Having lived in Toronto, Canada’s music hub, most of her life, Pleena developed an acute and eclectic ear for music – a quality her discerning audience greatly appreciates.
Pleena’s wide range of musical tastes are often tailored towards accentuating the awesomeness of an event. Whether it be bridging the gap in style between other artists of varied genre or delivering the delicious discotheque goods, her rhythm has been described as “intelligent progression” and her track list is choice fresh.
Working with friend and producer J-Camp (http://soundcloud.com/j-camp) to learn the ins and outs of electronic music production, her first stand-alone track, a remix of ‘Shout’ by Tears for Fears can be found on Sound Cloud along with a recent set that’s often available for download because that’s how she rolls.
Having shared the stage with the likes of Metric, Broken Social Scene, Gaudi to name a few, Pleena does a very elegant job at being good.
Find her online: https://www.facebook.com/djpleena
Your thoughts on the Arts
What the Arts mean in my life/To my company?
I see the opportunity for art in everything. From the art of making love to the art of war, art for me is simply the ability to shift paradigms – to break open the box. To me a gardener can be as much of an ‘artist’ as someone who paints landscapes. Personally, I really enjoy art that reclaims public space like Growfitti and political street art. Banksy comes to mind.
Shaping spaces fascinates me as well. What Michael Reynolds is doing with Earth Ship building has made him a hero of mine.
Then there’s film and literature, both of which I can go on and on about but I’ll save that for another time.
As for music, having a soundtrack to life just makes everything better. There are few things that excite me more than finding a rad new track to groove to. So satisfying…
How are we involved in the arts in the Valley?
Other than being a DJ I make hair art. Ron Pogue, photographer extraordinaire, and myself have recently opened up a multifaceted studio space downtown Cumberland which functions as a gallery, salon, photography studio and so on. There are even yoga classes in there some mornings and we also lend the space to Sew Sisters and Building Brothers for meetings.
I am a founding member of Sew Sisters Artist Guild Society and recommend people check out the progressive initiatives the society is committed to accomplishing. Whether it be offering a retail platform for local designers or growing a demonstrative community garden out back, some expansive action is being taken and I’m very proud of the people making it all happen.