This Thursday will feature DJ Spun of Rong Music – an amazing New York Label. He started out as a punk ( a surprisingly common beginning for House and Disco DJ’s) and soon moved onto hip hop and later got entangle with Harvey and Sarcastic Disco. He changed coasts to New York where he started Rong with Ben Cook. He also curates Museum of Modern Art PS1′s seminal Warm Up – a summer party in the museum’s courtyard.

He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

Winston: What made you shift from punk to dance music?

Jason (DJ Spun): I got into hip hop first which had somewhat similar energy music of the oppressed and disenfranchised. I was prob

ably rebelling against how stale and narrow minded I felt some people in the punk scene had become.

Winston: What made you want to start your label Rong?

Jason: There wasn’t really a master plan. I moved to New York and it was a way for my partner Ben Cook and I to keep working together and to put out some music from ourselves and some like minded friends. It was easy to get it started at that time, being that I was good friends with the people at Syntax Distribution (RIP).

Winston: Which seminal disco re-editor/remixer would you most want to remix one of your tracks: Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone or Larry Levan and why?

Jason: Walter Gibbons. Oh sorry he wasn’t on your list. Actually it would depend on the project. If it was more straight forward I’d say Tom Moulton who is still on the scene and doing good work. He came out to my parties at ps1 a couple times and is a really nice guy. If the track was more unusual I’d have to say Larry.

Winston: Did you always want to make and play music for a living?

Jason: Pretty much, my twin brother Donovan and I would lip synch and pantomime Kiss songs for the family from about 5 or 6 years old. I think I wrote my first song at around 8 and started playing in a band with much older people at 13.

Winston: What’s your 5 favourite songs at the moment?

Jason: My favorites change almost every day. How about my current 5 fave rong songs.

Coati Mundi – Voyage Libertad to the Boat Dance

James Chance  - Incorrigible

Vegard Dyvik – C.O.D.E.S.

Lee Douglas – Our Song 99

Rub n Tug – Lower Beard Stays the Same

Here is a taste of what to expect on the sonic front

CL010: DJ SPUN LIVE AT CUTLOOSE 19TH MARCH

Link via Cut Loose

After the last few parties at Sugar (Jacques Renault, Woolfy) nothing less than complete debauchery is acceptable – that means naked breakdancing.

Kisses XX

AAC

Winston: Where did you grow and where do you live now?

Villa: We all come from a different place, but Villa as a music project is originated from Ghent. That’s a little town in Belgium with a vivid music scene. The studio is based at Seba’s place. He lives in a little village in the countryside.

Winston: How did you guys meet?

Villa: That depends on who is telling the story. Seba met Fredo on a party in Make Up Club, but Fredo was so drunk that night he thinks he met Seba on a music fair.

Anyway, from the moment we got in the studio together it went all very nice & easy.
Winston: How did you first get into electronic music?

Villa: The eighties were a great time for electronic music. Lots of bands were experimenting with these new instruments called synths, effects and drum machines. One could hear electronic sounds in the hit parade in a very acceptable and fresh manner. That is how it happened to us. Separate from our personal preferences, it sure has something to do with the era we grew up in and the novelty of electronic musical gear at that time… First there were Quincy Jones/Michael Jackson, Prince, Moroder and Vangelis. Later, as for many people, Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Daft Punk, Leftfield, Orbital opened our ears for electronic music.
Winston: What is about a song that compels you to edit it?

Villa: The feeling we have something to add to the piece, a fresh angle or the feeling to get more capacity out of the parts provided. A nice front lady always helps of course. It is a bigger challenge for us to edit a known track than an obscure hard to find one where no one actually knows what you did to the track. Take a guilty pleasure and make it credible again, combined with our approach and sound.

Winston: What sort of gear do you use to produce?
Villa: Seba has been collecting numerous classics from the memorymoog, cs60, rhodes 73, linndrum LM2, full system 100, sherman qmf, prophet 5, OBXA, EII, omega 8, banana synth, SY1, Expander, prophet VS, DX7, Andromeda…we could go on for another while here… to a Tascam M600 mixer and some vintage channelstrips…Oh yeah and a Pentium 3 oldschool PC

Winston: What’s your favourite edit you have done?
Villa: The first edits were very easy cut/copy paste edits of disco and house tracks, for example DMX Crew with Cold Heart part 2 on Gigolo Records. Emphasis the good groove and take out the bad parts. After those kitchen edits we evolded to a more active form of editing and started adding new elements to the tracks. A nice example is the Agneta edit we’ve done… So we are very delighted with our diva edits of last summer on Mindless Boogie…

Winston: Is there any song think should never be re-edited?
Villa: Too many to mention…  Every artist will think different about re-editing, do’s and don’ts.  So it’s hard to say.
Winston: How did you end up getting together with Mindless Boogie?

Villa: We’ve known the guy from Mindless Boogie for a long time. He was there from the start of Villa and years before that he booked the first big Fredo & Thang gigs in Ghent. He is also the man who brought the three of us together (after that music fair experience).  The mood was right, the setting was perfect, and the start of the summer and Mindless Boogie was celebrating their 20th release.
Winston: What do you have planned for 2010?
Villa: Have a chill, relax a lot…  No no, we ‘re gonna work even harder than we did in 2009, making good remixes, edits, mixes, sets, doing some co-productions and last but not least, come out with our own material. We are really excited to finally release them because we’ve just been working on remixes for the past six months.

Villa - Agneta

Villa - Anita

Villa - Tina

Courtesy of Mindless Boogie

Winston: How did you guys first get into electronic music and in particular your brand of disco and house music?

Fromage Disco: Well we both listened to a lot of hip hop when we were young and I guess it was a natural progression into more beat driven music.  I got into US house such as Doc Martin, Farina, etc and UK tech house like Terry Francis and Craig Richards.  Travis always liked experiemental music, house and disco a bit of rock and funk. Attending clubs like Durr and Trash and a couple east end clubs like bar22, Mother Bar. The mixing of indie, house, disco and club has been going on since 2000 and he wanted to do that, in his dj sets and productions.   Then we ended up meeting on a love of the disco/nu disco scene a few years ago now, inspiring us to find great music both new and old and leading to us starting the Fromage Disco parties back in 2006. We’re big fans of DFA, Eskimo, Permanent Vacation, Tirk, Wall of sound, Delusions of Grandeur, Running Back, and all that and more ends up going in our sets.

Winston: How did you hook up with Lightspeed recordings?

Fromage Disco: Well we know 86 fairly well through the scene here in Melbourne, having him play at our Fromage parties and also having had a residency at his Sweat night.  He was digging our edits and thankfully found he was digging our original stuff as well and that resulted in him remixing our ‘Vicious’ single for Needwant and with the upcoming release of Acidic Strings.

Winston: Whats the story behind your European releases with Need Want?

Fromage Disco: Bit of a needle in a haystack kinda thing.  Thanks to some dutiful e-mailing by Travis the track fell into the hands of Sean Brosnan, fresh from having mixed the first Future Disco release for Azuli and ready to launch his own label.  He was keen as soon as he heard it and managed to get Runaway on duty for the mix.  Thankfully it all came together well and with a great remix.  It’s been a bit of a labour of love but great to get a record out after having had a few digital releases.  The vinyl thing and the Future Disco affiliation were two big perks with going with a brand new label for us, along with the fact that the next few releases include The Revenge, Ron Basejam, and various other artists we rate highly.

Winston: What’s next for Fromage an album , more singles or psychedelic rock opera like The Who’s Tommy?

Fromage Disco: More singles for the time being, a couple of remixes in the works, and later in the year a live thing.  Not exactly sure on the format but I know we would love to get Jack Byrnes (the Vicious vocalist) back on board if we do.  Upcoming releases are of course Acidic Strings on Lightspeed, with a Pete Herbert remix; followed by Repeight which is coming on Smashbang early next year with a Jamie Stevens remix and a host of talented aussie artists which we’re really keen on promoting. Working on another remix right now too for a great Aussie 3 piece that seem to do pretty well for themselves both here and abroad.  Cant reveal much more than that at this stage but keep an eye out in late Jan/Early Feb 2009 for more news.

Winston: What sort of a studio set up do you guys have? is it mostly computer based or actual synths?

Fromage Disco: My studio is computer based, with a Novation Remote midi controller, running Ableton with various VSTs and plugins.  Trav has a MicroKorg, Korg Kaospad and a MS20 Midi controller in his studio, going a bit of both.  While we would like to delve into hardware we don’t really have the room for it and when you can get such great sounds out of softsynths I don’t think it makes that much difference.

Winston: Your European label compiled the superb Future Disco compilation which recently got released here in Australia by the clubbing behemoth – One Love. Do you reckon it might be an example of a shift in clubbing trends toward the more disco oriented end of the spectrum of house music?

Fromage Disco: I think that’s probably the case, if not yet then certainly within the next year or two.  There’s been a lot more exposure for some of the big disco acts coming to Australia in the last 12 months (How was the hype for Tim Sweeney?) and appearances booked by several for some of the big summer festivals.  At the end of the day that doesn’t really bother us though.  As long as I can keep finding good music in this genre then I will keep playing it, but neither of us have ever played an entire set of just disco or just house.  There’s always something else that’s getting thrown in there.  That’s probably more indicative of our own tastes being so diverse and that will continue to keep djing fresh regardless of what happens in clubbing trends.

Winston: Which seminal disco re-editor/remixer would you most want to remix one of your tracks: Walter Gibbons, Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone or Larry Levan and why?

Fromage Disco: It’s a tough one for me between Levan and Pettibone.  Levan just because he has so many great remixes and is such a legend of the early disco scene.  Pettibone because he always managed to turn in a good remix, even of a really bad or cheesy track.  There’s at least a couple I can think of that I can’t stand the original but he reworks into magic. Travis would kill to work with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, those buys are uber talented!

Stocking Stuffer edits

The Supreme’s – High Energy (Fromage Mother Edit)

Silver Convention- Fly Robin Fly (Fromage Red Robin Edit)

Northend – Happy Days (Fromage edit)

Winston: First off I would like to say how amazing I thought your show was last year with Cut Copy.

Juan MacLean: That was actually or first bit of touring that we did in almost 2 years – that was sort of the warm up for the album tour.

Winston: You were playing the theremin a lot is that something you still do?

Juan MacLean: I put it through a lot of delay and wah wah pedals sometimes on  the record – live I play it quite a bit. It’s a hard thing to stay away from actually – I find myself playing it more than I should. I have been playing it since I was a teenager.

Winston: Are you still touring with the guys from Holy Ghost?

Juan MacLean: No, they had to bow out because they were doing their album, which is going to be coming out probably at the beginning of next year.

Winston: Are you working on new material I think it was in the Dummy Magazine interview you mentioned something about an acid house track with Nancy Whang on vocals?

Juan MacLean: That’s actually the next 12” that I’m working on now. I’m not sure when it will come out. It’s basically like the acid house version of Happy House in some ways. That’s all I can say about it now.

Winston: Is acid a direction you are going with other songs or just this one?

Juan MacLean: It’s funny I had always used like a 303 as a bassline  on a bunch of things on the album – a lot of the time it just doesn’t sound like one because I’m not being that extreme with it. It’s a little more prominent – where as Happy House was sort of a piano house track updated. This one will be like an acid house track updated.

Winston: DJ Pierre of Phuture 303 was just in Adelaide … I just love the sound of the 303.

Juan MacLean: Yeah it’s a classic thing

Winston: It’s inescapable but it can still sound fresh.

Juan MacLean: For one thing it is always funky – it’s just the way it works it makes everything a bit bouncy. Just the sound – I think when people hear it in clubs they don’t know what it is but they get excited.

Winston: You are going to be on the Australian festival circuit – which Australians take their outdoor festivals very seriously. My question is what’s your favourite festival experience as the Juan Maclean?

Juan MacLean: Oh God it’s so hard to say – one of my favourites was recently. We played at this festival called the Flow festival in Helsinki. We were headlining the big dance tent there. We were the last people to be playing. We got to see Grace Jones play right before us. Everyone was really excited from that and it was like 10,000 people just really going crazy at 4 in the morning.

Winston: Wow

Juan MacLean: Coming from the United States people here don’t tend to get very excited about things here for a variety of reason. One of which they think they are too cool to get really excited. Its always really fun to go overseas.

Winston: At the same times you are bigger overseas – which is probably the way it is with a lot of American electronic acts.

Juan MacLean: Yeah for sure – I think for a variety of reasons. The United States has always had this thing where it has always been really stratified depending on what kind of music you like. It used to be if you were into indie rock you certainly wouldn’t like any kind of dance music. That has changed a bit but it seems like dance music still is not as much in the mainstream as it is everywhere else in the world. It won’t get played on the radio.

Winston: It also has roots back to the backlash against disco as well – people have similar connotation about house music

Juan MacLean: Most people when they hear the words disco they start laughing and think it’s this comical really campy kind of music – like the Village People.

Winston: I was wondering if you started producing dance music before you were a DJ?

Juan MacLean: I didn’t start DJing until 2000 – I had my first studio when I was 20 so I had always been engineering and recording. It wasn’t until the late 90s until I got into electronic music production like sequencing stuff with the computer.

Winston: Does that give you a different perspective as a DJ like you began as a producer and just moved from there?

Juan MacLean: Yeah – I don’t really understand how to make a 12 inch until I went out and DJed in a club – that’s how you can really see how they work and the effect they have. You can find out what’s effective and not effective

Winston: DFA records have been around for a decade or so and I wonder if it will be like Warp Records where it is a permanent fixture or its popularity might wane?

Juan MacLean: I am surprised that it has maintained the place it has for this long. What the DFA has going for it is that the release schedule is very slow and deliberate. There is just not a lot of stuff coming out. It’s a very small roster that release.

Winston: You get lot anticipation for each new release that way

Juan MacLean: Yeah exactly

Winston: Like everyone is clawing for the new Holy Ghost! track.

Juan MacLean: That’s something that they are conscious of – putting out a couple of 12” before you put out an album. Also there is such a heavy filter in place for everything. When I’m putting together tracks for my album James Murphy, the Holy Ghost! guys and other people at the DFA traded them around and everyone goes through them and offers their opinions. It weeds things out. It makes DFA a pretty bullet proof model. I think it will stay around for another 10 years. It’s funny because it has kind of had a renaissance starting with Sounds of Silver and then Hercules and Love Affair, throw in my album in there and then the Holy Ghost! album will be coming out the beginning of next year.

Winston: A lot people on the DFA have done a few re-edits on labels like Mindless Boogie and RVNG Of The NRDS. I was wondering if you had a hidden back catalogue of re-edits or do you not touch on that sort stuff?

Juan MacLean: I have been asked to them but never have I think mainly because I haven’t really had the time. Other stuff has taken priority but I’m doing a DJ Kicks CD next year and in that there will be a bunch of tracks re-edited

Winston: That will been something to look forward to

Winston : How did hip hop eventually came into your music or was it all just music to you- irrespective of genre?

Agent 86: It is all just music to me. Hip hop has influence me more than any other form of music. Having said that hip hop is just one angle of my music. I play rock and disco – it is just music to me. I kinda have a certain sound that I like – and when I say sound I don’t mean a particular instrument or type of sound. It’s kind of like certain melodies and keys that I like. I guess in strange sort of way they all connect together even though they might be different genres

W: I think the best sort of mixes can be a combination of a lot of different music – really love Greg Wilson for that reason. They are all over the place but it still feels like there is a continuous theme to it.

A: Looking at Greg Wilson’s discography and history – I tend to feel there is a similarity. He is of an older vintage haha – but I appreciate where he comes from and love his remixes.

W: He always played pop music from the time. I like in his new edits how he uses contemporary pop music. one is Amerie’s One Thing mixed with Massive Attack and Devil’s Symphony by the Rolling Stones.

A: I like the way he puts his mix together (I don’t know the legal situation with a lot of it) but I think him and In Flagranti are in the same category where they make music as a dj and not coming from a strictly producer view. I think that is the way that I put my music together – it’s probably why a lot of record labels steer clear of me because I will sample. There was a time when we could sample without any problems – now it’s a no no.

W: kind of like how they say you should take elements from your 10 favourite songs and put them together to make a song that sounds nothing like the sum of its parts if you want to transition from DJ to producer.

A: I have never heard of that – I think that would be really cluttered

W: I haven’t tried it

A: I think it’s a great idea, you should totally do it.

W: Adult Arts Club is also a record label like Lightspeed – which stemmed from a previous label Bark Bang which had a few vinyl only releases (still available). It’s sort trying to be a more viable way to release music in a digital age.

A: I think that’s the way to go. Vinyl has been in the back of my mind but hit has not been a priority at all I’m more interested in getting music out there. Getting the label know for putting out good music not cds and not vinyl. I want it to been known as a good music label not a good format label. At this point in time that’s the way to go – I don’t knock other labels that do vinyl or cds. The way I see it the amount of competition and cost of mp3 vs vinyl – think you would be mad to put all your eggs into one release. Having to have one release taking off in order to fund the next one. You can have a flop but it won’t hurt you that much. You have to pay for your mastering although not everyone does that ha ha, you have to do a little marketing maybe a music video but the last thing you want to worry about is sinking 2000 dollars into a load of vinyl you aren’t guaranteed to sell.

Winston:

Nicky Siano: It began out of the passion to want to provide a place … I wanted a place that really blew my mind. The only way to do that was build something that I had in my head that I thought when I am dancing. It was really about pleasing me more than anything.

Winston: It’s the type of thing where if you are having a good time everyone else is

Nicky Siano: Exactly

Winston: What was your fist inclining of the disco craze beginning?

Nicky Siano: I guess it was the original New York magazine article that came out in ‘74 – so it was written in ‘73.  I was doing interviews for it and I started to realize that we were moving in a direction where we were going to influence the music industry in a certain way. Especially when we found out that the records that we were playing were ultimately winding up on the radio in the top 10 f format.  We were playing them first before the radio – it was the first time in history that anything like that had happened. When I was doing that article I realized that was happening. I guess sometime in ‘73 or ‘74 I released we were going to have a really big impact on the record industry.

Winston: By that time the Gallery had been going a few years?

Nicky Siano: Yeah, about a year and a half.

Winston: There is a Gallery movie you are working on…?

Nicky Siano: Yeah it was shot at the Gallery in 1976 and 77. We are just editing it together and finishing it up. It’s really horrible in New York right now. It’s really hot and really muggy. People outside … everyone is walking around really lethargic because the heat is so intense.

Winston: Lighting and the sound system was a major element in the Loft , the Gallery  and Paradise Garage becoming so big…

Nicky Siano: It also was we were very lucky that we were in a time where we could have a private membership club. It provided a very unique experience because every week it’s the same people over and over. People became friends and it became like a watering hole for a certain likeminded people. The comradery that grew out of the Garage, the Loft and the Gallery is still going on. The people that made friends at the Gallery are still friends. It was a time when we were able to have private membership and only dealt with a certain crowd.

Winston: It all changed when disco got bigger and bigger

Nicky Siano: Exactly, the bigger it got the more place that were available – people were like why would I want to have to go through all these rules and join this club when I have 10 other places I can to go to . Why did we have longevity? Because we were better than the rest.

Winston: Also you had your single Kiss Me Again by dinosaur L …

Nicky Siano: The artist name was dinosaur L the singer was Miriam Valerie and a lot famous people were on there like David Byrne of Talking Heads, Arthur Russell on cello and also he was the co producer. It was like a studio band. My favourite part is the ending bit where they sort of just let loose and go crazy.

Winston: How did that come together?

Nicky Siano: Arthur Russell was a Gallery devotee. He came up to me and said “you know we can make a record”. I decided to do it – I put up the money for it. Arthur and I were the catalyst for the whole project.

Winston: I guess you wouldn’t get the same records sales as you did now?

Nicky Siano: No, It was at a time when just being a disco record sold. That out of the box – if it was a disco record it would sell.

Winston: That was essentially the downfall, for a while anything that had disco in it would sell.

Nicky Siano: Then the record companies started putting “disco” into all the garbage they wanted to sell – that’s what led to down fall.

Winston: It sort of got to point where there was a backlash to it

Nicky Siano: Truly

Winston: What were you reasons to stop DJing the first time?

Nicky Siano: That was basically a drug issue – I was heavily addicted to drugs. I got clean and going to the clubs was a real trigger for me. I stopped for a while and during the time that I stopped I just moved in a different direction. I just went with what was in front of me which was working with people with AIDS (Ed note – as a social worker). That was given to me I didn’t go after it. It sort of came up. I would say it’s like a spiritual journey. When you are open to things you never know what’s going to happen.

Winston: And you by chance came back to it

Nicky Siano: Well again I was working with people with AIDS in 1996 I felt really burnt out.  ‘83 to ‘96 I did nothing but work with people with AIDS. During the 80s it was a very bad period where people were dying on a daily basis. By ‘96 I was pretty much burnt out on doing that. I was sitting at home going” I can’t do this anymore” and the phone rang and it was the people from Body and Soul – they asked me to play at this thing in New York . I came to do it and that was it – my focus shifted again.  So again just being open to what life has for you instead of deciding what you want to do let the universe put you in the place where you need to go. It’s usually better than what you though you wanted for yourself.

Winston: That occurred at a resurgence of interest in garage or disco music?

Nicky Siano: It’s like that 20 year itch; I was there right on time. Now it’s sort of moving on, I want to move on. I was so passionate about playing again. I still have that passion but it’s different and grown into something else.  Like the things I never got to do in my life like writing. I did write a book along the way and written several screen plays. I really didn’t spend enough time doing that- now I want to.

Winston: That’s the reason for retirement from DJing?

Nicky Siano: It’s not the end of anything it’s just the change in focus. All creative people get to this point – where they doing a creative job if you get to a point where you go “ok I have sung this song 30 000 times what am I going got do next – will I continue to sing this song or will I find a new song or go and act in a movie”. Creative people have several venues that they can work within. If they are given time they can explore anyone because people who are creative want to try different things with their energy.

Winston: How do feel about the current re-edit culture?

Nicky Siano: I am all for improving things but with these remixes and re-edits I just end up playing the original 99 percent of time. So many things have been re-done but I want to hear good new stuff.

Lightspeed Recordings is a an amazing record label started by Adelaide’s prodigal son – Agent 86. Recently their Late Night Tough Guy Edits EP shot to the top of the Juno disco charts. We chat about the label, edits and the early Adelaide house scene.

Winston: How did Lightspeed records begin?

Agent 86: I was running a few parties last year,  that were new disco orientated and I guess I was kind of moving in that direction as a DJ for a while. My productions were also on that disco tip. After doing a few parties I thought maybe I could expand it by putting out my own music. After talking to a few people it seemed like a good idea to make a label to put out any sort of music that I really dig. It’s on the disco tip at the moment, like everything that I do it’s not limited to one genre. For the time being the disco scene is probably what I’m feeling and that’s the direction that Lightspeed will be taking for the immediate future.

W: How did you get HMC (AKA Late Night Tough Guy) involved?

A: I DJed with him back in Adelaide in the 1990s, we have been friends ever since. It was really just a matter of having a chat to him; he was producing and doing edits and when I told him about my plans for Lightspeed he was really into it.

W: On the subjects of edits is it hard to put them out do you need to clear them?

A: To be honest I haven’t been doing any clearance. After the Late Night tough Guy EP I have decided to hold off on doing more edits and concentrate on original stuff. I think we will still be doing edits but we are better off putting them up for free – getting them mastered properly and giving them away as promo EPs.  If we aren’t selling them we aren’t getting any profit-hopefully the edits will make people trawl through the back catalogue of the artists.

W: You can never have too many edits of Running Up That Hill.

A: No, you can’t. I have heard a couple now, I guess I’m a bit biased but the Late Night Tough Guy edit is my favourite.

W: It’s always the perfect one to end a night with.

A: I have seen people play it at the beginning of the nigh  to get the dance floor happening, it’s just one of those tracks.

W: Is there anything we can expect from Lightspeed records in the near future?

A: The next is EP is from an American by the name of Bodie we have some remixes organized from Faze Action, Agello and Rudy’s Midnight Machine. The release after that will be from the Melbourne duo Fromage and we have a Runaway remix going of that.

W: How did you initially get into electronic music?

Well it goes back to my childhood – I was hearing some of the more obvious electronic music like Moroder and Kraftwerk. I was really heavily influenced by hip hop – the electro of the 80s. It began as a child and hasn’t stopped.

W: You mentioned you were DJing in Adelaide with HMC I was just wondering what the early house scene was like in Adelaide?

A: The house scene was phenomenal in Adelaide. I started going out in ‘89 and it was already well established by then. The house and techno scene was just phenomenal in the late 80s and early 90s. In the mid 90s the clubs began to specialise so you have a disco house club and other clubs doing progressive techno and around the same time drum and bass started taking its hold in Adelaide. It kind of became spread out but in the early 90s not a lot of clubs were playing it. It was a truly underground scene where as now house, techno and electro house is the mainstream music now. Everyone is into it and every club is playing it.

W: Was there more of a community felt to it because there were only a few places playing house?

A: In Adelaide there were 2 competing clubs open at the same time – one was Metro and one was Le Roc. There was a friendly competition and each club pushed the other to do more and more radical things-to play more and more radical music.

W: There’s a lot of great clubs in Adelaide like Sugar and Cuckoo – but I guess it is sort of diluted because more clubs are playing house music?

A: Absolutely – it’s just the way it has gone with club music. It’s ironic that the disco scene emerging over the last couple of years has tended to be more underground because everyone is so concentrated on electronic music. That makes disco sound quite fresh.

W: Like the strings that you don’t hear in electrohouse.

A: Exactly.

W: How did you begin to DJ?

A: It was really quite simple … well maybe it wasn’t.  When I was a kid I used to build little radio transmitters and had my own pirate radio station going.  Then in the late 80s I first started to become aware of acid house – when I was 16 I went out to a club and I just instantly fell in love with it. That very night I knew that DJing was what I wanted to do. It was a craft really something more than an art – something that requires skill. I was really excited by the music. By late’ 89 I was in clubs DJing. I started innocuously because I was 16 and it was difficult to get into clubs. I thought the one way to get into clubs is to work in clubs so I started off as a glassy and started harassing the owner of the club to let me DJ – they let me do a Tuesday night then a Thursday night and then started running my own Thursday night. Around that time I got picked up to play Metro.

Stay tuned for the second part of the interview later this week.

DJ Agent 86 – Magic

Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (Agent 86 edit)

Woolfy is DJing tonight at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Adelaide.

Winston: Do you consider yourself part of an international “cosmic disco” scene or do you just do what you do without any outside influence?

Woolfy: I look at myself as an international DJ cause I probably get more of my gigs overseas. When I think of myself as part of a crew I think of myself as part of my LA crew and a couple of heads in New York. Like Eric Duncan, Harvey and all the Sarcastic (Disco) guys. Basically that’s what I see myself as fitting within a family of DJs. I have heard incredible things from people like Todd Terje and Prins Thomas. To be compared to those guys is amazing.

Winston: How did you first get into electronic music?

Woolfy: Basically when I was 18 or 19, I think it began at a Primal Scream. I was a fan of them before the made dance music, kind of like The Jesus Mary Chain side of things. One of my friends asked if I wanted to go this after party, and I was like “sure” because at 18 that seems so amazing. I went this bar called Flammable Liquid and it was the start of the house scene in LA. At that stage I got into dance music before that it was pretty much rock and roll or grunge.

Winston: I noticed a move towards “indie guitar pop”, side of things on the new album was that a conscious shift?

Woolfy: I kind of like to just leave it open, because I’m one person. When I’m making music it’s not like it’s for guys in a band that are trying to make a certain sound. The music is an open pallet. Sometimes I will be DJing indie stuff mixed with like dirty disco. Other days I’m on the beach and want to play music that works with that, that sort of translates into making the music. I just go with it. The next album will also be guitar stuff, it’s almost there but it’s going to be atleast 8 months or a year. I’m not going to go for any sound in particular on the new album because that will seem contrived, but a lot of the stuff I am feeling right now in the studio is post punk.

Winston: I have seen some YouTube videos of the live show, was that just a one off thing or is it something you do often?

Woolfy: The live show is a real thing. Last time we went out, as a band we toured Moscow, Berlin, Los angeles, Holland, Austria and Switzerland. We went as a 3 piece which was cool for clubs cause we relied on a laptop. We are just trying to get the name big enough so we can have a full band like a 4 or 5 piece. Travelling with the lads is so much better; they are both (DJing and live touring) unique experiences but with the lads is a lot more fun.

Winston: Is it lonely touring as a single DJ?

Woolfy: There’s a certain degree of loneliness where you go to a new club every night. It’s ok to be moving like when you are going from 1 city to the next. There is usually someone to show you around, and take care of you. I was stuck one time for like 6 or 7 days, because I only had one gig booked in Berlin. During the day it was cold and gloomy and I pretty much didn’t know anyone.

Winston: How did you get signed to Rong/DFA?

Woolfy: I was playing Turntables on the Hudson which a New York spot, it’s like Nickodeumus and Moriano. That night I was walking through the Meat Packing District and it was getting all quiet and I was like “whoa where the fuck am?” I walked into this one bar because I heard some disco music from outside. I went up to the dude behind the deck and said “yo,that’s a great track” all very trainspotter-y. Then we hit it off and it was DJ Spun, the head of Rong music. I slipped him a cd it was like 4 projectionist tracks and I threw Oh Missy on there as a joke on the end. And he called me back and said we want more tracks like that one (Oh Missy). That put me into the DFA/Rong family.

Winston: What are you going to be playing on your Australian DJ tour?

Woolfy: I think I can fit 70 records in my bag. I don’t really play CDs. All my dance stuff is on wax. Bring a bit of everything, if it’s a big club I’m going to hit floor on the floor and keep the momentum going. If it’s like 300 people we are just going to have a good time and go on a journey.

Winston: How did you get into DJing?

Woolfy: It was a progression; you go to a club and decide that you want to do that. It was a natural progression, that why there are so many DJ’s these days. Everyone is like “I can do that too”.
Winston: It also has to do a lot with the technology making it easier and easier, now all you need is a pc.
Woolfy: I don’t think I will ever move to Serato, it’s amazing how far DJing technology has gone, it was records for so long then came CDs but they weren’t there for very long. ‘Cause then Serato came along and you can bring a million track now. 70 records is good enough for me, you can make that last forever.

Winston: What’s the creative process to make you tracks?

Woolfy: I start with the beat basically, once I get drums that I like that I’m feeling than I will just … whatever can be first you know maybe a keyboard. It can be the day after a long weekend, those can be emotional days. I like to call them “Sonic Mondays”. There was so much cool shit that happened over the weekend, but there is a lot of emotion that comes with it. Woolfy is usually the beat is made first. I have a whole other collection of stuff that starts with the vocals or is written on guitar – that’s not going to come out for a couple of years yet.

Winston: So is it mostly live instruments or sample based?

Woolfy: For the first projections album it was definitely sample based, that came out in 2002 on guidance records. It was great way, home studios were very knew. Now a days it’s just start from scratch and make the beat.

Originally Article appeared in Onion Magazine, which is one of the best street press mags in Australia.

Winston: How did you guys first get interested in electronic music?

Jupiter: We were more into rock initially, and we didn’t feel so attracted to house music but when Daft Punk started getting big around 96/97 we changed our minds.  They were all over the place in France, there was no way you could miss them. And upon hearing their first few singles, you couldn’t help but fall in love with the mix of influences and the novelty of their sound, so we could say that Homework first got us into electronic music.

W: What made you start Jupiter and how did you two meet?

J: We met on holiday through a mutual friend, but we hated each other at first. But we both happened to be studying in London the following year, and we somehow bounced into each other and had a very different feeling than the first time

At first we were making electro-folk music, with no apparent reason as we were both really into electro, funk and disco. I guess we both played guitar and wanted to get into electronic gear slowly but surely, and it was the best way to do it. Anyway, we quickly realised we had way more fun playing the sort of music we most enjoyed listening to, which sounds pretty logical now hahaha

W: How did you get involved with Valerie Collective?

J: Anoraak contacted us shortly after we started Jupiter last year, and asked us to remix Nightdrive With You. Apparently, he was pleased with the result as he subsequently introduced us to the rest of the collective and included our take in a remix EP. We have a very good relationship with the crew, as they’re all very talented and really cool people. I guess that makes us friend, which is why we were included in the Valérie & Friends compilation.

W: What’s your take on the world’s fascination with the French electronic music scene? To me it feels like there is a shift back to a more disco centric house sound like Cassius, Dimitri from Paris and Fred Falke rather than the Ed Banger sound, what do you think?

J:French people have a bit of history with electronic music; not only did people like Pierre Schaeffer and Jean-Jacques Perrey pioneered electronic music (I was taught this in class in the UK, so I’m not trying to be chauvinistic here!). The massive international success of Jean-Michel Jarre probably paved the way for more recent acts. Because of this, the French benefit from a great international respect when it comes to electronic music, which we think is great.

If by the Ed Banger sound you mean a lot of distortion, then we’re pretty glad people are returning to a more disco sound. However, the impressive craftsmanship of bands like Justice has influenced a lot of people, and I don’t think people will ever go back to the receptiveness of French house, like it was after the peak of the era. We like to think people are trying to bring back the sound and spirit of that music (or disco music for that matter) through a more modern and eclectic approach. The best of both worlds in other words

W: What sort of gear do you use to make your tracks?

J:We don’t have much hardware actually, we usually use our Juno 106 up to the point where we need more perspective in sound, which leads us to use a range of virtual synths, most often a prophet 5 and a dx7. We have some digital synths that needs fixing though, but it’s often more tempting to use our computer straight away haha. However, we’ll probably invest in more hardware when and if we get the chance to grow bigger, and thus be able to carry around more equipment, which leads us to the next question…

W: What your live setup is like is backing tracks or live instruments or a combination?

J : …on stage we use a lot of pre-programmed stuff, as electronic musicians must. However, we try to play as much live stuff as we can; Amélie sings and plays now and then, while I play non-stop from our first intro till the last note. It’s very funny because my synth patches are programmed to change automatically so I can play bass, chords and lead at different moments of the same song, which can be very confusing for people who watch us haha

W: first single Starlighter has just come out, what else can we expect from Jupiter in 2009?

J: At the moment we’re trying to see where that single leads us, how people respond to it and as such to our music in general. Maybe another EP, remixes and a lot of gigs. We have a few concerts lined up at the moment and we love performing live so we can only hope for more!

W: Ile de France is a pretty big place, where did you guys grow up?

J: It is a big place indeed, we actually live in Paris. Does our MySpace say Ile de France or something?! I personally grew up in Bordeaux, which has a double-meaning to it.
Amélie grew up in a small town north of Paris, not very exciting but sufficiently close to go to gigs, record shops etc

W: Jupiter has only been around for a short time but what is your favourite memory with the group so far?

J: Playing in Moscow was perhaps the greatest memory we have, as the crowd there was very responsive, expressive and most importantly mad about disco music!

The Loin Brothers are a pretty sweet act to coming out of Sydney. So far they have released Heavy Helmet a space-y Moroder-like jam. They are playing Saturday the 5th of September at Sugar, which is probably worth your while dropping by to check out.

Winston:How did you guys first get into electronic music?

Saliva: I think the first time I heard synthesizers in music was listening to “War of the worlds” when I was about 8 or so, and was always intrigued how the space sounds were made. When I was a bit older I used to hang out at a studio this country and western band had set up. (the town i grew up in had a population of about 150, so I took what I could get One of the guys brought in this little Korg synth and let me play around on it, and I think from there on i started obsessing about them.

Silvio: An intersting question to answer for me as there are few tunes that I like that are purely electroinc. There is usally a live intrument component to the stuff I like. I got into dance music say 12 years ago tho and have not turned back. Nothing Earth shattering really, just found myself at a dance party, dug the hypnotic grooves and got my dance on.

W: Really love the new single are there plans for anymore?

Silvio: Absolutely. We are constantly in the studio of late. Our remix of the Aston Shuffle has just been released and we are just putting the finishing touches on our next OG now. We make music because we have to. It’s much more preferable than a padded cell.

Saliva: Yeah, we have got a few things in the pipeline, we are keen to play around with different styles, such as Prog rock, some more housey stuff, which should be fun.

W: Where did you get the idea for Heavy Helmet?

Saliva: One night I was up late watching “Mysterious cities of gold” and must have fallen asleep, when all of a sudden Esteban appear in my lounge room holding a bass with golden strings. He told me that the bass contained a powerful spirit. He said that only one man could release the spirit and he thought that I was the one, and to unleash it I needed to play from the heart. So i started jamming away and from there everything got a little hazy… and all of a sudden i woke up lying on a beanbag clutching my bass, and everything was covered in coconut oil. I got up and plugged in my bass and started playing the bass line to heavy helmet, I thought it sounded pretty sweet, so I showed it to Silvio and took it from there…

Silvio: Long John came to me with this bassline… It spoke of space violence and cosmic stallions with multiple throbbing gristles and it’s story had to be told.

W: How did you get Mock and Toof to remix it?

Silvio: Nathan from Future Classic hooked that one up. They were out here playing a show, and somehow heard our demo and really liked it… i think they said something about it havin a Rub n Tug vibe. nice words to hear for first time producers.

W: So you guys are involved in Paradise Lost, which I hear is quite a party. How did that start?

Silvio: I met Brut33 (Cosmic Seadog) around hmmmmmmm 4 to 5 years ago or so. We hit it off straight away, i guess we were at the same kind of headspace, a little bit baffled as to why Sydney did not have a solid disco/house etc party happening at the time. Going to dance parties and leaving wanting more. Sure there were parties going on but none seemed to focus on this groovy fun stuff. Too many parties and DJs taking themselves too seriously, playing all tough, riding on the name of a big DJ and not focusing on the needs of the party. So Paradise Lost was formed – the name obviously a statement at the time referencing the Paradise garage and asking where has the love gone!

So a year or so onwards we decided that PL needed more ideas, more resources to realise our vision. Mikey Miutante, Harry Sounds, James Bucknell, James Weirick and Mike Masters joined our crew. This enabled us to take ourselves out of the clubs and into warehouses, art spaces and other alternative spaces and use a non-profit model to boot. While working with so many people on what really is a somewhat of an urban ritual is very much a challenge, we have found that its often those parties where in the lead up there is the most tension between members that the party is at it’s peak.

We have been blessed in that a venue always seems to come about for us, and encountered many amazing helpful people along the way – though still takes alot of hard work to get a party of this nature happening.

Saliva: I first heard about PL when I moved down from Brisbane to Sydney, my girlfriend told me about a party that I should check out, so I went and checked it out and was blown away by the vibe. ever since then I have been a big fan, and admire the guys for the effort they put in.

W: I guess you could loosely be called ‘new disco’, how do you guys feel about that term? I always find it a bit derogatory because what a lot of the acts that are called that are really doing something totally different than just recycling disco.

Silvio: It’s cliche I know in this scene to say it but I’m really not into genres. If it’s good I’ll play it. There is something about the word “Nu” that makes me cringe tho I must say. It sounds clinical and sleazy in a music nerd kinda way. But hey, people can call our music whatever they like really. Once it leaves our studio then it’s out of our hands in a way. We throw the lil baby turtle into the ocean and off it goes…. hopefully destined for a long life of sweet seagrass, barnacles and lady turtles and not sucked stright into the silent nothingness of a dark abyss!

These categories are there i think tho often just to make record stores more manageable. So when you are in there you know it’s more likely you’ll find stuff you are looking for in the ‘Nu Disco’ bins rather than the trance bins. The record companies label the music to make this selling process easier. The listening public / DJs etc well they got no excuse. Take back the music people

The other thing is, hell I’d love to hear some people do some more classic sounding disco stuff. Proper live band stuff, with wobbly expressive tempos, lively strings, super powerful diva vocals and top notch production etc.

Saliva: I think Silvio pretty much summed it up there, I guess any new music is NU whatever, cause at the end of the day I think at the moment most music is derivative. I am really intrigued to see where the future of music lies, hopefully some kind of musical revolution….

W:Lots of DJ’s release tracks to increase their presence outside of their native city, have you guys found this happening after Heavy Helmet got released?

Silvio: Well since putting out our track we have played in Brisbane, Melbourne and playing your fine city this weekend so really can’t complain. We’ve also had some nice random interest from blogs around the globe.

W: I asked The Juan maclean this question and it got a really interesting response :- Which seminal disco re-editor/remixer would you most want to remix one of your tracks: Walter Gibbons, Tom Moulton, Shep Pettibone or Larry Levan and why?

Silvio: To be honest, a remix from any of those guys would be very well received by us. For me though if I was forced to pick it would have to be Larry. Not only is he the patron saint of Paradise Lost but I really do love his touch, particularly in that 1981-1983 period. He just had a special way about how he mixed things, he knew what to accentuate to make bodies sweat.

W: On a recent interview with Nicky Siano (coming soon I promise) I asked him “ what he thought of re-edits?” and he said that “ he usually found himself preferring the original”, how do you guys feel about the current re-edit culture at the moment?

Silvio: Well last year Paradise Lost put out an EP of edits so obviously I am up for them. To me edits have always been there. You can certainly hear the tape chops in some of those classic original 12′s. Some of those disconet versions of tracks are the seminal versions for me.

With the rise of the PC iIguess for better and for worse this now means anyone can put a tune under the blade. I do like the bootleg aspect of it all. I do like it how DJs can put material out that is made purely for dancefloors and it can bypass pretty much all aspects of the music industry in getting into other DJs hands. It’s all very DIY. Alot of these edits have become the quintessential version of the tune for the current dancefloor.

On the flipside, it’s a real shame that the original artists don’t get paid and there are alot of superflouos edits out there. However there is nothing worse that a person sayin how things ‘should’ be in an area that is a creative landscape and thus has no boundaries. The music wilderness is rich because it is just that – wild.

Saliva: I guess it all depends on what gets edited, some edits take a almost unplayable record and turn it in to something that will blow the roof off, and others I find suck the life out of a otherwise great tune. I have discovered a heap of new music through listening to edits, and then digging deeper and finding more heat by the original artists. I really like alot of the Loud -e edits, that guy is certainly a wild man….

W: What sort of tunes can we expect to hear at Sugar this Saturday?

Silvio: Before we play anything it must go through the scrutiny of the Loin Brothers auditioning couch. .. one of the toughest audioning couches going I can assure you. If you don’t have serious talent in making bodies move then you won’t be getting a follow up phone call from us.

Saliva: it’s gonna be hot and sweaty, rough and ready. Expect everything from Willy De ville to Herb Alpert.