DJ Ron: Why does hard house move you so much?
Lisa Lashes: It all started when I heard Tony De Vit spin at this little club in Birmingham fifteen years ago. People went to let loose and you didn't have to be wearing this or that, you could go there and just enjoy yourself and enjoy the music and it was a very up-beat kind of thing. Hopefully I carry that on from Tony, he's passed away which is a sad thing, but hopefully his spirit lives on with the music.
DJ Ron: I've heard you called the Queen of Hard Dance, are you afraid of being so closely associated with just one genre?
Lisa Lashes: Yes, but I play a lot different now. I mean I still am classed as the Queen of Hard Dance, which I like, but also I play a lot of different stuff now. You get a bit older and you listen to more music that you like. You go out and fill your brain with lots of other different stuff and take it onboard and then save it for yourself. So maybe I'm the Queen of Alternative Stuff- that's what I could be called from now on. How about the Queen of All Hard and Dirty, that's what I am.
DJ Ron: I actually heard you're trying to play some more breaks in your sets?
Lisa Lashes: Well I do backroom breaks and I'm kind of learning to go on a bit of a journey rather than my normal thrash.
DJ Ron: So you are also working on the Lashed digital download label. Do you think digital downloads could be a way to reach your music to a new audience?
Lisa Lashes: Well it's going to have to be, isn't it? You're not going to come in to a record shop in London all the way from America to buy one of the records, it's so much more accessible on the internet, isn't it? Everyone who DJs or loves music goes on the net, sees what's out there, and finds their music. It's really different because I love going to the record shops and picking out the vinyl that nobody else has – picking through the 20 pressed exclusives, but now everyone can get the music through downloads and stuff. So I think it's really, really hard for other DJs that haven't made it to be able to make it, because how are you going to be individual at that point. Everyone's got a computer and they can access music like we can.
DJ Ron: Well one way you set you've made a name for yourself is by making your own tracks. How did you make the move from DJing to producing?
Lisa Lashes: I fell over a producer one day… It's a logical thing, isn't it? I know what goes well on the dance floor, so I go into the studio with a couple of tracks that work really well at the time. I like to play arms in the air tracks that make people want to dance, so of course I'm going to go in to a studio and want to do a tune like that. I don't go in to a studio and try to make an anthem that's going to be the best tune in the world, I make a tune that's good for now, the musical sound which I'm playing now.
DJ Ron: In the studio do you work on ProTools or Logic or Cubase?
Lisa Lashes: Baby, I ain't got a clue, I have an engineer to do that, I just carry on with a cup of coffee. Just kidding, I use Reason 2.
DJ Ron: What's it like working with Ingo?
Lisa Lashes: I love him, he's great. He lives like half an hour away from me and we can do a tune in a day, maybe six or seven hours. I know its going to be fun live and I can put it in the car on the way home and bob away, and then get a speeding ticket because I'm listening to it rather than adhering to the speed limit in the UK.
DJ Ron: What advice do you have for up and coming DJs?
Lisa Lashes: Be out there and get out there, it depends if it's a male or female. If it's a girl, go and have a boob job. No, not really, I'm joking. Just be fun, lively and happy and don't take it too seriously. Always have a dream and work really hard as well. Do lots of different gigs and bribery always helps, twenty quid in the back pocket for promoters <laughing>.
DJ Ron: What do you want to say to all your fans out there?
Lisa Lashes: I want to say thank you very much for like believing in me and letting me take them on a musical journey. At the moment I like different sounds and different riffs, playing main room and backroom sets, and I still have the same kind of crowd whether I play this style of the music or that style. Thank you for believing in me and not just the music style. You know if you come to a club that I'm playing that I'll give you a good time.
