Photo by Louis Horne
Laila Sakini is one half of the duo responsible for managing to make a party on a Sunday afternoon a success. For two years Daycare has attracted the hung over, the still going, and maybe more impressively—the young families. Alongside her work with various fashion brands Laila proves that when it comes to DJing you don't have to get stuck behind the decks.THUMP: How did Daycare actually start?
Laila: I started it with Biscuit another DJ, he actually just moved to France so now I'm doing it by myself. I had an idea of a club night for ages, but I hadn't found the right place. Then when we were DJing a party thrown by our friends at FUR at the rooftop of the Carlton Club we got talking to the general manager and he said he needed someone to do something. We latched onto that idea and thought maybe it was the place to do this weird thing.I had an idea of doing something where we flipped the regular nightclub and DJ hierarchy and made it different. It's always just a two or three acts, always pushing one type of sound. I noticed an overlap in genre and sound and thought it would be really interesting to do something with a bunch of different people from different facets of music i'd been involved in over the years.Was it always going to be during the day?
No that came later. I wanted to do a night thing, I like DJing late club sets people can dance to. But the club needed something on a Sunday. I was like, that's going to be really tough. But we thought, maybe we could make a big party out of it. It was weird because no one was doing a day party back then, two years ago all the day parties around were really "recovery" sessions.So you were clear you wanted it to be separate from the usual come down spot?
Yes. And with the whole afternoon thing we thought maybe this is our chance to do something different, the time slot can be the focus of the whole thing. That's why we came up with Daycare, we wanted to play on the recovery idea in the sense we'll look after you. Then we joked, hey bring your kids and the bar was like—actually you can, we have that licence. That idea of accessibility became a focus, we wanted a lot of different types of people feeling comfortable to contribute their ideas and music.Being during the day, has it changed the way you DJ?
We all DJ quite differently at Daycare, from night stuff but also other day parties. It's such a friendly vibe, way more about sharing the music. People come and share unique finds they've had that might not be appropriate in a nightclub. You don't have to worry about keeping up a dancefloor. We've always said play whatever you want. We choose people because we think they're going to bring something interesting, we never push any specific sound.A lot of the stuff you've done has strong links with fashion labels, how did you get into making mixes for brands?
I've always had a really strong interest in fashion. I guess working in fashion for a long time I pay attention to runway shows and I'm interested in music as a way of understanding how things look and are perceived, as a source of inspiration.The first one I was asked to do by Lucy Folk, she knew I was a DJ and needed a mix for a launch she was doing for Collette in Paris. It was for her Bento collection so Japanese themed, I was like I'd love to do that—I had a backlog of songs that were perfect. She really liked it and said she wanted one for every collection as another layer of the project.The Pageant and Pet Shop Girls asked me to do them, just as something cool to do for parties and launches.I guess music and fashion have a relationship, recently electronic music is a real cornerstone of that.
Yeah, when I look at runway shows the ones that stand out are the ones that use weird interesting stuff that has some correlation to the collection. I think people react even if they don't know what it is. In a runway collection new ideas are given to you, so maybe people use electronic music because it is energetic and fast paced, but also the newest sort of sound. A lot of the time they do release remixes and mashups, it's digestible but also confronting. Runways are about making an impact so that's why electronic and obscure music is useful in that context.We've talked a lot about mixing, do you record and produce as well?
I've started doing that over the past couple of years through two separate side projects with girls. It's been awesome but also a huge learning curve. It's funny, I'm a DJ but I have massive tech fear, I'm not a natural with that stuff. But that's something I've had to overcome, and learn to always have a contingency plan.What are you working towards now?
Making music is what I want to do now, that's something I'm very interested in. I have a live project I do with another girl called Perfume Production. We play synthesizers and drum machines live. My friend said of our name: it's feminine and industrial. That's our byline.For details on the next Daycare party click here.
Laila: I started it with Biscuit another DJ, he actually just moved to France so now I'm doing it by myself. I had an idea of a club night for ages, but I hadn't found the right place. Then when we were DJing a party thrown by our friends at FUR at the rooftop of the Carlton Club we got talking to the general manager and he said he needed someone to do something. We latched onto that idea and thought maybe it was the place to do this weird thing.
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No that came later. I wanted to do a night thing, I like DJing late club sets people can dance to. But the club needed something on a Sunday. I was like, that's going to be really tough. But we thought, maybe we could make a big party out of it. It was weird because no one was doing a day party back then, two years ago all the day parties around were really "recovery" sessions.So you were clear you wanted it to be separate from the usual come down spot?
Yes. And with the whole afternoon thing we thought maybe this is our chance to do something different, the time slot can be the focus of the whole thing. That's why we came up with Daycare, we wanted to play on the recovery idea in the sense we'll look after you. Then we joked, hey bring your kids and the bar was like—actually you can, we have that licence. That idea of accessibility became a focus, we wanted a lot of different types of people feeling comfortable to contribute their ideas and music.Being during the day, has it changed the way you DJ?
We all DJ quite differently at Daycare, from night stuff but also other day parties. It's such a friendly vibe, way more about sharing the music. People come and share unique finds they've had that might not be appropriate in a nightclub. You don't have to worry about keeping up a dancefloor. We've always said play whatever you want. We choose people because we think they're going to bring something interesting, we never push any specific sound.
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I've always had a really strong interest in fashion. I guess working in fashion for a long time I pay attention to runway shows and I'm interested in music as a way of understanding how things look and are perceived, as a source of inspiration.The first one I was asked to do by Lucy Folk, she knew I was a DJ and needed a mix for a launch she was doing for Collette in Paris. It was for her Bento collection so Japanese themed, I was like I'd love to do that—I had a backlog of songs that were perfect. She really liked it and said she wanted one for every collection as another layer of the project.The Pageant and Pet Shop Girls asked me to do them, just as something cool to do for parties and launches.I guess music and fashion have a relationship, recently electronic music is a real cornerstone of that.
Yeah, when I look at runway shows the ones that stand out are the ones that use weird interesting stuff that has some correlation to the collection. I think people react even if they don't know what it is. In a runway collection new ideas are given to you, so maybe people use electronic music because it is energetic and fast paced, but also the newest sort of sound. A lot of the time they do release remixes and mashups, it's digestible but also confronting. Runways are about making an impact so that's why electronic and obscure music is useful in that context.We've talked a lot about mixing, do you record and produce as well?
I've started doing that over the past couple of years through two separate side projects with girls. It's been awesome but also a huge learning curve. It's funny, I'm a DJ but I have massive tech fear, I'm not a natural with that stuff. But that's something I've had to overcome, and learn to always have a contingency plan.What are you working towards now?
Making music is what I want to do now, that's something I'm very interested in. I have a live project I do with another girl called Perfume Production. We play synthesizers and drum machines live. My friend said of our name: it's feminine and industrial. That's our byline.For details on the next Daycare party click here.