Interview with DJ Lactose and Exclusive Release

Last week, I had the chance of sitting down with Seattle producer and fellow University of Denver student Ben Mersereau AKA DJ Lactose. This kid is an insanely talented producer, and he's a name you should expect to hear in the future. We talked about how he got his start producing, live shows, and what he thought of Snowball. Oh, and I made him pour milk all over himself.

EC: Where are you from?

DJ Lactose: Seattle, Washington. Just north of Seattle, Washington.

EC: When did you get your start producing?

DJ Lactose: It was actually my senior year of high school. In the state of Washington, like for my high school, to graduate, you had to do a senior project. LIke a culminating kind of thing. A lot of people would learn how to play piano, or like my buddy built a dog house. And so I was thinking I gotta do something cool, and it came down to either producing an electronic music EP or learning how to blow glass, and both of which were cool.

EC: There's a lot of glass blowers in Seattle aren't there?

DJ Lactose: Ya there are, like downtown and stuff, which I still want to do that, but I chose to do the producing route. And so I was like 'damn, I need somebody to teach me how to do this shit.' And you needed a mentor for the project and so I hit up this guy named DJ Travis Baron. He did like real old school vinyl techno shit, and I never actually met him, but he like walked me through programs and stuff and he referred me to this guy named Adrian Luck who's part of a dubstep duo in Seattle called Splatinum. They're actual pretty cool. But he had a DJ studio in his house in South Seattle. And so for like $10 an hour for like 2 hours a session for 6 sessions, he showed me how to use Ableton Live. That's how I got my start. He walked me through so much stuff, and at the end of that I still didn't know what to do.

EC: What other software do you use besides Ableton?

DJ Lactose: For VSTs I use Massive. I also use Absynth 4 and 5. I also use FM8. I've been kind of lazy about like updating my sounds and stuff, but I've been really pleased with Absynth and FM8. And some of the built-in ones in Ableton are pretty good too. But ya, I created that 4-song EP under the name DJ Gyascutus, which is a mythical animal that has legs on one side of its body that are longer than the other side of its body so it can walk up hillsides. Like just random shit; that's the kind of guy I am. But like I was under that name, and no one could pronounce it and no one knew what it was. But it was funny because that year I was watching the National Spelling Bee and that was one of the last words. Like why would they throw that at kids? LIke a mythical animal?

EC: So when did you change to DJ Lactose?

DJ Lactose: So I was Gyascutus for like year or something, and I came here (to DU) and I noticed we had a radio station, and so I had a radio show--like a two hour block--and I figured out that I'm gonna play one hour of pop music from a certain year because I have like the last 50 years of the Billboard 100. So I can go to like 1987 and I have like 50 or 100 songs popular from that year. Just great tunes, you know, throwing it back. And then the second hour I would play whatever my buddies on Facebook wanted or whatever I wanted to play. And I needed a name so I said 'it's gonna be half and half, and I need a DJ name… DJ Lactose.' So that was originally my radio name, and then I was like I'm just gonna be DJ Lactose. Everyone thinks I'm lactose intolerant.

EC: So you are not lactose intolerant?

DJ Lactose: No, man. I got some milk in the fridge.

EC: So talk to me about live performance. What have you done? What's in the future for you?

DJ Lactose: I was asked to play the Pioneer Carnival in Keystone this year. And it was like 10 days before I get a text from my buddy from Seattle who's on the DU Programming Board. And he was like, 'Hey, does DJ Lactose want to open for Winter Carnival?' And I was like, 'Hell yeah, hell yeah,' and I said that without knowing how to DJ. Because I just like producing, I don't know. I do have a like a turntable, so that helped. So I was like, 'hell yeah,' but then I was like, 'okay, I gotta get to it.' And actually, the night before I went to my buddy DJ AK--he plays at The Border and stuff--he kind of walked me through it. And I was like 'Alright, I kind of know how to do this.' And then I played it, and it was a lot of fun. Towards the end of the set, there were like 60 people there. For my first thing, you know. It went good. I fucked up some transitions and stuff, but I was playing music that was-- In Seattle, there's this electronic music radio station that is run by this high school, and I would listen to it a lot like six years ago, because they were playing the jams, just really dope ass shit. But I was playing hella shit that I was listening to like seven years ago so no one really has heard it. So I was playing like trans towards the end, some house shit, and like five of my songs, which was cool. People were like giggin' to my music, which was cool. There are so many DJs that are playing other people's shit. Like, I'm playing my own shit, and I do have a good amount of songs now. These days, I could play like a 30 or 40 minute set of my own music. But, in terms of the future. I haven't really been proactive about this just because I like producing so much.

EC: What genre would you call yourself?

DJ Lactose: That's the thing, everyone's obsessed with genres and stuff. I could never put each of my songs in a box. People are so like, 'Oh, this is trance-step,' like sub-genre of a sub-genre. I just make the music and it kind of flows out. I don't put myself in a genre box.

EC: Well if you had a word for it… Not necessarily a genre but an attitude… what would it be?

DJ Lactose: Yeah, I don't know. I do some break-beat. I honestly don't know. I recently made some future-funk, electro hip-hop, and before that I did some drum-and-bass. As far as like listening to music, I really like trance, like uplifting, progressive trance.

EC: Who are your heros?

DJ Lactose: Definitely Daniel Candy, who actually reached out to me on Twitter. He's like a really funny guy, like a flamboyant gay guy. On Twitter he always says shit like, 'I'm on the bus right now and some fame was like 'Where ya goin'?' and I'm like 'to your pants,' and I was like 'Daniel Candy, I love you,' not even mentioning my music or anything. And then all of a sudden he follows me and DMs me and he's like, 'Hey, you have good sound actually. How old are you?' And I'm like, 'Holy shit, I love this guy.' This guy like tours the world, and he has a record label. A sub-label of Enhanced Recordings called Always Alive. And he has a podcast. But he said my shits good, and I asked him 'Can I send you shit?' and he said 'Yeah.' I've sent him a bunch of shit but he hasn't gotten back to me, but I'm also personal friends with him on Facebook. He's like, 'Ya, add me on Facebook, too.' But anyway, I love that guy. I don't know, I listen to a lot of the Ajunabeats guys like Andrew Bayer, Dan Stone. Yeah, I really like trance.

EC: What's your favorite song you've produced?

DJ Lactose: You know it's funny. Other people's favorite is my OG 'In Da Club' Remix. That was like one of the first things I did, and I didn't really know what I was doing, but it worked and a lot of people liked that.

I really like 'Echelonian Lesbianism.' I like how it's a big house, kind of anthem.

I also really my Justin Timberlake 'Mirrors' Remix. It's kind of D-and-B and towards the end I kind of break it down.

EC: I'm a big fan of "Passionate Priapism."

DJ Lactose: You know what a priapism is, right?

EC: No.

DJ Lactose: It's like when you have a boner for more than four hours. But, it's like a medical condition that's really painful and it can last like 2-3 days.

EC: I have to give you props for the song title creativity.

DJ Lactose: I've always been like that. Like, I post a YouTube video, and the description is just out there. I have 'Echelonian Lesbianism,' 'Passionate Priapism…"

EC: I mean when someone sees that, DJ Lactose produces 'Echelonian Lesbianism,' like it's just something you have to hit the play button for. It's really respectable.

DJ Lactose: Well, I hope I separate myself from the crowd, because everyone's names are shit like 'Blue Forcefield' or 'My Garden.'

EC: I'm running out of questions. What do you want people to know? What would you tell people about yourself?

DJ Lactose: I think I'm producing good shit. I'm getting some attention, and I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to start playing more show, try to be more proactive and doing that. You know like whenever I go to Snowball or like I went to this stupid music festival in Cancun, and like they weren't playing their own shit. And they were playing for huge amounts of college kids. I'm just like, 'Dude, what are you doing up there?' I need to get up there next year.

EC: How did you like Snowball by the way?

DJ Lactose: I liked it. I really liked the rappers. I'm a hip-hop head, too, but Busta played a show, dude. And Earl Sweatshirt had a better show than I thought. I didn't know anything about Griz, but I really liked his incorporation of live instruments.

EC: He played a killer set. I've seen him four times now, and it was the best set of his I've seen. I loved it.

DJ Lactose: Whenever you post this, I'm mastering a lounge song, but I sped it up for the floor. It's like Brazilian or something.

EC: And it's not released?

DJ Lactose: No, not yet. I'm mastering it, it's close though.

EC: So you can release it through ElectriCO?

DJ Lactose: Yeah, let's do it.

I want to thank DJ Lactose for taking the time to talk with me and doing a ridiculous photo shoot. He's a hilarious guy, and I'm grateful that he let me grill him for 15 minutes. As promised, his new track is below for your listening pleasure. We also have 4/20 weekend approaching, so look for recaps of Paper Diamond and Snoop Dogg.

Featured Song (ElectriCO Exclusive Release):