LOUISAHHH!!! – “There are awesome girls doing awesome shit”

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LOUISAHHH!!! – “There are awesome girls doing awesome shit”

Louisa Pillot, better known as “LOUISAHHH!!” The First Lady of Bromance, has been hitting strides lately.

Starting a label “RAAR” with Maelstrom, hasn’t slowed her own music production down. To top it off she’s been pushing through tours, including a few shows she’s playing down under!

Ahead of her Winter Weekender show with Linda Marigliano she had a chat to us, re all things LOUISAHHH!!

Tony: How long has it been since you’ve been in Australia?

LOUISAHHH!!!: Last time I was here was late August 2015, so a little less than a year

T: Do you like it in Australia?

L: I do, it’s my fourth tour here and the last two have been with Maelstrom, so pretty sad not to be touring with him, he’s my favourite and I get along really well with him.

T: You spend a lot of time working with Maelstrom do you guys just gel well?

L:Yeah I mean, he’s basically my better half creatively, I’m so deeply grateful to get partnered with somebody who is the kind of perfect answer to my musical ideas, hopefully he can say the same thing about me. So yeah we started a label together, so now it’s really our prerogative to work together non-stop.

T: The label’s going pretty well, are you trying to push that or more producing your own stuff right now?

L: Umm both actually I’m presently working (with Maelstrom) on an EP that’s almost done, for our label RAAR and I’m working a little more aggressively than if I was working on something for Bromance or someone else. I mean I work as hard as possible, it’s my thing to be creating as often as possible.

T: How’d you get involved with Bromance guys/Brodinski?

L: I met Louis via mutual friends at the Andy Mac White Room Party at Winter Music Conference Miami 2010, we knew a lot of people in common and he actually knew some of my work I’d done with Danny Daze and Señor Stereo and was like “Yo we should make a track together” so we sent some stuff back and forth and made a track that never came out before working on “Let The Beat Control Your Body” which was the first single for Bromance and I guess the rest is history.

T: So now you’re living in France at the moment is that for business alone, or do you prefer France to New York?

L: With the kind of music I play it’s much more preferable to the US, the US is so big you can play like an east coast run and a west coast run and there’s not much stuff in the middle of the country to do. There are some really good parties but they’re stand alone.  Like Europe, if you’re in France, there’s a city with a great club, there’s 150 of them in the distance from Texas and, well the other side of Texas.

T: Who do you have your eyes on in the Australian Scene?

L: I really really really love Jensen Interceptor. I collaborated last year on a project with also Maelstrom. Last time we were here we just hung out in a studio. I just think he works really hard, and he makes really great shit and he’s an awesome person! So he’s fantastic and I think we’re going to do more stuff together if I harmonise it right.

T: How do you feel about your position or being called the First Lady of Techno

L: To be honest I’m not sure if I’ve earned that space yet. First Lady of Bromance because I’m the only lady of Bromance. In terms of the First Lady of Techno, there’s probably like 10 women I can name that have gotten to that point before me everybody from like Steffi, Magda, Heidi, Ms Kitten, Nina Kravitz, Maya Jane Coles, I’m not the first woman of techno. I think that because there’s not a lot of women doing this in comparison to the number of dudes doing this, there’s this societal rule that there’s not enough room for than one women at the top and I think that’s totally bullshit. I don’t necessarily believe in a hierarchy even though of course someone’s going to be called that as a headline, and I’m grateful that it’s you today but I bow down to the women who both proceed and are right here.

T: Like the OGs and what not?

L: Well like, even like Paula Temple, The Black Madonna, these nicknames might not be as big as say the Resident Advisor Top 10 or whatever but there are awesome girls doing awesome shit. It’s important for my ego and my sense of self that instead of patting myself on the back for receiving that moniker to really point out the work that other women are doing.

T: You’ve mentioned how it’s good for your ego to help other people, Following on from that with regards to your sobriety and your pre-show routine is it more of a mental thing or a physical prep?

L: It’s both, I mean my career is contingent on my staying sober. When I wasn’t sober I didn’t leave a five block radius my world got really small, no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t care about really anything but drugs. Everything in that direction, is that my primary purpose is to stay sober and help another alcoholic or addict achieve sobriety, and if I can be a beacon in a place where there are definitely a lot of addicts or alcoholics then that’s my job. The work I make is mostly arts and crafts, keeps my hands busy so I don’t fuck the entire thing.

But whether or not the ego check is part of a spiritual solution, I mean for sure. It’s mostly the result of observing a character defect or something that I struggle with is needing to be the girl in the room. Needing to be the alpha female with the most power and the most attention and nanana(sic). And nobody wins, trust me. Then it’s like this top of the pile, bottom of the heap pride and pride in reverse. I hate myself but I’m obsessed with myself and it starts to get really real, this idea of kind of getting honest and “Yo there is enough room at the quote unquote top” or deeper, “there is no top” and I feel a lot better about myself and about other people when that’s the perspective.

T: Recently you shared a DJing for climate change event via Facebook, would you call yourself an activist? Do you think people in the scene lend their voices enough to these things?

L: I think it’s tricky because, especially here because, we’re having these lockout laws and stuff. Clubbing, nightlife and techno especially. It’s a political call. It’s not for staying safe, it’s not for being part of the status quo. It’s something that’s subversive and courageous and I want to use my voice in that context to say something other than like “Get drunk and party.”

T: With techno, sometimes it’s hard to portray the message through music, especially lyrically I feel.

L: Well you have to include them, the night, the beat, the music all these words that are safe to say in the club without getting anyone too freaked out or riled up or giving somebody a bad trip those are all just words for god. And that might be such a bummer for some people to hear –SORRY NOT SORRY- fucking handle it, why do you think I’m here?

T: Everyone’s got their own thing

L: Yeah and I’m not talking about Christ on a cross I’m talking about my understanding that’s hopefully like courageous and loving and all this good shit.

T: Finally, you’re doing the BBE Winter Weekender this weekend, have you DJed with Linda Marigliano before?

L: Linda opened for me at the last Sydney warehouse party I did with Motorik, like 3 years ago. That was really fun even though somebody at some point ripped the sleeves off my jacket. I took it off while I was DJing and I found it and the “Rave wolves” had gotten to it. It was a Helmut Lang jacket I was pissed! That was a crazy party and you know, she (Linda) does amazing shit. I really like her and I really love love love Digitalism, it’s going to be a good weekend!

 

You can catch Louisahhh!!! Tomorrow at the Oxford Arts Factory for the BBE Winter Weekender, amongst a bunch of other dates which you can check on her Facebook.

June 10 – Winter Weekender, Sydney – bit.ly/WEEKENDER-LOUISAHHH

June 11 – Platform One Nightclub, Melbourne – bit.ly/LOUISAHHH-MELB

June 12 – The Grand Hotel, Wollongong

Words and interview by Tony

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