LOUISAHHH: FROM CLUB DJING TO THE BIRTH OF SOLO HYBRYD

Art Designed by Javi Nunez at Modern Wav & Photography by Adrien Renaud

The sounds of Louisahhh have been reverberating, and, well, we have been listening. From the clubs to the Boiler Room, Louisahhh will soon make her way to San Diego. Join us as the techno queen hits the dark alt scene with her American Solo Hybrid debut at Modernwav. We had the pleasure of interviewing Louisahhh before her debut, talking about everything from music production to collaborations and what it takes to push yourself past creative boundaries.

Love is Punk is one of my favorite records from the last five years. This record combines elements of EBM, punk, and industrial with techno fundamentals. The lyrics and vocal arrangement are placed so eloquently, and you can really feel the emotion behind them. I'm curious to know how this album came to be. What is your process for writing lyrics? Was it a challenging album to create?

Aw, I’m so glad that you love ‘Love is a Punk’!  This song was actually a very last-minute addition to my debut album, ‘The Practice of Freedom.’  We’d already begun the mixing process with the legend Dave Pensado when Vice Cooler, who produced the record, sent over a little DFAM drum loop, and the song kind of poured out very naturally and ended up being the lead single.  Touring this album, this is the track that opened every show, and I’m so glad it came to me in the nick of time.  

In terms of process, I try to write every day with a morning pages practice (if you haven’t checked out ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron, it’s worth getting into), and I also keep a note on my phone of anything that comes to me while I’m running around.  Good ideas from either place will be then transferred into a private blog that I can refer to whenever I need a seed or a starting point for a song.  I think a lot of songwriters or top liners begin with ‘mumble tracks,’ where they kind of find the melody of the song and find the words after; I usually start with words and allow the way the language falls to dictate the energy or the meaning of a song.  Words have always been very important to me and it’s been a lot of (joyful) work to get my voice and performance chops to the point where I can feel confident on stage, but it’s really my favorite thing on earth to do, and I feel really lucky to get to roar these words like prayers at an audience.  

As a prominent figure in the techno scene, you have been DJing for many years. How have you managed to navigate both the production side and the performance aspect of your music career within the world of techno? How has the techno scene influenced the way you express yourself in your current work?

It’s funny; I started out as a DJ both because I felt like I had superior music taste to almost everyone (lol), and because I was socially awkward and needed something to do in da club to avoid having to talk to people.  It turned into a kind of spiritual pursuit in that it’s something that really saved my life at certain points; music generally, but also the practice of healing and being healed in club spaces, of connecting and feeling and moving in ‘collective effervescence’, or being a channel of that.  

I previously mentioned Julia Cameron’s work, and she talks about this idea of ‘The Shadow Artist’, which is where an artist chooses a career that’s close or parallel to the work they’re meant to be doing, but not the work itself, as a way of avoiding the terrifying, vulnerable, challenging labor of digging into the real stuff.  For me, in some ways, DJing was a proxy for being a live performer, and it took a long time to get brave enough to get on stage and sing my songs and put myself out there in the context of the ‘LOUISAHHH LIVE BAND’ or Live Hybrid with Maelstrom, or now my solo hybrid project (which will have its American debut at Modern Wav!).  

‘Post-Covid’, I also felt a lot of disillusionment around the idea of being a DJ and the techno scene in general as it started to feel like something I didn’t really relate to and I felt less confident and able to connect intuitively to the audience like I once had.  I also felt like in order to make the live projects work, I would have to make a choice about what I was selling and how; promoters will typically go for the easiest idea to communicate (who can blame them?) so if I gave an option between a DJ set (what I was known for) and this new, more challenging, confronting, expensive thing, they’d always choose the DJ set and I would never get to perform the live show. Let me also mention that with the live iterations of performance, I started to feel like I had access to a braver, more feral, more present part of myself that I hadn’t previously experienced, and I was unwilling to cage that part again (because spitting blood and rolling on the floor during a DJ set is apparently frowned upon).  

 I turned down a lot of DJ sets in order to get to play with the band, or to perform the live hybrid with Maelstrom.  I think this was a good choice and I don’t regret it, but at a certain point I did start to miss DJing and every time I got the chance to do it - usually by accident because there would be certain circumstances that the live options would be impossible - it was so fun and easy and playful. 

Kind of full circle, it has become necessary to have a live expression that it is possible to perform solo, and it’s kind of the most obvious path of really braiding together my lovingly honed DJ skills and my absolute obsession and infatuation with roaring at a willing audience, and thus the ‘Solo Hybrid’ is born.  I made techno edits of much of my previous work and figured out how to perform in the context of a DJ set without compromising the level of expression I want to deliver, and it’s different than I thought it would be, but it feels really right and I’m really excited to play this show, to live in this sweet spot for a minute. 

Your album “Sustained Resistance” is visceral and rich in production. How did you meet Maelstrom, and what is it like to partner with him in creating art?

Mael and I were introduced by Louis Brodinski shortly before I relocated to France from Los Angeles as a potential collaborator on my ‘Transcend’ EP.  I showed up on his doorstep on the second day I was in this new country, kind of like a techno foreign exchange student, and he took me into his family and we made two tracks in four days and kicked off our musical journey together.  

We have vastly different sonic backgrounds and influences - he comes from a ‘free party’ tradition where people travel around France in giant soundsystem trucks and throw illegal raves, and I come from seedy downtown bars of New York City during peak ‘indie sleaze’, but our tastes and talents conjoin in a way that feels really magical.  On a personal level, I learn a lot from Mael about boundaries and support and moving through successes and challenges with grace. I think we teach each other how to fail better, and are constantly trying to grow and learn how to be in a healthy partnership.  I admire him tremendously, and I feel like he is my biggest champion; we are in a kind of constant dynamic trust fall with one another: we play and tour together, we create music and run a label together, and I can’t think of anyone on earth I’d rather be in this with.  Sustained Resistance was a celebration of that, released almost a decade to the day after we met. 

Throughout your career, you've been involved in numerous significant features and collaborations. Have there been any specific collaborations that stand out to you where you and another artist had an incredible synergy and connection? Additionally, are there any artists or idols that you are particularly eager to collaborate with in the future?

I love a collab, ha.  Part of this is because I don’t consider myself a very strong producer and I prefer to work with people who I think have more skills than me in that area because I believe I bring a lot of other stuff to the table as a songwriter and vocalist.  I try to play to my strengths but I’ve been working on growing in confidence and ability on the production side.  

Regarding specific collaborations, it’s been really exciting to work with so many people I admire and I feel like there have been a bunch of career changing connections that I owe a lot to.  Of course, Danny Daze (‘Your Everything’) and Brodinski (‘Let the Beat Control Your Body’) are two very important ones that really altered the course of my life, and on a more personal level, Shelter Studios and Vice Cooler have been my principle partners for ‘solo’ releases, and I owe a lot to their ability to translate and express ideas that sound like me better than I could express them.  

At a certain point, I think my work with Maelstrom has kind of taken on its own character, beyond collaboration and more like a singular entity that’s separate from our individual practices.  I am really excited to see how that evolves because it’s been such a vessel for monumental growth on creative, professional  and personal levels.  

Obviously the dream collaboration is Nine Inch Nails, but I think if I keep talking about it, it will never happen because I’m too much of a stan, so I’ll shut up now.

In recent years, the music industry has suffered the loss of numerous talented artists to drug addiction, particularly due to the fentanyl epidemic and the increasing popularity of substances like Cocaine and Ketamine. Notable figures such as Luis Vasquez of the Soft Moon, John Mendez (Silent Servant), and his partner Simone Ling have tragically succumbed to this crisis. We commend your courageous decision to pursue a sober lifestyle. What words of wisdom would you offer to struggling artists and DJs who are grappling with addiction and are apprehensive about seeking sobriety, fearing that it might impede their creativity and ability to perform in the vibrant nightlife scene?

Thanks for your kind words.  I want to be clear that it’s not so much virtue but necessity that I no longer drink and use, and it’s by sheer grace that I get to stay sober and clean one day at a time.  For me, without sobriety, there is nothing else: no career, no creativity, no relationship with my family, no integrity, no health.  I was a daily cocaine user and helpless scoundrel, super dysfunctional and self loathing, and it felt really scary and out of control.  I learned early on in this journey that whatever I put before my recovery I will lose, but if I put my recovery first, I can have anything (except of course drugs and alcohol), and I really believe that, so staying clean and helping other alcoholics and addicts to get clean is a big part of my life - maybe the biggest - and certainly the most rewarding.  If you or a loved one is struggling in this area, my DMs are always open and I am happy to help however I can.  

All that being said, I don’t believe everyone who uses drugs or drinks is an addict, but unfortunately we live in a new and horrible reality where even recreational users can be killed with a casual line.  There is fentanyl in everything.  If you’re gonna use, please don’t use alone, test your drugs with fentanyl testing strips and carry Naloxone.  Try to stagger use so that if someone is OD’ing, there are people there to help.  All of this sounds like a real vibe killer, but I guess so is dying, so please try to use responsibly.  

There are a lot of resources available for San Diego county, please check them out: https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/bhs/BHS_Harm_Reduction/About_Naloxone.html 

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/phs/od2a/community.html

What are you most looking forward to about coming to San Diego and performing at Modern Wav?

I love San Diego! Amazing food, a great tradition of music and a rad epicenter of cholo goth culture, which is the coolest.  I am stoked to go run by the ocean and scream at the top of my lungs and eat vegan mexican food and rent a muscle car.  I am really excited to play the new Solo Hybrid show here and to see so many awesome acts.  I’m also bringing my (French) partner for his first time in San Diego, and it’s gonna be his birthday, so it’ll be super cute.  I really can’t wait. 

Lastly, how is everything looking for Louisahhh's next phase? Do you have any exciting news to share?

The next phase is an exciting one.  Maelstrom and I started a new project tentatively called “Pain Magazine” with our pals in French post-hardcore band Birds in Row, and we just finished making an album together.  We gotta figure out how to release it and tour it, but it’s some of the work I’m proudest of being a part of.  Stay tuned.  

On a totally other tip, alongside my musical practice, I’m working as a consent educator, and I really love teaching this stuff.  The concepts surrounding that have (of course) seeped their way into my creative life, so I’m presently trying to get funding for a multi-disciplinary performance (music, dance, AI) that I really hope will get off the ground eventually.  It’s pretty ambitious, but I’m learning a lot - mostly that you gotta try.  In closing: keep trying, kids.

Louisahhh will be taking the stage on November 22, 2024, accompanied by IAMX, MATTE BLVCK, and DIE SEXUAL. Secure your tickets now by clicking the link below!