DJ C-SIK set to take audiences for one more spin
Calgarian Cruz performs at year’s final Studio Bell After Hours party
Rick Cruz was 13 years old when he decided he needed a turntable.
It was, so to speak, a turning point for the Calgarian.
“I wanted to have a turntable the same way that someone would want a guitar or drums,” says Cruz, who DJs under the name C-SIK.
“For the first 10 years of my career it was all geared toward just scratching. When I got good at that I started to enter competitions and started to win at a young age.
“After that, that’s when I started to get questions about playing shows and parties. I started doing that and I was awful at it. It’s just a completely different art form from scratching.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone dismissing C-SIK’s bona fides as a live performer these days. Thanks to some mentoring, lots of practice and a predilection towards live performance, Cruz has become one of the city’s most in-demand DJs.
He will be showcasing his moves this Friday as the National Music Centre holds its final Studio Bell After Hours party of the year.
“I actually started as a dancer, before I got into DJing,” says Cruz.
“I was always the louder person in class and I always wanted to speak up or be in the performances or be in the plays.
“That was always ingrained in me and I think that transferred over into DJing. But to perform right, as far as reading a crowd and taking them on a journey, that takes years and years to develop for sure.”
Cruz can usually be found taking audiences on a journey every Friday night at the HiFi Club, where he performs with fellow DJ Yung Nino under the name Hundred% as part of a Friday night residency.
They do it all again on Saturdays at the Untitled Champagne Lounge.
With a firm grounding in hiphop, C-SIK has become known for concocting an inspired and energetic mix of rap, R&B, soul, future beats and house.
He also teaches the craft at Calgary’s Beatdrop, a DJing and production school.
Cruz got a significant career boost back in 2014, when he rose through the ranks to represent Canada at the largest DJing competition in the world in Baku, Azerbaijan.
He defeated all other Canuck challengers at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom to become the Red Bull Thre3Style National Champion. “It’s put people onto some of the projects I’ve put out online and gained a lot of connections,” he says.
“In the Thre3Style competitions, there’s like 20 different countries. So it expanded my platform and my audience and it took me to the next level. That’s when you start meeting your heroes and start to DJ with them and they just step your game up. There’s no other way to describe it.”
Studio Bell After Hours will take place at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre at 7 p.m.
I was always the louder person in class and I always wanted to speak up or be in the performances or be in the plays.