Meet Butch Le Butch // A Smirnoff Seltzer Presented LGBTQIA+ Local Artist Feature
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Presented by the no sugar, OG vodka seltzer baddies themselves, Smirnoff are this month featuring Naarm-based DJ, Butch Le Butch, as our latest LGBTQIA+ Seltz-Ar-tist of the month!
Yep, the famed vodka favourite, and subsequent masterminds behind the brand new low sugar Spicy Margarita & Watermelon Margarita cocktail inspired vodka seltzers, have decided to use this paid article to instead promote an emerging LGBTQIA+ local music mixing DJ.
It really is big icon energy…which is impressive, given that their new Spicy Margarita & Watermelon Margarita vodka seltzers are only 107 callories per can. An impressive flex if we do say so ourselves.
So next time you’re en route to a big gay gig, having the gals and the gays round for a drink, or meeting a ferociously fabulous someone at the bar, feel free to grab yourself an equally fabulous 7% ABV (1.4 standard drinks per can) Smirnoff Seltzer.
MEET BUTCH LE BUTCH
As someone who’s been in the music industry for the better part of three decades, Melbourne DJ Butch Le Butch (@butch_le_butch) admits that, growing up, music was never really on his radar.
“My interest in music was a bit of a slow burn,” he says, “when I was younger, I wasn’t one of those ravenous people who consumed music, and I certainly didn’t have a very strong interest in dance music culture or anything like that.”
Nevertheless, Butch says that the music he was exposed to at home played a large part in his formative years, explaining, “my sister and I were exposed to disco music at a very young age, and that was something we really enjoyed. I think that – while I didn’t know it at the time – definitely coloured my taste in music for the rest of my life.”
Then, as Butch Le Butch grew up, came out and started going to clubs, it was dance music which really influenced him to begin DJing. In the beginning, he says, “I didn’t have any equipment, so I started making record/pause mixtapes that I used to subject all of my friends to.”
“As you can imagine, they weren’t amazing,” he jokes, “but I guess the passion was always there.”
After mixing for a while, he was very unexpectedly – and very unintentionally – thrust into DJing.
He explains, “By some fortuitous events, I managed to score my first DJ gig at a very unlikely venue.” The venue? Women’s Oasis, a 100% women’s-only venue in Melbourne.
On that night, Butch says that, “I’d never DJ’d before; I had no idea what to do, how to program, what to play, or how anything worked. So I literally taught myself how to do it…while doing it.”
From there, he was yet again thrown into another unusual situation at the Palace Hotel in St Kilda where, “I did a nine-hour set – from 9pm to 6am – in the back room, which was pretty phenomenal, and from there, everything started to kick off from that point.”
After that career-defining moment, Butch’s music underwent many a transformation. At one point, he was mixing largely techno and electronic styles of music, before diving head-first into, “a Euro-progressive kind of vibe.”
Ultimately, he explains that his influences were almost exclusively a result of the music he was hearing at gay clubs in the ‘90s.
More recently, Butch admits that his musical influences have come full circle. “I rework a lot of disco stuff at the moment,” he says, “because I guess I’ve gone full circle from where I started as a child to where I am today.”
He continues, “what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years– is buying lots and lots of records and finding tracks that – to this day – I’ve never heard before, and it’s still really exciting finding things and taking risks. And sometimes it pays off, and other times maybe not. But I like trying to put something together; working all the tracks, and bringing them to a structure that I can use within my sets.”
To support Melbourne’s resident disco-flavoured DJ, follow him on Instagram (@butch_le_butch). You can also listen to his sets on Bandcamp (butch-le-butch.bandcamp.com/music) and on Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/butch_le_butch).
BUTCH LE BUTCH’S QUICK FIRE FAVES
Q. Fave queer event in Australia?
A. MARY! (…and Lovebreak at UBQ)
Q. Fave queer musician?
A. Tanzer (…and Sylvester…and Patrick Cowley)
Q. Fave Smirnoff Seltzer?
A. Natural Lime
This article was written in (paid) partnership with Smirnoff, an LGBTQIA+ inclusive brand that supports A Modern Gay’s Guide’s free LGBTQIA+ offering.
