z1035

What happened to the good ol’ days? Whether it were the clubs, the music or just life in general! Here we have captured our five favorite clubs that we wish were still open!

5. Atlantis

This club was notorious for a rotating dance floor above the water, but most importantly, a clear glass fishbowl that kept patrons warm during the winter line ups.

Photo courtesy of BoomsBeat

4. Club Ménage

Long after being closed for over six years, Club Ménage is still known to be one of the greatest legendary clubs in the heart of Downtown Toronto! Known for its “Wayback Playbacks” hosted by one of Toronto’s most recognized voices, Tony Monaco, Club Ménage has secured a title as one of the longest running Wednesday night parties in the city! Don’t be fooled, clubbers came here religiously and had no issue going to work or school with a hangover the next day.

Photo courtesy of ClubbingWithUs

3. Paparazzi

Despite this club being in Richmond Hill, people from all outskirts of Toronto came here to party. With the best DJ line up in the city and home to the Z1035 Top 10 at 10 countdown featuring: DJ Pauly P, DJ Danny D, The Hammer and Tony Monaco. These class acts turned this nightclub into Toronto’s hot spot. Known for its VIP treatment, Paparazzi offered a membership card to its regulars, but not without a price. This luxurious membership card set you back roughly $550; worth every penny!

Photo courtesy of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office

2. Palazzo

Between the original location on the Airport strip, and the relocation to Jane and Highway 7, the name Palazzo should give you a vivid image of what the club was like! An Italian palace that could fit up to 3,000 people, and open from Thursday to Saturday, Palazzo was known as the Woodbridge ‘hot spot’. Although they played various genres of music, it was definitely the go-to place for dance music.

Photo courtesy of ClubbingWithUs

1. Meow

Although Meow (also known as “The Pussycat”) was only open for twenty months, it was around long enough to make an impact in the Toronto nightlife community. Just off of Lake Shore Blvd. W., east of Windermere Ave, Meow operated with two floors and had the biggest mirrored disco ball in the city. “Platinum Fridays” and “Purr Saturdays” was home to the exotic masked cat women who swung from the ceiling, together with the go-go dancers who were visible through the windows from outside the club. This was the very first night club I attended when I was fourteen years old right before it shut its doors on February 5, 2001.

Although I could not find a photo of Meow Nightclub, this is a Google Maps screen shot of where it use to be. 1926 Lakeshore Boulevard

Runners up were: Plastique, Money, Berlin, Helium, Shock, Industry, Limelite, RPM, Orchid, Club Energy, Club 108 and The Docks.

If you enjoyed our article please give us a like on Facebook.

What is the purpose of life if you cannot pursue your dreams? Many people find themselves stuck in a nine to five job which is meaningless to them, while they can only imagine a life where they could have done what they were passionate about. For those risk-taking, ambitious entrepreneurs, it can be a scary, long and lonely ride, with no promise of a prosperous future.

I find myself on that road less traveled, as an independent DJ and producer with hopes of stardom. I have loved music for longer than I can remember. It was thirteen years ago when I had a life altering ‘aha moment’. I was at the U of T library with my brother and while he was studying I was shuffling through a magazine and saw an article about turntables. That was the first time I had laid my eyes on a pair of turntables and I was instantly mesmerized. Shortly after, I bought a pair and the rest was history.

Fast-forward seven years and thousands of hours of practice later, I started looking for DJ gigs. With high hopes and a developed talent, I was surprised to find that it was nearly impossible to convince club owners that I could bring a fresh sound to their venue. Unfortunately at this point in my music career, DJs had become a dime a dozen. The priority for club owners was to increase numbers in their clubs. A mediocre DJ who could promote a club and bring in a tonne of people was more of an asset than being solely a talented DJ. The industry changed our status from DJ to promoter. That didn’t stop me, as I went on to found the Annual Tony Monaco Boat Cruise with a few of my friends. I saw myself headlining the party. Why? Because I organized it, I was the “promoter”. From then on, the opportunities started coming my way. The most memorable time in my music career was being the youngest live to air DJ and the co host of the longest running Wednesday night live to air party on Z1035.

After a while, being a DJ and a promoter was still not sufficient. Adding the word producer to your resume was the next must have, but luckily for me, I started producing in 2008 right before this EDM explosion. It was my first bootleg, Drake ft. Rhianna – Take Care that got the attention of Avicii’s manager, Ash Pournouri. Within four days of sending him a message on Facebook, he replied to my message.

I was then surprised to see a tweet from Laidback Luke showing his support with a tweet. As I spent weeks tracing down his track listing, I was disappointed to see that the version of Take Care that he played live was the Lady B bootleg. I was so close during such a pivotal time in the EDM scene, but that just meant I had to work that much harder. Back to the drawing board it was…

In my mind I always wanted to be that artist who brought back his favorite songs, and with a euro-dance influence I wanted to reinvent the 1997 hit, “You’re A Superstar” by Love Inc. I always figured, who wouldn’t love to sing that song during an outdoor festival. Getting the attention of the lead singer, Simone Denny and producer, Brad Daymond, I thought I was in good hands. They mentioned that I should get it in the hands of someone at Sony.

Week after week of following up, it was just another track that collected dust. What can I say, I was close but it was back to the drawing board…again.

It was in 2013 where I reached out to CP Records owner, Manny Dion. It was his latest hit, “Missing You” by Mia Martina that caught my attention. It was during the Swedish House Mafia, One Last Tour where I was inspired to give it a bit of darkness and turn it into a electro-house banger. This was the last message I got from CP Records owner:

After showing him what I produced I did not even end up getting a response from him. Being discouraged, I was left with no choice but to let it go as a free download and continue my journey.

A few months later I tweeted Laidback Luke and told him that I was going to produce a ‘bootleg’ of his old track, “Turbulence”. He tweeted back and told me to go for something more recent, like his brand new track with Hardwell, “Dynamo”.

To be honest, I was never a big fan of the track but I wasn’t going to argue. I ended up finishing it, and tweeted him with the link, but received no response.

I told myself, “I’m going to start producing stuff I believe in”. Going back to my roots, I decided to pull a diamond from the rough and remix the 2001 hit, “Exploration of Space” by Cosmic Gate. I released it online and got a tweet from the hit makers themselves asking to e-mail them a copy.

I was so excited that every week I checked out 1001tracklisting.com to see if I could find my bootleg in their DJ sets, but I was disappointed to find nothing.

I remember standing outside the building of Z1035, Toronto’s leading dance radio station, while Nicky Romero was inside spinning the Drive @ 5 Street Mix. When he came outside I gave him a USB with my newest tracks on it. With hopes he would love and support my work on his online radio show, I was disappointed to later discover that none of my work was used. I truly believed in my music and thought my bootleg of “Exploration of Space” would be a hit.

The same week, Steve Aoki announced he would hold a contest to have one DJ open up for him on the Dim Mak stage at TomorrowWorld. What an opportunity this could have been! Contest participants had to create a thirty-minute mix for voters to listen and judge. I entered the contest, posted my mix, and hoped for the best!

During this time, I didn’t know I was competing against the now popular DJ duo, VINAI. It was funny because we exchanged Facebook messages and it only took them less than a year to become successful while collaborating with big artists like: DVBBS, TJR and R3hab. It was a let down when I finished the contest in third place, but I truly felt I could compete in this politically driven music market.

During this time, I still had the contact of Ash Pournouri’s assistant. On a monthly basis, I would always ask if I could have the opportunity to remix any tracks from their catalogue, as well as share some of my new music. I knew had to open my network of friends, so I did my research and found a guy named, “Joe Smith” (hiding his name for privacy reasons) who was a big influence in the scene. I would just google key players in the industry and add them to Facebook to eventually lure them into listening to my track, and you know what, it worked. I was working on a brand new single, “Sandstorm” which was obviously inspired by the one hit wonder, Darude. I showed Joe Smith the track but he didn’t like it, he said, “I feel it’s a bit all over the place, it’s trance then progressive.” I ended up sending Dash Berlin a Facebook message to only get a reply saying, “Well done!”

Dash Berlin was the next big DJ I had the opportunity to meet outside the Z1035 radio station. As I waited patiently for him to come out, I saw his promotions manager Borys and asked him if I could give Dash Berlin my new single. He kindly said, “There he is”. I was sweating and shaking as I introduced myself. I said, “Hey, I’m Kidmyn, I have a brand new single called, “Sandstorm” that I think you will like. ”Little did I know he would remember me and say, “Oh you’re that guy.” He was super cool, took my USB, took a photo with me and said he would be in touch. I didn’t think he was actually going to get back to me, but he did.

Nonetheless, my spirits were lifted when this track received the support of big names like Thomas Gold, Joachim Gauuard and DJ Regi (Sylver/Milk Inc.). The track ultimately got signed by XTRA Recordings from Belgium.

If you thought I would give up by this point, you were wrong. I had a vision of a song I would call “Enigma”. Festival driven, with a catchy, uplifting melody, I thought I could sell this track to any major label. Fresh out of the studio, I sent Enigma to Joe Smith on Facebook. Eagerly waiting for a reply, I nearly fell off my seat when I saw the response, “Hmmm let me back to you”.

This guy is the tour manager of Hardwell, Nicky Romero, Dyro, Dannic and other big DJs. Was he pitching this to Hardwell? Yes, he was! Do I wait a week before sending a follow up? I didn’t want to look desperate. I waited six days before sending a reply.

How could my family or friends expect me to give up on my dream when I came this far all by myself. This was definitely a bummer. This track ended up getting supported by the legends Paul Van Dyk and Markus Schultz.

Recently, I finished a track with a songwriter/vocalist friend. After some Facebook ‘creeping’ I found Tiesto’s video producer. I contacted him and sent him my new single, hoping that he might pass it on to the man himself.

Guess what? 48 hours later I received a notification that Tiesto’s Official Soundcloud account had listened to my track.

For the first few hours I got to experience what it would feel like to be an overnight success. Could this finally be my break? I truly felt this was it, but it wasn’t! A week passed by, and eventually a month with no response. I am obviously disappointed, but I am grateful to have felt that rush of excitement for those few hours. Time can only tell what the future holds; it’s up to me to decide when I want to get off this unpredictable ride.

Update: It is now September 30th and as I edit this article, I found that Wall Recordings (Afrojack’s label) just went through four of my songs. Another reason why I never want to give up on my dreams.