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Spinning vinyl, influencing internationally and big decisions with Late Nite Tuff Guy

27 December 2016 | 1:09 pm | Caitlin Medcalf

He's often been championed Australia's godfather of techno as his moniker DJ HMC, but Adelaide native Cam Bianchetti is more than that.

He's a guy with as much experience as any heavyweight international act, and his influences spread beyond house, techno and now disco.

His latest undertaking has seen him assume the Late Nite Tuff Guy name for this incredibly seasoned project. Disco, funk and groove lay predominantly in the seeds of his work, and with an incredible slew of edits and originals to his name, LNTG is more than what he appears to be in Australia.

Touring Europe regularly for the last four years as well as playing massive shows in his time, - yes, he's played at Berghain - he's here on home soil this New Year holiday for a couple of huge shows.

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He'll be playing two shows in Sydney on New Years Eve at The Port's New Years Eve on the Harbour and Manly Wharf Hotel's New Years Eve celebrations as well as a New Years Day appearance at Sunset Safari in Victoria.

We chatted all things from what got him into dance music to becoming one of techno and disco's most influential artists of now.

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This is a transcription of a longer format feature from our soon to be launched podcast presented by Purple Sneakers subeditor Caitlin Medcalf. If you like to hear about what inspires some of our favourite artists and producers and why they do what they do, stay in touch with Purple Sneakers over the coming months as we launch a podcast series where we will have in-depth conversations with producers like Late Nite Tuff Guy and many other important acts.

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Where did it all start for you? How did you get into music?

LNTG: Obviously at a very young age I was always listening to music. I remember being really young and playing my Dad’s records that he had. Obviously my parents then had never really been into the sounds that I like – they weren’t into black music which I really grew to love as I got into my teens. I was listening to a lot of 45’s that he brought over from Italy. They were just Italian folk songs, and it was just anything really, I just wanted to play records. As I got older and started to buy my own records – I began buying my own around the age of 13, it was the height of the disco era. I just always loved music, but I got this passion for records in particular and have over the years amassed an amazing, big record collection.

I know you’re tending to use Ableton and Logic a bit more now, obviously the transition between analogue and digital was hard. How was it going from playing vinyl to playing mp3? Do you still DJ with vinyl?

LNTG: No I don’t play vinyl. Even though I love it, it’s probably a little bit difficult. I give props to the DJs who travel around the world with vinyl. I think that’s a great thing and I love watching DJs play vinyl because I think it looks great. I play CD’s now. It’s just easier. I remember the first time I got onto a CDJ. It was a little bit weird for me, but I think it only took me a couple of hours to get the hang of it. It wasn’t that difficult at all so I didn’t really have a hard time. Sometimes I miss playing vinyl, like I said before, it looks great. I love watching DJs do that, I think anyone who wants to start DJing now should really have a go on vinyl first and have a go with that. The rest is easy after that.

Obviously you’ve been such a big influence in not even just the Australian electronic scene, but you’ve had more of a pull on the global scene. Who do you think has been the most influential in the Australian dance music scene in the last 40 or so years?

That’s a really difficult question. I actually wouldn’t know what to say. I’m not sure what to say.

I know you’ve got your artists like Paul Mac and the Ferris Brothers who were particularly influential.

There are some DJs who I absolutely love, people like Simon Caldwell in Sydney and Mike Calendar in Melbourne – these are good DJs. There’s some good music, but that’s a really difficult one to answer for me.

I wanted to ask a bit about the Late Nite Tuff Guy project. Obviously HMC was focused more on techno and then you made the switch to disco, groove and funk with LNTG. How has it been approaching your music from an edits perspective?

It’s pretty easy. I like to think that I put a little bit more into doing the edits than what some people do. I enjoy doing it. I really just started doing it because I wanted to play some of the disco cuts alongside the house music that I was playing at the time, and I wanted to quantise them and beef them up so there wasn’t much of the dynamics lost. A lot of the old music didn’t sit well amongst the more driving house. And really, that’s why I started doing it. The whole thing became a little bit crazy, as you probably know.

Do you think you’ll go back to Europe?

Yes. I’ve already got gigs booked for the coming European summer. I head over there in early May and I’ll probably stay there for about six months next year, depending on how I feel. Should be good, I’ve been there the last four years so I’ve done 4 consecutive tours across Europe, and it’s just been going from strength to strength, so I’m looking forward to next year.

You can catch Late Nite Tuff Guy at these events over New Years:

New Years Eve at The Port ft. Joey Negro, Late Nite Tuff Guy

Saturday, December 31

The Port, Sydney

More info here: Facebook Event

NYE at MWH ft. Joey Negro, Late Nite Tuff Guy

Saturday, December 31

Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly

More info here: Facebook Event

Sunset Safari NYD

Sunday, January 1

Greenfields Albert Park, Melbourne

More info here: Facebook Event

Image: Mixmag

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