BIG FREEDIA BRINGS THE BOUNCE : interview by Christine Leonard

More bounce to the ounce! 

Big Freedia brings the booty shaking 

 Big Freedia from the Big Easy 

 A one-woman pageant of fabulousness, bounce sensation Big Freedia (pronounced “Freeda”) has a special place in her heart for her fans. Rightly accredited with blowing the doors off of hip-hop music’s gold-plated closet of sexual stereotypes, the Queen Diva, like fellow sissy-rapper Katey Red, booty-shaker Cheeky Blakk, and electro-queer ragamuffin Sissy Nobby, represents the glittering future of an infamously homophobic corner of the music industry.

“I’m so excited to be coming back and playing at the HiFi, baby! Oh, yeah!” she says. “I’m touring with my dancers and I’ll probably have my DJ with me too. No matter what, we’re going to give it all to you. We settle in pretty quick when we’re on the road; we’re used to going at it hard.”

Celebrated for her bombastic Mardi Gras-inspired bounce workouts, the gender-bending icon’s explosive performances attract throngs (and thongs) of good-time seeking female admirers. Shaking one’s thang is pretty much mandatory at any Big Freedia show, as the spicy videos captured at her live appearances with big-band, funk maestros Galactic attest.
  
“I had so much fun touring with Galactic when they brought me on the road with them,” Freedia says. “It was great to do something different and funk things up really good. They love to rock with me. They my boys. When I do my own shows I like to switch it up and engage the crowd as much as possible,” she continues. “I actually love it when they have us headlining on the same bill as a rock band, or punk band, or straight-up hip-hop, or whatever. I love introducing people to the amazing contrasts between genres, giving them something completely new that they’ve never experience before. It’s very exciting to be a part of this movement; I’m very grateful to be associated with the origins of bounce. How do I define bounce? You could say we consider ourselves uptempo and bass-heavy with a lot of call-and-response chants.”

 

Liberating the masses with heady beats and invigorating rhymes, Big Freedia identifies with her audience members on an ecstatic emotional level. Beyond the roof-raising drag-rap ruckus and hedonistic sampling that are the hallmarks of a Queen Diva joint, the singer harbours an uncanny sense of resilience and self-worth. There’s no question that both qualities link the capricious rapper to her avant-garde music and her deep New Orleans bloodlines.

“I’m happy to have a role in letting people be free to be themselves. For the most part, I think the guys who come to my shows find me approachable. I’m not just about empowering women. I encourage everyone to get onstage. Not just women; anyone who wants to dance and feel freaky at that moment. I’m giving them their moment to rock how they rock, and I don’t judge how they shake they ass. Everybody has their own ability and Big Freedia wants to help them out in a major way and get them tearing up the dance floor.”

Big Freedia is a successful interior decorator by day, and her keen eye for beauty and irrepressible joie de vivre has put her artistic skills in demand.

“I’m used to having a job, and usually return to doing my design work whenever I’m back home. Interior decorating continues to be one of the great sources of happiness in my life. I look for sources of inspiration every chance I get. I recently met one of my idols, Ru Paul. We just shot a video for a new song called ‘Peanut Butter’ together a week ago. It was a dream come true.”

by Christine Leonard

Originally Published in Fast Forward Magazine Sept. 2012 

 

Infected Mushroom interviewed by Christine Leonard

Hybrid strains

Infected Mushroom cultivates its dark atmosphere

Crawling with the fungus ~ DuvDev (l) and I.Zen have already spawned a global dance fever.

Haifa-bred electro-psych-rock phenomenon Infected Mushroom is usually the closely guarded brainchild of DJs Erez Eisen (a.k.a. I.Zen) and Amit Duvdevani (a.k.a. Duvdev), but the duo’s latest project, Legend of the Black Shawarma, is all about collaboration. After a decade spent thrilling crowds with releases from its groundbreaking and dancefloor-shaking 1999 debut The Gathering through to 2007’s Vicious Delicious, the jet-set turntablists have settled in L.A. where they continue to devise the evolution of their celebrated Goa beach-party vibes.

“Usually we are very closed to advice,” says Duvdev of Infected Mushroom’s standing policy on recording sessions. “But this time around, we were fortunate enough to work with Paul Oakenfold. His experience in giving direction as an executive producer made for a great collaboration. We really respected what each other had to say and he was extremely helpful, as were all of the people we brought in on this record.”

Taking their unique Tel-Aviv trance sound to the next level, I.Zen and Duvdev have added elements of North American heavy metal and punk rock to create their genre-bending September release, Legend of the Black Shawarma. Augmenting the exotic Arabian-Nights-on-mind-altering-substances soundtrack with darker rhythmic elements, the pair devised the shocker “Smashing the Opponent” with the aid of Korn’s Jonathan Davis on vocals; meanwhile, Perry Farrell stepped to the mic to deliver a chillingly excellent vocal performance on “Killing Time.”

“The whole concept was to bring those raw heavy metal influences into what we do, and we were just so lucky that artists of such calibre were able to fit us into their busy schedules,” Duvdev says. “Moments like that are so hard to obtain — it’s so amazing to me that Legend came out just as I had imagined it last year when I was listening to all this fantastic hard rock. Every time we make a new album, it comes out closer to what we had intended; the transfer from mind to hand is always getting better. Paul’s Perfecto label was absolutely the right choice for this record. Some people say that we’re perfectionists; that’s because we always want the best sound possible.”

Renowned for their innate ability to herd throbbing hoards of revellers with a well-timed flick of the wrist, these globe-trotting playboys are more famous for being individual DJs than they are for being a band — a current DJmag poll of the world’s Top 100 DJs lists I.Zen and Duvdev at No. 9 overall. High praise indeed for accomplished violinist Amit and pianist-guitarist Erez, who spent the past five years building Infected Mushroom into a full-fledged live music act. American guitarist Tom Cunningham and Brazilian drummer Rogério Jardim add flavour and flare to the group’s expanding multi-ethnic mix. Melding psychedelic-electronica and classical Middle-Eastern melodies with hypnotic results, Infected Mushroom’s live shows explode with vivid bursts of instrumentation, all overlaid by Duvdev’s rich and emotive vocals. Hitting the stage about 120 times a year, the ensemble has spent 2009 stirring the pot at Coachella, the Virgin Festival, OMIX, Brazil’s Ipanema Beach and Melbourne, Australia’s Metro Club, not to mention the massive Ultra Music Festival in Miami, which attracted some 100,000 attendees.

“Our working formula is to first try our studio tracks out on a live audience before we commit to them,” Duvdev explains. “Sometimes things you’re convinced will be a surefire hit will fall flat in the clubs. You never know what’s going to excite the people. To tell you the truth, I got bored of the whole DJ thing and really backed away from it over the past two years. Now that I’ve had a chance to play my own music, I feel like I’m ready to enjoy just DJing again. I love to share both the music I’ve created and the music I’ve discovered. We believe in evolving our tastes, in keeping pace with our audience; we’re excited about what the future holds.”

Infected Mushroom with DJs Dom G, Yanko & Meitro at Whiskey, Sunday, December 20.

by Christine Leonard

Originally published in FFWD Magazine December 17, 2009