CC:DISCO! or the ‘First Lady of Disco’ as she is commonly referred to as has been a local favourite for a long time in Melbourne, playing at all of our local favourite electronic party venues. This year has been a huge year for the legend who has played at festivals including Strawberry Fields and in the international arena at Dimensions as she took to the beach stage to perform her groovy beats to disco fans from all around the world.

We chatted to CC about how it all started for her in Melbourne, her recent eventful set at Strawberry, her upcoming set at Meredith Music Festival, sinking beverages in the beach in Croatia and how she believes that Melbourne hosts some of the best DJs in the world.

Autosea: Hey CC! Can you tell us about your journey being CC:DISCO? Who have been your biggest inspirations?

CC:DISCO!: CC:DISCO! was born in 2010. I was forever making mixtapes and blogging and at that time I was just about to start my first CC radio show on Kiss Fm. I’ve been in Melbourne for about 8 – 9 years with a stint in Toronto for bit and before Melbourne had been living in Mexico and Sydney. I was obsessed with radio as a child and all I ever wanted to do was music, so I was in bands in my teens and was even in the school band that had to play gospel tunes during mass in church.

I was doing radio from age of 15 and then came the records and DJing. I have lots of inspirations but in terms of DJing I love J’Nett, Raahan, DJ Harvey. I really respect and love DJs who just love music are not going from trend to trend but just playing what they love whether its “cool” or not.

Autosea: Can you tell us about your weekly show on Friday Night for PBSFM Radio Show, Smoke and Mirrors? What’s that all about?

CC:DISCO!: I love Smoke and Mirrors, its my favourite time of the week. It’s a program I do on PBSFM that covers all my music. Its a great show and its basically just me having a good time and keeping people happy on a Friday night, 8-10pm.

Image courtesy of ccdisco.com

Autosea: You’ve definitely secured your position in Melbourne as the ‘First Lady of Disco.’ You’ve played at all of Melbourne’s favourite party spots for electronic music, including New Geurnica, Revolver, Boney, the Mercat, Section 8 and more. You’ve recently smashed your sets at the Section 8 day party, Coming into Bloom and the Common Ground night party with Max Graef. Do you have a favourite spot to play at and do you prefer day parties or night parties?

CC:DISCO!: I love all parties, I guess its all depends on the crowd. I really love a day party because sometimes you can get away with playing more “non club” tracks. But then I also love playing a heaving club where you can bang it out. But really the crowd you are playing to makes a vibe the DJ comes second. I love playing Section 8 that’s up there for sure and when it comes to clubs I really like playing Boney upstairs, its like a second home that joint.

Autosea: Your recent Strawberry set was very eventful. What happened there? You’ve got a very similar funky, groovy sound to the great legend, Moodymann. How did it feel playing after him and also playing as a local on the main stage?

CC:DISCO!: What a spin out ay. Firstly, playing after Moodymann is something I would never think would ever happen. I still remember his set from 3 years ago at Strawberry being one of the most inspiring sets ever because he had the guts to play non dance tunes on a main stage. It was a real honour to play that slot especially since I got play some slow music at the start. As a local DJ its a huge thing and I have a big respect for festivals who do put locals on big stages it shows a belief in our scene because to me I think we have some of the most amazing DJ’s in the world. When I attend festivals I love seeing locals shine and seeing them in their element. It was crazy that there was so many CC supporters in that crowd and I was really thankful for that and there were SO MANY SMILES!

Image courtesy of Duncographic

About an hour into set a few rain drops came and within 1 more minute a storm like no other rolled through. I yelled at people to get tarps but sadly by time it got there the equipment had been rained all over and died. There’s a video of me and Move D hiding under the tarp and table which is gold. But what a moment! I’m happy it happened during my set as it just made it even more special.

Autosea: You’ve had a huge year this year, not only playing at Strawberry but playing an unreal set at Dimensions. How does playing at international festivals differ to being a local at festivals here at home?

CC:DISCO!: Not so different, I’ve been lucky to play at festivals in Europe a couple of times now. The setting that Croatian festivals offers is second to none- honestly Tisno is my favourite place in world. The beach stage in Tisno is my kind of heaven- it’s so relaxed. Just floating in the sea, beer in hand listening to amazing music. I really wish we had that here. But we always have Tisno.

Autosea: You’ve got Meredith coming up very soon too which we’re really looking forward to. What can we expect from your set?

CC:DISCO!: Yes, its so close. I’m very nervous/excited. Meredith is a very special place and its basically the dream Australian booking. I’m going to  give it red hot go though. Expect a bit of everything. 2 hours is a great amount of time at a festival to dip in a out and maybe go real hard … we will see. I’ve been known to bust out some real harder stuff here and there… but I promise there will be a slow jam or two, and as always, some disco.

Autosea: Thanks so much for the chat CC, looking forward to having a boogie to you in the near future!

CC:DISCO!: No, no! Thank you so much 🙂

Check out CC:DISCO!’s set from Dimensions in Croatia earlier this year!