FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW

LOUIE FRESCO (Mexa / No.19)

We catch up with Louie Fresco to talk Mexico, Mexa, and Magical Elves ahead of his set at You Are We @ The Light Bar, Shoreditch, April 8th Bank Holiday... 

You’re from a small town called Mexicali – can you tell us a bit about it and what goes on there party wise?

Mexicali: capital of Baja California. Population of 936,826 according to the 2010 census. In 1997, Mexicali experienced a heat wave, the temperature reached up to 54 °C (130 °F), it was so hot that day that most of the trees and vegetation in the area dried up. - Yeah, I took all of that from Wikipedia!

But on a serious note, our climate is so drastic it's not even funny. We held the Guinness world record (I tell this to almost everyone I meet) for the Hottest Place on Earth for a few years! But don't panic, most of the time it's all cool and breezy, but don't ever go there in the summer. The dance music scene in Mxl is one of the greatest in Mexico. The reason is that we adopted some of the best cultures (we're next to California, we have a lot of that friendly Nu Hippy attitude), we got some really good promoters, and it's super safe to live there. It gets boring during the weekdays but you'll find at least one or two proper parties on the weekends.

  

Mexico hosts the BPM festival which we are hearing good things about here in London. The festival featured some great names this year such as Jamie Jones, Droog, DJ Sneak, Art Department and You Are We favorites Pillow Talk. You played there this year, tell us about your experience - how did the No.19 Party go down? I can't tell you about the full experience cause I'm not sure if any kids will read this, but I can tell you this: it has been one of my favorite parties, and the that day (which was also my bday) went to an epic after party by Matt (rebel agency) and the guys from robot heart. It was literally a life changing moment.

Here in the UK we have a rich tradition for hosting summer festivals. Are there any that you would particularly like to play at?

Yes, there's one I think it's called You Are W.. Oh, wait minute.. I wanna play anywhere that there's good people and floor level Dj booths. I got sick of really big stages and festivals. See, I used to have another project and we were doing pretty good so we used to Dj on these really big stages but I got tired of just seeing massive crowds and not connecting with anyone and having to play "festival music" (the one that's really "loopy" and no matter how much bass it has, the frequencies won't go beyond a few rows) and not play what I really loved playing. So anywhere but big festivals it's fine by me ;-)

Your record label Mexa that you founded with Jay Blakk – one half of the Climbers – how are things going with that project? We get the feeling you guys have some tasty tracks coming our way?

Thing's got stuck for a minute but we're back right up and probably releasing our first EP (Lee Foss + Richy Ahmed) the day after or a week after YAW, so we're pretty excited about it, plus we have some other amazing EPs by Lee M Kelsall, Matt Fear, Corey Baker, Rebel, and many new signigns from all over Mexico and Las Vegas. And then we have many MEXA records showcases all around the world: Mexico, Guadalajara, Mexicali, UK, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Australia, and Barcelona (off Sonar) with my brothers Puente and Rosch's label Digital Delight.

Can we look forward to some new Fresco Bombs dropping this summer? Will you be dropping some at YAW? Yeah, I think I might drop 2 or 3. I might drop "No Hateration" (Kolombo rmx or Russ Yallop's version, which will probably come out on MEXA) and I'm gonna try and tackle a remix for Strictly Rhythm of a really old school house track by Erick Morillo, if I finish it i might test it out. I also have a couple tracks I'm working on with some cool vocals by my friend Matt from Human Life, the other one I'm still waiting for the vocal track from Cari Golden (if u read this, SEND 'EM TO ME! xoxo)

You’ve produced some remixes that have definitely hit the right spot, such as Modern Amusement’s ‘Cold as Ice’ and our amigos Wildkats and Tboy’s ‘To Be’ - How do you go about approaching a remix? What’s your secret? I have magical elf buddies who are very musically talented and I pay them with oatmeal cookies and cigarettes for each remix "I do".. Joking!! (no, i'm not..) It's a different approach each time.. The cold as ice rmx was done in a bit more than 3 hours (Cold As Ice, Louie Fresco Remix), while "To Be" took me at least a couple of months..I loved that track so much I wanted the remix to be perfect! I did sooo many versions I ended up hating those vocals. (which now I love again cause I stopped listening to it for a while) I think I sent them 4 totally different versions and told them to pick one, they said they liked them all but it was gonna be kind of odd to have 4 LF remixes on the EP so they decided to take the White version and the 3rd strike remix. I ended up with 2 extra originals and everybody is happy now :-) Btw, I think I danced out of excitement when I found out I was gonna remix that tune, which I had been looking for almost 3 months. 

How often do you make it to our ‘next of the woods’? Rumor has it you maybe planning on moving here? What do you love about London?

Everything! My only concern is the high cost of living, but hopefully I'll be able to afford it really soon.

I'm planning to come live here in the UK or maybe Barcelona in the next few months, maybe after all the Sonar/Ibiza madness. This is the 2nd tour I've done in Europe, but the first time I come to London so I'm really excited about it.

Can we just say it’s a pleasure to have you visit us, what can we expect from your bank holiday set at You Are We? A really good effin' time! It's a pleasure to finally be here and well again! (after losing 3 flights, getting stranded at the train station, and almost dying of excessive vomit, jet lag, hangover, stomachache, anxiety, and almost no sleep and no food + way too much alcohol and stuff in 4 days!)

Are there any particular tracks over the last few years that have inspired you and still keep a place in your record bag? Of course, I always tell everybody Deniz Kurtel's yeah inspired me to do the Cold As Ice remix, and there's a lot of tracks that have inspired me to make some some of my music, Art Department's "Without You", Michael & Mattis' "Holy Moly", and Russ Yallop's "I Can't Wait".

Back to the studio – If you had to pick one person alive or dead to work with who would that be and why? It would definitely be The king of pop himself, Michael Jackson hands down. Who wouldn't want to work with him?

You Are We contributor : Rudi Morgan