Girls Don’t Sync: rise together

A friend told Gaia, who performs under the name G33, that the women’s bathroom — usually a safe space and sanctuary from the wild west of the dancefloor — was full of the same positive abandon that lay beyond its doors: “She was like, ‘It’s a nod to you guys. The people you’ve brought in are a reflection of the energy you give out’. She told me she’d never met so many like-minded, lovely people at a rave like that before. It feels like there’s one collective consciousness.”

When GDS looked up from the decks, they saw 1,500 people and none were alike. For them, that’s where success lies. “It’s young, it’s old, it’s Black, it’s white, it’s brown, it’s gay, it’s girly, it’s straight, it’s masc…” Gaia tells me. “It’s such a mishmash of cultures and identities, but ultimately, that’s exactly who we are — and especially the music that we play and what we advocate.”

The four DJs play B2B sets, each one unleashing a distinct flavour that is unique to their musical DNA. “We never practise together,” notes Hannah. “We all have surprises for each other because we have no idea what each other is gonna play — but that’s where the power has always been with us as a group because we don’t rehearse it. It’s all about living in the moment and bouncing off each other’s energy.”  

While Matty gravitates towards UK funky, hard drum tracks and Afrobeats, Gaia pays homage to her London roots and South Asian heritage with a collision of grime and Arabic instrumentals. You’ll catch Sophia tapping into hard house and a lineage of rave classics viewed through a European lens, and Hannah is something of a musical excavator, surprising the others with the deep-cut edits and remixes which have led to their biggest moments.

“We’ve all got our own superpower,” says Gaia. “Obviously we share music, we talk about music, but there’s a moment before a set where I’ll say to Matty, ‘I’ve got a song I want to show you’, and I’m not only showing it to her, but thousands of people in that very moment. Even off the back of our DJ Mag stream, those reactions we have to each other are completely real because I don’t know what anyone is going to play. It’s all an element of surprise and inspiring reaction, and that’s what makes us so special.”