DJ, producer and record label boss,
Drop the Lime (aka Luca Venezia) knows the power of unpaid interns. And eating live fish.
I’ll start by asking you about the live fish you ate in Beijing. You posted a video on your website of it splashing around on the plate. How was it?
To be honest it was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. It’s a crazy experience – you’re eating this fish but at the same time you’re feeling kinda bad. They bring it out to you and it’s breathing the entire time you’re eating it.
So how does that work exactly, do they cut little strips off for you or what?
Yeah, you sit there and they slice pieces off for you [laughs] ...One hundred percent the weirdest thing I’ve eaten on tour.
How does that compare to touring the US and eating at the roadhouses out in the mid-west?
The thing about those places is everything is fried. They’re frying pickles and candy bars – pretty much everything. It’s funny at first but you don’t want to be eating a fried candy bar for dinner.
You’ve pretty much toured around the world, what’s the creepiest place you’ve visited?
Transylvania. Up in the count's castle they’ve actually got mirrors everywhere and believe in vampires, it’s a creepy small town, it’s weird, mirrors everywhere because they wanna see everybody’s reflection. They embrace the whole legend, they’ve got the original castle there [Vlad the Impaler] and you can walk up these steps from the bottom of the town to the castle... it’s on top of a hill full of grave stones.
So you do a bunch of remixes, but is it weird when you hand over your own tracks for other people to remix?
I love it. Absolutely love it. To see what someone else can do with a song is so exciting, because they’ll take it in a totally unique direction... A good remix will take the energy of the original song and make something brand new with it. A lot of remixes people will just put a different kick under it or not really change the song at all, whereas all the remixes of ‘Set Me Free’ [the latest single from DTL] are all completely brand new, but kept the energy of the vocal.
Is their like an unspoken code of ethics for remixes? Can you tell people their remixes are, you know, not very good?
There’s been a lot of that. I mean we’ve had occasions were remixes were off-beat, like straight off-beat. And you gotta say, "Hey, what’s wrong with you?" [People need to] suck it up and make it better or just stop. Quit right now.
You’ve been dropping some rockabilly in your club sets recently, how did that come about?
Well the first music I ever heard was 50s rock and 50s doo-wop, my dad would play Roy Orbison, Ritchie Valens and more popular guys like Elvis and stuff ]... Anyway, I didn’t really have a chance to play it [rockabilly] because I’m a dance DJ, but then I started mixing up genres a bit more to keep the crowd on their toes. And so I started dropping some rockabilly and mixing it up, looping it. It’s only this year that I’ve been playing it in the clubs and it’s crazy what the crowd does, it’s so different...
So are you gonna get yourself a greaser jacket and haircut?
There’s a whole, very hardcore rockabilly scene [in the US] but I’m only on the fringe of it, like in Southern California they have hot rods and dress the whole part. But I’m more in love with the music than the dressing up and the look.
What about the label, I imagine it’s a tough market out there at the moment?
It’s about having your core fans and knowing your sounds, but at the same time making sure it’s not boring or redundant. So we have artists in Poland and in Stockholm, and artists from Australia too – we have Acid Jaxx on our label – and obviously New York artists like myself and AC Slater. [Having international acts] really keeps things fresh because you’re pulling from different cultural influences worldwide. But everyone comes from the same sort of background, the same rave and house music and hip hop background.
Do you re-size the images on the label’s website yourself?
I do not, we have an intern at my management [laughs]
Do you know the intern's name?
Renald.
More at
myspace.com/dropthelime.
Drop The Lime Australian tour dates –
Nov 28th: Stereosonic, Sydney
Nov 29th: Claremount Showground, Perth
Nov 29th: Foreshore Festival, Canberra
Dec 4th: Chinese Laundry, Sydney
Dec 5th: Stereosonic, Adelaide
Dec 5th: Stereosonic, Melbourne
Dec 6th: Stereosonic, Brisbane