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BLOND:ISH

2 festivals played ↓

Deep house project with a long club pedigree and a vocal commitment to sustainability in dance music — melodic, percussive sets built for open air.

Vivie-Ann Bakos, the producer behind BLOND:ISH, was born in Stoney Creek, Ontario, and studied computer science at McGill University in Montreal. She formed the project in 2007 at the Winter Music Conference and began performing the following year through a residency at Montreal's Cherry Nightclub, initially alongside Anstascia D'Elene Corniere.

In 2010 the duo relocated to London to focus on production, working closely with engineer Ian McKenzie, a collaborator who stayed involved with the project for over a decade. The music sits in melodic and deep house, built around long percussive introductions, hand drums and sustained chord work rather than sharp drops, suited to extended DJ sets.

BLOND:ISH released EPs on Noir Music, Kompakt and Get Physical through the early 2010s, including sessions recorded in a makeshift studio near the Mayan temples in Tulum, and produced remixes for artists including Depeche Mode and Pete Tong. A debut album, Welcome to the Present, came out on Kompakt in 2015, followed by a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix the next year.

Corniere left the project in 2019, after which Bakos continued BLOND:ISH as a solo act with McKenzie. Singles "Waves," "Aye Aye" and "Call My Name" earned Juno Award nominations and, in 2024, a win for Underground Dance Single of the Year. A second album, Never Walk Alone, arrived in 2025.

Bakos is also known for Bye Bye Plastic, an initiative aimed at reducing single-use plastic at clubs and festivals, which has become closely associated with the project's public profile; the vinyl pressing of Never Walk Alone used a recyclable material tied to that same campaign.

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