The voice across the wire sighs and gets sheepish. “I don’t mind talking about it,” it says, “but it’s not something I like to dwell on.” For some DJs, the subject at hand might be their sampling habits, their VIP-room activities, or maybe their love lives. But for Louis Osbourne, it’s the fact that his family’s home life is a hit on MTV. And oh yes, even before that, his dad was Ozzy Osbourne.
So even though Osbourne has a knack for mixing tech-y, tribal house, and an ear for dancefloor-devastating tracks, he knows there are other factors at play in his sold-out tour of the States, newly signed six-album contract with Strictly Rhythm, and spotlights on the E! Network.
But Osbourne was a DJ long before his little sister was recording Madonna covers and his father was eating dinner with the President. In fact, he’d much rather discuss Deep Dish, DJ Pierre, and the music that forever changed his life – acid house. “I went to a rave when I was 16-years old,” he says with a laugh. “My mate was supposed to come with me, but I went on me own and found my calling. I started buying records then.”
After exhausting “aciiieed” and going through his requisite “piano-house” phase, Osbourne got turned onto “this New York stuff”: Danny Tenaglia, Wild Pitch, and “Project Blast.” “I heard that and I was like, fuck me, I’m getting into this!”
Now, Osbourne plays what he considers to be “just house.” “Everything is very drum-oriented,” he says. “I play techno as well, but the only difference is that techno is faster.” In the booth, he’s not too picky: “As long as it’s two decks and a mixer, I’m all right,” he says. But spring-loaded decks drive him a bit mad. “I don’t like them. I like to push the vinyl; I manhandle it. You can’t do that with these things. I’ve heard stories of DJs using half tennis balls and sticking them on the sides to wedge them in.”
Osbourne’s also making music with producer Brian Stillwater. It’s a partnership, he says, that always culminates in divergent results. “In the studio, we get to a point where we have a solid drum track and groove, and we need something more,” he says. “Brian wants to go more progressive and melodic with it, and I just want to keep it more of a Peace Division kind of thing. What we’re going to do is he’s going to make a mix and I’m going to make a mix, and we’ll put it out as our track together.” It’s set for release before the end of the year.
But Osbourne would eventually like to make tracks completely on his own, with only the help of his G4. He’s already familiarizing himself with the software required. “I have Logic Audio,” he says. “I’m kind of fucking around with Raven. It’s good for a few loops, but it’s kind of gimmicky. I like Logic. When you see someone use Logic properly, you go, ‘Fuck Reason, man.’”
But all this begs the question: What does your heavy-metal dad make of it all? “My dad came to see me at eleven50 in Atlanta last summer,” he recalls, “and he came into the DJ booth. He stuck around for like 45 minutes; I was really unnerved. I didn’t really speak to him there. The next day we were talking about it, and he said, which I thought was really perceptive, ‘It’s a whole kind of lights, sound, trip experience. It’s all quite psychedelic. It’s really kind of tribal, isn’t it?’ He said if he were 25 years younger he’d be down there tripping with the rest of them. I think he kind of understands the culture of it all.”
Technical ecstasy, indeed.