Hi Lizzie welcome back to DMCWORLD, where in the world are you right now?
Hello! It’s great to be chatting with you 🙂 Right now I’m on the train, as I’ve just finished a great teaching session at the Point Blank Music School in London (for anyone curious I teach Record Deals and Branding and absolutely love it).
You’ve just had your birthday mid Halloween, so were you a saint or sinner celebrating?
Haha good question…well I definitely like to let my devilish side out on Halloween, so I don’t think you would have found any saintly behavior from me that weekend 😉 It was all about the dirty pumping house music (with of course a remix of Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and I love any excuse to put on a costume, so having my birthday at Halloween is perfect for me!
A new track with Scotty Boy coming out soon, a cover of Tomcraft “Loneliness”. Is it a hard battle with yourself when you are doing the vocals as well as the music? Are you a hard producer on yourself during vocal sessions?
That’s a really interesting question. Yes I am really hard on myself with regards to my vocals, I always push myself to get the very best takes I can and sometimes I think I’m way too critical of my own work…but, as those who work with me will know, I’m a perfectionist!
How did the Groove Cruise dates come about in the USA?
When I was working on my first collab with Scotty Boy I got to hear all about this magical festival called Groove Cruise….. Thousands of like-minded happy souls, a line-up of the world’s best house, trance and techno artists and a host amazing parties all day and night, all taking place in the sunshine on a ship – in the middle of the ocean! It sounded like heaven to me 🙂 Scotty is one of the original Groove Cruise residents and, thanks to him, I was able to join him for the Miami 2017 sailing, where I sang our track ‘You’re Not Alone’ at the SailAway party. And I’m just back from the West Coast sailing (GCCabo), where I performed 3 DJ sets that were out of this world – the GCFam are a crowd like no other and the positive vibes throughout the ship were incredible!
Any funny stories/nightmares from DJing in the open water?
Well DJing on the high seas is always an exciting experience and I’ve been lucky enough to DJ on many boat parties in London, Washington DC, Grand Cayman and even Brighton. Over the years I’ve experienced quite a few technical challenges….CDJs overheating in the sunshine…. having to get the captain to help us tie down speakers with ropes so they don’t topple over the side….. having the dance floor literally rocking when the waves get pretty high…. you have to be think on your feet when you are out in the open water that’s for sure!! Wherever I am in the world, there’s something about being out with like-minded people on a boat which creates a really great positive energy. So you can imagine that Groove Cruise, with 3000 party people on board (all in fancy dress of course), is definitely an experience like no other!
Lets go back to the start Lizzie, can you remember which DJ or club night inspired to want to get into music?
I can pretty much pinpoint the moment that my love affair with dance music started. I was a fresh-faced student at Guildford and I headed to London with friends for my first all night clubbing experience – it was at a huge warehouse complex in Kings Cross called Bagleys and I was blown away by the atmosphere, underground pumping tunes like I’d never heard before and this incredible feeling of unity. After many awesome nights out, I decided I wanted to learn how to DJ, and so spent my student loan on vinyl decks (a bit cliche I know, but it’s true) and my journey truly began!
Lots of disco and funk influences in your productions and DJ sets, what music was played in the Curious household when growing up as a youngster?
What an interesting question! Well firstly music was definitely always playing and Queen were a mainstay at home, and in the car, and I still know the words to most of their hits. There were a lot of amazing bands I grew up with such as the Eurythmics and The Beatles and also we listened to a lot of classical music, which I loved. I learnt to play the flute, cello and piano alongside singing and having all these amazing melodies and songs around me was super inspiring.
It’s been 10 years since your debut release, how long were you singing before stepping up to the turntables?
I’ve been singing all my life, so all through school and college I was doing a lot of performing in choirs. I also had a phase in college as lead singer of an indie band. It was at university that I discovered dance music and I then got totally mesmerised with DJing. So I focussed on that for several years and then found my way back to singing and writing in about 2006.
You love your hometown of Brighton, but would you swap the pebbles for golden sand and move to a warmer country to live?
Funnily enough I was offered a once in a lifetime opportunity of a DJ residency in Grand Cayman just a couple of years ago, so I lived out there from October 2015 to June of last year. It was an amazing experience, I lived right by one of the most beautiful beaches in the whole world and had a fantastic time with truly memorable gigs on boat parties, full moon parties, beach parties and so many amazing clubnights. For a small tropical island, Cayman had a really good house scene. After my first Billboard success I really wanted to set up a permanent recording studio, so then it was time to head back to the UK.
You are the original Duracell Bunny with your non stop dancing and energy in all your performances, even on your live stream radio show the webcam shows a high impact routine, do you sometimes freak clubbers out by your energy?
I do get a lot of comments along the lines of ‘how do you do it’ and I can honestly say it’s because I love the music so much and get totally energised by the vibes of the crowd. With my recent shows on Groove Cruise if I bounced any higher I think I would have disappeared over the ship…and after each performance I realised I hadn’t even drunk my energy drink! I don’t think I’ve ever freaked anyone out, though sometimes people say they get tired just watching me 😉
Very few people in the industry have the talent of producer/DJ and singer and be successful in all 3, but which one pays the bills?
Another interesting question – so these days to be a successful artists in the music industry, I think it’s a great plan to have several revenue streams. I generally find that royalty payments for music releases can take a while to come through, whereas obviously your DJ income is a lot more instant, so a balance of both works really well. And it’s so rewarding to be able to play your own tracks and remixes out to the crowd and to see them all go nuts and sing along with you!
With so many life goals achieved already what drives you going into 2019?
I would say it really is my love of music and the amazing way that house music brings such wonderful people together. To know that people are listening to my songs around the world is a truly humbling feeling and if I can make people happy with the music I make and the gigs I perform, then that in turn makes me happy. And so my curious energy just keeps driving me forward 🙂
Thankyou Lizzie and ‘Keep On Jumpin’
Thanks so much for the great questions….and with the mention of ‘Keep On Jumpin’…you’ve just give me an idea for a new track 😉
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LizzieCuriousMusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/lizziecurious
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lizziecurious
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/5R2GATpm4U3ef8PGROt67B
Beatport: www.beatport.com/artist/lizzie-curious/60469
Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/lizzie-curious
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lizziecurious
