Horse Meat Disco

Inspired by the New York club scene during the ‘70s and ‘80s, acclaimed London DJ collective Horse Meat Disco have gained a reputation for their unrivalled parties. Forming in 2003, Horse Meat Disco have since stormed the globe, with appearances everywhere from Chanel’s fashion house to a world festival tour with DFA. Starting out in London’s Chinatown, they now have residencies worldwide, where they are celebrated for dropping floor fillers spanning every genre, from punk funk to italo, house to electric bangers.

Fresh home from Australia’s Future Music Festival, Horse Meat Disco’s James Hillard talks to BBM’s Ella White about Lovebox, Ibiza and their summer plans.

So what have you been up to this week?
Last weekend I was in Moscow and Amsterdam so the rest of this week has been pretty relaxing really.

You’ve got residencies at The Eagle in London, Lux in Lisbon, Tape in Berlin, you must be travelling a lot?
We do every Sunday at the Eagle. Tape Club has closed down so we’re waiting for a new venue and see what’s happening there and yeah we still do Lux in Portugal.

What are the crowds like in Lisbon? Is it a good party scene?
Yeah I think Lux has been one of the best clubs in Europe for quite a long time. I’m not sure how long it’s been running but I think it’s been more than like 15 years, and it’s a really beautiful club, really good sound system, everyone who works there is really cool and the crowds are really good fun. They’re a late crowd, they go out super late.

How did yourself, Jim Stanton, Severino and Filthy Luka all meet?
We all met independently of each other and then all kind of all came together. I met Severino first when I was living in Italy I was working for a record label called Irma, then Sev came in and I kind of remember hitting it off with him straight away and he was living in London, and I was going back to London, so we arranged to meet up (in a pub/at a party) and Jim was there and that’s how I met Jim, and Luke knew Jim. Yeah we were all just out on different scenes, we were all music lovers and you know, became good friends.

Who are you listening to at the moment?
Erm I’ve been listening to a lot of Chaka Khan at the moment. I bought all of her albums for like £12 recently so… I’ve got to stop buying box sets! I’ve got a lot of music box sets now.

Is there anyone in particular that is influencing you?
Um… (long pause…) I don’t know really, I think I get most of my influences from Sevy and Luke and Jim.

Have you got a tune in mind that’s going to be big for the summer season?
I have a record that I really love playing at the moment. It’s not a new one, I’m not very kind of up so much on new music – Jim’s your man for that

Have you got any plans to go out to Ibiza?
God I hope so, I always like playing in Ibiza! But I’m not really sure what’s going on, there was some sort of possibility of us doing a party, and you know the very nature of what Ibiza’s like, but yeah I definitely hope to be out there, I always like playing out there.

What’s on the Horse Meat Disco Schedule for the next few months? You’re going between Europe and America quite a bit…
I think Sevy and Luke go to Tokyo… There are a lot of Pride events coming up in June in Canada and America plus the Jubilee’s going to be a really big weekend and the Olympics so you know, there’s a lot going on, festivals, new music we’re working on [and] hopefully a new single coming out soon.

Are there any plans to go to Australia at any point?
We were just in Australia back in March for Future Music Festival, we were there for a couple of weeks and yeah, it was fantastic.

Are you looking forward to playing at Lovebox this summer?
Yeah definitely! I love Lovebox. It’s really good that London has a really good kind of music festival. You know it’s not in the same league as Glastonbury and things like that, but you know, especially on the Sunday when we play if the weather’s good then nothing can quite match it in London I don’t think.

Who are you looking forward to seeing there?
Chic, I actually saw them in Australia but I think with any band from that sort of period you kind of wonder does their sound still stand up live today and they were amazing so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them again, they were really fantastic. I’ve seen Grace Jones so many times but I never get bored of seeing her so I’ll probably go and watch a bit of Grace Jones, so yeah I think those are my two big ones.

How does it differ between playing festivals and club nights?
I think just because of the size of things you definitely play differently at a festival than at a club.

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By Ella White