Tiga

Mar 31, 2026

Tiga, an influential electronic music artist, producer and DJ who founded Turbo Recordings, recounts rave origins from Goa to Montreal. He explores the punk spirit in dance music, the craft of DJing as pacing and performance, playfulness versus humour in club tracks, battling long COVID’s “vibe fog,” and how recovery reshaped his creativity and recent rework of a classic rock hook.

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ANECDOTE

Childhood In Goa Shaped A Lifelong Rave Habit

Tiga grew up attending early Goa beach parties where his dad DJed and he helped copying records to cassettes.
He cycled to sunrise parties at five am to watch European ravers take acid, which normalised nightlife for him from childhood.

ANECDOTE

Montreal Solstice Was The First Big Rave

Tiga organised Montreal's early rave scene and says Solstice 1993 was the city's first true rave with multiple DJs, big venue and colourful flyers.
He describes the rapid growth: tens to hundreds to thousands as rave aesthetics and ecstasy spread like wildfire.

INSIGHT

Electroclash Reopened Dance Music's Possibilities

Tiga traces his breakthrough to hearing Euro electroclash records and wanting something less conservative than late-90s techno.
He made Sunglasses At Night with Joy and the record instantly connected to a small international scene (Gigolo Records) and blew up.

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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.

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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.