Disco Llama Interview
At a time when the DJ/ Producer thrives, many have been finding their place in remixing those dusty records in the back of their crates that many people have forgotten about. Before the emergence of the metal and punk movement of the early 80s and after the funk and soul movement of the late 60s, disco rained supreme.
DJs have been coming together for quite some time reworking gems of the past into the housey dance floor anthems of today. Most recently a DJ duo by the name of Disco Llama based in NYC did just that. Disco Llama is comprised of DMC Online Battle finalist DJ Anubus and Producer/DJ Mike Device. These gentlemen have been friends since the old country; Vermont to be exact. They stopped by Snique Peek Thursdays at Arrow to play their first ever set as Disco Llama as well as debut tracks off their upcoming EP. I took some time to interview the fellas and find out why in the entire animal kingdom they decided to disco up the llama.
Snique Peek: How did you guys meet and what drove you to join forces?
Mike Device: We both lived in Burlington, Vermont. I don’t really know, beyond that besides that we were both DJs so like…
DJ Anubus: Because there’s only one street in Burlington
Mike: It’s a small town so you tend to know all the other DJs and everything. So, We met each other that way. I don’t think we ever DJed together.
Anubus: no, I don’t think even once.
Mike: We got along and we would hang out and stuff
SP: Wow, you’ve never played a party together? How could you trust each other enough to come together on this collaboration?
Anubus: Because we’ve seen each other DJ like a thousand times each.
Mike: We had residencies at different clubs and Burlington had this weird thing where you weren’t supposed to play at the other clubs. I wasn’t allowed to play in the club he had a residency in.
Anubus: That’s what it’s like in “gangster” Burlington, Vermont
SP: [laughs] “gangsta ass” Burlington, Vermont. How many drive-bys per year happen out there?
Anubus: Negative 35. People actually stop and give you guns… and a sandwich [laughs]
SP: That’s amazing. So how do you guys decide the songs you’re going to edit and work on? Is it a thing you guys go back and forth on?
Mike: How do we do that?
Anubus: [laughs] Well, do you want to know how we got started on this?
SP: Shoot!
Anubus: We were at Mike’s house and we were drunk yelling about music— giant surprise. Somebody put on a Duck Sauce song, and we were like “we could do this!” And I was like I’m already making a disco edit and Mike said he had two, and so we were like “why don’t we make a whole bunch.” That was it, and then we gave ourselves a deadline. Mike started 6, I started 6 and then we get together once or twice a week and tell each other we suck and fix them
Mike: Make fun of each others tracks and fix them
Anubus: …Like my clap that made it through the entire time
Mike: This one clap he had, I hated it
Anubus: He was like “its soo slappy,” I was like its fucking awesome
Mike: It’s a democracy
SP: So Mike, how long have you been DJing?
Mike: I’ve been DJing for about 8 years now. I started producing first; I kind of got into it backwards. I used to produce a lot of Hip-Hop and I would buy all these records and would get the 12’ for the instrumentals. I figured that would be a good way to learn, listened to the beats I liked on their own to figure out what they were doing. Then since I had the records I was like, fuck it, I’ll start doing house parties
SP: So you were a lover of music before you got into it?
Mike: Oh yeah, I was a band dork in high school
SP: And you Anubus?
Anubus: I have been DJing for an embarrassingly long amount of time. This’ll be 11 years this summer. I started because in high school, I was a lead guitar player in a metal band and I loved metal but I couldn’t find other people to form a band that were serious about it. So I figured I could DJ on my own and then I heard scratching on a mixtape, and I was like “I want to do that.” So I bought turntables with graduation money and bought 10 records. I was convinced that you couldn’t mix Hip-Hop together because the 10 records I had literally didn’t mix together so I learned to scratch first
Mike: And I can barely scratch at all
SP: How did you the name Disco Llama come together?
Anubus: All mike, all day…
Mike: So, we didn’t have a name when we first started we were just like lets make some tracks or whatever. A couple weeks later my dad came and we went out to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant. They fucked up and gave us these drinks on the house at the end. It was pisco sour. Ive never had pisco before but it was strong and nobody wanted to drink them. I wound up drinking all the pisco and I was fucked up. Then I went home and I passed out on the couch. When I woke up I was like “what the fuck is pisco?” So I Googled it and I got this image and it was like this centaur that was a half llama and half man that said Pisco Llama. He was this big diesel dude with like flowing hair and a mustache with llama legs. He was holding this glass of pisco up and I was like “That’s kind of funny.” So then I was looking at it and put my finger over the tail of the “P” and I was like “that could be disco llama.” So then I showed him and he was like that’s hilarious.
Anubus: It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life [laughs]
Mike: Then I was having second guesses thinking maybe it was way too silly
Anubus: I was like absolutely not!
Mike: People seem to enjoy it
SP: It’s a cool name… So, Do you guys have an established date that you guys are going to release the entire project?
Mike: We don’t really have an established solid date. The mixtape will be out around end of June, maybe early July. We’re going to make some more of the tracks available for downloads once the mixtape is out
SP: Alright guys, thanks for the interview and thanks for rockin out tonight!
Anubus: No problem
Mike: Thanks for having us
Get updates on Disco Llama’s EP by Following them on Twitter
Listen to their tracks on their SoundCloud
and be sure to stop by their website, Discollama.com
Check out Disco Llama’s live mix at Arrow 6.2.11!
Snique Peek Live 6.2.11 (Disco Llama, DJ Nique & hurryupnbuy) by Snique Peek Live
