detroit techno head-nodder "The Glass Delusion." It's not for novelty's sake or just to be different. Sia is trying to convey the experience she had when she first discovered the wild, mid-'90s New York dance underground. "When I went to my first rave, I had no idea about dance music, it was all new," she says. "So when I play, I'm never going to play the top 20 tracks. I try to keep it a little bit funky."

One way she's been successful in that goal is with 2014's collaborative EP Penpal Ballad, written and recorded via Dropbox with French producer Dehousy, amping up accessible house and techno stylings with booming club constructions. "He doesn't speak much English and I don't know any French," Sia says, "so we had to communicate through writing."

Francophones aren't the only ones Sia speaks a secret language with. Flavors of dance music are everywhere—as she says, "You see EDM in Pantene commercials!"—and Sia makes sure her crates, along with the bill, always reflect the particular scene where she's DJing. In Portland, for example, she's playing with locals BennyRox, Tyler Tastemaker, Ben Tactic and SPF666, all of whom she considers "hometown heroes."

"Educate yourself!" she says. "If you're going to Detroit or Chicago or New York, it doesn't matter. Do your research and do a three-track take of the classics, and respect the scene in that way.” 

SEE IT: Ana Sia plays Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., with BennyRox, Tyler Tastemaker, Ben Tactic and SPF666, on Friday, May 29. 9 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.

WWeek 2015