CVNT interview for Dalston Superstore

I am gonna be writing some stuff for Dalston Superstore’s website in the near future, so to get the ball rolling, Rachael from the London club interviewed me. Here’s an excerpt, read the whole thing here. 

Who is your production alter ego CVNT TR4XXX?

CVNT, or Cunt Traxx as it started out, is just me. I’ve been making music since the late ’90s, and I have collaborated with a bunch of different people, in bands, with previous singles as the Niallist on Dissident Distribution, and also on my last full length release, the MIXTAPE AKA from 2011. That features tonnes of collabs, from Yo Majesty, Cherie Lily, Ali Renault, Ben Butler & Mousepad and loads more people. 

CVNT is different though. It started off as a very functional thing, making tracks just for the dance floor, influenced by the new school of ballroom/vogue producers from the States like MikeQ and Vjuan Allure, as well as footage of the amazing dancers. Unexpectedly some of these tracks have blown up and gone viral, so it has kinda taken on a life of its own now. I’ve loved house music all my life though, since hearing MARRS as a child, so this project can’t help but be a personal thing as well, reflecting my love of house from now and back then, as well as reflecting the great influence I take from the actual voguers, watching their bodies move and thinking about that when I make music. I was kinda in a rut before this, as I think the whole house genre was, but getting into ballroom about three years ago really re-ignited my passion for house music. So CVNT is a weird mix of the personal and the functional, which in a strange way is a more liberating experience than working as The Niallist, where I think people had certain expectations of what I did.  

Which of your musical heroes would you most like like to see a biopic of? Who would play them and which era/aspects of their life would it feature?

That’s a good question. I studied film at university so I have thought about this. When I was younger I used to daydream about a Beach Boys biopic (not sure about Brian, but Philip Seymour Hoffman would play Carl, Owen Wilson would play Dennis and Dan Akroyd would be their dad) but that seems way too big in scope to do.

I would have to say that right now I would love to do a biopic on Willi Ninja. I’m not sure who would play a young Willi, but I’ve always loved Wesley Snipes, so he could play older Willi maybe. Or maybe he could be Paris Dupree, who would be Willi’s vogue mentor. I think Willi would have to be an unknown actor, preferably a very athletic dancer who could pull of his legendary moves. I’d like to have Bette Midler in there too for shits and giggles, I’d love to get Michelle Rodriguez to play a trans woman, and there’s just so many talented drag artists who could be involved. RuPaul would play Pepper LaBeija, Benedict Cumberbatch would go ginger to play Malcolm McLaren, and my current girl crush Brooke Candy would play Madonna. The setting would obviously be the Harlem ball scene of the early 80s, and expanding to international settings later as Willi gets famous for his dancing (Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo) and dancing at clubs like Sound Factory and events like Wigstock. The film would be told in flashback by Willi on his death bed, and it would have to be quite poetic with long arty scenes of voguing and references to all the music videos he starred in. I do seriously think about making a voguing feature film all the time, and putting as much love and care into capturing the dancing and clothes as Bob Fosse would. 

Read the rest here.