Interview: Miss Monique
Miss Monique is a rising Progressive House DJs, and one of the most recognized female DJ in this genre in Europe. Miss Monique’s unique talent of smoothly melting techno rhythms with classic trance and progressive tunes year after year gets highly appraised by an ever-growing number of electronic music aficionados. By 2020, her live sets gather thousands of progressive house addicts online, with recorded streams gaining up to 2 million views. Miss Monique’s most popular set on Radio Intense channel boasts a whopping 11+ million views.
Her performances have been admired in more than 40 countries across the globe and counting — from small-scale cosy boat parties in Ibiza to renowned first-rate global festivals such as Untold or ADE. Miss Monique started her own label — Siona Records, in 2019, to support the growth of aspiring progressive artists. In June, the label made it to Top 10 best selling progressive house labels on Beatport.
Our team had a chance to talk with Miss Monique about her latest activities in music. Read Below!
Hey Miss Monique, lovely to meet you! How are you – how has the last year been for you personally?
Hey! Thanks, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. Probably as for everybody my year had bad things but the same time good things as well. We couldn’t travel and were stuck at home which was stressful, but I tried to use this time to record more new videos, worked on our label Siona, and produced some new tracks.
Ukraine is a blossoming market right now for electronic music artists – why do you think that is, especially after the last 5 years or so in particular?
7 years ago we had a crisis in Ukraine, which was very difficult for everyone, including the electronic music industry. Many festivals and parties had been cancelled. The artists didn’t want to come here anymore. In 2018, we gradually began to return to normal life. Our people missed interesting parties, artists, so we can see how the Ukrainian market is growing now.
Also, in my opinion, our market is improving due to the fact that we have many interesting artists who represent our country at prestigious international festivals and release their tracks on top labels.
Has it been weird making music during the lockdown with no real crowds to test it out on live?
It was definitely more weird, I didn’t have a chance to see people and feel their energy in real life. As for making music, probably not. I know it was different but I continued to share new music via my social media’s pages.
Where does your inspiration and motivation come from?
Most of the time I get inspiration from my listeners. When I see their reaction to my new podcasts, tracks and how excited they are when I announce something new for them, that’s my biggest inspiration. Also before the COVID situation I travelled almost every weekend, met new people and I was always inspired so much by everything that was around me.
Tell us about your label Siona Records? What do you look for when signing new music to it?
Our label Siona is a young 1.5 years old child who is developing very quickly, I guess. From the beginning till now I see how many talented artists we opened door for and for others. We are not searching for social media’s big pages. We are searching for producers who will give us interesting sounds and their new vision of progressive house and melodic techno music.
You’ve been heavily active on your YouTube channel through the pandemic with your live streams especially. How beneficial has that outlet been for you personally to connect with fans and stay in some kind of active routine also?
To be connected with my listeners is one of the most important things. That’s amazing, to have a chance to separate two great things: to share with people new music during the stream on YouTube and at the same time chatting with them! If you do something for others you must know what do they like, some of their thoughts and to be open for their ideas. I don’t know who was helpful more during the pandemic: me to listeners or they to me! Probably second option.
You have an upcoming tour in South America, have you toured that part of the world before, and if so what are you memories of it?
I already had three tours in South America and every time when I hear from my manager: “we are starting to plan a tour there” I have goosebumps on my skin. It’s difficult to find words to describe how cool these people are! I remember when a good friend of mine Dj Ruby from Malta saw that I’m going on my first tour, he told me that it was going to be my huge love forever. He was absolutely right. These people stole my heart many times!
What else you working on/have you got coming up?
It would be amazing to be back to tour life. We already have in place South American, Indian tours and I hope that other countries will be open for events soon as well. I’m continuing to work on my new releases, planning to record more “outside” videos this year and I have high hopes for our label Siona.
Miss Monique’s “Raindrop” EP is out now on her label Siona Records
Grab it here – https://www.beatport.com/release/raindrop/3268370
https://www.facebook.com/MissMoniqueUA