Give Le Youth a time machine, and it's clear where he'll go. "There was something cool about the '90s. the California-based, Ohio-born electronic musician, DJ, and producer says. "I think everyone knows what I am talking about." His bio describes his music as a "?'90s sounds refracted through a thoroughly modern aesthetic" that can "pull a listener back to the pre-millennial, pre-internet days when dance music offered a transcendentally blissful brand of hedonism that's harder to find in today's macho-tinged EDM landscape."
"If I like it, I play it."
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It's a description Le Youth heartily approves of. Asked what about '90s music inspires him, he answers simply: "It's what I grew up on." Luckily, he goes into slightly more detail. "I grew up listening to pop radio as a kid. I used to think they played the same songs at the same time every day like a TV show. I got so mad when my song wouldn't be on when I thought it would."
Now he scours the radio not just as a listener but also as a purveyor — always on the lookout for artists he could possibly remix. He's thus far released remixes by artists as varied as Disclosure, Sam Smith, Katy Perry, Sia, RAC, Jess Glynne, Tensnake, and Chromeo. His requirements for which songs warrant a proper remix are precise. "It has to have a good vocal," he says. "I prefer not to listen to the song before I remix it. I usually just listen to the a cappella."
But it's not all about other people's art. He's working on his own original music, putting the final mix on his next song, which he thinks will be called "If You're Leaving."
"When I'm creating new music, I try to go in with a blank canvas — at least instrumentally," he explains. "Beyond that, the process varies so much. I'll start working with a vocal sample or write and record a new vocal. For this song, it was a collaboration between me and a couple of other writers."
For his Saturday show at Rhythm & Vine Beer Garden, he promises, "sexy dance music, fun times, and painful mornings." His philosophy about what kind of sets he plays, he says, is a simple one: "I've always just played what I wanted to play. If I like it, I play it. Right now, I'm very much into dance music, so I play dance music."
Le Youth and No Way Back
1 p.m. Saturday, November 12, at Rhythm & Vine Beer Garden, 401 NE Fifth Terrace, Fort Lauderdale; 954-533-3734; rhythm-vine.com. Admission is free.
