The first lady of house gets set for her Geisha’s 3rd birthday and the release of ‘Remember Me’
Interview : Dan Prince
Welcome to DMC young lady, an exciting summer ahead of you with Geisha’s 3rd Birthday coming up, the Ibiza season in full swing and studio releases. Let’s kick off with your beloved Geisha night down at Cargo on June 21st, talk us through this rather ace line up you have in store for us…
“Well we’ve got three brilliant guests; Claudia Lovisa (who is signed to Audioflys Supernature label as Amelie) is producing some incredible music at the moment and exactly the sound we want for Geisha. She’s been living in Ibiza for a while now and has that Robert Dietz, Steve Bug smooth clean production flavour in her tracks that we love. We also have our Geisha regular Ceri who is our tip for future greatness! She’s a real talent and now has tracks coming out on Hot Creations, she’s our little female Jamie Jones and I could listen to her for hours. We also have Michelle Cade who’s a very talented producer and singer making her debut with us Supporting these ladies will be myself and my partner in crime Suze Rosser who is the driving force behind Geisha and makes sure everything gets done. She’s also a rather fine DJ as well so it will be night of gorgeous music. I’ll be celebrating my birthday as well as Geishas third birthday so we’ll be cracking open the sparkling elderflower juice.”
You raised a few eyebrows a few years back when yourself and Suze Rosser announced Geisha to the world, once upon a time I recall a certain Lottie who thought the idea of an all girl line up was rather restrictive and perhaps dare I say it, a novelty. What changed your mind?
“Yes I’ve done a massive U-turn on this one, I used to frown on us all being put together but I see it completely differently now. There are so many DJ’s out there, it seems everyone you meet is a DJ trying to get some gigs yet the ratio of male to females doing it as a career is still vastly out of proportion. We don’t want to exclude the blokes, far from it, but 90% of my gigs in the last 15 years have been with only male DJ’s on the line up so until it all evens out equally I see no harm in some all female line ups, especially with the swathes of new female DJ talent out there.”
One of the main goals of Geisha from day one was showing what great female DJs there are out there, who are some of the female spinners you have been impressed with recently?
“Hannah Holland always rocks my World when she plays and one of my favourite Geisha nights at Cargo was when she played. Ania Iwinska was incredible and unique and is one of Suze’s favourites, Anék are always reliably brilliant and really get the crowd going and of course our girl Ceri. Another favourite of mine is Julietta from Germany, I’m always listening to her soundcloud mixes and we’re hoping to have her play at Geisha soon.”
Geisha has just secured a new residency at one of clubland’s oldest venues, Moles down in Bath. A great venue with a real underground feel. How is Geisha taking to Wiltshire life – they are mad down in the west country…!
“Yes many pints of cider are consumed, mostly by me. I think it’s rude not to drink cider when you’re in the west country. I have a real love for Moles, it’s a tiny den of iniquity I’ve grown very fond of playing music in over the years. It’s a live venue as well with a recording studio above but we love it for its low ceiling sweaty basement vibes and the sound system’s great now thanks to Tom Maddicot. We want to take our Geisha sound further afield than London and Bath is a great place to start.”
What is the current top 10 you are spinning?
1/ Cajmere/Maceo Plex – ‘Calm Under Pressure Cajual Records
2 /Joyce Muniz feat. Knixx – ‘Trust Your Enemies’ Exploited
3/ Lottie – ‘Remember Me’ Conkrete Recordings
4/ Marlon Hoffstadt / Dansson – ‘Shake That’ Play It Down
5/ Miguel Campbell – ‘Beams Of Light’ (Ceri remix) Hot Creations
6/ Hot Natured feat Anabel Englund – ‘Reverse Skydiving’ FFRR
7/ Uffe – ‘All I Did’ (Jon Convex remix) Pets Recordings
8/ Vanilla Ace – Bring It Back Off Recordings
9/ SmakPony – ‘Walk With Me’ (Anék remix) Kena Records
10/ Jamie Jones – ‘Moan & Groan’ Crosstown Rebels
As mentioned, Ibiza 2013 is up and running…a place very close to your heart. You were at the Ibiza Rocks House last week DJing, they have a real good vibe going on…
“I always play there when I’m on the island and you do get to feel part of the family which I love about it. I also get to play completely different music to what I’m playing late at night in a club. I get to play Steely Dan edits, Kate Bush, Metronomy, Fleetwood Mac, TEED, Bowie, Metro Area, New Order, Talking Heads and The Pointer Sisters all in one set, surrounded by friends around a pool in one of the most historically Rock, N Roll Hotels in the World. They also do a marvelous roast and my son can play tennis on the pink tennis court. It could be worse.”
Big date coming up for you at We Love…on September the 8th – what is about Sundays at Space which will always be special?
“It’s still the best club in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to play there every Summer since about 1997/98 and there’s a continuation of quality and musical excellence that I just haven’t seen anywhere else. They’ve always got the most interesting new talent on alongside the reliably brilliant big names without ever going down a naff, faddy commercial route, which is difficult when there’s so much competition on the island. The last two years I’ve closed the sunset terrace which is where my sound works best at the moment but I’ve also played techno in the discoteca for 3 hours (Grace Jones was late so I got to play longer much to my delight) and hours and hours on the terrazza over the years before and after the roof was on. I feel like a teenager again in Space, not only do I love playing exactly what I want to a clued up crowd but there’s always loads of other DJ’s I want to run around to hear in other rooms. Spoilt for choice on every line up.”
What one song will always remind you of Ibiza?
“Sueno Latino – ‘Sueno Latino’, obvious but true. Also, Seelenluft – ‘Manilla’ (Ewan Pearsons remix).”
Word on the grapevine is that you have converted your mum to Ibiza…and there was me thinking she was a south of France ladee…?
“Yes she loves it and can’t wait to go back, hardly surprising though, it is beautiful and I refrained from dragging her to DC10.”
Tell us about your new tune which we hear has just been signed to Conkrete Recordings…
“It’s called ‘Remember Me’ and its a techy little house number. I’m not very good at bigging my own things up so I’ll let you all listen and decide for yourself. There’ll be more stuff following it too and remixes.”
You are married to the head of Wall of Sound Mr Mark Jones, two absolute music nuts living under one roof. You two must clean up at the music quiz down the local pub?
“Well I love a quiz, especially a music one, but I can’t seem to drag him to a pub as he doesn’t drink anymore. It is good being with another music lover although we don’t seem to have enough shelf space for all our vinyl at the moment. There isn’t enough room for both our collections and we need to get rid of some more really but its hard isn’t it? I don’t think I could be with anyone that didn’t love music as much as me though.”
You deserted London life years ago for the delights of the home counties. Is there anything you miss about our capital city?
“Well I’m only 25 miles away from the center of London so I still go in regularly for gigs and meetings but no, I don’t miss anything about living there. I love London, its the best city in the world but I’d rather have a garden and fields around me out here and travel in when I need to than live there now. Saying that, it is a pain in the arse getting a cab back from East London to Buckinghamshire at 4am.”
The last twelve months has seen a huge resurgence for house music, suddenly it’s back in vogue again and people are loving it. Good times back on the floor eh?
“It’s the nature of the beast. Dance music is evolving constantly, that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. Things come back round in a new form all the time with a new twist. There’s loads of wonderful new house music in our midst but I must say that there is some stuff out there that just sounds like poor copies of a lot of the vinyl stuff I was playing in the 90’s. You do have to sift through some rubbish ones to get the exciting tracks but yes, long live house and all that.”
Who are some of the producers around the world you are giving high fives to at the moment?
“Oooh there’s loads; Alex Niggeman, Joyce Muniz, Maceo Plex, Christian Burkhardt, Jimmy Edgar, James Welsh…”
The disco dust has settled now on the new Daft Punk album – what was your thoughts on it?
“I love it, apart from ‘Touch’ which I’m struggling with a bit, it’s a tad too musical theatre for me that one. And I also skip through ‘Get Lucky’ just because I’ve heard it 786,000 times now, lets face it it wasn’t the most low key promotional campaign. That aside I think its a marvellous piece of production and while the charts have been filled with some hideous crap of late its a breath of fresh air and frankly life affirming to hear Nile Rogers guitar licks and some mighty fine disco do so well. ‘Lose Yourself To Dance’ and ‘Doin’ It Right’ are my favourites.”
Who is the person who has influenced your career the most?
“Prince.”
Who is the person from history you would most like to have a glass of wine with?
“Dorothy Parker, for her caustic wit. I’d have a glass of wine with pretty much anyone though.”
What is the misapprehension about yourself you wish you could erase?
“I don’t know how to answer this. I have no idea what people who don’t know me think about me so I’m blissfully unaware of any misapprehensions.”
The song that means the most to you…
“Oh God really??? Ok well if I have to pick one its ‘Love Action’ by The Human League because that was our first dance/song thing at our Wedding…”
And finally, have you finally forgiven Mark for wearing that gun suit in Miami that led to you being handcuffed outside Mansion?
“It was just a jacket with a gun print on, but the balaclava didn’t help. I still can’t believe that actually happened it was mental, we called them the fashion police which didn’t go down very well. He only let us go once he realised I was a DJ and saw my picture on the front of a CD he found when he searched my handbag. We were saved by a good old fashioned promo CD, you see…it is worth taking them out there.”
Geisha’s 3rd Birthday @ Cargo, London on Friday June 21st. Details below…
