DJ LIMAO INTERVIEW

1. Describe how you first got started in music. When did you start producing & where are you based? What was your 1st track and what happened with it?

I started djing during my childhood, running little neighborhood parties back in São Paulo in the late eighties, when it was avant-garde just to own a mixer.
I started producing around 2005, doing loads of remixes and my own compositions, as I play the piano. I have never released anything under a label, as the music and remixes I do are to be used in dj sets. Not just my sets, I share it with many fellow djs that appreciate exclusive dancefloor tracks like I do...


2. Can you describe your sound and what you are trying to achieve

My productions are so vast... I produced Drum n'Bass that I played like with 3 piece band in the extinct project, Ztronics [05-08]. I'm still producing a bit more house orientated sounds with Nod Bros. (myspace.com/nodbros), but still with some loungy and electronica influences. Currently I'm producing remixes to be released by two singers - Brazilian, Angelita Gimenez and French-Angolan, Lucia de Caravalho. Both remixes are Drum n Bass orientated.

I have been making my living out of being a DJ for 15 years now, and it has paid for my University Media degree as well as helping to raise my kid out of it. So what I'm trying to achieve is to keep loving my job and to keep living like this.


3 . Is this your debut set at La Bomba @ MoS and are you looking forward to it and are what do you think the club crowd will be like?
Do you have any secret weapons ie tracks, edits/remixes and can u name a couple of records that will definitely be in your box.

I played at La bomba before, at Ministry of Sound's main room and it was an amazing experience. For the next party, it's gonna be a bit of a different set, as I'll be playing in the Brazilian room. So you can expect Brazilian and Latin house music, fused into Baile-Funk, and even some heavy samba beats, making a proper tropical-urban salad. Headbanging music.



4. Do you have a club residency? What are you favourite clubs to play at and why

I have been the resident at the Guanabara club in Holborn for the last 5 years, and that's probably where in the world I feel most comfortable playing, as I'm friends with everyone there, from the cleaner to the owner, and I'm always headlining the top parties there. In Brazil I'm resident in four yearly massive parties, the top Sao Paulo students parties, promoted by ESPM, for crowds like 5000 people. I feel very at home there too, as I play in three of these parties since the first one, more then 10 years ago. I have lived in London for 5 and a half years now... and I'm still doing ALL of them - in fact I'm going to São Paulo next weekend for the last event this year.



5. has the digital revolution helped you take off and what do you think of music industry right now

I actually started djing before the digital era, but it helped me a lot, in terms of research, more than anything. I think the technology we've got now, in terms of equipment for DJS just made the same kit easier to carry. I honestly don't see a revolution, as we're still djing with two decks and a mixer, but now everything is connected in a Serato box, but basically the same.
And there's the amazing Ableton Live as well, and those brilliant Akai controllers, but those are for live sets, rather than a DJ session itself. What I call a DJ session here is the kind of session where you interact with the crowd, and predict what they wanna hear next by the way they're dancing or looking at you, and choose among hundreds of thousands tracks... that can't be done playing with Ableton Live.

But for PRODUCERS there's a whole new world. Any basic Garage Band software, that comes as standard in any Mac you get, is already a revolution if you compare with what was used 10 years ago. I think the music industry right now has changed a lot, but not just cause the CD is gone. Rather that nowadays anyone can produce a track and share it, and I mean SHARE IT.
If you got a good viral-video nowadays, as an example, you can share your music in a matter of days with more people than those who sold 100.000 copies in the 80's for example... Nowadays, it's not just about the music, but about the media that comes with it. Do you think Lady Gaga's music is brilliant? I don't. But I believe that herself, the way she looks and acts is the best media in the world currently.... And just to remind you, I've got a degree to base my opinion on media, as well as being a professional DJ and producer.

6.. what are your plans for the the rest of the year in terms of releases, remixes, and gigs /radio shows

I have some nice gigs to come in December in London, and you can catch me through the month at Guanabara, or in my favourite DJ bar Barrio - North and Central, where I run my eclectic FunFunFun nights. I'm in at São Paulo next weekend with over 3000 people and in 30 degree heat at night (!) and also Bristol at this amazing monthly night at the Warehouse on the 10th December. La Bomba comes to crown it all at Ministry on Monday December 27th and in January the two remixes I'm working on are to be released.


7. Anything fun/wacky/ or that we don’ know about you ??

What's interesting about me?? Do you know I ride a bicycle to all my gigs in London? That's probably my hobby too. I've got a big urban bike with an adapted basket on the back, where I carry my equipment from my home in Dalston to anywhere in London I play. I love the wind to relax my ears on my way back home, even in the bitter winter we're in at the moment... Last Saturday I got back from a gig at the Troxy (Smirnoff Exchange night) cycling under minus 3 degrees. And loved it!

DJ Limao and Pili's Samba School headline the Brazilian Room at La Bomba's Christmas Recovery Party on Monday December 27th at Ministry Of Sound. UK artists, Cachito and Flow Latino are Live alongside 12 Bomba DJ's and all info at www.candelalive.co.uk