Earlier this year Loverboy got the chance to witness Australian DJ/Producer, CC:DISCO! take over Barcelona’s La Paloma and it was a beautiful thing. Filling the 120-year-old dancehall with a set full of Disco, House, Throwbacks, Futurism and lots of Love, CC:DISCO! took everyone on an intergalactic journey that night.
With her new Touch The Vibe EP, out this Friday, she returns to Hispanic sounds, playing with the intensity of a castanet, the seduction of a Spanish guitar and a 90s rave beat that would’ve fitted right into Valencia’s legendary Bakalao period. We are obsessed. Releasing the EP via her own Miami Daddy imprint, the five tracks include the recent singles ‘Touch The Vibe’ and our current #1 ‘Yes Papi (Miami Daddy Theme)’.
Before touching down in the UK for five upcoming shows including London’s Village Undergroud, CC:DISCO! spoke with Loverboy to talk about her love affair with Spain, weird guys sending her gross messages and our all favourite Aussie Handbag House moment, Madison Avenue’s ‘Don’t Call Me Baby.’
Hi CC, so tell us, where are you answering our questions from? What can you see and what is playing on the speakers?
Bom dia, sitting on my couch. All I can see is the mess I made from making gig poster collages, paper and shit everywhere and listening to Diana Ross’ ‘Muscles’, to give me inspo to be a Muscle mommy in 2025.
You La Paloma set lives on in our mind rent-free. The gorgeousness of the venue with your Tropical Disco was perfect. Do you have memories of that night?
Of course, I kept thinking we were on the Titanic. The venue blew me away. It was the perfect night because I was also playing with Sama Yax, who I love DJing with, and her selections were perfect. I also remember testing out a dub mix that will come out next year, which is a cover of Earth Song, and it felt like the perfect place to play it.
Although you are now Portugal-based, the new EP feels Spanish-influenced. How do your Portuguese friends feel about this betrayal?! Haha….Was it the one night in Barcelona that started this EP?
Wow, do I feel seen?! So once upon a time, maybe not even 8 years ago, I thought Portugal was in South America, the Portuguese don’t laugh at that story, but I do, but I LOVE PORTUGAL. I’m glad I randomly picked it to live in; it was gonna be Spain first, then I saw it on the map and thought, wait, what? Yeah, weird, I know, but I’m from the bush in Australia and can’t know everything.
So, weirdly, I am obsessed with Spanish and Latin American language and music, so much so that my obsession with Ricky Martin – The Cup of Life was out of control. I listened to the CD day and night and learnt everything in Spanish as a kid. I don’t know what it is, but I was hooked and obsessed with living there one day, and I did. I moved to Mexico in my early 20s, and my obsession got deeper, but I made it SALSA with a bit of reggaeton, haha.
Also, just before I moved to Mexico, I was supposed to live and work in the UK. I had the visa, but instead, I went on a road trip, drove from Barca to Seville and was hooked. Once, we even got into a car with strangers. We literally couldn’t communicate, but they kept saying “flamenco private”, so my friend and I got in the back of a van for 40 mins. We drove to the club at 3 am. There was a lot of “these are gringas, why they here” talk, but they let us in, and there were three generations of women dancing flamenco together til 5 am. We couldn’t believe it. The Gringa’s got a real education in Spanish music, history, and dance that night. The next day, I maxed out my credit card and said the UK wasn’t for me. I needed something different, so I moved to Mexico after a 2-week road trip in Spain.
The sound of castanets opening the EP is so evocative. It’s giving sexy. I feel in 70s/80s disco the castanets were a bit of a staple too. Were you tapping into something by using them?
I love them. I’m glad you noticed them. Sometimes, I randomly put that sample in every song that was originally made for Yes Papi, but I thought I wanna put ’em in everything; even if they sound so off and out of place, you’ll know it’s me who made the track then, haha. They are sexy. I love them, and I love the way they were in pop music in the 90s, Deeper and Deeper Madonna, and Deni Hines Imagination.
There’s also a major Patrick Cowley vibe going on here. Do you connect with him at all?
Yeah, I especially love what he did with Sylvester. That was iconic.
‘Touch the Vibe’ has an amazing bassline that reminds us of Fleetwood Mac with the drums. There’s definitely a throwback feel on Side A, although Jennifer’s vocals make it Y2K but also very now. It’s travelling decades for sure. How did it come together for you?
Well, tbh it was two remixes I did that were kinda rejected, but I just kept going and going on it cos I really wanted to finish the song and I knew it worked on DF as I had tested both of them, so I just put the two ideas together. I think there were 52 versions of it, no joke. But yeah, it’s a two-chord song, which Fleetwood Mac, I’ve since discovered, was famous for doing that. I’m not a musician at all, so I just found it easier to do those simple chords that way, and also, it’s very Italo if I was gonna compare, it would certainly be to Gary Low, I Want You. I never sit and try to reference anything as I can’t write that way, but it defo has a throwback vibe because that’s what I play as a DJ and have studied for 20 years, but I can totally see ref that would really be on the synths to as using the same synths and also Am, so many pop songs are in Am. Tell you what, though, I like dreams.. but FAMILY MAN, I wish I could make a track as good as that. … same key. Maybe I’ll do a Spanish guitar remix of it, haha.
Side B is taking us directly to 2 am on the dancefloor. Tell us about catering for sunset and sunrise on this EP….?
I guess that’s my job coming into production there without me knowing; as a DJ, I’ve always played so many genres and long, long sets, so it naturally comes out when putting music together.
‘Yes Papi’ really takes us on that journey, with those amazing opening Frankie Goes To Hollywood, gregorian chants to castanets to 90s Electronic and a gothic bell in the mix too. Love the epicness of it. Can you tell us about the art of mixing so many elements together and still knowing when enough is enough?
This was overload, like three bass lines, so many humms. Reggie Goochid doing those was amazing. This track took a really long time to finish. It’s like the first track I did and was playing out for 2 years. I like drama and being obnoxious with music, and the key change part, I was like, YES FUCK YES, key change will be sick on the dancefloor, and the original version has a 2 min intro which was made for festivals, but I’ve learned now to stop and pass on to my mixer you can get so in your head with this stuff and I’m not a mix engineer so gotta let the pros do that.
We need to ask about the title, ‘Me Gusta is dead’ too….?
Ok, true story: I’ve got this person sending me awful voice notes about sexual acts they want to do, etc, in Spanish, and he would always start them with … ME GUSTA. I really wanted to include it in the intro and actually made a version, but for legal reasons blah blah, I couldn’t. I hate being silenced and having to deal with men doing this to us and not being able to do anything. The track is angry af, and it’s thanks to the period pain I had that day, which I couldn’t walk and was stuck on the couch all day. Then this dickhead sent me these voicemails without consent. Basically, the track was written all that day. Even the drum fills; that’s just me slamming down keys as hard as I could because I was just that angry. IT’S GIVING HANDMAID’S TALE CLUB REMIX vibes and also a little nod to Don’t Call Me Baby by Madison Avenue, but make it spanglish haha.
Lastly, we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001. So we always ask what is your favourite Mariah song and why?
That’s such an easy one. ‘Without You’, the cover of Harry Nilsson. My whole body turns to goosebumps listening to that everytime. Like women in the ’90s, wtf, those voices, it was the ’80s on steroids, especially for ballads. It’s insane listening back to those tunes. Mariah forever xx
CC:DISCO!’s Touch The Vibe EP is out Friday
