TDJ’s Trance Odyssey: “A Wink to the Past, a Door to the Future”

The music of TDJ - aka Geneviève Ryan-Martel - has long transcended categorisation. In fact, having the freedom to experiment creatively has always been at the core of the Montreal musician’s artistry. 

Growing up with classical musician parents had a huge impact on her from an early age. “There was always music playing in the house,” she recalls, adding that she attended some of their shows. “It was reassuring because it was my parents’ music, but I couldn't say it was what I was attracted to,” she considers. However, she did attempt to follow in her cellist mother’s footsteps by having violin and cello lessons. “But it wasn’t for me,” she admits. “It was a bit too strict.” 

Instead, her first real love for music came from listening to the rock channel on the car radio. “I really just wanted to play rock,” she recalls of picking up a guitar and playing the drums by the age of five. Lessons followed but, again, she found them to be “very strict; you needed to follow grids, but all I wanted to do was play what I was hearing, freestyle and write music…” 

When, at the age of 10, she discovered dance music via her friends’ copy of Tiesto’s ‘Adagio For Strings’ mixtape, her sonic horizons instantly expanded. “That was my opening to electronic music,” she recalls, though she didn’t properly dive into the scene until later, having instead been into indie artists and bands like Clams Casino, The Postal Service and Low. Being an “angel” teenager, she didn’t get her first taste of raving until she turned 18 – though even then “it was more about hanging with friends than seeing certain bands or travelling to specific festivals.”

The mid-2010s SoundCloud era of Secret Songs and PC Music proved particularly influential, however. “It made me want to make electronic music myself,” she says of discovering then-unknown artists Hannah Diamond, A. G. Cook, Danny L Harle and Ryan Hemsworth. “I loved the uniqueness of their music and it was very freeing to hear,” she reflects, adding that it removed boundaries. “You could create sounds out of anything,” she enthuses, citing the possibility of sampling a chair cracking and then making a synth out of it.

After discovering dubstep upon finishing high school, she began playing around on FL Studio and made her first productions. While she started out wanting to create something in the world of scene-leaders Flux Pavilion and Zeds Dead, the result was “definitely non classified; it was a bunch of influences mixed together that I was making for myself. It was just for me to listen to”.

In fact, it wasn’t until she showed an old boyfriend what she had been working on that the idea of releasing music even came into her head. “He was like ‘oh my God! You need to start a project’,” she recalls. After coming up with the alias RYAN Playground, she joined the Secret Songs roster and a debut performance and DJ night followed. Though a near-decade of alt-electro-pop success saw her perform around the world, she decided to start releasing music under a new name eight years later.

Returning to her trance roots, TDJ was born in 2020, several years before the genre’s post-pandemic revival that led to her “having fun producing music that is a wink to the past but also an open door for the next generation to discover it and feel like it’s new and modern”. Having been instrumental in its recent mainstream resurgence - as recognized by Pitchfork - she’s “continuing to ride that wave”. 

Her outlook on the subsequent rise of sampling is refreshingly positive too: “I don't really mind when a song sounds heavily influenced by the past”, she considers, “because I feel like music is made to inspire the next generation.”

Fast forward to 2025 and TDJ has released a handful of critically-acclaimed compilations, which she describes as passion projects. "I feel like people really love SPF INFINI, and I really do love them also, but it's a family and friends project that defines my environment.”

Following the release of its latest installment, GENESIS, in 2024, she felt the “need to also define what TDJ is – as an entity, as an artist.” While she says she will continue to work on the series, it was time for a change. “It was fun, but it was not an album,” she says bluntly. “I felt like there was a missing piece to what I presented to people… an album.” 

Pieced together over two-and-a-half-years while on tour, TDJ’s full-length self-titled debut album was crafted between flights and club sets. “Making it was my escape from running from one place to another,” she reflects, adding that having this time enabled her to “slow down everything in my life”. This is not only channeled in the record’s more downtempo moments, but is somewhat of an overarching theme. “I hope it will resonate with people who are constantly on the run. My reason was touring, but everybody needs to take the time to do something that they like.” 

She expands on this point: “We're always seeking something, but often we don't even know what it is. It’s like we are climbing a wall, but sometimes we don't even know where to put our hands or feet.” She suggests that this lack of clarity is “defining a lot of our generation… really putting your head into listening to something means that your mind and heart can end up feeling things.”

This is certainly the case when it comes to her wide-ranging LP, which balances euphoria and emotion. After opener "Where Is My Angel" and the cathartic big-room build up of "On and On (You Lie)," there’s blissed-out trip hop ("Face The Sun"), country whistles and twanging guitars ("Dare To Dream" with rapper Busu), raw emo ("Bury Me In A Pet Cemetery," alongside MRD, which was made in just 20 minutes) and melodic electronica ("Crash," with Krampf and Romandz). Things come to a blissful close with "La Chapelle," which simmers things down to a peaceful, somewhat meditative state. 

Bringing all her influences together, her decision to self-title this debut record makes complete sense. “It's a trance album, but you can hear that I don't only come from trance,” she summarises, adding that “it was all about having freedom in music.” That last statement extends to her choice of collaborators, many of whom signify a full-circle moment for the arc of TDJ. 

“Lively and inspiring” British producer Danny L Harle, of PC Music fame, who now works with Dua Lipa, brings Eurodance energy to "Shoreline." Another favourite from that trend-setting London-formed collective, Hannah Diamond, features on the stadium-ready gabber of "I’m The One / I’m The Sun"; “the second I stepped in the studio for the photo shoot, we had an instant bond”.

The final guest artist from within the hyperpop sphere - Canadian artist 8485 - throws things back to mid-2010s EDM on "Under The Rush." “I had access to a very fancy Universal Studio, which I'm not used to,” TDJ says, describing herself as more of a bedroom producer. “I like to be in a tiny room, but it had the latest technology and top microphones.” Though that experience influenced her to buy new Barefoot speakers, she reflects on it as “quite intimidating.” Despite feeling uncomfortable in that environment, she pushed herself and the resulting song is among the album’s many nightlights. 

While TDJ - which is opening a door to a lot more music to come - bears a family and friends ethos that’s similar to her compilations, this time round the self-confessed workaholic is front and centre, driving things forward – whichever way she wants to go.