Dogstarr

Born and raised in Johannesburg Dogstarr’s first foray into music came in the form of twisted industrial rock. He spent his formative years following bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, eventually leaving his Goth roots for underground dance music after attending his first rave in the early 90’s. An event that was coincidentally produced by GForce.

It was a beautiful accident, and one that lead Ryan to House Afrika records where he started buying vinyls and borrowing DJ gear to learn how to mix them. Eventually he secured a residency at The Foundation in Rosebank and never looked back. Today, almost 20 years later Dogstarr is the Creative Director/ co-founder of TOYTOY and half-owner of & Club. And his involvement in the South African dance music landscape is hard to ignore.

As part of Digital Rockit he’s played stages at most major music festivals in South Africa including Rocking the Daisies, Oppikoppi, CTEMF, Mielie Pop and Griet Fest. And since the early 2000’s he’s been heavily involved with the Red Bull Music Academy and along with his partner Fabio has been responsible for underground dance music events such as the Brickfields Festival and Who Needs Sleep Tonight, an event that lead to the birth of TOYTOY.

Each member of the TOYTOY crew plays a role, with everyone bringing something different to the collective. Dogstarr’s the wildcard. The loose cannon. The prankster. The guy who’ll watch in silence as you mistakenly smother your eggs in Habanero sauce, and only tell you after your first bite. He’s there to keep things interesting. And the same could be said for his music. With him it’s kind of hard to pin down a musical style, because he’s as comfortable playing low slung disco as he is flat out four to the floor techno. He calls it “fucked up party music”. We say that whatever it is, it’s guaranteed to put you into orbit.