It's all Sunshine & Disco Faith Choir at The Espy
The iconic Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir have announced a special 3 show residency at the equally iconic ‘Gershwin Room’ at The Espy. The Disco Faith Choir was the brainchild of Sunshine, one of Melbourne’s most renowned DJ’s and producers, with the choir fusing her infectious club-ready house and techno vision, with a live gospel choir to create a uniquely epic sound. We caught up with Sunshine to ask her about the creation of the Disco Faith Choir, The Espy residency and her dream to collaborate with Adele or Roisin Murphy one day.
For those that haven’t heard of Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir, can you describe your music?
Picture a dance floor you don’t want to leave. A musical experience that makes you feel so joyous all your worries are left at the door. At our live shows I dj a mix of uplifting house and techno with a live 12 piece choir, Disco Faith Choir. Imagine the journey of a dj set combined with the interaction of a live performance. Its unlike anything else I’ve seen or heard before and the vibe at our shows is electric.
Sunshine, the Disco Faith Choir was your vision, so how did you form the choir?
The actual concept started years before it came to life. One of my biggest dj anthems over the years was a gospel track called ‘Old Landmark’, I would layer it over a techno track and it would go off anywhere I played from small clubs, festivals or gigs in the burbs. I was obsessed with the energy that’s created from mixing the uplifting feeling of gospel vocals with the high energy vibe of house and techno. When I got into producing music in 2013 I really wanted to create a track that had a mix of gospel sounds with a live choir doing the vocals and create a live performance for the record release party. The whole idea came to life in 2016 and the launch party at Prince Bandroom for our first track ‘Here To Stay’, it was one of my favourite shows we’ve done. The vibe was insane and I knew instantly the project was something special and I wanted to dedicate my time developing it into the show it is today. In the lead up to making the first track and doing the live show it turned out to be hard to find a choir that wanted to perform in a club at 2am so I ended up starting my own choir and that’s how Disco Faith Choir was born.
“The choir has never sounded as good as it does at the moment and I’m so excited for everyone to hear us at these upcoming shows.”
Was it hard finding the right 12 voices to fit the sound you wanted to create?
Looking back on how the choir has come together I think its more about finding the right mix of personalities that have the perfect vibe to fit the project. Obviously they’re all outstanding singers but having a tight group that love being around each other on stage takes our live performances to another level and the crowd really gets into how much everyone is vibing on stage. Over the 7 years we’ve been doing shows the choir has organically come together through mutual friends who were already in the project and auditions. The choir has never sounded as good as it does at the moment and I’m so excited for everyone to hear us at these upcoming shows.
It has just been announced that Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir will be playing a three-show residency in the iconic 'Gershwin Room' at The Espy in St Kilda. Does the group have a special connection to the venue?
Yes and we’re so excited for these shows. Every gig we’ve done at The Espy has always been a vibe especially the Espy Pride and the Espy St Kilda Fest gigs we did early this year. We felt a lot of love from the crowd and thought The Espy would be a great choice for our winter home in Melbourne.
“it was important to me to give our fans a new set for each show”
Each night of the residency will feature a different theme. How did the decision to make each show individual come about?
We thought it would be a really great concept to make each night a train station and have a different theme for each station/date. We are doing one show a month and it was important to me to give our fans a new set for each show.
How did you decide which themes to run with?
It was a process narrowing it down but I think we nailed it with the variety of these shows.
The first one is the original sound we are known for. The second show is all disco vocals inspired by Soul Train and the third one will be all songs the crowd can sing along too for the grand finale.The first two shows I already knew what I wanted to do, it was the last one that took a bit of time to flesh out but I knew I wanted to do something really epic to close off our residency and who doesn’t love a sing a long.
What are the good and bad things about not doing the same set?
The pro’s for doing a new set would be that its exciting learning new tracks for the choir and for the crowd to hear them and the con’s would be that the choir have more songs to learn and it will be the first time doing them live so anything can happen but I think that will add to the excitement when we’re on stage.
Will the group be back out on the road touring after the residency or will you be having a break before Australia's festival season begins again or possibly heading to the studio?
We have a couple of winter festivals coming up. We are performing in Sydney for Vivid on Saturday June 3rd, heading to Darwin again in August and the Gold Coast for Springtime Fest in early September. We’re heading back into the studio over winter, keep an eye out on our socials for all the details.
“The dream collaborations that come to mind are Roisin Murphy or Adele.”
Collaborations are huge at the moment, is that something Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir would like to do? If sowho would be the ultimate collab partner be?
Yeah for sure. Collaborations are so much fun. There’s heaps of singers and producers I’d love to collaborate with. The dream collaborations that come to mind are Roisin Murphy or Adele.
Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what is they do that keeps your world turning?
Gabby from our management team. She’s got a great work ethic and is always positive and keeps everything moving forward, including me if I get stuck on anything.
I appreciate her support a lot and love her dearly.
What's next for Sunshine? What next for Disco Faith Choir? What can your fans look forward to?
We have a lot of exciting things in the works. Most I can’t share yet but what our fans can look forward to is some new originals coming out soon :)
Tour Dates:
Event # 1 - Friday 12th May – (Disco Faith Express - The OG S&DFC experience)
Event #2 - Friday 23rd June – (Soul Train - Disco Heaven inspired by Soul Train)
Event #3 - Friday 28th July – (Grand Central - The big Finale - Songs you can sing along to from the 70’s until now)
For Tickets: CLICK HERE!!
Interview by Michelle Symes
May 20223