My Journey Into Sound
- Simone Fougère
- Apr 9
- 5 min read
Like many of us born in the 70s, when the 80s came around and we were blessed with cassette tape players, we’d record all sorts of fun —creating our own radio shows to listen back to.
I loved learning the piano, and making sounds with the anklung and gamelan —but playing around with tapes and radio just really got my creativity flowing :)
Around 12 years of age I guess —I was obsessed with listening to the New Zealand top 40 songs on the radio every week. I would record songs I liked onto my tape player and create a mix of sorts.
One after another of my favourite tunes ! I just loved it.
Sometimes the tape would all unravel and I’d have to take a pencil and feed it back into the cassette tape. No drama though, just part of the fun. :)
At 15 years of age I attended an’ underage rave’ on a Sunday afternoon in a ‘club’ on Queen St in central Auckland. Name evades me but it was fun ! And I was nearly beaten up on the dance floor from memory.
My soundtrack of the time being along the lines of C&C Music Factory ‘Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)’ --De LA Soul ‘Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)’ —Crystal Waters ‘Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)’ —Black Box ‘Strike It Up’ or —LL Cool J ‘Around the Way Girl’ styles
In 1991, at age 16 I moved with my younger sister Nicole, and my parents to Jakarta, Indonesia for the second time (our first stint was 1984-1987). I then had to hunt a little harder for new songs.
I finally found Rick Dees one day on the radio - a Sunday night show from memory. After having heavy left brain powered weeks at Jakarta International School, on weekends he was my saviour.
My excitement grew all week knowing I could listen to the ‘Rick Dees Top 40 Countdown’ on Sunday.
Sometimes I would miss it and be SO bummed out.
I got to know all sorts of artists through this show and again I’d record everything on tape —by this time I was also buying CDs so I’d take note of the names and pop to the nearest mall scanning all the tapes and CDs for any of artists I had been hearing. Usually I was in luck with one or two !
Curiously I found some really decent undergroundy dance tracks from the UK (or at least I thought they were ‘underground’ at the time).
I also began to hear some of these tracks in the nightclubs we would party at (sometimes until 5am). ‘Fire’ being one of the clubs, and later ‘Black Hole’. One was very stylish, a proper two story club with mezzanine, the other dark and grungy.
One particular night was SO good I remember, that a friend and I drove home with the driver, said hi to my mum and dad (very sleepy out of bed ‘hi’) and then snuck out again.
We wore socks only so the dog wouldn’t hear our shoes and bark.
Ditching the socks outside the house gate we ran along the road for a cab and drove the 20 minutes back to the club. A great night was had.
Later however the socks were never to be found. And we were never found out either thankfully :)
Wow I just realised I haven’t stopped clubbing for 33 years.
Fast forward to the Summer of 1993, after I graduated high school I jetted to Europe. There I attended my first rave in Rotterdam, alongside my closest friend Ira from Jakarta (she was Dutch and had just moved back there for hotel school). What a trip.
Smart drinks and trance. My new favourite music. I was hooked.
Back in Jakarta late 1993 and the Ministry of Sound had landed. The outdoor rave scene was going off. I have no idea what I was listening to but I certainly enjoyed it immensely for a few months.
I then dived deeper into the Southern Hemisphere to begin University in Dunedin, New Zealand.
At first glance I felt trapped in a world of ‘rugbyheads’ and first year uni students getting drunk. Eeek. And very conservative New Zealand.
However upon scratching the surface I did however find my groovy vibe and from 1994 -1996 with Ira sending me regular trance mix tapes I was happy.
I listened to them obsessively and would declare to everyone that ‘trance was the best music in the world’.
It also helped that I accidentally burned my hall of residence 4th floor room down (left a candle burning and left for the night) and had to move out and go flatting with my boyfriend and several 2nd year med students.
Med students who had discovered the joy of laughing gas (available 24/7 at the local dairy or Mitre 10) alongside rather decent oil or super cheeky weed that would last an eternity.
Or at least an entire afternoon of lectures.
The mid 90s also schooled me with the burgeoning genre blending era of trip-hop, big beat, electronica, Britpop, and alternative dance sounds —alongside the kiwi sounds of Salmonella Dub playing in our local pub and Pitch Black at the Gathering festivals.
What a time for the ears —little did I know I was tuning them deeply.
In 1998 I made the leap and christening London as my new home. Within 10 days —at the encouragement of a friend flying in en route to Ibiza, I bought a pair of belt driven turntables and a mixer.
My addiction was sealed. I went shopping in second hand record shops and began to find my sound.
House music.
Oh. With a touch of breaks here and there.
The first record I ever bought (I never had records at home as a child curiously), was ‘Can’t Hide From Your Bud’, by DJ Sneak.
I worked relentlessly on my own trying to figure out the beats and the pieces of plastic and how it all worked together —and wow the records flung around so quickly. I actually can’t remember how long it took me to figure it out, but eventually I had a few tips from a boyfriend and I was off !
And so here I am still —27 years later —on the couple of month’s eve of my 50th anniversary of figuring out life
Still loving my records, still loving the beauty of sharing them
—and finally deciding to take it all a bit more seriouslessly :)
Indeed so seriouslessly that I thought it was about time I created a place where I can share the rest of my story
—for those who haven’t been with me all the way and for those who I’m still to meet :)
It’s somewhere that I’ve been tinkering away on for a wee while now —but it’s ready to be set free, out into the wild to create more fun ahead .
So here it is —my very own aptly named website :
—and last but not least THANK YOU for getting this far and reading my journey, I'm really touched you did !
..here’s to seeing you soon somewhere in the world on a dance floor, feeling the beats, feeling the rhythm and lighting up all of our passions and potential and wisdom inside ourselves ♡
x Simone
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