Although the Rave Pimp title may well have ostracised a couple of Muscles fans, it certainly is an apt title as he gears up for his hometown DJ set at Eurotrash this Saturday. “It is going to be the final Muscles DJ set of the year and I am going to go all out playing my hometown and playing Eurotrash is always fun so it is going to be a big event!”
Since breaking into Australia’s alternative music scene in 2007 with his debut album Guns Babes & Lemonade, Muscles has become a much loved and well known identity in both indie and dance music circles. This notoriety and respect for his songwriting and performances since 2007 led to Copulos being booked to play DJ sets at various parties and festivals and, being someone who takes his own music very seriously, Copulos unsurprisingly has become a very accomplished DJ. “DJing is definitely an art-form. A lot of DJs, like me, come from a songwriting and production background, which is good because we play stuff that I think has something special about it.”
Copulos now talks to big names on the international DJ/dance music scene that were integral to his growth as a DJ. “The first experience with full-on headliner DJs was back in 2007 when I toured with Soulwax and Girl Talk on North American tour where I did 12 dates and seeing them DJ opened my eyes to the different aspects of DJing,” explains Copulos with even after four years still an aura of profound respect for these two acts encapsulating his tone.
Copulos now discloses another fact that contributes to his DJing credentials. “I’ve been listening to dance music since I was about 12 years old and I think it’s important to be able to look back because, in my opinion, every decade [music] gets worse and we’ve kinda been through every genre and now it’s just kind of regurgitating itself.”
The idea of ‘pop’ music eating itself and then just regurgitating a slightly modified version out again has been around since the 1980s. It is now put to Copulos if his DJ sets act as a disguised lesson of reminding people where the current sounds in music have come from by juxtaposing old and new? “There’s a lot of new stuff I listen to where I go, ‘Okay, they made that sound by using that synth and that effect’. But the old stuff may not quite sound like what the crowd will initially get into so the trick is to start the set with the candy and then work through the weirder stuff.”
“In my sets I definitely play less of what you hear on the radio and stuff that I feel is really important to dance music now.”
Copulos now goes on to explain that as a producer and a DJ he, surprisingly, does not look down on straight up DJs. “I don’t get jealous of what DJs can do with other people songs because the energy they can create through arranging and then presenting other people’s music in a way that will maintain an energy and get people to react for extended amount of time is a unique skill.”
He now mentions a posse of Sydney DJs who were very important in his career. “The Bang Gang guys actually released One Inch Badge Pin – my first single – and on that release was a remix by Bag Raiders, their first major remix, and now I consider them bigger than Cut Copy,” explains Capulos warmly.
It must now be noted that like his groundbreaking beats – Ice Cream, Sweaty, The Lake and more recently Girl Go Crazy – Copulos has a somewhat scattered and random approach to things and this manifests during his interview with 100% as the subject constantly changes as thoughts flutter into his head. Case in point number one: “It seems like to me that rap producers are becoming dance producers so it’s got me thinking maybe I should get into rap producing,” explains a disturbingly even-toned Copulos. “I’d love to produce an Aussie rap song, I mean I listen to Triple J a lot and have become a fan of it. I mean in the beginning I wasn’t a fan of it at all but I would really like to work with some Aussie rappers on some stuff.”
