Mink Is Set To Play Groovy And Sultry House Music Tonight At His Kiss And Tell Event Series Party, Presented In … – Forbes
by June 9, 2024Mink.
When Mink gets behind the decks, it’s more than just a performance. It’s a venture into his groovy, seductive and lush world.
Today, May 31st, ravers have the opportunity to step into his dimension as the tastemaker performs at Sony Hall for his birthday celebration. Mink, legally known as Pierre Toma, brings his Kiss & Tell event series for the show, which is presented in collaboration with Teksupport. Tickets are available here.
The concert, which features a lineup curated by Toma, boasts performances by Shonky and Pablo Romero, as well as a back-to-back set by Jonny Rock and Toma himself. In true Kiss & Tell fashion, the party is slated to feature its signature classy, sultry and elegant style, which is not only represented in the atmosphere but also in the music.
The CircoLoco Ibiza resident deejay says his Kiss & Tell parties typically take place at Hearsay, an invite-only club that isn’t advertised—even finding the address online proves tricky. Acquiring information on the nightclub is all hearsay, staying true to the hotspot’s name.
“I felt like [Hearsay] was a really cool place to do this event [series] because that’s literally don’t kiss and tell—my logo. I always felt like that was just the perfect home for it,” Toma says. “I’m a resident at Teksupport. I play parties on a larger scale for them maybe five times a year, six times a year. I felt like for my birthday, I wanted to maybe make it a little bit more for everyone. I want to be able to give them the opportunity to hear the music that I absolutely love.”
While Hearsay is an intimate club, tonight’s show at Sony Hall, a much larger venue, will still feature the chic, sexy and moody vibe that Kiss & Tell is known for.
When the Brooklyn-born and based artist is behind the decks for his event series, he aims to have attendees “understand their mood when they come in, and they’ll feel it when they walk out.” He also hopes to have the crowd “feel something that they may not feel at other parties.” He says this could be through “a very specific sound the whole night.”
“I think that’s something that I’m trying to push forward also—my sound,” he adds. “When you come to this party, this is what you hear. And that’s what I try to bring into every set, even at not my parties when I travel.”
As Toma celebrates his 32nd birthday with the concert, he feels his age matches the music he currently spins.
“I think that the music that I’m playing right now should be the music that someone my age should be playing,” he says. “And I feel like sometimes that gets lost in today’s world because a lot of deejays are just trying to conform their sound into what will get them a little bit more notoriety with the big crowds, the big agencies and stuff like that. But I try to veer away from that and just make sure that it’s really authentic and [I’m] playing something that sounds mature to me. Everybody’s got their lane. I’m just trying to figure out how to take my lane to a bigger standpoint.”
The sound designer says living near Coney Island and being on the boardwalk there as a young kid allowed him to hear music that he still loves and plays today. “I was kind of coached at a really young age, and it’s like pushing the culture forward and representing that time where house music first began into the modern day,” Toma says. “I take pride in representing New York and the music that made New York [become] New York when this music first came about altogether. So I think I want to do it for the culture. I want to make an imprint on it.”
Indeed, the sonic storyteller does do it for the culture and makes his mark on it through his recently launched label, Love On Cropsey Records. The title of the imprint is an ode to his grandparents who lived on Cropsey Avenue, which is located a block away from Coney Island. He says they were the ones who brought him to the boardwalk, which exposed him to the music he fell in love with. It was on that boardwalk where he heard New York City house music staples, such as David Morales and Masters At Work, comprised of “Little Louie” Vega and Kenny “Dope” Gonzalez. Taking in that music as a child was so impactful for Toma that it still influences him to this day, making Love On Cropsey the ideal name for his new record label.
“I want to be able to take that [house music] sound and still introduce it in a way that can vibe with the modern-day crowds and still have the essence of where it came from,” the sonic explorer says. Certainly, the imprint proves to be an ideal way for him to do just that, even outside of New York City. Toma says that he frequently plays around the world, which includes performing for Marco Carola’s Music On and Guy Gerber’s Rumors in Ibiza this summer.
“[My grandfather dying] was a tough one,” Mink says. “But I think when you channel that energy and … [+]
The sonic stylist, who owns 4,000 records, began deejaying when he was 13 years old, having his first gig at a club in Brooklyn that year. During that time, he was playing house and electro. He then entered the worlds of hip-hop and reggae because there was a massive demand for deejays playing those genres. He stayed within those realms for about 12 years before later taking a two-year hiatus to find his sound within house music again.
Looking back on his career to date, he says the piece of advice he would give his younger self, which he still frequently thinks about to this day, is to listen to the people who told him he had run his course with hip-hop and that he should return to house music—his first love.
“I wish that I had listened to that a little bit earlier, but I feel like it’s always good to have no regrets,” Toma says. “I learned a lot from that world. I play records now from time to time, and I was scratching records as a hip-hop deejay, so no regrets. I think everything happens for a reason. But I am 32 now, and I realize that I’m obsessed with finding new music and making music in this world. I wish I just gave it my all from the beginning.”
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