LARRIE

It’s two words that some of us might dread—“real job”. Well, whoever you are and whatever you’re doing, ultimately it’s doing what you love and what makes you happy. At least such is the case for Larrie Brown (better known by her stage name LARRIE), who goes to prove that age is just a number, who gives a fuck what a real job is, and that it’s all about having a real good time.

Tell me a bit about yourself - what you do. I want to speak with you about your DJing, because I know that you’ve been doing that for a very, very long time! And you’ve almost made a career - I mean, would you call it a career?

I probably wouldn’t say that…I dunno, I’ve kind of grappled with what I classify it as. I think, to start with, it was a hobby. My partner at the time, when he was DJing I was like - let’s just have a bit of a play, see how I go with this - mix a couple of house tracks together. I think it just carried on from there…I had the connections through him to be able to play at a couple of places. It was super nerve-wracking and I never really took it seriously. Well, I took it seriously because I wanted to do it right, but I didn’t take it seriously [in the sense of] well—I’m DJing now, I’m going to become a superstar—it never really was that. I think it’s more the fact that it was just a…passion project, just to be able to get out and learn something different. I’m not even bilingual, I can’t even hold down another language—if I’m going to learn something, let’s do something like this.

I think music is something that…we’ve all admitted to loving. We dance to it, we sing to it. I think I’ve always had this…I dunno, [that feeling of] hey, I’m kinda getting the hang of this. This is cool, I’m into this. And it was never, ever about how I would look or how I would be perceived because I was DJing. It was just like Wow, this song works so well with this song! How does this work? This is unreal! I’m doing this?! Wait…what? All of these different things have just led me to keep doing it.  

I’ve been doing it for…I think this is my seventh year?

Shit…

I know, right? I guess you would just call it a hobby, maybe? I don’t know what you’d call it. I mean, I’m in retail part-time, I was studying for a while. I’m at this point at the moment where I feel like I need to go out and get an actual job in a career that I’ve been studying for a while—PR. But I still have this part of me that’s like, I want to pursue that, I want to pursue DJing. I don’t produce, I don’t do any of that! I just get this kick out of playing and making other people happy. That sounds cliché, but I legitimately play for other people. Sometimes I’m a little bit selfish and I’ll play one more Drake song, but when people come up and go That was so awesome! I’m on the fence of thank you so much, but I also do it for them—I take the compliment, but I don’t want to direct it at me because I did this for [them]. I’m a little bit shy like that. I really enjoy what I do.

Sorry, that’s a really long-winded answer!

No no, that’s good! On that, I actually want to touch on something you said before—you were talking about this idea of getting a “real job” and I think that’s something that our generation has to toy with that idea quite a bit. I think we’ve almost moved passed where our parents were and our grandparents were, where they stayed in the one career job rather than potentially pursuing their passions, and I think that we, as humans, can almost put a timeline on when all of this needs to happen. 

How do you have that healthy balance or that internal battle of, okay, I’m going to get a “real job” because I need to? In comparison to I’m going to do with—I’m going to sound cliché now—what my heart’s telling me to do. How do you find you have that internal conversation with yourself?

Uh, I have that internal conversation with myself every day. I probably take back the term “real job” because, you know, working part-time in retail, I don’t really tell a lot of people that I do it. I don’t know why. I think that there are a lot of people in retail that do really amazing things and they consider that their real job, so I do take that back. But, I dunno, part of me is like…I would like to do something in what I’ve been studying because I feel like I need more stimulation in my mind—I want to move forward, I want to earn more money. We all want to earn more money, let’s be honest!

I think that there is a point where…I’m having that conversation a lot lately, where I get people that are from different walks of life that are like Hey, have you ever thought about this? And I agree with them—you know, I know that there’s something there. But then there’s a part of me that’s like…I’m in my early thirties, so I have all these other aspects of things that are coming through. Like, do I want a family? I think about the future quite a lot in that regard. But yeah, I’m toying with the idea of well, there is no timeline to study, there is no timeline really to get a full time job. I could successfully sustain myself part-time and do this on the side. I dunno, I have that internal conversation every single day and currently, at this moment, I enjoy what I do but I know that I’ll want something more and I don’t know…I’m still trying to figure out what the next step is. Maybe I’m a little bit scared to take the leap into the creative side because we know that, as creatives, doing what we love in the creative industry is—it is a tough flog if you want to make it a sustainable income for yourself. Yeah, I’m still…I’ll have to get back to you on that. I’m still trying to work that out myself.

I think no one will ever really have an answer to it, as well. Everyone’s a bit different. I want to go back a bit, you were saying how you’re kind of thinking about the future and what the future may bring—when you’re considering all of this, do you ever think about external factors. When people tell you something, does that influence your decision or do you kind of go—You know what, this is my decision, I don’t need your input?

Well, I think the fact that when people are giving me positive reinforcement—whether they’ve had a few beers or people in the industry that have actually said hey, this is cool—whatever it is, I still take that on board and I think a lot of that positivity has, in a way, made it a little bit more difficult. Just when I think [that] I’m getting a little older now—not that that is a thing—but in my mind it is, [I think] maybe I’ll just play a few gigs. It’s my happy place. But when I hear all that sort of [positive feedback] from everyone, I start to believe that too. I think that there’s something there! And I think that does definitely influence me a little bit. The one thing that doesn’t influence me is the stereotype [that] says to you, okay, you’re 30-something, you need to settle down and blah blah blah, a lot of that isn’t so much coming from people I know. I have had people tell me You’re DJing, what are you going to do? Are you going to have children? Blah blah blah blah blah. I feel like that stuff doesn’t really shape me at all. I think that when you’re in your 30s, you start to just think of…Like, I’ve got so many things to do and I want to get them all done, and I just think that with that kind of stuff…yeah, I’m 30-something. I’m still young at heart, I still get ID’ed at the liquor store—you know, I’m still going to keep DJing. I’m still going to own it. And if any external factors like getting pregnant ends up happening, it’ll happen. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to stop! [Someone] like Anna Lunoe who’s this massive EDM DJ—she had a baby recently, played Coachella pregnant—you know, you can still do these things.

I guess I’m really just going, and I’m doing my thing. I take all the positivity with me and I honestly think that’s why I’m still DJing seven years later, because of all the good things. And there’s probably negative feedback out there [about me], but no one’s really come up and said it to my face. That’s fine by me, I’ll just keep going. I’ll just keep doing it until my heart’s not in it anymore. I’m very emotional in that sense, I want to do things that are from the heart and I just don’t think that doing something just for the fact of oh hey, this is cool or that other people are doing it—if my heart’s not in it, I’ll stop.

Every time I go to whatever gig, I still get a little bit nervous. But I’m just in my own bubble and that is just an escape for me!

I really want to know—what’s it like being on stage and performing? I mean obviously I was quite the performer in school productions and things like that. But when you are on stage and you are—performing? I mean, you are playing other peoples songs but, in essence, you are putting on a performance. Whether you’re playing Laundry Bar or a festival or opening for a gig, how do you handle those nerves? How are you at reading the vibes of the crowd and do you adjust your set accordingly, or do you just roll with it?

I’ve been a resident at Laundry for seven years—well, actually, I’ve been a resident for a lot less than that. I’ve been playing there for seven years and [the residency] has just kind of built up that way. But absolutely, [it can be] vibing, and then all of a sudden it dips and then you start freaking out a little bit. You start to think, I played a similar set last week! How does it just do that? That’s the skill you learn as a DJ that I think is completely underrated. A lot of DJs just think that you gotta use all these effects and scratch and whatever you need to do, and kudos to everyone that does that. But, at the end of the day, it’s really about how you can read the crowd and adapt changes quickly. I do freak out, and sometimes if I have an alcoholic beverage beside me, I’m just gonna knock that back!

I think sometimes you just have to think what would a crowd want right now? Like, sometimes I’ll think It’s been so up-tempo and upbeat for ages, they are probably tired—let’s just switch it up, slow it down, bring in a different vibe, a different sound, a different genre…You can kind of navigate it amongst a few different genres that work. I think it’s a real skill to have—and you gotta have a pokerface with that too, because if you feel stressed, everyone else feels your stress. They can look at you and think Is she even enjoying herself? If she’s not enjoying herself, maybe I’m not enjoying myself. And it really does radiate into the crowd.

In the early days, I used to jump around and I’d be crazy. The older I get, I’ve become a little bit more reserved. I like to sing along with a lot of people when they come up on stage. It’s almost like we’re all at a house party, dancing and singing along to an iPod. I think that’s where I like to give my stage presence that genuine feel, rather than making it about me and thinking that I’m the one that needs to be focused on. I like to get people up and dancing. I like to shift the focus on the music and the people around me, rather than on me.

So you’re more into the crowd participation side of things?

Yeah! I don’t mind just having a bit of a dance and a sing along. I mean, if I really take note and really pay attention and there’s a bunch of people looking at me, then I freak! I’m like dance with each other, don’t watch me! Maybe that’s me just being really shy. Seven years later, I still get a bit nervous about that kinda stuff. I like to make sure that I have people behind me as well—I usually have like five or six people that will comet through, friends of mine, and they’ll just be on stage ready to go—they’re down the back of the stage, they’re up the front, and we’ve already got a vibe going. I feel like, when I don’t have that, I’m really exposed.

I think the fact that you still get so nervous, that will almost resonate with the fact that you obviously love what you do. You want to make sure that you succeed and that you’re delivering something, and ultimately you do have that ability to cater to your crowd. So I do think that it’s actually quite endearing that you do get nervous, because you want to make sure that other people are having fun around you.

Yeah, absolutely! I do take it seriously. I mean, you see Snapchats, and I’m having drinks and I’m having a fun time, but there is still a professionalism and a serious level to it where I want to make sure that…you know, I want to impress these people. I also want them to have a good time! They’re coming to the club—it’s not even my club—but they’re coming to the club and they’re wanting to have a good time, they’re wanting to hook up, they’re wanting to do whatever it is to forget about their stresses for the week. That’s how I see myself and my role as a DJ—it’s not about me, it’s about catering to the crowd, and I think that super important to remember just to be grounded and know what your role is. You need to give the people what they want! To a degree…because there are people who will come up and request something random…like the most obscure YouTube song of an internet meme, not even in the remote genre of rap and hip hop. And I can’t give certain members of the crowd that, but generally speaking, I can.

What’s the shittest request you’ve ever had?

Someone was telling me something about an elbow song…I don’t know it!

An elbow song?

The Elbow Song. I was like what is that? And they pulled it up on YouTube, and from what I remember it was a bunch of white kids doing some elbow dance. I was like dude, no! There are a lot of ballads that I’ve been asked to play and, you know, I would listen to [these songs] when I’m chilling at home, but I can’t play that right here. The club would just disperse. 

But yeah, that elbow song. That still resonates with me. I looked it up when I got home and I was traumatised. I think it’s called The Elbow Song, I could be completely wrong. But yeah, every week people bring through weird requests.

Okay, let’s get to the business end of the conversation—I want to talk to you about your music, because your library must be phenomenal. A. How do you keep up to date with everything? Because obviously you can play older jams, but you’d need to make sure that you’re keeping up to date with the latest tracks. and B. Where do you find your stuff from?

With the internet, and especially with online streaming services and how quickly music is coming out—like, new music is coming out every single week by artists that are in the studio 24/7 and they’ve got 50 songs that they’re going to bang out in 2 albums…Especially in rap and hip hop, there are so many rappers that collaborate with each other, and do features and diss tracks and parodies or whatever they do! It is hard to keep up, but I think, for me, the online streaming services do help. I have Apple Music and I listen to a lot of radio shows on there. Mainly the OVO Radio—I’m a big Drake fan. But that radio station is really awesome because they kind of have a mixture of old and new, and different genres throughout their weekly playlists. From there, I’ll just go through and do a bit of reading on some of the artists and find out what their big songs are.

And YouTube—someone gave me the heads up that YouTube was pretty much one of the best ways to really discover new music, and it’s so true. I’ve been doing it more and more recently, more so than doing blog research. I’ll find a song and…in that Suggested [panel] on the right side, it’s like lurking on Instagram. You click through and you end up in a whole new world!

There is a lot of music out there! I’m always trying to keep up. As long as you’re on top of all of the big releases, yeah, you’re kind of fine.  

And what’s next in the world of Larrie?

For me, ideally, it’d be so dope to just DJ full time. The one DJ who I think is living her best life right now is Kehlani’s DJ, Noodles. That girl - she is killing it! [She's] a tour DJ [and] she’s also holding it down on her own, doing her own thing. That would be cool! It would be cool to travel, it’d be cool to get a few opportunities to go overseas, interstate, play a few gigs—open the doors to be able to play for different crowds, different people, meet new people. I was in Jamaica…last year? Maybe the year before? And I would love to just fly back there and play at a couple of the clubs in Kingston.

But yeah, look, I don’t know. What the future will hold, I’m not quite sure. I’m planning to throw a party at some point. I did throw a party a little while ago at Laundry Bar—that went for about a year and a half, that was really cool. So I’m thinking about doing something like that again. We’ll see, we’ll see.

You can catch LARRIE DJing every weekend at Laundry Bar, Fitzroy.