Lunar Disco comprises husband and wife Australian singer/songwriter Kate Elsworth and French DJ/producer Nicolas Blistène. Having appeared on the likes of Defected and Kindisch, the charismatic and glamorous pair recently launched their 1980s inspired Suck My Disco imprint, with the first release ‘It’s About Time’ landing in late 2021. Prepping their latest single, ‘Telephone Rose’, Lunar Disco tap Christian Burkhardt and Dan.B for house remixes for an explosive second release on the label.
Leading the release, the original mix of ‘Telephone Rose’ sees the duo in typically funky form, bringing chugging disco basslines alongside swirling synths and sultry French vocals. Germany’s Christian Burkhardt ups the ante, adding hard-hitting drums and warbling low end underneath elements of the original. Closing out the release is Dan.B’s remix, which sees the Swiss DJ/producer add mellow chords and rolling drums to end the EP with a soft touch, rounding out a package that is sure to light dancefloors on fire worldwide.
WWD: Welcome to When We Dip, Kate & Nicolas, also known as Lunar Disco. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about your upcoming release, Telephone Rose, how are you both?
Great! Thanks for having us. Excited for our second release on our label ‘Suck My Disco’ called ‘Telephone Rose’. It’s out on Tuesday 12th of April. It’s part of a series of 10 singles including remixes each time that will ultimately be our first album.
WWD: Telephone Rose’ is a refreshing, modern take on synthwave. How would you describe Lunar Disco’s productions, do you associate with any specific genres?
Our productions are all a bit unique in their own way. Each track is pretty different from each other from the BPM to the mood we give them. Some are more radio, some others more dance floor. However they all carry an element from the synthwave genre which ties them altogether and defines the aesthetic of the label. Our genres range between synthwave, electronic & deep disco
WWD: The release features versions from Dan.B and Christian Burkhardt, how did you pick these two artists for remixes?
All of our releases from the album feature remixes from our dear friends from across the globe. We sent Christian and Dan some of the tracks we had finished for the album and they loved Telephone Rose..
WWD: The alias and the label, Suck My Disco, embrace a timeless look – where does your love for retro aesthetics come from?
We were both born in the 80s and big fans of that era. We wanted to create colourful fun dancefloor tracks with a sense of playfulness to take our audience away from this mundane situation that we’ve all been living through over the past few years. Our approach is a bit tongue in cheek and perhaps something that this industry needs.
WWD: There is also a music video accompanying the single, could you please share something about the inspiration, idea and story behind the clip?
The music video was inspired by some of our old favourite classics like Scarface, Casino. The song is about a girl who is at home alone and her lover seems to be away a lot. She explains that she is lonely and bored and needs a bit of love.. A little out of character she decides to call an erotique hotline known as Telephone Rose to get her rocks off before her lover returns.
WWD: You are not only a duo but also a married couple, working together in music. What’s the secret?
Right place at the right time. I guess we got lucky. Both of us before we met were already in the industry both touring, playing and making music around the world. We met in Ibiza at a party and started to play B2B together which ended up being fire. 5 years later after touring together we made music and our baby girl and the rest is history.
WWD: You first met in Ibiza and have since played gigs all across the world. Where are you currently based and what were some of the highlight spots you have travelled to?
We are currently based in Byron Bay in Australia but we are heading back to Europe for our Summer Tour. We reside between Byron and Paris.
It would be very hard to list our highlight spots because we simply have too many. Our journey together has been a wild ride and I guess that’s why we are still in this industry… because sometimes you just fall in love with a venue, a club, an audience, sometimes it’s the culture of the country or the city you get to discover because that’s where the party is. Most of the time its the people you meet who are running these shows. It’s a very special job run by passionate people and this is what makes it exciting each time. Now if we had to mention 3 that come to our mind, we would send love to our little family of the breakfast club melbourne, we would hug the team of the Yelapa Festival in Mexico and we would give a big fat juicy kiss to Blond:ish, Liana and the Abracadabra crew for this epic party in Tulum.
WWD: Can you tell us something about your hybrid live shows?
Expect to be teleported back in time.
The whole concept of this series of EPs (which will ultimately be an album ) is that each track has vocals written and sung by Kate. Kate jumps on the mic and performs our tracks live when we play them. Ultimately the idea would be to perform a live around this album but as our audience knows us as DJs we are integrating this into our sets. .
WWD: What can we expect next from the two of you, are there any upcoming plans you’d like to make our readers aware of?
We just got a cat, we are looking for a second hand fax machine and we are playing this summer at Deferlantes festival with Black Eyed Peas, Muse and Martin Garrix.