Sayang designed Rooting at our current Art Hostel and also took part in a Taiwanese residency exchange visit to Taipei in February 2023.
SAYANG is a Malaysian/British DJ, sound artist, producer and activist exploring race, queerness and accessibility in club and queer culture. A creator whose drive comes from self-exploration and community understanding, they develop ambitious, responsive and political sound experiences as a way to express themselves and unpick their story.
In creating their sound, they look to their roots from Penang Malaysia, with field recordings and electronic emulations of familiar noises, and connect it to their British childhood and history in electronic music, from film soundtracks to live bands and dancefloors. They draw particular inspiration from artists including Green Velvet, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Terre Thaemlitz, Nine Inch Nails and Cabaret Voltaire.
Their DJ sets traverse raw noise and high voltage beats through mostly vinyl sets, while nods to a background in UK techno and dubstep add depth. Curveballs from their musical roots, alongside freak, fetish and oddball favourites elevate their DJ style. SAYANG’s tongue-in-cheek approach questions their place in the music they play while taking the reigns behind genres and tracks they weren’t always invited to.
Their activism is an extension of their sound, connecting audiences together through queer theory, explorative conversation and sound experiences. They bring together minds, bodies and thoughts from society’s intersections while centring and uplifting trans, non-binary and QTIPoC folx.
Founder of the QTIPoC, trans and disabled queer centred techno-fetish party and cause, Flesh in Tension, and custodian of Leeds KiKi House, House of Flava, Sayang has carved a home behind decks, on stages and in producing and facilitating queer space in music and the arts. They are a Rinse FM resident, Love Muscle resident and some of their recent highlights include playing SPIELRAUM Amsterdam, Off Location in Kyiv, releases with Dark Carousel and Obskur records and they were also booked for Dimensions festival 2020.
