Think Pink Radio

Born in London, Horse Meat Disco is four DJ’s who curate vintage New York disco, real Italo, and new rarities to form a different kind of dance party. They’ve successfully grown their schtick to residencies at The Eagle, London, Lux in Lisbon, Tape in Berlin and Cihan in Istanbul. Currently, they are promoting a new mix, “Horse Meat Disco Volume 2″ out now on Strut/k7! Records. On Thursday, October 7th, Horse Meat Disco lays it long for Stardust’s 2nd Anniversary at Berlin Nightclub. This will be their Chicago debut, and they’ll be joined by Clique Talk (Live), Chrissy Murderbot and Kid Color. I was able to get them to answer some questions about their scope, their party and their style (FYI, they love American breakfast). Read the Q & A and check out a download link and teaser mix below!

The name “horse meat disco” is really “out,” maybe even confrontational. What kind of limitations or opportunities has this presented?

The name came from a newspaper headline that read “horse meat discovered in british salami.” James noticed it had been partially obscured so the name was a mistake really – it just sounded slightly sleazy. People love the name and really want to know where it came from but it hasn’t presented any limitations, in fact quite the contrary.

How long have you been doing this? What has changed?

Seven years, the scene has got bigger that’s the major change–that people’s eyes and ears are more open to the sound out in clubland.

Who is your audience? How is it different from other gay communities? Are you concerned with creating a community?

Our audience has always been a pretty mixed affair. We started the club seven years ago because we were tired of the same old gay clubs in London where women and straight people weren’t made to feel at home. We cut our teeth in mostly straight clubs and we wanted a queer space where all our friemds were welcome – gay, straight or otherwise.

What about trends? There’s new-disco, fashion, ebbs and flows of house music. Since all the “real” disco was made back in the day, how does Horse Meat Disco relate to current and passing trends in order to keep the party relevant?

We have always tried to keep a hand in what’s playing out there at the minute. A couple of us play newer records as well as real disco  really tend to dig deep into the vaults. Having said that, I think part of our success is the shared knowledge we all have and the sense of diversity that we all tend to introduce to our sets.

What’s exciting to you about touring the states? What’s exciting about chicago?

The musical heritage in America feels greater in terms of soul, funk, disco and dance music so people are really open to what we do. We love the breakfasts, the record shopping and the scale of the USA. Chicago is the home of HOUSE! I’ve only been there once a long time ago and can’t wait to play there

MP3 of “Cherchez Pas” by Madleen Kane, from Horse Meat Disco 2

Preview mini-mix for “Horse Meat Disco 2:”

I think it’s easy for me to get caught up in all of the news about protests and legal battles and who said what about who, and what senator say what offensive comment about gays, or what congresswoman is secretly a lesbian—but I realized that when we get so caught up in the wrong, it’s really easy to miss the right stuff that’s going on.

While there are tons of flaws in our world, people who say really dumb things, or groups like the Westboro Baptist church who flaunt their hate in your face… when you focus on those groups and what they’re doing, you just give power to their stupidity and ignorant agendas. And while I know that often times we mean to block out their voices by pointing them out and shaming them, often times we don’t even realize that we’re also blocking out the positive voices from shining through. We’re shutting the door for anything to come in because we’re so focused on the negative.

So while I’ve seen a lot of people say a lot of things that have deeply hurt me, I want to encourage you guys today to not focus on the things that hurt you. I know in my life I’ve had past relationships where it was very easy to be hurt by someone—whether it’s a significant other, or a family member, or just a friend who you catch on a bad day. When you let people close to your heart, or you care about what they say, it’s easy to get hurt by them—that’s one of the best/scariest realities about true love. Is someone can hurt you. But then other times, the only reason we let someone hurt us who we don’t love is because we allow them to.

Just because someone says something hurtful, whether it’s making fun of our community, or trying to stop us from getting laws passed, it doesn’t have to hurt us, because we don’t have to let it.

Simply put: the negative doesn’t have to affect us, if we counter it with the positive.

Some of the most encouraging things I’ve seen have come from twitter accounts, students, and even institutions who believe that counter-protests can look a lot different than the word implies. They are the kind of moments where when an angry group has signs directed towards a group that say hateful things, that group comes out with water and snacks, and offers them to their hateful protestors. We don’t have to match their negativity; we can instead produce positivity.

And it’s all the more encouraging when I see that coming from companies who aren’t primarily for LGBT, they’re just organizations who serve everyone. One such company is MAXPRO condoms, whose twitter account is often perpetuating this kind of forward thinking. They produce a product I’m * ahem * quite familiar with, but it’s their commitment to blocking out the negative by ushering in the positive that I truly admire.

May we all take a page from that playbook today: Stay positive, friends!

I’ve always been a little skeptical of anything remotely supernatural. Ghosts seemed like an invention of Hollywood, while vampires and zombies were nothing more than trends. I was even a little wary of psychics. I have a few friends who received readings and predictions, and stood by them. But I like to think of myself as a realist. How do you know if a psychic is credible? The idea that someone could tap into the beyond just seemed unlikely… until recently.

I had hit a bit of a dating dry spell. Okay, it was more like a drought. My last relationship ended four years ago. I had dated a lot of guys, but never more than a couple times, which was fine. Honestly, for a while, I just wanted to hook up, especially after my relationship. But after a while, I started to want something more substantial. The problem was, I seemed to be the only guy in Los Angeles who felt this way.

Finally, a friend of mine recommended I talk to a love psychic. Before he finally met his partner, he had hit a similar romantic roadblock. After failing to get what he wanted elsewhere, he turned to a psychic for help.

I didn’t exactly jump at the idea, but after much coaxing, I took the plunge and went to visit Tana Hoy. And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. He didn’t give off a weird “psychic vibe” – you know what I mean. The kind of person who’s head is in the clouds perpetually, and seems totally detached from reality. He was actually down to Earth, and talked to me more or less like a friend would.

It wasn't exactly like therapy. I didn’t lay down on a long couch, while he asked me about my feelings, and responded to everything with, “How does that make you feel?” He was more interested in tapping into the beyond, so to speak, and explaining to me the concept of "twin flames." Apparently every person has a twin flame, i.e., another person who you are connected to, spiritually, psychically, and of course, romantically. This is the person you’re destined to be with forever.

However, twin flames are not to be confused with soul mates. Soul mates are actually not limited to one other person. We can have a many soul mates. They’re people whom we get along with, and can teach us a lot about love. It’s possible that we’ll marry a soul mate and live a long and happy life together. Most people do. But not everyone finds their twin flame.

He didn’t tell me the name of the person I would meet, and honestly such a specific reading might’ve made me doubt him a little bit. Instead, he predicted that I would meet someone with certain qualities and characteristics.

About six months later, I did in fact meet someone. Believe it or not, he does resemble Tana’s prediction in some ways. We’ve only been together for a month, and I’m still not entirely sure the prediction was accurate, but either way, I have a new respect for psychics after that experience.

I try to keep a lot of straight friends. I like to think they keep me grounded, since sometimes I’ll go weeks hanging out with just my gay contemporaries. But I’m a curious person, and I like different points of view, so I often will call up my straight buddies. Heterosexual men, in particular, are fun. Women are great, don’t get me wrong. But I think guys understand each other in a very specific way. Even though we may be fundamentally different in one important facet, we still share a lot of similarities.

I’m always down to go out with them and have fun. It’s not unusual for us to go out for a steak dinner, and hit a few bars on a Saturday night. There’s camaraderie for sure. We all more or less have the same taste in fun. I think they understand where I’m coming from and vice versa.

On one of these occasions of manly outings, they decided to take our night to the next level. After a couple bars, they wanted to head to Knockouts. If you’re not familiar, Knockouts is a strip club. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. I like hanging out with straight guys, but this would be a new experience for me. I’d never been to a strip club before, and I had only a vague idea what went on there. But the more they talked about how great it was, the more intrigued I became. Finally, I gave in to my curiosity, and joined them on this trip.

I have to say, I was not disappointed. The guys loved that I was going along with them. I think it was a total novelty for them (I know it was for me). They got a kick out of it, but they didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. They treated me just like anyone else.

We actually had a blast. The women at Knockouts were honestly stunning. It gave me a whole new respect for what they do. Not that I didn’t respect strippers before. But to watch them dance on stage was truly spectacular. They had talents I didn’t know existed.

At one point, we all chipped in to get our friend a lap dance or his birthday. I guess this is pretty normal when straight guys go out to strip club (one of many lessons I learned that night). Strip club etiquette seems to be that you’re not supposed to closely watch another guy get a lap dance, so I kind of looked out of the corner of my eye. It was amazing. Our friend clearly loved it.

I don’t think all strip clubs have big TVs, but Knockouts does. At one point, I walked over to check out the Lakers game (I'm a big sports guy). This seemed to be the ideal place to watch sports. Hot girls to your right, big screen TVs to your left. If I was a straight guy, I’m pretty sure I would be here every weekend.