Clubbing During COVID: How This LA DJ Keeps the Party Going

(Image: Getty)

With Los Angeles however facing restrictions to stem the rate of COVID-nineteen infections, Angelenos have been mourning the lack of nightlife.

Simply DJ Larry Thousand (aka Lawrence Gjurgevich), founder of cult dark "CLUB Secret," isn't waiting for life to return to normal. Every Friday night at 8 p.m. PT, he broadcasts alive using a triangulation of tech tools, including Mixlr, dublab, and Twitch.

We grabbed a decent set of headphones, put the laptop on the countertop, and logged on from a kitchenette in Hollywood. Order Underground—the Lockdown Edition—was surprisingly compelling. There was even a live chatroom, which stayed on theme as we all got hot and sweaty from a safe distance. The morn after, we spoke with DJ Larry G to find out more.

When LA'due south lockdown kicked in, and everything closed overnight, how long did it accept you to plot a virtual resurgence of Club Underground? [LG] My significant other, Ana, is a nurse practitioner, and she and I had only returned from Spain on March 12. Having seen what was happening in Europe, we decided to close our doors equally a condom precaution immediately—a full calendar week ahead of the mandated LA lockdown. People are far more valuable than any profit made at the venue, and I am always trying to keep our customs safe and to await out for one some other. I knew immediately we needed to stay connected with our patrons and rendered Guild Underground fully virtual by the following Fri.

I was on your electronic mail list and and so tuned in that night. Information technology was (virtually) packed. [LG] Aye. Nosotros had over 500 tuned in for our first e'er online event; it was great.

Talk usa through your tech setup. [LG] As a DJ and fan of music, I knew we had to have proper audio ready for a good listening experience. I stumbled upon Mixlr after days of research, and I bought a hosting subscription, which allows for me to accept my own station. After using it for a while and talking to friends at online stations, Mixlr was really a get-to platform for many popular online radio stations around the world. The bonus is that it has a cool chat feature which allows for abiding interaction that we use for contests, polls, and just hanging out.

Club Underground chat log

(Club Secret chat)

And for the video feed? [LG] After trying a couple of different platforms, we went upwardly on Twitch. They take a number of cool extensions that permit multiple camera/video feeds, slideshows, and so on, while letting yous layer your audio over what y'all see on the screen. So for case, I like to utilise videos at the venue when we do our upshot IRL and the music I spin soundtracks the political party. With Twitch we can have the sound stream, a cool visual, and and so a little corner showing me DJ or, randomly, chasing my domestic dog around the house.

Some restrictions have been lifted on the number of people allowed to gather (for now), and yous tried a hybrid model. How did that go? [LG] We recently did a remote social distancing result in Chinatown, and it sold out in minutes, while people were also able to tune in and see/hear what was going on via Twitch.

Many people were wearing branded Lodge Secret face masks, right? [LG] Correct. While we sell shirts and other stuff online, the oddest thing we never idea nearly prior to March are masks. Our Hush-hush-themed masks always sell out.

Permit's practise some background: Club Surreptitious turns 20 next year. Is information technology truthful we have Johnny Marr of The Smiths to thank? [LG] In a fashion, aye. I had a hazard meeting with Marr and he asked if I played guitar. I said yep, just my skills were limited. Marr said: 'All that matters is y'all do what y'all love [but] your neighbors don't want to hear it, so become out of your room and do it in front of others.' I so realized my guitar playing might be limited, but my record collection was not, then I decided to requite DJing a shot and started Club Underground, because every other club in boondocks already had their DJ teams locked in.

LA is notorious for its dissimilar factions, merely Club Hole-and-corner seems to draw them all in. Was that truthful right from the start? [LG] Yes. We decided 'no rules'—just play skillful indie and post-punk bands, and try not to rely solely on by decades, as then many clubs were doing at the time. We set out to drop whatever pretense and permit the music and inclusive vibe speak for itself.

Club underground promotional poster

(Image: Guild Underground)

Tin yous give a shoutout to some of the luminaries you invited to stand in your DJ booth in the past 20 years? [LG] As well many to mention, merely, here goes: we've hosted DJ sets from Creation Records' Alan McGee, The Charlatans' Tim Burgess, Paul Ryder from the Happy Mondays, then many others.

Namecheck a few famous faces you spotted on the trip the light fantastic floor? [LG] Underground has had visits from members of Belle & Sebastian, Factor, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Karen O. (YYY'southward), Corking Warhols, Foster The People, Blondie, Peel, along with many Hollywood types also.

You lot grew up hither in LA. What was that like, and how did your appreciation of all things musically UK embark? [LG] As an 80s kid, nosotros were fortunate to take KROQ (they used to be good, trust me) and some local video shows hosted by British-American presenter Richard Blade. Information technology was a ton of pop, new wave, and post-punk at the time along with sprinkles of indie bands like The Smiths, The Jam, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, which really piqued my interest. So I discovered import record shops and realized there were magazines like Melody Maker and NME, plus fanzines about the bands I liked and information technology was like traveling to a new planet.

As you point out on your sitepoint out on your site, it takes more to DJ and run a club night than near people retrieve. You've recently gone further, including a dive into gestalt psych, right? [LG] Psych and design thinking have e'er played a part in everything related to what I do with Secret, fifty-fifty before I knew what they actually meant. Basically, if we rolled out the aforementioned thing calendar week in and week out, nosotros would have become a footnote in LA clubland history, rather than yet here 20 years later. Then we give thought to switching information technology all upwardly, whether that is the embrace/art work, theme/no theme, featured genre/era, etc.

This is a very West Coast question, but has anything anything good come out of the new normal due to COVID-19? [LG] I think 2022 will act as a year zero for re-imagining outcome designs and experiences. I was uncertain virtually how things would work in the virtual world, only afterward the past six months, I know that we fabricated the correct choice. We've made new friends, learned and supported one another and forged new bonds which might not accept happened had things never changed.

Can you encounter a future for a hybrid digital/IRL model? [LG] The plan going forward, when nosotros reopen IRL, will be a hybrid of in-person and virtual Underground to comport on and keep our community together. Nosotros now have listeners from all over the world, specially in Australia, Germany, and the UK. So having a virtual option might keep us on their radar with the promise they too can bring together us adjacent time they are in town, or when I tin travel again and am DJing elsewhere.

Final question. When all this nightmare ends, what will be your opening dark track to go u.s. back on the IRL trip the light fantastic floor? [LG] With a huge sigh of relief, we volition start with Joy Segmentation's "Isolation" straight into "Nosotros Tin Dance Again" by Pulp. Both tunes have been our theme songs during this fourth dimension.