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Lisa Rose Wyatt aka DJ/producer Lisa Lashes is known from her mixing of numerous Euphoria albums and her Lashed dance events. In 2016 I interviewed her about her DJ debut. "Unknown to me, two promoters were on board."
“My DJ debut was at an extraordinary location in England. We were on a cruise ship that was sailing on the River Severn in Worcestershire. I was 26 at the time.”
That nervous!
“You’re asking if I was nervous? I was shitting myself, that nervous! Those were the nineties and most of the crowd were typical ravers of those days.”
Propellerheads
“I intended to prepare myself well and play a rehearsed set. In the end I never got past the first track: Take California by Propellerheads, that was released in 1997 on the Wall of Sound label.”
Convoy
“Fortunately, I wasn’t alone during my debut. I was supported by a 5-car convoy, so roughly 20 of my lovely friends joined me and cheered me on.”
Promoters
“Funny you should ask if I wanted to impress someone. Because, unknown to me, two promoters were present on board: Dan Prince, the editor of Mixmag, and Madders – the infamous promotor of the very first UK Superclub called Sundissential. I’m glad I didn’t know this, as I would have been even more nervous.”
Pete Tong
“Obviously they liked me, as I was asked at the end of the night to be one of the weekly residents alongside the late Tony De Vit at a new 3000 capacity club. Considering I had only first stepped behind my friend’s decks three months previously, I was thrown in the deep. There I was, warming up for established guest artists including Pete Tong, Graeme Park and Paul Oakenfold.”
Catsuit
“The boat party was a massive success. For a moment, I had a wardrobe malfunction when I decided to dress up in a bright red PVC all-in-one catsuit (photo above). I looked fabulous until I literally melted. This Sunday in September 1997 turned out to be the UK’s second hottest days on record!”
Moving ship
“When I got onto the boat it immediately knew it was going to be challenging. Playing vinyl on a moving ship on Technics 1210’s without cushioning. No sooner had I put the needle on the record, when the boat bumped into the embankment scratching my needle from start to finish. At least I got everyone’s attention.” (laughs)
Chewed chewing gum
“The decks bumped and jumped during my first few tracks before I weighed them down with some well chewed chewing gum and two ten coins. Voila!”
Circle
“So, from my very first gig in September 1997, I feel extremely lucky and honored to still be doing what I love in the music business. Obviously, my music choice and sound is a little different from 18 years ago. I feel I’ve come full circle with what I’m playing today and what parties I frequented when I first started clubbing. On that matter: last month one of my new tracks was released, Acte de Foi.”
“I used to be a regular in the Birmingham rave scene. My favorites were the illegal warehouse parties and the underground DIY techno parties. This is where I discovered my love for techno music and cultivated it right back to the music I love to produce and play today.”
This interview with Lisa Lashes is originally published on DJMag.nl on February 4th 2016.
Who is Lisa Lashes?
From tearing up dance floors under the Mediterranean sun of the White Isle, to filling out stadiums in South Africa, partying it up in the Nordic seas on a huge ocean liner, to nostalgic nights at some of the UK’s most prestigious clubs, Miss Lisa Lashes has seen more of the party than most!
When not headlining at one of Europe’s top festivals such as Global Gathering, Creamfields and Dance Valley, or playing to her adoring fans at some of the UK’s biggest domestic nights such as Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Inside Out and Planet Love, Lisa Lashes’s musical adventure regularly sees her packing her suitcase and touring her style to another corner of the globe.
Huge popularity of the sell-out Lashed in Ibiza parties, led to instant worldwide demand for Lisa Lashes and her Lashed brand with marathonesque tours of the parties to China, Canada, United States of America, Netherlands, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan ensuing!
It wasn’t long before Lisa Lashes was officially recognized amongst the top ten DJs in the world and achieved the illustrious title of ‘The World’s Number One Female DJ’. Away from the sparkling career behind the decks, Lisa Lashes has also enjoyed huge successes with her Euphoria albums. With sales well over 250,000 they were quickly established as the biggest selling hard dance compilations in the world – resulting in the nickname, ‘The Queen of Hard House!’
Since the golden days of hard house, Lisa Lashes has diversified her sound, slowing the BPMs and incorporating uplifting and tech trance into her sets, which now sees her playing as a global headliner on the international scene alongside such stars as Sander van Doorn, Marco V and Ferry Corsten. This more mature and diverse sound is represented by her hugely successful ‘Lashed Podcast’. This sound has been incorporated into the relaunch of her Lashed events in 2010 with concise music progressing and a much more diverse line up of guests – ranging from Irish superstar John O Callaghan to Germany’s Scot Project and Dutch producer Sied Van Riel to Musical Madness head honcho Marcel Woods!
Never one to sit back, Lisa Lashes has been hard at work in the studio pushing this new sound through with several releases already under her belt on labels including High Contrast, Spinnin, Musical Madness & Discover. Lisa Lashes’s music has picked up plays from a huge range of DJs around the world including Armin Van Buuren, Gareth Emery, Markus Schulz and Paul van Dyk.
