We are able to learn a lot about an artist when it comes to interviews, whether it’s how they got their start, where they got their name, how they feel about certain topics in the music industry, but the most impressive thing I learned about LO’99 after sitting down with him over dinner was how passionate he is about what he does and how much he could truly teach many others in the industry. It wasn’t only the thirty minute, recorded, conversation we held, but an in person experience of his knowledge and skill.
His D.C. stop at Eden included a giveaway where 2 winners scored a private DJ lesson and tickets to the show, it was here that you could tell this veteran DJ and Producer had plenty of tips and tricks to share. The amount of skill that was projected onto the two students for the night later showed itself in his set inducing jaw dropping transitions, “holy crap,” a direct quote from a friend of mine heavily involved in music in D.C., and a set that seemed to run smoother than your most clever pick-up line. If you’re looking for an artist who has built the art of DJ-ing from the ground up, LO is your man.
His laid back spirit and humorous personality made it clear he’s an easy person to work with and while sometimes going into an interview can be intimidating the ease of the conversation gave us huge insight on what this artist is all about.
How did you come up with the name LO’99?
LO: So basically me and my friend, my friend plays The Abercrombie every Wednesday night in Sydney, he was DJing and I hijacked his DJ set and I was playing some of my records and didn’t have a name at that point. While we’re playing, there was literally a broken air conditioning unit, say like over on that wall over there, and we could see that it was flashing something and we kept on fixating on it and then ignoring it then fixating and so I was like fuck it I’m going to find out what it was saying and so I got really close and looked up and it was just going Lo 99, lo 99 and it was a digital clock face like my logo, so I told my friend and saved it in my phone. The next day I woke up and still thought it was sick so I kept it.
It could have been called anything like shrimp tempura but lucky I found the air conditioning unit, it showed me the light, I was running out of time. [Myself and the promoter chuckled over this comparison, a shrimp tempura appetizer had just been placed on the table.]
A lot of people think its something to do with Low frequencies, which make sense, and all this garage stuff but it’s an air conditioning unit.
A: And the Logo?
I made the logo myself, with Photoshop, and some shitty font, but it looked like shit on every flyer unless you put it on a black background so I paid someone to re do it. It’s the original font he just got rid of the blur and added a half tone to it to make it look blurry.
A: Who were some of the people you pulled inspiration from when you first started creating music?
LO: In the beginning I was listening to hip-hop and punk music, obviously that’s not really my dance roots, but I guess I started with people like Shadow, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and then really soon after that got into rave music, was listening to a lot of European rave stuff.
I think everyone has that phase. There’s some really funny photos of me going to raves when I was younger, and I look at them like, “What the fuck was I wearing, what an idiot.” I’m sure they’ll come up again.
I was into a lot of Drum and Bass and house and garage. One of my favorite mix CDs is DJ Zinc, Drum&Bass arena, and it has MC Dynamite and it’s sick. It’s pretty old, probably 2002 or 2003.
[I searched pretty hard for this mix CD, I was lucky enough to find it on Amazon and preview a bit of the music. It is, in fact, a great mix. If you want to go old school you can buy it on Amazon here.]
A: Do you think its smarter for artists to develop their music based on personal interests and change it through out the years or stick to one sub genre in order to keep fans happy?
LO: It’s a really fine line, you wouldn’t go from making happy hardcore and then all of a sudden making nu future wave, opposite end of spectrum would be a bit weird. Everything I do will always change, my self diagnosed ADD will stop me from making the same thing, I want to do new things and push boundaries, I think it’s important to keep some part of you, stick to the realms of your world and push boundaries as much as you can.
If you’re an artist you make what you want to make, you have to think about your fans for lots of different reasons, if you hate making what you make you probably shouldn’t be doing it. You should always be making something you want to make.
A: Any advice to upcoming producers, who want to make a name, but don’t want to stick to just one thing?
LO: I think there’s a merit in that, I come from a background doing lots of different stuff, I have always done different stuff and I can never say that there’s a problem with doing that, but I think once you find your sound you need to hone in on it and make something about it. I’m all about doing new things and there’s good and bad things about that, I’m all for doing what you want to do but you have to think about the industry at the same time and how its going to be perceived. Don’t copy this or that, just make your own stuff.
A: So you used to teach DJ lessons? Was that before or after LO’99?
I was teaching before LO’99 started. I’ve done lots of teaching things. Some studio some DJ stuff I’ve even been flown around the country doing workshops at universities, which sounds a bit funny because its about DJ-ing and I guess in essence anyone can do it now with all the sync buttons but we were taught teaching non sync DJ-ing and from the ground up, there’s a lot more to it than a lot of people think.
A: And is this your first tour?
LO: Yes, I haven’t been here since I was 7 years old, literally the only things I remember are being on a tram in San Francisco and I remember the teacup ride at Disney Land, oh and trick-or-treating in San Francisco which was fun, I think I was Batman. I just remember “Omg it’s so much better doing Halloween in America than in Sydney” if you’re all about the candy you get way more here. I was told last year Oprah was giving iPads if you came up to her door.
A: You’re from Sydney, where Lock-out Laws are in effect, have they affected you?
[ the lockout laws in Sydney cut entrance to a venue at 1:30 am and alcohol sales stop at 3 am.]
LO: They haven’t affected myself so much but if they had happened when I was a young dude in Sydney it could have fucked my career. We used to do Wednesday-Sunday. One gig Wednesday, 2 gigs on a Thursday, 3 on a Friday etc.…you can’t do that now you can only do one gig a night you probably only get two places to DJ on Wednesday and now there’s 50 times more DJs as well.
[laughing Lo tells us he has a funny story…] I actually hold one of the best-documented entries to a club ever. I had the night off and we were somewhere else celebrating a friend’s birthday and we had 5 minutes to get from this one venue to another. Somehow we made it with a minute to go. I ran into the club with my hands up like I was crossing the finish line of a race, I crossed the threshold just in time. Everyone was clapping, we thought it was amazing I made it.
It just really sucks just for going out. You can’t play a gig somewhere and go somewhere else to play another because they wont let you in since you’ll finish at 1:30 or 2.
A: So are there any ways around it?
I run a record label with a few guys and we put on warehouse parties and they’re border line okay to do but we’ve never had any problems and that’s where a lot of people go after hours and then a lot of people just leave the city and go to suburbs that have places that stay open late night.
There’s this place that was out of the lock out area, and had been known as an after hours place and the licensing people dug up an old law. They were allowed to stay open but couldn’t have amplified music after midnight so they turned it into a silent disco after midnight so that they could stay open and still have music, it’s a good work around but better if you didn’t have to do that.
A: Do you think it’ll hinder future artists? Do you think a lot of them will end up having to move over here in order to make a career?
Maybe, but it’ll probably cut peoples heads off before they even get to come to the states because they wont even think that the DJ-ing thing is an option. I came from a music degree, was in an IT job for like 6 months and then I was getting more money DJ-ing which made me focus more on music. That won’t happen now because there just aren’t enough gigs to go around. Saturday night, laughs…before deep house was deep house, 8-12, every week, I’d play and then a proper club gig after that and that just doesn’t happen anymore and you need that to sustain yourself as a musician.
It’s nearly as bad in America as it is in Sydney but you guys, are used to it, but also will start earlier and people will go out earlier, it hasn’t closed venues down. Problem is, in Sydney, its closed venues down people don’t know what to do and so no one goes out and these places shut down.
Brisbane just got it worst than what we have, they are 1:00 lock out and 3:00 last drinks which is half an hour worse than us, but they’re lockout [where the venue cut off entry] was 3:00 before.
A: So in essence, before the laws, there really weren’t any cut offs right?
In Sydney, whatever you want. As long as the venue had a license and was open you could stay there and drink.
So one of the best venues in Sydney, is Chinese Laundry, and they always finish at 4:00 am, so it feels like it hasn’t affected Laundry so much, Laundry is still amazing, it’s one of the ones that lasted through all the stuff because its such a solid vibe, but it was always closing at that time anyway, but it’s the after hours venues that really suffered. There are places you’d only go there at 3 am or later and a lot of them aren’t there anymore.
I’ve been to all the protests about the lockout laws; my friends are the ones doing speeches and stuff. I don’t know much about the politics side but I don’t think it will last forever.
A: Ok so something a little more fun: Favorite American snack so far that you can’t get in Australia:
LO: We can get most things in Australia but I was eating this wafer biscuit, I forgot what it’s called it was like a vanilla wafer…it tasted like that, we have those. [at this point LO insists on calling his friend to figure out the name, but soon remembers it.] Oh! It’s called a fudge stick. That wasn’t the most amazing thing but I’ve never had it before.
I have had the best Mexican food I’ve ever had in my life already, I’ve had, numerous times now, the best Mexican I’ve ever had, that’s a good deal already. I haven’t had that many snack-y things…I’ll be raiding chip markets before I go.
A: After your US tour what do you have planned? Going to make it back into the States anytime?
LO: Hopefully before the end of the year! I go back to Australia for a 2 month tour, which is nearly locked in and then I’m going to Europe for ADE and so I’ll be over there for a week or two, and then I’ll either come back here for a bit or go back home. It’ll be summer time so lots of festivals and parties. Everything’s been going quite well since I’ve been here. I have a three-year visa so you’re stuck with me for three years at least.
Thank you again to Eden D.C. and LO for having us. Keep an eye out for his upcoming track “Make Me Feel” releasing on Medium Rare Recordings July 26th, get a sneak peak of it here and check out LO’99 on Snapchat, he’s got some great content.
Connect with LO’99:
https://www.facebook.com/getlo99
https://twitter.com/getlo99
https://soundcloud.com/lo99
Snapchat: getlo99
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