Tiga

He’s a one-person portal into rave history: childhood mornings at Goa beach parties, teenage years in Montreal throwing Canada’s first proper rave, a run of records that helped define the electroclash era and collabs with everyone from Hudson Mohawke to FCUKERS. I sat down with Tiga to follow that thread from cassettes and sunrise dancing to global club circuits and a new album that’s unapologetically his.

We talk about what it meant when house and techno first landed like a cultural shock and how a “punk spirit” can live inside electronic music. Tiga also gets specific about craft: why playfulness belongs in dance music but humour can destroy the trance, and why he once said real DJing is like stand-up comedy. Along the way we chew on  DJ technique, set pacing, reading a room, and the strange relationship between performer confidence and crowd response.

Then the conversation turns personal. Tiga describes “vibe fog” as his shorthand for the brutal reality of long COVID and the slow return of basic function and creative joy. We connect that recovery to making new work, including his INXS “Need You Tonight” rework, and to how flow state behind the decks has changed from vinyl intensity to today’s faster, bigger, more concert-like parties.

If you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.

Tiga on Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/tiga/

Tiga on Bandcamp:

https://tiga.bandcamp.com/album/hotlife-2

Huge thanks to Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear and sponsors of Lost and Sound. Check them out here: Audio-Technica

My book Coming To Berlin is a journey through the city’s creative underground, and is available via Velocity Press.

You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.

Transcript

Why Tiga Matters Now

Childhood In Goa Beach Parties

Paul 0:02

So, Tiga is one of Dance Music's true unique voices, but did you know that his life in music began on the beaches of Goa when he was just a child? Well you're gonna find out more about that in a minute because he's my guest on this week's Lost in Sound, the show that goes deep with artists shaping music and culture from the underground up. I'm Paul Hamford, I'm your host. I'm an author, a broadcaster, and a lecturer, and each week on the show I have a conversation with an artist who works outside the box about music, about creativity, and about how they're navigating life through their art. So whether you're new here or you've been listening for a while, it's great to have you along. Particularly today, as this is gonna be the last episode for a while. I'll explain more in a minute. And for the last episode in a little while, we're gonna leave it on a real classic. This is, I think, genuinely a real all-time classic episode. My guest today is none other than one of dance music's most fascinating characters, Tiga. Now, Tiga's spent his entire life in dance music as an artist, as a scene shaper, and as a one-person portal into the history of rave culture. To paraphrase James Murphy, Tiga was there on a beach in Goa in the early 80s, as a child witnessing the original Goa trance firsthand. Still a teenager in Montreal in the early 90s, he set up Canada's first rave. He'd set up the legendary DNA record shop, the influential label Turbo Recordings, and all of this before his international breakthrough as a producer in the early 2000s, with tracks like Sunglasses at Night and You're Gonna Want Me. All of that helped Tiga become one of the defining voices of a really interesting era. And if we're going to be genre specific, then you could point towards this sound and the image that accompanied it being part of what we used to call Electro Clash, that sort of punky, new wave, synth poppy inspired club music that re-rooted the sound of like house and techno in the early millennium away from what it had become this big kind of, in my impression anyway, this kind of my memory anyway, this kind of big bloated I befer the hair moth into something that was like sexy and raw and DIY and fresh again. And I associated artists alongside Teger like Miss Kitten, The Hacker, Felix the House cat, and friend of Lost and Sound Peaches. And I'm also thinking of like electro clash adjacent artists that I wouldn't have called electroclash, but were also doing something very interesting and exciting with dance music at the time, like Errol Alkin and Trash, Ed Banger, Soul Wax's Too Many DJs and more. And I remember that era so well. And I had so much fun at that time as well. And since then, Tiger's career has moved through many phases from festival DJ Mainstay to acclaimed albums like Sex Or, No Fantasy Required, and 2023's La Ecstasy, which was a collaboration with none other than Hudson Mohawk. And he has a new album coming out, Hot Life, out in a few weeks. And it's signature Tiger. It's sexy, it's druts. It has collabs on it with Boys Noise and the much-type New York band Fuckers. That's fuckers spelt F-C-U-K-E-R-S. And ultimately it's furry Tiger. It's got all of the things that you associate with Tiga, like a kind of playfulness, something punky, something strutty and subversive going on there. And yeah, you're going to hear the conversation in a minute. And before we get into the conversation, quick thanks to Audio Technica, who've been supporting Lost and Sound for the past few years. And this is actually the last episode that Audio Technica are sponsoring. And so I just want to say a huge thanks to them. The collaboration actually began in 2022, so it's been a really long-running collaboration. And it's been something that I've personally felt very comfortable and very happy to do. Audio Technica were there right at the beginning of my musical career. They, our first microphone in my first band, Brothers and Sound, was an Audio Technica one. And even now, I use an 802020 USB mic for every Zoom interview I do. So if you want to check out their stuff, head on over to www.audiotechnica.com to check out their fuller range of stuff. And connected to this, yeah. So I'm going to be taking a short break from the podcast after this for a while, whilst I look at ways to make doing the show sustainable going forward. You know, it takes a lot to put the episodes together. There's a lot of time that goes into like research and curation and networking and then the kind of product the interviewing and the production and putting the shows out. And it needs financialness to do that. So if you're interested in supporting the show, collaborating, or helping making future sessions possible, do get in touch. And right now, the best way you can support the show is by leaving a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. I know that's something that us podcasters say all of the time, and I say a lot, but right now, this is the time to really do it, and I'd be hugely appreciative if you have five minutes to do that. But I'm also just really happy you're listening because this is a real killer chat. This is me, Paul Hanford, talking with Teger for Lost and Sound Podcast. And we had this conversation on March 24th, 2026, and this is what happened. So I wanted to start going really right back to the beginning, like really to almost like infancy, if you like. And let's go this way. It's a long time ago. Yeah, right. I think I think we were born in the same year, actually, 1974. Yeah. Great year. Great yeah, yeah. I heard that your dad was DJing in Goa and you were kind of helping him out organize cassettes.

Tiga 7:28

That's true, yeah.

Paul 7:29

Could you tell us a little bit about that? What you remember about that?

Tiga 7:33

Um, I remember quite a lot, actually. I remember more about that than I do about like things that happened three years ago. I think it's kind of locked in. Um it was in Goa in India, and we started going as a well as a family, my parents and me, I guess right from when I was born. So I would spend like half the year there for so I guess for about the first 10 years of my life. So that was there was like this early party scene there. And I don't know exactly what time my I don't know what year my dad started playing music there at these beach parties, but it was probably like 79 or something like that, 79 or 80. And yeah, my earliest memories are which is I mean, he wasn't very like technically minded, but I remember he'd he would buy records in Montreal, and then in the basement of our old house, we'd he kind of systematically put them in a cassette. And yeah, I started that was kind of one of my jobs. I would do it because I was kind of better at that stuff, even at age six than he is. And uh yeah, and and then him and a little crew of other guys like him, you know, they would play, they would have these boxes of cassettes and they'd tape decks at these weird, these early raves, really kind of prototype raves. And I would go to the parties sometimes. I wasn't allowed to go at night, I would be allowed to go in the morning. I'd get on my bicycle at five in the morning and go to the party and watch all the freaky European people take acid and it was fun. Good, good life for a kid. It was a lot of fun.

Paul 9:05

Must have been quite eye-opening in in terms of like music. Did anything from those experiences do you feel like led into your musical development?

Tiga 9:15

I mean, well, look, all all the music you listen to when you're really young feeds in some way or another. You can't really like separate it. But I think I think the thing that I definitely I wasn't conscious of it, but I think the familiarity and the comfort with nightlife and with drug culture and with I guess just the very, very basics of rave culture, you know, just losing your mind, dancing. I think all those things were just very, very um familiar to me from a young age and felt comfortable and felt interesting. And one thing that was important for me was I never had like some big sense of rebellion about it, which I think was good later because it wasn't like there's like a continuity, you know, like making tapes or you know, stuff like that. It just was kind of my whole life. So it wasn't like there wasn't some big crazy moment where I had to, you know, I'm leaving home, guys, to go, you know, there wasn't so, but but I think that I think that served me well. And I didn't realize that until much later, but I think now looking back on it, it kind of made for a good, consistent kind of I guess it's like a nice there's a nice narrative, like a nice straight line through my whole life that kind of helps in a way.

Paul 10:33

Yeah, that's that's so fascinating because I think that rebellious stage is so important for a lot of people. But do you feel like your parents did the rebellion for you?

Comfort With Nightlife Without Rebellion

Tiga 10:45

Yeah, well, my dad was, yeah, you know, well, you know how it is, you grow up without getting too shrink talk, but you know, you you kind of react to your father one way or another. You know, you kind of maybe want to be a bit like him, but then you don't want to be like him. My dad was very much a party guy and a rebel and a and a kind of wild character. And I definitely took a different approach, you know. So even um another thing too is I think I witnessed so many parties from such a young age that I think I liked to dance at parties, but I also always I think I was just a bit shy, and I I kind of wanted something to do at a party. And I think that's the origin of DJing for a lot of people of my generation. I think it was like, well, what do you do? You know, maybe I'm not like chatting people up, I don't necessarily want to do drugs, I'm not really a wild character, I but but I love music and I want to be there. Okay, well, direct me to the DJ booth, please. So I have a j a job to do, you know. So the thing with the but the rebellion that what's good about the rebellion thing is, you know, I think I really avoided an enormous amount of uh I don't know what it is, you know. I guess. Yeah, I didn't I never had to deal with any of the the big ups and downs with drinking or drugs or uh also too. I always had kind of support of my family, you know, it wasn't like uh nobody was trying to make me be a lawyer or anything like that.

Paul 12:18

Yeah, I feel sometimes with the idea of rebellion, and I think it is a fantastic thing just as a general concept. Yeah, it's good. But at the same time as that when you're that age, you're like adolescent and you're going through these things, we tend to sort of look focus on what comes out of it, but like there's so much stuff of just time wasted and pain, isn't there? And and which sometimes is necessary, but you know, so you kind of cut through that then.

Montreal’s First Rave And Early 90s Explosion

Tiga 12:46

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we all have our own. Look, I I want because I spent so much time in India, for example, I was quite um, I kind of wanted to succeed, like I was quite driven with ambition and and even like material stuff. Like I wanted because I didn't have a lot of stuff when I was a kid, so I became quite like I kind of got into that whole 80s thing of you know, Duran Duran, and I'm gonna have fancy clothes one day. And you know, I got a bit I got a bit into that, and uh but yeah.

Paul 13:17

That was the era, and then we get to like 1993. I believe this is like solstice um in Montreal's first party I did, yeah. Yeah, and from your perspective, do you see it as Montreal's first rave? Oh, it was right. Okay, yeah.

Tiga 13:33

And can you tell us a little bit about like I will just give you a warning that if we go chronologically through my whole will, we won't even get to like been through it before. Well, yeah, it was it was it no no no, it categorically was the first big rave. There had been a lot of big warehouse parties, like there was there there was a a really cool house music warehouse scene, uh, modeled a bit more on like the New York scene, very housey. But uh in terms of what we would now consider rave with the aesthetics and the flyers and the multiple DJs and the big venue and all that, it was the first one.

Paul 14:10

Yeah. And what led up to that for you in terms of like getting into Rave, getting into electronic music, getting into techno? Um, was this something that you had embraced for quite a few years by this point?

Tiga 14:22

Yeah, I think well, at look, at those ages, and you're 16, 17, I mean, things go so fast. Like, you know, you look back, it's not like now. Now it's like five years, it's like that. Then it was like everything could happen in three weeks, you know?

Paul 14:35

Yeah.

Tiga 14:36

So I graduated high school, I think, in 90. I was always collecting records and I was always into electronic music. I didn't really know about house and techno specifically till like 91, 92. From that moment on, it was just that was all I thought about. That was all I cared about was to build with whatever scraps of information I could gather from the world, from magazines, and and all I wanted to do was make tapes, learn to DJ, throw parties, and it all happened pretty fast in those years. As I think from, you know, I've read books about like the asset house years in England, and I it's it's a sip very similar template everywhere in the world. It's like from the very first little parties with you and your friends to the first kind of big parties, it's not long. It's it's yeah, it's six months or whatever.

Paul 15:25

Because there's so much enthusiasm as well. These things happen, you accelerate. No, especially then, because then it was the beginning of ecstasy.

Tiga 15:33

It was the big, you know, it was it was there were major, major things that it's hard to even explain to people now that they were new. You know, people it's it it would be like trying to explain to someone, you know, how the telephone changed things. You know, it was this there were some things happening in those late 80s, early 90s, there were some things that were so revolutionary. The concepts, you know, people hadn't danced, people hadn't been out all night. Just to stay out all night was new. To have flyers that were full color was new. To know who's performing was new. Um, not to mention the music and the drugs. Yeah, the whole thing was so yeah, it was like, you know, one week 10 people are there, they all have the best night of their life, and a week later there's a hundred, and a week later there's a thousand, and it just it was like wildfire. Yeah.

Paul 16:23

Yeah. And before that, those people will all probably have very different music tastes, have very different organizations.

Tiga 16:29

People were at pubs, they were playing billiards, they were no one really was having that much fun. You know, it was it was people forget now. Well, no, it it's the same thing now. I mean, Rave and Club Culture offers a pretty compelling product, you know, to for people. Although back then it was even better too, because it wasn't even expensive. There was no financial barrier. It's not like now, now it's like now is whatever. We won't get into that. But yeah, it was it was it was incredible. And it was, you know, I think it was probably on par with, you know, when punk started, or or you know, it was just a it was really like uh lightning struck.

Paul 17:06

I think your music for me, there's always been that clash between you mentioned punk there, like it feels like you've approached electronic music through the lens of someone that has also perhaps has a punk spirit, uh, got a bit of the Iggy in them, or the bit of the Bowie in them.

Tiga 17:28

That's the nicest thing anyone's gonna say to me today.

Paul 17:31

I love I'm a big Iggy pop. I love Iggy, I love him. Yeah. What would you say?

Tiga 17:36

Is there like something that you feel like you take from Iggy in terms of what you didn't even I didn't know anything about Iggy till probably pretty recently, 10 years ago. I was never I was into Bowie a bit when I was a kid, but that also came later. Well, Bowie I had a big obsession with for a long time, but actually Iggy snuck up. I kind of relate to Iggy more in a way because he's first of all, he's so smart. He's just so smart, I wish. And he's and he loves to read. And he but I just love Iggy. He's just he's such an individual. It's this combination of just like this wild kid. He's so yeah, I don't know, I don't know. It's hard to put into words, but I just really relate to him a lot. Um I think I don't know, look, I don't know where it came from, but I definitely as I I always felt different. Maybe because I had a weird name, you know, and I had a weird upbringing, and I didn't, I clearly from the youngest age, I clearly was different. You know, I just was. I wasn't it wasn't me trying to do it. I just my name was Tiga. I grew up in India, I had long ass hair, I was very little, I was like that guy from the jungle book or something, you know. So in school and everywhere, I just I stood out and I was I was okay with it. But I think the the defining thing, the punk thing is just it was that thing of just kind of like I didn't want to blend in. I didn't I didn't blend in and I didn't really want to blend in. And so I I became it wasn't like, oh, I wish I was like everyone else. It was more like, why don't they realize I'm great, you know? Like why, you know, it's kind of like, hey, I'm I'm cool. Why don't the girl why why doesn't why isn't everyone seeing what I see, you know? And I guess so the punk spear was just like it was more like I wasn't trying to, I wanted to do it my own way, kind of, you know.

Paul 19:27

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and then the you know, like something like sunglasses at night comes along, and I'm sure you're probably absolutely exhausted with talking about that track. Um, but I mean it did seem to come along at a really specific point where um you're in Montreal, there was also like sort of similar kind of sound like going on in Berlin at the time. You had like the Kitty Yo label, you had like artistic peaches in London as well, like the electroclash thing. Um do you did you feel that this what you were doing with that? Did this come from feeling that there was a sense of something going on? Or we, you know, was it just more like something that you were doing your thing?

Electroclash Breakthrough And Scene Years

Tiga 20:09

These elements like again, that's something that really happened very quickly. So I would say the order of events, it's like I started to buy Gigolo records and hear some like Miskit and the Hacker, and and I was here, I was kind of bored with a lot of the techno and the stuff that I was exposed to. Late 90s was a bit boring.

Paul 20:32

It was yes, I remember it was quite a dull.

Tiga 20:36

Yes, exactly. It was a very, you know, and and especially if you had gone through the rave years and then you found yourself just it was kind of boring. It had kind of gone back to boring kind of club culture. So I started to hear a lot of these records, and I was like, oh fuck, this is this is exciting. And also it kind of it's a lot more, it brings in a lot more things that I love from the 80s, and and as it turned out, it was a lot of people very much like myself, similar generation, like Miss Kitten or The Hacker or Vitalik or Peaches or uh David Coretta or DJ Hell, who all kind of, even though no nobody knew each other yet, had a very similar story, you know. So then I made Sangasa a night with Yori, kind of in response to hearing these records. And the record just blew up right away. DJ Hell got it, signed it to Jigolo, and then it was kind of instant. It was like a fairy tale. It was like it was really like the punk garage fairy tale. Like you make a track with your friend in your house, and within a few months, you're playing all the parties of your dreams, and you're part of a little. And that was that was the only time in my life I would say we were really had a scene, you know, really part of a little community. And it was very um, it was great. It really was great. It was a lot of fun. Everyone cared about the records. They were making everyone was like friendly and a bit competitive and making a lot of friends, great parties, and uh it was it was though whatever that was, 2000, 2001, 2002 were it was a lot of fun.

Paul 22:15

Yeah, yeah. I I really relate to what you were saying about the uh what was happening to dance music, the conservativeness of it. It reminds me that there was like an era of like IB for super clubs and you know, your Van Dyks and your Oakenfolds and Exactly, yeah.

Tiga 22:31

And then it was quite, it was all quite, it was it got very kind of laddish and kind of straight and yeah, it wasn't it wasn't yeah, yeah.

Playfulness Versus Humour In Club Music

Paul 22:41

Yeah. And I think one of the things that you've particularly done was to like inject like a kind of uh a sort of a humor, you know, kind of a sleazy humor bit of attitude to to things. I mean, do you feel like there was you sort of mentioned there that there was this sort of thing that everyone was doing that was kind of pushing against the seriousness and the kind of the conservativeness of music at that time. But do you feel like going forward, you know, in I know it's a big long period of time to talk about, but do you feel like there are certain things from the early stuff you were doing that you feel in terms of attitude that has become like I don't know, like it's super important to you to kind of maintain, like in terms of like humor, in terms of like the outside aspect.

Tiga 23:25

I mean, I've never I know people, it's happened enough in interviews, people bring up humor or irony or whatever, but it's never my intention. Like I think it it's I like to have fun in studio and I don't take myself too seriously, but obviously it's never meant to be. I mean, there's some winks here and there, but I look at it more as like first of all, I'm willing to do things, I'm willing to flirt with absurdity or or go close to being silly, you know. And a lot of the music I love, if you think of like a band like The Cure, you know, a song like Love Cats or something, it's like, well, it's not funny, but it's pretty close to absurd, you know, or even and and Bowie, you know, something like China Girl or they're things that are like, okay, you know, it's come he completely pulls it off. But it's just that you're you're willing to start and and flirt with things that are well, maybe China Girl is not the greatest example, but and that's actually a Iggy pop song, I think. Um but uh yeah, thing for me is it's just what what happened early on was I realized, I guess, that my personality and my tastes were gonna be important to put forward that was gonna be part of my success. So that's just kind of who I am, and so it has been consistent. And some of it, some of it's with a bit of a wink, but it's never meant to be uh humorous. The reason for that is because humor for me is the end of dance music. Like you can't, you can't be, you know, it dance to dance and to feel you're locked in a groove or your head's down, or especially if it's a bit trippy, it can't be funny. You know, it can't be, yeah, you know, they're not meant they can't coexist. Now, that doesn't mean that um, you know, something like Bugatti or so, yes, there's a bit of a wink in it. You know, there's a bit of a I think it's more I prefer just the idea of playfulness, you know. It's like and that's what I loved about I was a huge soft self fan, you know, and and Mark Almond, there's always a a playfulness there. Like he's he's not taking himself too seriously. As far as the sleazy thing, that's kind of funny. I always laugh about that because like I think that's just from that, that's something that started early and it's stuck. I think that's from some of the images. That's like some of the 80s type images. But it's also, I think I like tracks that are a little bit like from the waist down, you know, they're kind of sexier, groovier. They're meant for a smaller club, it's really hot inside. It's not, it's not super cerebral, it's more like body music, basically.

Paul 26:07

So yeah. Um, I think the comedy thing, do you think, you know, I feel like watch out with comedy.

Tiga 26:14

You gotta watch out with comedy. Playfulness.

Paul 26:16

Yeah, I think that's a really good way of putting it because to me, I associate comedy with being in the head, and I think Yes, exactly.

Tiga 26:22

That's what I mean. That you nailed it. That's it. It's it's so there there can be some of that. No, the thing is the music itself, there's no comedy. Afterwards, sometimes you you kind of dress up the concept, you know, when it comes to the artwork or the outfits or the press release. Then you can kind of create a character and there can be some some nods to humor. The music itself has to exist, like you said. It can't be a cerebral, you can't be, you can't be thinking, you know. And you also can't be like, oh my God, that's funny. You know, because then it's a comedy record. It's a that's a that's a mixed record.

Paul 27:01

Definitely, yeah. You can't be taken out of the experience of what the music is trying to do.

Tiga 27:05

Um, and I and I do think periodically I was always struck there are occasions where someone goes a little bit over the line. Like, what was that band? Should I forget what they were called? They did that song Danger High Voltage. This is exactly when you said that. It was in that era.

Paul 27:21

Electric Six.

Tiga 27:22

Yes, exactly. And it was in that era, and there was a case where like the music was pretty good, but clearly it was like a piss take. And it just crossed that line a little. And that's why it was never a real club record. It it's like it has to, you know, club music and dance music has to survive in those environments on its own merits, and there's no cheating. And if it's too, you know, that's when it starts to veer into like musical territory or rocky horror, or you know, you can't you can't do that.

DJing As Stand-Up Comedy Craft

Paul 27:52

Yeah. Um, and this isn't meant to be contrary, but this is something that I think there's a quote that you said that was like real DJing is like stand-up comedy. And I'm taking it that you mean that maybe perhaps from a technical point of view, if that is actually something you said. Because I did say that.

Tiga 28:08

I did say that.

Paul 28:09

Yeah. And could you elaborate on what you mean in terms of like I guess it's about performance, about how you technically go into when I first said that it was based a little bit on a lot of the language, like you know, like DJs were kind of, you know, they evaluate themselves.

Tiga 28:24

Oh, I killed it, or oh, I bombed, or so that was the origin of that. And like, you know, even a lot of the terminology, uh, my set, and the idea of like what you start with, what you finish with, do you finish strong? Do you start strong? The pacing of all these bits. The bits are basically like records. And then there's this idea of like, you know, you've got your established bits, and then you have your new ones that you're kind of working on. How many new ones do you put in? How many established ones do you stay with? When do you try to play all new ones? Do people want the same bits they know? You know, there's a lot of similarities. And also just in the lifestyle, you know, you've you're you're touring endlessly with these little two-hour performances and stuff. And I think where it really the where the analogy I think is the most accurate is that thing of you know, integrating new material and old material, and also the fact that comedy, they both have like a functional response. So comedy, people have to laugh, DJing people have to dance. And in that sense, you're always up against that reality. So it's like, you know, if no one laughs, well, you didn't do your job, you know. So same with you know, like people have to dance. You you you you there's like, you know, anyway, there's a there's a lot of parallels.

Paul 29:40

Absolutely, 100%. And I think it's interesting to think of like beyond the function, what what you know, like okay, so the comedy doesn't work, so the you being too much in the head works, but you do talk about like dressing up the overall package, perhaps at the end of it, you know, and then maybe that's where more like the subjective art comes in, do you think?

Tiga 30:03

Well, it was it was important for me. Just I had spent a lot of time as a kid dreaming of you know, looking like a pop star or or dressing up or just looking as good as I could, you know, and then I got the chance. I was quite excited to do it and to just present myself and try to look as good as I could, you know. Yeah. That's that's pretty much it. And then obviously you draw on the what your idea of that is. My idea that was not Bruce Springsteen, you know, it was it was so so you just, you know, you're that but I think that's I think it's very important. I think when that's genuine, when you really have that, especially when you're young and you really want to project an image, I think it's actually quite important. I don't think it's superficial. I think it's a big part of being young and a big part of being an artist. And it's it's important. It goes with the whole, it goes with the whole package.

Paul 30:58

Yeah, I think it's something that often like helps people develop confidence and develop their own identity.

Image Thinking And Visual Creativity

Tiga 31:04

Yeah. And it even it even also helps you sharpen musically. You know, it's when you have a if you have a visual in mind, um it helps you even with the music. It helps you, you know, having a very sharp destination image-wise can really pull a whole record together or it can can really help.

Paul 31:24

Do you uh think very visually when you're working on music now?

Vibe Fog Long COVID And Return

Tiga 31:29

Not so much. There are moments when it's good when it does happen. So sometimes if I'm like writing a song and like uh and it's going well and I reach kind of like a peak excitement level where I'm dancing and I'm like, okay, yes, yes, yes, we got one. Then sometimes ideas will it's almost like when it's really going well, yes, there'll be visual ideas. Like, oh, oh, I can see what the okay, because I'm gonna get the title and that's what the artwork will look like, and the font's gonna be like that, and then I'll be wearing, you know, leather. And so it it's part of I think when things are at least for me, when when you're really in a good creative zone, all these strange little uh uh fragments start to kind of come out of nowhere and connect. For me, that's kind of actually what the definition of for me, my my experience of like creation is a lot about just connecting all these things in a way that only you can. So it's like your particular set of memories and inspirations and you know, this weird like constellation of these these things. So you're like, you know, and and then you gotta kind of like uh defend it in a way, you know, you gotta be like, okay, no, no, no, this is I really like it. And yes, it might sound a bit silly to you, but it's got a little bit of go a trance and a little bit of rock and a little bit of, you know, and I'm dressed in yellow, and no, just trust me, I like these things, you know, and and and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but it's the collision of all those. So yeah, so a lot of the time when it's going well, the visual is there and it jumps in.

Paul 33:13

Yeah. With the new album Art Life, um, you described having like a battle with vibe fog. Um could you tell us a little bit about what you mean by that? What was it?

Tiga 33:27

Vibe fog was kind of my nice way of summing up what was actually really kind of a nightmare four or five years. Well, it vibe fog was kind of it started with COVID and lockdown, and where I think, you know, all of us had one form of breakdown or another. You know, it was such a freakish thing and disconnecting, and if nothing else, just a very strange, weird intermission. So it kind of started with that, and then I ended up getting I got sick and I got like COVID and then long COVID. And without going into too many details, for a couple of years, my neurological situation, my personality, everything kind of got deconstructed down to like zero. I kind of like, guys, this is really, really, really bad situation. So I would say that in all of that, my among other things, my ability to well do anything, but but it's definitely my ability to to capture a vibe or to to to explore things, it was all really, really compromised. So that was kind of my it was my catch-all term to make it somewhat less brutal and depressing than it really was. The main thing about that though is that is that you know, fogs lift eventually, if you're lucky. And so this album specifically, it's really like a return to everything for me. It's like back to back to back to doing what I like to do and being able to do what I like to do. And so it's a bit of a celebration, really, like a bit of a personal uh an end to the vibe fog, I see clearly.

Paul 35:13

Yeah. Did the making the album help that, or is it something that you had to get to no?

Tiga 35:20

I I had no. It was more like when I could function, I started making music again. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, no, that it did help because when you like for me at least, creative stuff is like the highest level, like what I value the most. So there's things that you wonder, will I ever be able to do that again? So I don't, you know, it's not like I wonder, will I ever be able to, you know, read a bank statement again, or will I no, but but being able to actually create music that I like is it's it's challenging. You know, it requires a lot of things to go right. So when that started to happen again, yeah, the short answer is I was like, fuck, yes, I still got it. You know, so that confidence does start to start to uh yeah, start to steamroll. You start to feel good again and you start to when you think you've maybe lost something and then you start to realize you didn't, you know, sp enormous amount of confidence that comes from that.

Paul 36:21

Thanks for sharing that. Because I I can relate to that because I mean quite a long time ago now, I had uh chronic fatigue. And okay, it's very similar. Yeah. Very, very similar. And I've very much related to what you were saying about like there were things at the time where I thought, will I ever get to do this again? Yeah, you know, will I ever get to, you know, even things like go to a party, you know, things like create music or anything like that. Or things like shower standing up. Yeah, yeah. And then and then when you get to that, when you get to that, and I I don't want to sort of blur and hippify the process of how any any individual person might hopefully get better from that. But when you if you're lucky enough to get into a situation where you can do these things again, like the the the fucking high you get just exactly able to.

Tiga 37:08

Listen, listen, listen. If you if you survive chronic fatigue syndrome, then you can write this section on your own because you know, you know better than anybody. Very, very, very similar set of symptoms. Similar thing about, you know, the world doesn't even really believe you or understand. You're kind of just in your own, you're in your own world, unable to do things that you never in a million years thought would be a challenge. And and and yeah, so you know a hundred percent. And and you just nailed it, the high of returning to just those basics is so great. I think also, too, I don't know what age you were at when it happened, but I think if it happens when you're quite old, what's happened to me is it's it's almost like uh this like crazy exaggerated midlife crisis where it's like the the the nat there probably was going to be a natural dip anyway of like, okay, is this the rest of my life? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've been teaching forever. Like that coincided with this full mental and physical breakdown. So to emerge from it, it's like it's really like being given a whole new life in a way. That that's that's how I feel. It's like, cause it's not just, it's like, hey, here you go. You can do these things again that you thought were lost to you, that you love. And it's like a movie where it's like, they should have killed me when they had the chance. You know, like that. Yeah, that kind of like, you know, like I was, I was so close, you know, they had me. It was done. They shouldn't have let me live. Now I'm coming back for them, you know. Now it's payback's a bitch, you know. That's that's kind of what it feels like. And and it's and it's a really lucky and and nice situation to be in when you're a bit old, because instead of instead of heading into these years jaded and taking it for granted, you head into it being like, holy shit, what a what a lucky situation, you know.

Paul 39:03

Totally. And in terms of midlife crisis, you've totally circumnavigated the uh the motorbike and the leather jacket, you know, unless they have things that are cool. No, no, no. No, I did I I didn't have to do it. Yeah. No motor.

Tiga 39:18

Some motorbike. Really good to hear you're back in the world now. Yeah, you too. I mean, if it was if we had time, I would love to hear your story. I'm very interested in other, you know. I you probably know this too. When you've been through shit like that, you you become a lot more interested in other people. You you become a lot more you basically never know what shit people are going through. You really don't know what behind their eyes, what the struggles people are going, makes you a lot more empathetic and less judgmental. And also to hear it's basically mind-blowing what humans go through. You know, it's just when you get into that realm of like neurological things, it's like what people deal with on a day-to-day basis. You don't, you know, you see someone on a fucking bus, you do not know how hard it was for them to even get on that bus, you know.

Paul 40:03

I mean, that's that's the one thing, like it's quite a long time ago that that happened to me, but it's one thing that I that has stuck with me is that if I think someone's giving me an attitude or something like that, you know, I'm on a bus and there's someone with a bit of an attitude, I'm always thinking, what they're probably not even thinking about me. You know, they're whatever they've got that when you see someone looking angry, there's stuff that you don't know that's got nothing to do with you, you know.

Covering INXS And Writing Shortcuts

Tiga 40:31

It makes you a lot more uh what's the word, equanimity or whatever.

Paul 40:34

You just like everyone's dealing with some shit. Definitely. But before we went out of time, I really wanted to ask you about the in excess cover on the new album. Uh yeah.

Tiga 40:45

I uh well, sorry, continue. No, please, please. Yeah, well, I I uh I always liked in XS, actually. I mean, they're not they they for whatever reasons they were never seen as like a cool band, but I I really did like them. Like everyone else, I bought Kick when it came out with the skateboard on the cover. Definitely. Um, and uh it was a massive album. And I really think Michael Hutchins was a proper rock star. Nidja Knight is it's a weird one because it's not an original idea. It's not a it's not some crazy, like everyone knows a song, loads of covers have been done. What happened with that one is we made the groove in studio. This happens a lot where you make something you love, had the groove, the basic core of the track, loved it. And I'm kind of like, okay, I'm gonna put some, I'm gonna put a placeholder vocal on it. And sometimes for me, rather than writing my own, I'll kind of there are words in my head, words I know. I know the words to all these songs. So I'll kind of like use those words with a different rhythmic delivery and be like, okay, let's just hear what it's like with some words on top. Then I end up kind of getting attached to the demo with those words. And then I'm like, okay, do I build this into a full cover or do I and I usually just get lazy and rather than write my own words, I'm just like, okay, it's a cover, you know. And so that's the truth of what happens. But I also, I mean, it's such a I I I like my godgins. I always had this kind of languid, a bit, I don't know, this like sexy, slightly overdone delivery. And I don't know, who knows? It's hard to talk. I I have a tough time talking about tracks musically, but that one that's what happened. And uh I quite like it.

Paul 42:26

Yeah, I I mean it it was lovely listening to the album, and I wasn't I don't really look at track listings until on an album until I go, oh, what's this? You know, and then but just like going, This is this is this is this is need you tonight, isn't it? Yeah.

Tiga 42:43

Well, there's nothing, there's nothing else from the original, and and crucially, there's no dink, dink, dink, da-da-da-da-da-da-dink, which is like no that's the major hook. So it's like, you know, it's it's a it's a pseudo-cover.

Paul 42:56

It's a phrase that is yes, but has a lot of connection with for a lot of people that you've transported to another time in another context. And yeah, and he there's a few line.

Tiga 43:06

I mean, there's a few lines in the song. I mean, I just love a slide over here. It's so good, you know. Give me a moment. So there were there also that one also there were there phrases that he used. I thought, like, your moves are so raw. It's actually quite a house music phrase. So I I also thought it was kind of cool. These they're they're quite dance music phrases in that song. So anyway, that's okay.

Flow State DJing Then Versus Now

Paul 43:30

Yeah, yeah. And talking of the moment, for you, like on the dance floor when you're DJing, when we talk about things like the moment, we talk about things like flow state and like being that moment where everything is kind of coalescing. I loved what you were saying about creativity earlier on, and I think there's a very similar form of like live moment by moment creativity that happens on the dance floor. Definitely. How has your relationship with that changed over the years? Like the you now compared to when you Know you were starting out. That's a good question.

Tiga 44:02

I never got asked that question. It's just not easy to get a question you never would ask. Um, well, first of all, like I think secretly what I really love most about DJing is that it forces you to be in that live state for two hours, you know, like uh because it's and it's what I like about Studio 2. Mo that's why most of my songs happen really quickly, because I'm not I'm not really a good, I don't prepare very well. I don't know if lazy is the right word, but I'm a bit ADD about things, whereas like I I have these crazy manic spikes of creativity, and that's where things happen. So, but what's nice is when you force yourself in a live scenario, your back's kind of against the wall and you can't squirm out of it. There's witnesses, there's audiences, and it it just basically forces you to be creative within these like little parameters. So I think that's partly why I've DJ'd for so long and why I still enjoy it is is that the flow state is incredible when it happens. Um but it's a very interesting question, what you asked, because it definitely has changed. Um I think at the very beginning there was a lot of technical preoccupation, nervous about, oh, am I gonna mess up a mix or then that that all disappeared. And then I think I would say the glory years in terms of flow state were like probably the 2000s, like the like because also vinyl makes it somehow easier, I feel, because you're you're concentrating more. You you you're you really have to concentrate, it's a bit more physical. You really have to monitor things, you have to know your records much better. You you really have to be on it, and it makes it much harder to have other thoughts. When you move to CDs and digital files, it's easier to play and there's a little bit more time to think, which so and I think I would say that the flow state, the real state of being really just in the mix is a little more rare than it used to be. Also depends on the kinds of parties. Um a lot of the shorter sets and the bigger impact larger parties, they're not about that as much. They're much more about big songs, songs people know, delivered with a lot of energy. So it has changed. But when the moments like a really, really good set when you're not thinking at all, and you're just, and especially if you're in the mix, you're kind of it's like you're jug, you're balancing these things, and it's very, and the people start to like lift with the energy. There's like a swell, and you're kind of aware that like this could all collapse. Like you could, you know, you could fuck this up. There's quite a lot at stake in a way, especially with drugs involved, and like, but it's it's a great, great feeling. When DJing is really, really good, it's it's one of the best. It's like um, it is it's quite rare, I think. Yeah. For me at least. It's quite rare now that those um it also takes a while to really turn off your brain, you know. Like, but I do know that there was a period in my life where I never thought when I was DJing. I'd say, like, for about a five, 10-year period. And sadly, for whatever reason, I'd say in the last 10 years, I did start to think a little bit.

Paul 47:25

Right. Do you think that's like external stuff, or do you think that's a change in yourself?

Tiga 47:30

Or a little bit of both, you know.

Paul 47:33

Yeah.

Tiga 47:34

DJing is also a lot about confidence. It's it's a lot about, you know, when you really feel good, when you really feel like you've got the right records, the right crowd, you're in the right place. It I don't know. I don't know. I think in my particular case, it's just a few bad habits that developed. Like, like, well, you know, like they say also, like, you know, for it's like preparation, for example, helps a lot with uh let's say something like anxiety, you know. And I tend to like under-prepare a little bit. So, you know, you they're just some little things, some little bad habits. But look, I'm being very picky. I'm being quite harsh and honest on myself. You know, it's still most of the time I'm pretty, pretty focused and pretty. Yeah.

Paul 48:22

But I I think that's the that's the one of the deals you make with the devil with creative living, isn't it? Or creative endeavors, or actually not just any creative, but I sort of being a professional in any kind of field is that you you have to be self-critical to a certain wise.

Tiga 48:39

And also, too, look, there's an old, there's an old joke with very early on in my DJ life, I realized that in my head, when I was like, oh wow, that was shit. And then they come up to you, that was the greatest night of my life, and vice versa. There's times in my head, I'm like, okay, that was three hours of flow state. And the crowd's like, meh. You know, so you you learn that. And the other thing, too, I think you learn as a performer in general, there's always a disconnect. Like, you know, James Brown, there's nights, he's fucking giving it his all. And you know, in his head, he's like, Meh, another show. I you know, there's a there's a level of professionalism that takes over. So that's what I mean. I'm being critical because, you know, I think most of the time, by conventional standards, I'm still pretty in flow in in the state. But yeah. But yeah, the the last thing I'll say about that real flow state, it also depends a lot just on the party, you know, because it it has to do with I feel parties in general have moved away from they've they have moved a bit closer to concerts and to uh a lot of the parties. So it's a little harder to get that. I don't know. It's it's a bit harder, at least for me, to get that really kind of deep, intimate connection sometimes.

Break Announcement And Support The Show

Paul 49:57

Yeah, I totally understand that. Yeah. Tiga, thank you so much for chatting with. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so that was me, Paul Hanford, talking with Tiga for Lost and Sound Podcast. And we had that chat on March the 24th, 2026. Thank you so much, Tiga, for sharing your time and thoughts with me there. And Tiga's new album, Hot Life, is released on the 17th of April through Secret City Records slash cargo. Well worth a listen. And so, yeah, as I mentioned earlier on, this is the last Lost and Sound for a little while. I'd like to thank Audio Technica, who've been the partners for Lost and Sound since 2022. I've loved this collaboration. It's helped me make the episodes and it's been collaborating with a brand whose products I really, really fucking love. And if you want to check out their full range of stuff, their microphones, headphones, turntables, and cartridges, head on over to audiotechnica.com where you'll see it all there. And so, yeah, the podcast will be back hopefully very, very soon. If you've got an idea for a partnership or want to support or just send me a message, please do. And as I mentioned earlier on, the best way you can show your support right now is by leaving a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. That would really, really, really help, and it'd make me feel very, very happy. And I just wanted to say to you, if this is the first time you've listened, hello, I hope you've enjoyed it. And if you've been a regular listener, thank you so much. I hope you've I hope you've enjoyed. I love I love the chats that when people message me about the shows, and I'll be back as soon as I can with more episodes. Until then, take care, and I'll chat to you soon.