Everyday I’m Shufflin | Words: Kev Storrs | Photos: Oscar Blake
LMFAO are a long way from home and a long way from their humble beginnings in L.A. Looking down from the top story of the luxurious glass plated Gibson Hotel, early concertgoers can be seen far below, gathering in circles, dancing the characteristic “Shuffle”. The duo, who have all the hallmarks of a modern day “Waynes World” are egging them on, albeit from hundreds of feet above. Selling out arena tours, on the back of a worldwide number 1 hit, with over 100 million (yes MILLION) views on YouTube is a far cry from where they started. So let’s rewind the tape back and see what has taken them to this sunny day in Dublin.
It’s 2006 and Uncle-Nephew combo LMFAO are rocking out. It’s what they do, and maybe what they have always done. But we’re not in a sold-out arena concert; this is a small club squeezing to capacity, pulsing to the rhythms of two DJ upstarts who have been setting the L.A club scene on fire for months on end.
“We used to play in the clubs as Top 40 DJs, but with a twist. Top 40 (or chart music to you Irish) was too easy. Every DJ had the same tracks, played it in the same way, and so we needed to be different. That’s where DJ AM was a big influence for us, he introduced us to electro, and how it can electrify a club. So we started experimenting with different sounds, making our own remixes, taking songs from artists like Fergie and Kanye West and turning them into club joints. We were really pioneering the whole “Party Break” phenomenon, putting together high tempo, upbeat breaks from guys like Lil Jon and Fatman Scoop. We wanted to be playing our music at 128bpm and for most Top 40 music that’s not possible. So we made it possible.”
It was in these clubs that RedFoo and SkyBlu got a feel for what moved people and created the spontaneous energy that drives people to move their bodies.
“The Club is everything man. It’s what we make music for. It’s where you can see people react to your music. Even today I mean, we love to just visit a club and see how the crowd are reacting to songs. Like as a DJ, you only see the people near the booth, but if you go to other parts of the club, like the back corners or the VIP, you see how people really react to songs, what makes them throw their hands up and scream. We harnessed that back then and we DJ’d in a way that got people excited. We were making remixes that people loved and when we started rapping over the tracks, MC’ing our own music, that’s really when our own sound started to develop.”
This is the point where the potential careers of many aspiring artists or DJs stall. The potential is there but what’s missing is any concept of taking it to the next level. That was not the case with LMFAO. They had a plan, a strategy, and in their minds it was taking them to nowhere but the top. Originally pushing their music out through Myspace and Youtube the group where similar to countless other aspiring groups, but for them it was always a stepping stone.
“We’re great believers in The Secret. The Law of Attraction. We always wanted to be the best in everything we did, no matter what that was. When we were on Myspace we wanted to be the best on Myspace. As it progressed we wanted to give the best show, make the best songs. We always believed it would happen, we believed in the positive energy and never focused on the negative. We just always wanted to be, and knew we could be, the best. Now we want to have the biggest video on Youtube ever.”
With over 97 million views for their hit single Party Rock Anthem, they are definitely in with a shout. But that’s all in the future. How did they do it back before anyone knew their name, before record labels came knocking? For any young aspiring artists this group is an inspiration and when they speak it is worth taking notes. They have been there. They have done it. LMFAO had a loyal following long before any labels were taking notice. In fact, when Will I Am did approach the group they had yet to send a single demo or bio to any record company.
“For us, we planned to make it with or without a label behind us. The only reason we would ever need a label or use a label is for something we couldn’t do ourselves. We handled all the promotion and marketing ourselves, but there are certain things a label can do that we would have no hope of ourselves. For example we are sitting here with you today because Universal Music knew you were the people to speak to out here. On our own, just two guys, we probably wouldn’t have been able to make it all the way to here. Universal are so big, have such a worldwide presence, that it’s like a machine.”
But that machine can only enhance a work ethic that needs to already be in place. We wanted to know a bit about the viral campaigning LMFAO were doing before the big labels started appearing.
Redfoo says “We were seeing all these groups doing big things on YouTube and Sky was saying to me “Man, we really need to be making videos and pumping them out”. We were seeing stupid videos with dogs doing tricks getting millions of views and we knew that we needed to get viral. So we started making videos, our own music videos but also skits and funny videos about things we were seeing. It was all about getting subscribers and soon we were getting videos with views breaking 1 million. That really helped us understand how important these things are for when we eventually did get signed.”
With the rock-star image it’s easy to overlook the fact that there are two very intelligent individuals behind LMFAO. Son and Grandson of the Founder of Motown Records Berry Gordy, there is a music industry dynasty in the blood of this group, who appear to have an innate knowledge of how the industry works and how they can harness that knowledge to reach the successful heights they are attaining today. In a time when it seems record labels call all the shots, do the duo retain any control?
“Oh yeah, we still have control over everything. The label trusts us at this point based on the decisions we’ve made, so they come to us asking who we want to work with. They see what we have done works and let us run with that. We’re really hands on with the music. What’s really exciting us now is the next music videos we have coming up. We have enough time now to do it right. I mean for Party Rock Anthem, that video was done all in one day. So now to have 3 days for each video means we can really do everything we want to do with them.”
So what can upcoming artists and DJ’s alike learn from LMFAO? “Be positive. Always put out that positive energy and it will be returned. See where you want to go and believe in it.”
Rap Ireland would like to thank Laura Coffey, Universal Music, Red Foo and Sky Blu for donating their time to give Rap Ireland this Exclusive Interview. The groups new album “Sorry for Party Rocking” is out in Ireland this Friday 15th July.
