Over the last three years Tania von Pear’s bookings have spanned the globe while maintaining a growing London fan base through her residency with Going Places. Never one to stand still, Tania's been busy creating a new production outfit Velvet, hosting her global weekly show for Ministry of Sound Radio, writing a monthly column for M8 magazine and Beatportal and plenty more.
Let's rewind slightly as the story begins when Tania created one of the first girl DJ duos, Lovely Pear, and began putting on parties around London as Movin' House. The night quickly became the cool, underground party around town playing upfront tough and chunky house and in October 2003, when she went solo as a DJ with her first set at the Tribal Gathering Weekender as their only 'Future Heroine', Tania's star began its ascent.
Coming to the attention of Turnmills, the Movin' House team decided to create a new night to stem the tide of repetitive line-ups at every other club and explore the international talent on the dance scene, and so Going Places was born. The monthly party took T2 at The Gallery by storm bringing some of the world's hottest new names over to play in the UK for the first time and providing Tania with a platform to shine as the resident. It proved a highly successful formula and Tony Senghore, ErickE, Chopstick and Martin Brodin are among those who made their UK debut alongside Tania along with many of the rising stars of Europe including Anton Neumark from Russia, Tim Andresen from Denmark and Ignas from Lithuania.
As resident and co-promoter with Sedition DJs, playing at The Gallery every month helped Tania perfect her house sound which combines tough beats with jackin' funk-fuelled rhythms all designed to work any dancefloor into a mass of heaving bodies. The growing popularity of the night with Tania at the helm lead to bookings across Europe; highlights include representing The Gallery as their house resident at the 3,000 capacity Movistar Arena in Barcelona and headlining the super-cool Frau Marleen in Italy alongside names like Pete Heller and Nic Fanciulli. Her biggest market continues to be Russia where she regularly travels as well as trips further afield to Argentina, South Africa and India and dates all over the UK for nights like Hat-Club and Taste.
Going Places took a step up for two huge events over the whole of Turnmills celebrating their second birthday with an all-star line-up including Hernan Cattaneo, Satoshi Tomiie, Zouk resident Aldrin and Syke 'n' Sugarstarr which brought in a roadblock attendance that has gone down in Turnmills' history as one of The Gallery's best and busiest nights. The third birthday party was no less spectacular with Agoria headlining and an accompanying feature in iDJ magazine with a special birthday mix from Tania available for download.
Aside from co-promoting and holding a residency for Going Places, Tania has plenty of other tricks up her sleeve including hosting her longstanding Pear Music Live show on Ministry of Sound Radio. With the guestlist of DJs to appear on the show that reads like a who's who of dance music including David Guetta, DJ Disciple and Tom Middleton, it's easy to see why her weekly foray into the finest underground house music remains one of the most popular on the station.
Over the summer, Tania has focused on getting her production career off the ground. Having released three singles to date on her label Pear Music, Tania formed a production collaboration with London-based DJ and producer Graeme Lloyd under the name Velvet to create a new sound and partnership. Already causing waves with their cheeky re-work of Grace Jones' 'Slave to the Rhythm' and their first live set headlining The Cross it clearly won't be long before you are hearing much more from these two as a flurry of remixes and singles are in the pipeline. If that's not enough, Tania is Director of International Marketing for global electronic dance label Om Records by day.
From playing alongside Josh Wink at The Gallery to tearing up Exit Club in Lithuania to mashing up Carnival after parties and popping over to Ibiza, Tania has it properly going on! Building her name through her tough, upfront house sound coupled with a tireless energy behind the decks and her friendly attitude, Tania makes friends and influences people wherever she plays.
All of which leads nicely onto the big news that after a short summer holiday, Going Places is back bigger, better and bolder with a new London home and Tania will once again be at the controls. Leading Dutch night Electronation have invited Going Places to join them at their new night Satellite 31 at Egg and some stunning line-ups are already in place. Truly, adventures in international house music.