Reactivating Ottawa’s Underground Music Scene with Expressions: An interview with multi-talented artist Seiiizi

Multi-talented and driven to create safe spaces for people to enjoy genres outside of the Top 40 mixes that pervade George Street, Seiiizi is an increasingly active figure in the budding Ottawa music scene. You can often find her working or playing at SAW Gallery. Born in Ottawa to Jamaican parents, Seiiizi defines herself as a beatmaker, rapper, and DJ. 

Most recently, I heard Seiiizi DJ alongside DJs Ohai and Jose Palacios at Congrego’s Clubhouse 2 held at Parlour. Her ability to blend various genres and styles into a cohesive whole fired up the dance floor. Her mixes carry a groove to them, bridging together elements of afrobeat, dancehall, and kompa with electronic sounds.

Seiiizi and I met over a Zoom call on a Wednesday afternoon. When I inquired about her background, she told me that her exposure to music and audio equipment was through her father, a DJ himself: “[h]e would have all the equipment and he would be doing work on his mixer. I was a kid so I got to see that happening on a daily basis.” 

Seiiizi fondly recalls her first concert outside of church: a hip-hop concert at Pressed Cafe, now closed, featuring local hip-hop artists. She noted it as the moment when she realized how much talent there is in Ottawa that slips under the radar of most citizens. Seeing that there were “special events happening in Ottawa”, Seiiizi began seeking them out and familiarizing herself with the underground music scene. In fact, this opened doors for her to learn about the world of event production and hosting. In early 2016, at another event at Pressed Cafe she met Rachel, Debaser’s executive director, and began doing volunteer audio work at some of their events. Shortly thereafter, Seiiizi purchased her own controller. She learned how to use “different types of controllers, how turntables work, and how to set up a PA system to get a sound output” through a six month program at a DJ school. She also attended various workshops on sound set-up, controller set-up, and lighting set-up, and began to get bookings at different types of events, one of which, she notes, was a Kwanzaa celebration. 

Her desire to learn continues to be an important aspect of her creative process, where she prioritizes development, stating: “I know that there’s a way that I learn to create, but I know that there’s ways that I can make my creation more efficient, [there’s] different equipment that I can add to my repertoire that makes the productions that I do, and the music that I make, more advanced. I think it’s a work in progress, I always think it’s a work in progress.” Her blending of genres effectively reflects her approach of “always incorporating new things.” 

Seiiizi’s appreciation of fresh sounds extends to her work as a producer. Seeing that there was a lack of spaces hosting DJs mixing afro sounds, she started producing a monthly event series titled Expressions in Fall 2022. Expressions takes place at SAW Gallery and offers a dance night experience alternative to the music heard at some of the bigger clubs. Its seventh iteration just took place at the beginning of June where Seiiizi DJ’d alongside Melo-T, Wise Atangana, Zilla Music, JDSLUX, and DJ Fabian Pleur. The following event is set to take place August 31st at SAW Gallery. When I inquired about her target demographic, Seiiizi explains that she “want[s] to host a safe space for afro, black, and queer people of colour [...] to enjoy events and enjoy the arts that we do have here.” She also addresses her difficulties in reaching this demographic, expressing that having more publications geared towards this demographic would create a hub to promote these events to their intended audience. She also invites bigger publications to create spaces for black people and queer people of colour by “doing things like this, interviews, talking to artists that are creating events and [re]posting [their] events.”

When it comes to hosting events, Seiiizi notes that promotion is often her biggest hurdle. Partially, it’s the time constraint that comes with running a monthly event: “I’m usually busy taking care of things like reaching out to performers [and] figuring out what they need.” More time to plan, however, would not necessarily address the underlying difficulties in hosting events in Ottawa. The pervasive urban sprawl here, alongside our less-than-ideal public transport system, are also concerns for Seiiizi when planning events: “everyone lives very far apart so it’s hard to get everyone in one place. OC Transpo stops running after a certain time so that makes it difficult to get out and get back home safely.” Equally, Seiiizi highlights a dissonance between promoters and publications, noting that part of the difficulty in getting people to events is that “we don’t have those hubs of events, promotion, [and] community. I know there’s Apt613, there’s SHIFTER magazine, pacemag, and Nosy Mag. I don’t know if it’s just me, [but] sometimes promoters are not as connected with the publications so their events are not getting posted.” She adds, “but I think that might change.”

The effects of Covid-19 on the Ottawa music scene-–particularly the underground, less financially-driven venues that support it—are not overlooked in my conversation with Seiiizi. She notes that many open mic nights in Ottawa have ceased to exist, identifying particularly the one hosted by Cafe Nostalgica, a student and youth oriented venue on the University of Ottawa campus which has remained closed since the start of the pandemic. Seiiizi also reminisces on the weekly hip-hop nights that occurred Sundays at Kinki Lounge prior to the start of the pandemic. She adds that it’s “definitely a little bit more difficult in terms of finding the space and then getting people out to [the spaces]. If I was doing a show at Pressed-–everybody knows Pressed-–they would be like oh my god it’s Pressed [Cafe].” The venue to which she refers was located on Gladstone Avenue before it shut its doors in October 2020. She notes that because there are fewer venues “it’s kind of a new experience in a way, and sometimes–especially with Covid–people still have a bit of anxiety [...] going out as much [as] before the pandemic.” Seiiizi’s rise in the Ottawa music scene was also thwarted, albeit temporarily, by the pandemic. Prior to the initial lockdown in March 2020, Seiiizi had begun a residency at Overkill Bar where she played every Tuesday. Overkill also has yet to reopen, along with its sister business, Mercury Lounge. Although the lockdowns had paused things, she is back to work now, “getting a lot more gigs,” notably in “audio [setup], event planning, and all around event support.” She seems hopeful for the continued growth of the music scene in Ottawa.

What I took from my conversation with Seiiizi is that the proliferation of the underground music scene is a community effort. Her work to create spaces for people to engage with alternative genres—to listen to electronic renditions of afrobeats, or dancehall, or kompa, or any other sort of music that exists outside of the mainstream—is foundational to this expansion as it creates spaces where communities can grow. Overall, her personal and expressive approach to music, creation, and community building reflects her belief that “taking your life experience, [...] the vibe of the room and creating through that [...] is the best part of the whole process.” 

31 August - Expressions VIII, SAW Gallery, 67 Nicholas Street