Nina Las Vegas has been championing Australian and international electronic club music for years through the Saturday night institution that is triple j's House Party. Leaving the House Party hosting reins in 2014 to give herself a solid amount of time to commit to her own musical projects (though still working with triple j's Mix Up program), Nina has toured constantly while honing her burgeoning chops as a songwriter-producer, as well as instigating the NLV Presents touring party – its 2015 instalment bringing a killer roster of international talent to Australia this month. Speaking after arriving home from a US sojourn, Nina discusses the current state of clubbing, her family's political endeavours and that time Diplo and A-Track crashed at her house for four nights in Wagga.Do you think people care enough about nightlife in Sydney?
I think people care. I've been away for six weeks, while I was away Hugos shut down and Meanwhile closed. It's pretty depressing. I would like to think people are still going out. They definitely are, What So Not selling out, same with Golden Features, but it's different now, it's not a rave vibe. It's a ticketed event. But that's a universal thing, it's happening in the States as well and London's going through a closure of clubs. So yeah I think were going through a big period of making music and not a kind of party vibe. When I started I was in the Bang Gang [Djs] world and the Ro Sham Bo and Hoops world and we did all that to keep the scene going, we weren't making music at the time. But there are definitely good people with big dreams, like Jimmy from Goodgod the Astral boys and the Motorik people, all that kind of crew that are trying to keep it alive. But when the government is so strict here it makes it hard to wanna continue.What do you think Australia is doing right?
Well I think things will have to get really bad for it to get good, so we had heaps of festivals and then they shut down and the club kind of reignited and now we've got the venues shutting down and the secret parties are gonna start and were making music. So people are watching others people's success and wanting it too, I've toured America twice and it's only August this year cos I'm like far out, I wanna do the same as everyone else. So I think that's what were doing right, definitely got the music making side of it down. People are loving what we do here.Music To…Get Ready To Mix via i-DI met this girl at the Shlohmo show last week and she was saying how she's from States and is excited how you bring smaller acts to Australia. Can you reflect on that process of breaking international artists in Australia?
Being different stands out, so last year with the NLV Presents with the international guys it was trying to ignite people's love for house and techno again, because we'd been making slow stuff, I just wanted to change it up a bit. But you cant have a Jersey set here really without someone from Jersey. So I guess that's how it works? RL Grime came at a time when everyone was making EDM, Shlohmo came at a time when everything was stripped back and tight and he brings out a luscious album. Flume is a perfect example, he brought the BPM right down. It's about being interesting and keeping it different. I always say that I push weird club music and weird is good cos that becomes normal and then more people play it.I wanted to know a bit about your music as well, as you were doing radio for so long and you've finally started to release music, what space are you coming from,/ are you considering your existing audience?
I just wish I started ten years earlier! I used to do it and then I stopped cos I got so busy at the radio. I did a really early Katy B remix, remixes for Elizabeth Rose, Sampology. That started in 2007 and I should have just kept going. It's just a confidence thing and I just got so busy with radio.So were you consciously putting radio first for a few years and now that's flipped?
I don't think it's a choice, that's just how I work. Like if someone like, do this job I do everything for that job. So I had to cut back on house party to do more, like I wanted to make music but I can't make anything good unless I'm in the studio at least two days a week. So ever since I came back from my sabbatical last year and finished house party, every other day I've been in the studio and it's still getting good, it's still not even the best stuff. But where I'm coming from I just wanna make music I can play, I feel like I've got a sound now for when I play clubs and it's coming from what I started paying – early Crookers, M.I.A and Diplo – all that stuff that doesn't get made as much anymore. So what I'm trying to do is make club tracks that are also interesting that can speak for themselves and instrumentals are hard but that's what I like.Are you a believer of having yourself write as much of the record as you can?
For sure, I'm the biggest nerd ever! It would be a dream to have 100% me, until I'm not at triple j though that's just not possible. I haven't done my 7,000 hours you know. I can use the program really confidently because that's what I do every day with work, but songwriting is hard. I made 20 sketches while I was away and half of one became something and it's that realisation that you actually have to work every minute you can to be good. I'm up for it, its just when I get time. That would be a dream. But at the same time it's really fun collaborating with people. It's more fun to sit in a room with someone that to be by yourself.I wanted to ask about your family and their involvement in political activism, I know you were tweeting about it a bit but what was your involvement?
Well I cant, cos I'm at the ABC so I'm non-biased. I can't say anything, but I can straight up say I wish we had a different government. That's true. I'm super proud of my parents. My dad is an immigrant and he had to do a billion things to get to Australia and then survive Australia. It's just who we are, and my sister runs giant dwarf and my mum works in the juvenile justice system. It's a family supporting each other but we're all our own entities.Heaps Decent, that's you Levins and Diplo who started that right?
Right now it's totally different, we did the initial workshop and Wes helped us a lot and now Levins and I sit on the board.How did that start?
We did a workshop in a juvenile detention centre with my mum. Wes [Diplo] had all this gear that he'd raised and wanted to just leave it, so for two years we did nothing but kind of fucked around and did workshops, we went went to schools and we'd take the gear and teach DJing. We did it all ourselves and then Fuzzy [Promotions] found out about us and they were like, "Let's make this legit." They helped us become an organisation, they gave us money. If we ever need Wes to tweet or promo it he does, but he's not mad into it. Like it's not his thing.I heard that your parents had dinner with Diplo once?
Yeah, he stayed at my family house in Wagga! For four nights, so did A-Trak. Mum and A-Trak had a bottle of wine together, dad kept giving Wes all these Apple computer books. And I saw Wes in LA but he's kind of king right now, and so is Skrillex. He's so busy playing every night of the week, some nights even twice.Your NLV Presents tour is coming up and I was wondering if you were surprised at confirming everyone for the line up that you did?
Yeah, I mean Djemba [Djemba] has been planning to come out for a while and I was hanging out with him in March and was like, you should come and do my shows because he obviously has the Alison Wonderland connection and he does all the RL Grime stuff but he plays these big shows, but it doesn't mean that he always wants to do that. So I was like oh if you play my tour you can play weirder stuff if you want. Then mssingo, I just love his stuff and hes gonna pop off. I just hassled and hassled and we talk online a bit and I begged and finally he said yes. And then Monki I've been wanting to book for a while and I hadn't met her so that was a bit of a weird one in terms of I usually know these people. But Monki is so tight, she's just put out a new Ep. She's on fire. She's gonna be rad. And I like all the different flavors. So the big heavy sounds from Jemba, Mssingo plays melodic but I also think he plays a bit bass heavy as well.Nina Las Vegas on SoundCloud // Facebook // TwitterNLV Presents, featuring Djemba Djemba, Monki, Mssingno, and Nina Las Vegas hits the road this Friday. For your chance to win a double pass to the Melbourne show, email aucomps@vice.com with your full name, state and the subject "NLV 4EVA".Friday August 21 // Brown Alley // Melbourne VIC
Saturday August 22 // The TBC Club // Brisbane QLD
Saturday August 26 // Argyle House // Newcastle NSW
Friday August 28 // Villa // Perth WA
Saturday August 29 // Goodgod Danceteria // Sydney NSW
Sunday August 30 // Zhivago // Adelaide SAWant more features, tracks and interviews? Like THUMP on Facebook:
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I think people care. I've been away for six weeks, while I was away Hugos shut down and Meanwhile closed. It's pretty depressing. I would like to think people are still going out. They definitely are, What So Not selling out, same with Golden Features, but it's different now, it's not a rave vibe. It's a ticketed event. But that's a universal thing, it's happening in the States as well and London's going through a closure of clubs. So yeah I think were going through a big period of making music and not a kind of party vibe. When I started I was in the Bang Gang [Djs] world and the Ro Sham Bo and Hoops world and we did all that to keep the scene going, we weren't making music at the time. But there are definitely good people with big dreams, like Jimmy from Goodgod the Astral boys and the Motorik people, all that kind of crew that are trying to keep it alive. But when the government is so strict here it makes it hard to wanna continue.What do you think Australia is doing right?
Well I think things will have to get really bad for it to get good, so we had heaps of festivals and then they shut down and the club kind of reignited and now we've got the venues shutting down and the secret parties are gonna start and were making music. So people are watching others people's success and wanting it too, I've toured America twice and it's only August this year cos I'm like far out, I wanna do the same as everyone else. So I think that's what were doing right, definitely got the music making side of it down. People are loving what we do here.
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Being different stands out, so last year with the NLV Presents with the international guys it was trying to ignite people's love for house and techno again, because we'd been making slow stuff, I just wanted to change it up a bit. But you cant have a Jersey set here really without someone from Jersey. So I guess that's how it works? RL Grime came at a time when everyone was making EDM, Shlohmo came at a time when everything was stripped back and tight and he brings out a luscious album. Flume is a perfect example, he brought the BPM right down. It's about being interesting and keeping it different. I always say that I push weird club music and weird is good cos that becomes normal and then more people play it.I wanted to know a bit about your music as well, as you were doing radio for so long and you've finally started to release music, what space are you coming from,/ are you considering your existing audience?
I just wish I started ten years earlier! I used to do it and then I stopped cos I got so busy at the radio. I did a really early Katy B remix, remixes for Elizabeth Rose, Sampology. That started in 2007 and I should have just kept going. It's just a confidence thing and I just got so busy with radio.
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I don't think it's a choice, that's just how I work. Like if someone like, do this job I do everything for that job. So I had to cut back on house party to do more, like I wanted to make music but I can't make anything good unless I'm in the studio at least two days a week. So ever since I came back from my sabbatical last year and finished house party, every other day I've been in the studio and it's still getting good, it's still not even the best stuff. But where I'm coming from I just wanna make music I can play, I feel like I've got a sound now for when I play clubs and it's coming from what I started paying – early Crookers, M.I.A and Diplo – all that stuff that doesn't get made as much anymore. So what I'm trying to do is make club tracks that are also interesting that can speak for themselves and instrumentals are hard but that's what I like.Are you a believer of having yourself write as much of the record as you can?
For sure, I'm the biggest nerd ever! It would be a dream to have 100% me, until I'm not at triple j though that's just not possible. I haven't done my 7,000 hours you know. I can use the program really confidently because that's what I do every day with work, but songwriting is hard. I made 20 sketches while I was away and half of one became something and it's that realisation that you actually have to work every minute you can to be good. I'm up for it, its just when I get time. That would be a dream. But at the same time it's really fun collaborating with people. It's more fun to sit in a room with someone that to be by yourself.
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Well I cant, cos I'm at the ABC so I'm non-biased. I can't say anything, but I can straight up say I wish we had a different government. That's true. I'm super proud of my parents. My dad is an immigrant and he had to do a billion things to get to Australia and then survive Australia. It's just who we are, and my sister runs giant dwarf and my mum works in the juvenile justice system. It's a family supporting each other but we're all our own entities.Heaps Decent, that's you Levins and Diplo who started that right?
Right now it's totally different, we did the initial workshop and Wes helped us a lot and now Levins and I sit on the board.How did that start?
We did a workshop in a juvenile detention centre with my mum. Wes [Diplo] had all this gear that he'd raised and wanted to just leave it, so for two years we did nothing but kind of fucked around and did workshops, we went went to schools and we'd take the gear and teach DJing. We did it all ourselves and then Fuzzy [Promotions] found out about us and they were like, "Let's make this legit." They helped us become an organisation, they gave us money. If we ever need Wes to tweet or promo it he does, but he's not mad into it. Like it's not his thing.I heard that your parents had dinner with Diplo once?
Yeah, he stayed at my family house in Wagga! For four nights, so did A-Trak. Mum and A-Trak had a bottle of wine together, dad kept giving Wes all these Apple computer books. And I saw Wes in LA but he's kind of king right now, and so is Skrillex. He's so busy playing every night of the week, some nights even twice.
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Yeah, I mean Djemba [Djemba] has been planning to come out for a while and I was hanging out with him in March and was like, you should come and do my shows because he obviously has the Alison Wonderland connection and he does all the RL Grime stuff but he plays these big shows, but it doesn't mean that he always wants to do that. So I was like oh if you play my tour you can play weirder stuff if you want. Then mssingo, I just love his stuff and hes gonna pop off. I just hassled and hassled and we talk online a bit and I begged and finally he said yes. And then Monki I've been wanting to book for a while and I hadn't met her so that was a bit of a weird one in terms of I usually know these people. But Monki is so tight, she's just put out a new Ep. She's on fire. She's gonna be rad. And I like all the different flavors. So the big heavy sounds from Jemba, Mssingo plays melodic but I also think he plays a bit bass heavy as well.Nina Las Vegas on SoundCloud // Facebook // TwitterNLV Presents, featuring Djemba Djemba, Monki, Mssingno, and Nina Las Vegas hits the road this Friday. For your chance to win a double pass to the Melbourne show, email aucomps@vice.com with your full name, state and the subject "NLV 4EVA".Friday August 21 // Brown Alley // Melbourne VIC
Saturday August 22 // The TBC Club // Brisbane QLD
Saturday August 26 // Argyle House // Newcastle NSW
Friday August 28 // Villa // Perth WA
Saturday August 29 // Goodgod Danceteria // Sydney NSW
Sunday August 30 // Zhivago // Adelaide SAWant more features, tracks and interviews? Like THUMP on Facebook: