We like blatant rule-disregarders here. They’re generally the people who push things forward, spawn new genres, and give hacks like us a challenging headache trying to pigeonhole them. New York’s Luca “Drop The Lime” Venezia is one such unruly cat, and although he’s been banging out hyperactive, schizophrenic musical outbursts since 2003, it’s the last two years that have seen him become a serious force to be reckoned with outside of his native NYC.
 
Mashing up dubstep, electro, rave, fidget house, grime, jungle, hip-hop, Chi-house and plenty more ingredients, he seems determined to fight convention with every release, and his maverick approach to making bass-heavy dancefloor music has found him remix work for big guns such as Moby, Diplo and Robyn – his diversity finding him fans in scenes from breakcore to B-more.
 
How and when were you first infected by dance music?
 
At the age of 14. A friend of mine from London played me a DJ Hype mixtape and I heard 6 Million Ways- it blew my mind. I was listening to hip-hop like Wu Tang and Tribe Called Quest at the time and my parents had been playing me funk and soul around the house, so when I heard the same breaks hip-hop was sampling but faster and these low-end bubbly basslines, I was immediately jealous that I didn't know what this was and had to own every record in the genre of jungle.
 
When did you start producing, and how long was it before you started making tracks that you were really happy with?
 
I was making cassette tapes for girls in my elementary school class when I was 7 - my guitar teacher at the time turned me onto drum machines to practice guitar to at home - from there I started making more and more complicated beats and around 16. Soon enough I bought a sampler and turntables and I was making full on albums and selling them to mixtape stands with fake label names and barcodes.
 
What have been your personal favourite productions so far?
 
Hot Sauce Grillz was one of the first tunes where I felt comfortable in a new bass heavy sound that perfectly combined breaks from old school hardcore/jungle, house kicks and sub-focused basslines - I would have to say Hear Me, the new single is a further development incorporating a band element to the heavy bass dance floor thing.
 
Where does your name come from?
 
In Sicily, it’s a tradition to drop a citrus off a cliff and into the sea to bless the front of your home and keep it free of evil - limes are tricky because they keep the evil away but are also known to attract fortune and fame - which can be self-destructive when taken for granted.
 
Who would you most like to work with?
 
Brian Eno.
 
What have you got in store for the coming months?
 
My new single Hear Me just dropped on my label, Trouble & Bass, with slamming remixes by Buraka Som Sistema, AC Slater, Drums of Death & The Touch. The second single will be dropping in February - a very old school Chicago style house/B-more tune. I have also got a lot of new remixes dropping as well - Armand Van Helden's Shake That Ass, Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip...
 
What can we expect from one of your DJ sets?
 
A million different genres blended into one massive dance party. I always freestyle the sets, singing live vocals and vibing off the crowd.
 
If you weren’t a DJ/producer, what would you be?

An illusionist of dreams.
 
Which other producers and DJs do you really rate?
 
Mowgli is doing something really fresh at the moment - with a deeper approach to low end bass music. US buddies Starkey and AC Slater are also releasing some really fantastic music at the moment.

Hear Me is out now on Trouble & Bass.