Welcome to pyradraculea.com

Pyra Draculea is a Vancouver-based [re-]mixing engineer, artist and DJ. She creates original industrial rock and noise compositions under the alias Maqlu, and is currently working on a triple EP debut project, Tales From the Black Heart, slated for release in 2010. Remixing credits, also under the Maqlu name, so far include Left Spine Down, Jakalope and iVardensphere.

When remixing [and to a lesser extent when working on her own material], one of her biggest interests is creating dialogue within the music, be it between different vocal lines or even just call and response between instruments. She also likes to work organically as much as possible and let the different parts "talk" and dictate the flow of the work.

Pyra is also the host of CiTR Radio's weekly industrial show, the Vampire's Ball, which airs from midnight to 4 am PST on Friday nights. More information on the Vampire's Ball can be found [along with podcast links and playlists] on the show's blog at thevampiresball.blogspot.com. Guests of the Vampire's Ball have included Nivek Ogre, Dave "Rave" Ogilvie, Phil Western and kAINE D3L4Y of Left Spine Down, among others.

A recent graduate of the engineering program at Garth Richardson's Nimbus School of Recording Arts and current student in Nimbus' music production program, Pyra has recorded and mixed various up and coming Vancouver bands, including the Best Revenge, Emberline, and the Hope Slide. Mixing is her favorite aspect of engineering, but she also enjoys assisting on assorted sessions around town. Her favorite audio program is still ProTools, but she is also getting into Ableton and [gasp!] Traktor as well. Favorite audio toys include SSL boards, Distressors, Studer tape machines, LA2A compressors and assorted other things that would blast her credit card bill to Hell, and some day she longs to have an ARP synthesizer of her very own [plus a vintage Moog or 17].

When she's not making music, either her own or other peoples', or playing it on the radio, she's greedily seeking out new additions to her small but growing vinyl collection and can be found searching for Skinny Puppy and other old industrial bands' records at different shops around Vancouver.

In addition to all of this, Pyra also now does promotional work for Synthetic Sounds, a growing industrial rock indie label based out of Vancouver. Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, she does occasionally find time to sleep too.

You can check out more of her work on her Maqlu MySpace and you can keep tabs on all her assorted projects and nine lives via her Twitter feed.