Lizette Lizette

Bruin Preschool Blue Disco Microphone (Google Affiliate Ad)

It is a gloomy, grey and typically wet, autumn day when I meet with the young Swedish solo act Lizette Lizette. New to the London scene, she is a child of the 90s and an all-round entertainer: DJ, performer, producer, writer and singer with a strong passion for the avant garde and the queer (in the broadest sense of the word). As we chat about her past and present, I take notice of her high platform 'Camden' boots, a strong 90s reference that fits rather well with her music indeed. 
Since becoming a DJ a few years ago, she quickly made a name for herself as the Stockholm's 90s DJ extraordinaire. This shows profusely in her first solo single - Wheel Of Fortune, that is to be launched here on 13 Nov. It's an uptempo, techno-trancey offering reminiscent of some of my favourite Marusha or the Orb old-school stuff ( hence I immediately dismiss any reference to that very 90s pop act: Ace of Base and their own disco anthem of the same title. Not even vaguely trying to insert it into our conversation as it is more than clear that it has no relevance to my interviewee).

So what are the musical references that influence Lizette's creative process?
"Almost all the music I listen to is British. Even years ago, before I was into dance music I was always listening to music that came from the UK" - hence the obvious move to London recently. I'm sure she fits here effortlessly, something she struggled with early in her life.
She grew up feeling different and an outsider in her own words. " When I started school I was very shy, I didn't have any friends and after, when I was a teenager, I was this 80s goth and all the other kids were so white and blond and my mother is from Peru you see, so being different, an outcast, has always been with me. So when I grew up I didn't want to fight it anymore, I embraced it and developed into who I am today."
 Despite Sweden's lack of such club-kid culture we experience here or in New York, Lizette has her own circle of weird, loud and proud to be queer friends who go raving at her parties (she DJs at a few clubs and had her own club night last summer at F12 called "Happy Disco"). Some of them feature in the video too. "They're my second family in a way, I've always felt closer to them cause we share the same feeling of being outsiders in our community."


Next I ask Lizette about the writing process, what inspires her and how does a song come to life. It seems that often begins with her discovering a song while preparing for a DJ set and then adding experiences from everyday life too. A favourite place to put her thoughts together is the bus or a train. "A lot of thoughts and ideas flow into my head when I'm travelling". "Wheel Of Fortune came out of two things: an old classic I really love by Optus 3 - It's a Fine Day , and a conversation I had with my friends once, about how people don't follow their dreams. 
They just live their lives the way they are "supposed to" because they are scared to follow their dreams. So I wanted to write a song to inspire more people and send out the message that you should follow your dreams." 
...and rightly so, Lizette is now doing just that.

Here is the video to her single Wheel Of Fortune. I must admit it is a very catchy song, I am humming it after I just listened to it once. It seems to be stuck in my head. In a good way that is.

Lizette Lizette is DJing on 10 Nov at the Cheap Mondays Store - Carnaby Street 

and a guest performance is due at the The Waiting Room on 

10 Dec - 7pm [it will be a party organised by her too]. 

Make a note in your diaries peeps.

Till next time, 

xo xo

Oggs

The XX new release "Coexist" out on 10.Sep.2012

We are very excited to finally get a preview of the new album of the London band The XX titled Coexist. It's been a while since Romy Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith won the Mercury Music Prize in 2009 for their self-titled debut and everyone was wondering when the follow-up will finally arrive, so it comes as a relief to all the fans that in less than a week the new CD hits the stores worldwide. True to their signature style, the songs we previewed have the usual soft, electronic drums and those beautiful, monotonous, low guitar riffs, reminiscent of a bygone New Romantic era. This said, we love every second of it and were over the moon to find that no dramatic change of direction was taken, after all, we waited patiently nearly 3 years to receive more of the XX medicine. Indeed, Coexist flows very much like a slow dose of a hypnotic potion on a cold, lazy afternoon. Quite in time for Autumn then, one should think. Discussing the sound of the album in June, Smith said: "We've all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on this record." On a first hearing we love Fiction, Tides, Missing (some of our favourite lyrics there) and the more up-tempo Sunset, but the one that really stands out, is the opening track Angels. Fans were offered a free download to the track with the pre-order of the new CD and you can also see it here.
All in all, Coexist is the prefect successor to the splendid debut which catapulted The XX into the British Indie Hotlist.

"COEXIST"  is out on 10.Sep.2012 in UK and 11.Sep in the US