So just who is this curiosity called Louisahhh!!! who loves playing and making records more than anything else in the world?
What was the decision behind having so many aitches and exclamation marks? I’ve got to say it really is a fun time reading your artist name whenever it pops up. Ha, my moniker (or the specific spelling, anyway) is actually a decision I now regret… it was heavily influenced by the amount of cocaine I was ingesting around the time I chose it. I am now clean and sober but the name seems to have stuck. I hope it is perceived as a rallying cry or a shriek of delight, not like someone who just YELLS ON THE INTERNET!!!
I know you probably cop this a lot, but congratulations on being the first girl of Bromance; that’s such a huge inspiration for women and artists in general everywhere. Do you ever feel like the music industry can be a bit of a boys’ club sometimes? How do you counteract that? Thanks for the compliment; I hope it is a title I can wear with grace and guts, this ‘first lady of Bromance’. It can definitely feel like a bit of a boys’ club out there. However, there is also a grand tradition of amazing women who make art and music; heroines whose trails I hope to continue to blaze into the future, and contemporaries who are immensely talented and ferocious. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about surrounding my current work. What is ‘fourth-wave feminism’? What happens after ‘riot grrrl’? How do I behave as a role model and support women doing this thing, too? At the moment, it is mostly asking questions and investigating both my own experience and the history of gender studies. I’m excited to embrace and explore my own femininity and what it means – or doesn’t mean – in this current sonic and social climate of dance music.
You had a very musical upbringing, studying piano, guitar and singing. Do you feel this technical background affects your current sound? I feel like my musical background definitely developed my ear and melodic sensibilities but, technically, we are living in an age where one doesn’t really need those things in order to make amazing music. It has been challenging and humbling to throw hard-earned technique out the window and become willing to learn a new skill set for working in DAWs. The learning curve is slow – it’s one of the reasons I appreciate collaboration. I do fall back on technical practices when my creative well feels dry; vocal drills and warm-ups, sharpening ‘chops’; this helps me be ready when the muse does come.
Congratulations on your EP Transcend’s being released in 2013! It’s such a powerful record, I love hearing that heavier house music with a feminine drive. How has the response been so far? I am so glad you like it! The response has been tremendous. It has been incredible to play these tracks out. When I started working on what eventually resulted in Transcend, Louis (Brodinski) had given me the direction to make sure that whatever I make is the biggest track of the night when I play. I feel like it has been a success!
Who’s heavily influencing your sound at the moment? What are your top five tracks? Of course, Maelstrom, with whom I work closely, is a great influence. I am deeply moved by his latest on Zone. I’m also very excited about the stuff Jubilee is putting out. Her tracks are massive and really fresh, and she is a really lovely human. I’m always regressing my tastes to what I was playing in 2004; Emerge by Fischerspooner might be the best track of all time; I pitch it way down to play it out, though. I’m digging the new Monsieur Monsieur; the Jimmy Edgar remix of Lucid is really jacking. Also, Danny Daze, always. He’s constantly ahead of the curve; the most recent Ultramajik EP is great.
You moved from NYC to LA for rehab initially, and have decided to stay. Do you feel that personal journey, and now living in LA, has affected your musical choices? Without that personal journey, I wouldn’t get to be doing this at all. My sobriety is the primary fact of why I get to do what I love for a living; it could be very different. It was very different. All of this is an absurd blessing.
I actually don’t live in LA anymore; I moved to Paris last February and it was also a transformative location change. I used to think that one’s physical geography really affected one’s emotional climate and, hence, their creative output. That may or may not be true, but right now there is too much movement to say. It is glorious. This may be quite an esoteric answer but it feels that I am not so much making choices, creatively, but seeking truth and regurgitating it as best I can.
You’ve had some raps with fashion labels and blogs alike, such as Urban Outfitters. What are some brands you’re loving at the moment? Always Kenzo and Acne, Philip Lim and Alexander Wang; Rag and Bone and Actual Pain for casual stuff.
I really liked the Saint Laurent men’s SS 2014, because it’s kind of how I want to be dressing anyway, in my mind. Usually I end up in Nike running gear 80 per cent of the time. It’s pitiful, actually, but I am averaging about 40 miles a week so I guess it makes sense, ha.
What do you like to do in Paris when you’re not working? I miss LA a lot. I miss driving around singing, and mountain running and riding my horse. Now I am forced to use the public bicycle system in Paris and just sing on the streets, and run wild along on the Seine and around the city with the Paris Running Club. Sadly no horses, but it’s a pretty good life, wherever it is.
Louisahhh!!! plays Sunday Safari at the Beach Hotel with Bromance sparring partner Maelstrom and Australian heavyweights The Aston Shuffle, Oliver Tank and Tyler Touche. Tickets available now at sundaysafari.com.au or The Beach Hotel bottleshop.
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