Hot Dub Loves Cheesy Pop Music And He's Not Ashamed To Admit It

DJ Tom Loud, aka Hot Dub Time Machine, explains his careful formula for making a bloody awesome party. Drawing on the best mainstream music across genres and eras, he puts together sets of between 40 minutes and several hours combining audio with visuals from each period. The result is played year by year from 1954 to the present day, with his only rule being that tracks must be played in chronological order. “The whole concept of Hot Dub is making people just feel like they can get up and dance. Like the whole start of the show is Bill Haley’s Rock Around The Clock, and there’s always people who react with ‘Why are we seeing and hearing this?’! But then, as it gradually goes and it hits them with song after song, when the song that they love comes on, then you’ve got them. And if you don’t love what I’m playing now, in thirty seconds, it’s gone and we’re onto the next year.”

To talk to, Loud is puppy-dog positive, which would be off-putting except that he’s so committed his energy is infectious. Much like the pop music he peddles, it’s hard to deny the appeal, despite any cynical aversion to the apparent gimmick of the show. Besides, if Loud was just a gimmick, the whole thing wouldn’t work as well as it has. He’s taken Hot Dub across Australia playing Falls and Splendour, to UK, including regular Edinburgh festival spots, and most recently to Coachella, so there’s no doubt there’s more here than first meets the eye (and ear).

“When I started I felt like a lot of DJs were a bit boring and a lot of dance parties are elitist. Hot Dub is a reaction to all the DJs who don’t acknowledge the crowd or who look down on cheesy or popular music. So yeah, Hot Dub is always about the best party ever, telling the crowd that they’re fantastic and beautiful and that this is the best night of their lives and playing music that everyone likes. And for some reason it’s really original. I think there’s a place for everyone. I only play original songs, I don’t play mash-ups or remixes – if I do any mash-ups I’ll do it on the turntable – old-school layering of tracks and stuff. And that seems like lots of DJs these days everything’s a remix – if I want to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit, I don’t want to hear a house version, I want to hear the actual track with Kurt Cobain.”

"Hot Dub is always about the best party ever, telling the crowd that they’re fantastic and beautiful and that this is the best night of their lives"

Loud’s ascension has been fuelled by what he calls “a mid-thirties life crisis”. Laughing as he explains giving up a career in television in order to become “a superstar DJ”, his background working on some of the most beloved (and perhaps daggiest) local productions having given him a great nose for pleasing crowds while walking the line of popular and quality. “I used to sit in studios working on TV – I did 199 episodes of McLeod’s Daughters, I did High Five, I did an infomercial or two, and lots of work on Underbelly.” The result is a show that has a great visual element (not only the best sounds, but the best images music over time has had to offer), as well as an appreciation of how to tap into the pleasure of what’s popular. Cutting his teeth on the comedy festival circuit, he learnt quickly how to play lots of shows to a great variety of people. “I used to work with comedian and good friend Heath Franklin who told me ‘there’s nothing wrong with shamelessly pandering to local sensibilities,’” he laughs. “And that’s definitely what I’ll do, and I think it’s important – when I see a gig I want to go and have the performer say ‘it’s lovely to be here in Sydney,’ or wherever we are. You have to acknowledge who’s there in the moment with you.”

The Hot Dub mix across time takes not just styles, but genre and gender breakdowns seriously. While Loud speaks with great pleasure about being able to take crowds “from Respect by Aretha Franklin to Milkshake by Kelis,” as well as moving across types of aesthetics and sensibilities. “It’s really fun; the context is kind of what Hot Dub does. And it’s one of those things that you can’t believe that people didn’t do before me. It starts with what people did in the ‘50s and ‘60s and early recordings were generally mono. There’s no sub-bass, and, like, You’ve Really Got Me, by The Kinks is really basic, it sounds awesome but just sonically [the recording] is just awful. And then as you go through time you get this rush of sound as it [recording] gets better and better. It builds until you get to massive tunes.”

Loud’s work is an all-in, but the buck does stop with him. While the classic DJ curse still happens (i.e. kids coming to the decks asking for their favourite track or berating the absence of something they think was criminally missing from the countdown), he makes sure at the end of the day the choice comes down to what he feels genuinely moves. “I was, a long time, doing parties and stuff for people, but it was when someone took a real change that I took off. I’ve played small gigs and stuff, but with festivals and bigger crowds, it’s mental. At those, people are there to have a great time; what you really want to do is just get in and have that proper festival chance to go a bit nuts. I’ve played with Wookies body surfing over the crowd, three guys dressed as Luigi bouncing around, and it’s just nuts.” Smiling, he adds, “So that’s what I provide for them, that stupid festival fun.”

Hot Dub’s ‘work through time’ formula has seen a few copycats and comparisons, including some pretty serious fans and offshoots. “I’ve spent lots of time in the UK over the last few years – I’ve spent half the year there the last few – and there’s all these strange little Hot Dub impersonators popping up now too, like Flash Back Timemachine in Glasgow too, which is hilarious.” While some artists might appear threatened by such barely veiled attempts at rivalry, it doesn’t seem to bother Loud. Of course, it could be because of his own artform’s basis in attribution, but there’s also his commitment to building a crowd using the appealing, and never quite repeatable, attention to the magic of the mainstream.

"I’ve played with Wookies body surfing over the crowd, three guys dressed as Luigi bouncing around, and it’s just nuts.”

“I always try to choose being mindful of the difference between Cheese and Kitsch,” Loud says in a way that makes perfect sense, but also gives no clue as to how the difference is decided. Going on, examples help (kind of). “So the difference between, say, something like Love Shack by The B52’s – that’s kitschy. But then the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams, that’s a great song.” The logic works, but explaining why is trickier. Continuing, he digs deeper. “Something like Staying Alive by The Bee Gees is borderline, but We Are Family by The Pointer Sisters is great.” Still digging (and drawing this writer, and hopefully you, reader, into your own crisis about the apparent (or not) genius of The Gibb brothers,), Loud continues, this time in (perhaps only kind of mock) earnest. “Then there’s things like Five, those type of boy bands and also girl bands, I struggle with finding their place. But then Britney, Hit Me Baby One More Time, that just works”.

This little internal argument is Hot Dub at its best – getting mainstream musical skeletons out of their cupboards and out into the air where they belong. Fight about taste, argue over glory and best of all, it’s about just dancing, perhaps despite yourself. Channelling a bit of a Yoda moment, Loud sums up Hot Dub like this: “I just try and be true about what I like, what gets me. And as a DJ it’s a rare thing. Mostly [other times] you’re playing what the venue wants or what you think the people down the front want, rather than what you believe in. So it’s great to be able to do the latter.”