This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
We have known each other for at least ten years. This week in the series MY FIRST GIG: the sympathetic Dutch Merijn Lie a.k.a. DJ Lie Dope. “It was incomparable to working at home and ten times harder.”
“I grew up in a musical family. Both of my parents danced with the National Ballet, and my sister is also heavily involved in ballet, ballroom dancing, and music. Even though I didn’t feel like it, I had to go to the ballet performances. My father worked at the Amsterdam Stopera at the time and could easily attend all the shows. I voluntarily accompanied him to the ballet or opera regularly. So you could say I had a good cultural upbringing.”
Radio Sjuul
“As a teenager, I listened to the radio a lot. Until 1986, we lived in Amsterdam, where there were countless pirate radio stations. One of my favorites was Radio Sjuul. They played a lot of hip hop and electro. The terms didn’t mean much to me at the time, but I knew this music appealed to me. Later, I also came to appreciate old import disco like the SOS Band and René & Angela.”
Bussum
“From the age of eight or nine, I started making cassette tapes myself. I tried to make my own radio shows and be a DJ. In 1986, we moved to Bussum, and I found that difficult. I struggled with saying goodbye to my friends and the pirate stations. It turned out: luckily, they had pirate radio stations in Bussum too.” (laughs)
Human Beatboxing
“As for vinyl, my eleventh birthday was a turning point. It was the first time I asked for records as a birthday present. My vinyl was hip hop from the Fat Boys. They did a lot of human beatboxing, and I thought that was super cool. Around my thirteenth, in the late eighties, I came into contact with house through school parties, among other things. I also regularly went to the Free Record Shop. There I bought compilations of Turn Up The Bass, just because the terms ‘acid house’ and ‘new beat’ were on the cover.”
Blackbeat
“I’ve been an avid vinyl collector since 1991. I usually went to the Amsterdam record store Blackbeat to look for maxi-singles with house music. However, I wasn’t mixing yet. The push for that came when I bought two copied cassette tapes from a street vendor in 1993, one from Carl Cox and one from LTJ Bukem. Those sets made a huge impression on me. I heard breakbeat and jungle, really special. I then listened to those tapes all the time. That’s how the feeling arose: ‘I want to try this too.’”
Timemachine
“In terms of going out, you could say I was a late bloomer. My first real club experience was in 1994. I was just under eighteen and went with some Amsterdam friends to DJ Per’s night Timemachine at De Melkweg. My friends were a bit older and more experienced. I had never smoked weed, and that night a joint came around at some point. Just three puffs were enough to make me uncomfortably stoned for quite a while. I almost passed out, but it took a while for me to be okay again.” (laughs) “Ultimately, that night made a significant impression on me.”
Breakbeat
“Later that year, I went to De Melkweg again, this time without a joint. I then danced all night. I thought it was amazing! JP did a short opening and made an impression as well. Not long after that, I saw Orbital in Paradiso. However, I ultimately became a fervent lover of breakbeat and jungle.”
Pitch
“At that time, my gear only consisted of a simple turntable without pitch control and a CD player. I couldn’t figure out how to control the speed. I think my dad eventually said I needed a turntable with pitch control, so that had to come. I got the first one in ’94 or ’95 from my sister’s ex-boyfriend. I then connected it to my mixer and could make tapes with a cassette deck. To get the music, I bought compilations on CD and maxi singles on vinyl. All my money went to records. It even got to the point where I went to London by myself in 1994 to buy imports there. I had quite a collection. I then bought my second turntable secondhand. After that, I practiced a lot at home and, of course, recorded everything on cassette. I noticed that the mixes got better with practice. I started wondering if I could do more with it.”
Loner
“I’m quite a loner and often went to jungle parties alone or with two mates from the football club. They weren’t that into the music but liked going along occasionally. In 1997, there were more and more jungle and drum & bass parties. If you went more often, you saw the same people and got to know a few here and there. If you took a membership, you had to send your photos and then got the organization’s address details. Handy! One of those promoters was Fresh. They organized events at the Amsterdam Repetitiehuis.”
Taking the plunge
“At the end of the summer of 1997, I took the plunge and sent a tape to Fresh. I got a response within a week. They were interested! I was pleasantly surprised and immediately super nervous. My gig was scheduled for October 1, 1997, at the Repetitiehuis. However, the promoter was in a kind of relocation phase to Club Mazzo on the Rozengracht at that time. So I eventually got to do my first gig for an audience there! Not just any place, so that meant a lot to me.”
Quite an adjustment
“I was the second DJ on the lineup and had prepared to the hilt. I wanted to play exactly the same as I did at home. Not! It started with the fact that I was used to old belt-drive turntables, and of course, there were two Pioneer direct-drive turntables here. They worked completely differently from my decks. I said to the organizer: ‘Oof, this is quite an adjustment.’ He laughed and replied: ‘Yeah man, that’s good for you.’ Okay… So it was incomparable to home and ten times harder work.”
Confidence
“Fortunately, after a few records, it went okay. My hands trembled less, and I dared to play more with the sound and the records. What gave me confidence was a visitor giving me a thumbs up when I played an older track from 1994, “You Don’t Know by Dillinja“, at the beginning of my set. Moreover, I saw my friends hopping happily in front of the booth. That’s an image I will never forget. Luckily, the venue filled up quickly, and there was a cozy atmosphere. And not unimportant, everyone was dancing! Occasionally, I would sneak a peek from the booth and saw the crowd enjoying it. So, in retrospect, I was quite satisfied.”
Horror set
“The same organization asked me for a party on October 10 at De Melkweg. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a horror set for me. Everything that could go wrong did. No, I’m not just saying that because I’m my own biggest critic. It was really true! The DJ before me had turned off the monitor before I started. Unfortunately, I only realized that three-quarters through my set. So I only played with monitors for fifteen minutes and the rest with the sound from the venue. I found this gig so incredibly bad that I stopped DJing at parties for a while.”
Bazelpaleis and Club Nellestein
“I no longer enjoyed performing for an audience, so I started working comfortably at home. I also threw small parties in the Bazelpaleis, my bedroom and living room. Since 2007, when I moved back to Amsterdam, I stream sets under the name Club Nellestein. Of course, I still attended parties. I regularly went to London alone to go out there.”
Lang Zal Je Raven
“However, you can’t change what’s in your blood, so since the end of 2018, I’ve been DJing at parties again. Those first two gigs after my time out were at the first Lang Zal Je Raven in Sociëteit Sexyland and at the Winter of Love at Thuishaven. I was still quite nervous, but both sets went pretty well. At least I got a lot of positive feedback. In 2019, I continued DJing at parties. I played at all the Lang Zal Je Raven editions and at Bam Bam in De Melkweg. Luckily, this set at De Melkweg went well, so I redeemed the ‘horror set’ from 1997.” (laughs) “I also played at the Patterns Festival at Almere Strand and at various small parties in and around Amsterdam.”
“At the beginning of 2019, Theo Heijnis asked if I wanted to host my own weekly two-hour show on the station Amsterdam Most Wanted. Of course, I immediately said yes. My weekly Monday Breakbeat Sessions shows on AMW are fortunately continuing despite the pandemic. It’s a shame that performing for an audience at events is not possible for now. Maybe in 2021, there will be prospects for parties again. Until then, I’m happy that I can do my thing on the radio every week.”
This interview with Lie Dope was originally published on This Is Our House in October 2020.
Who is Lie Dope?
Early in his life, Lie Dope was exposed to music, taking recorder and drum lessons. By the age of 12, he began buying records or receiving them as birthday gifts. Initially, he collected a lot of hip hop, including LPs from the Fat Boys and compilation LPs like “Rapper’s Delight,” “Electric Boogie,” etc. From 1989, his musical interest shifted increasingly towards acid/house.
Around 1991/1992, acts like Altern 8, The Prodigy, and SL2 emerged and immediately resonated with Lie Dope. He started following that style more closely and quickly discovered many more tracks made in the breakbeat style.
In 1994, the import of breakbeat records was still scarce. During this period, Lie Dope subscribed to Wicked Hardcore, a highly underground magazine written by and for breakbeat enthusiasts. DJ Dreazz was among those involved in this publication. In the first half of 1994, the term “breakbeat” began to fade into the background, and the name “jungle techno” came to the fore.
In the fall of 1994, Triple Vision was founded, a small company primarily focused on importing breakbeat and jungle records from England. Thanks to Triple Vision, breakbeat/jungle enthusiasts like Lie Dope could obtain records from labels that were previously hard or impossible to find.
In 1996, Lie Dope attended his first Dance Valley edition. His home mixing skills were improving, and Lie Dope thought, “Let me send a tape to Fresh!” Fresh! was one of the jungle/drum & bass organizations at the time. To his great surprise, they liked it, and in the fall of 1997, Lie Dope had his first two DJ gigs secured: one at Mazzo and one at Melkweg.
