leisure:  digtal assasins (Aka Mike Licata & Carlos Vasquez) Offworld Music Interview by Aaron Simmons
This California duo has made appearances on both coasts and been working together for a few years now. It's just strange we haven't heard of them yet. However, it seems the Assassins have the right mix of equipment, drive and connections to make it big in the dance music scene one day. They've recently been invited to the Zen Festival and Winter Music Conference. Movement happened to run into them in a hotel elevator in Miami, where they were more than gracious to share their thoughts, demos and a few party favors.     You guys are from LA? "Yeah. We came in today. We're hanging out all week and getting fucked up then going back home."    Where do you usually make your appearances?    "In the girls locker room! (laughter) In the state of Florida, the last time we played here was at Zen Fest--no, I'm sorry at Boynton Beach at Orbit. And by the way, we need to get our keyboard stand back. We were too fucked up and left it there."    How old are you?    "Twenty-seven and twenty-six."    Have you performed at any Cool World productions?    "Two years ago we played at Together as One and then at Monster Massive a year and a half ago, which was also in LA. Right now, we have no idea what's going on. Our manager's not here right now. All we did tonight is we got here, we got fucked up with some girls and we're supposed to play tomorrow (at Ultra Fest)."    What kind of equipment do you use?    (Carlos speaking) "Six keyboards, I've got three. I've got JD, the Bass Station and Nord. Mike's got another Nord, a sampler and a SH 101. We got a Yamaha ProMix One mixer which saves the songs so all we gotta do is hit a button and it recalls the song. It's just like bing-bing-bing, otherwise it would take us forever. As far as programs on the laptop, we use Reason, Storm, Rebirth, Logic. We got a bunch of virtual synths like AS1, Cobolo, Pro 5, a whole mess of different things. We chop it out, spit out and this is what we've got."    How did you get started doing all this?    (Carlos speaking) "I got started in '89 playing drums in hardcore, punk and industrial. I grew up with Deep Dish and BT and we all made music together as kids and did it forever. Then I moved out to LA about six years ago and Mike was a pimp promoter in Vegas."     (Mike speaking) "I ran shows, ran hoes, ran the car, ran drugs…if you came to Vegas and you were down for throwing down like nobody's ever done it before, for six years of my life I was your boy. I was the tour guide through hell. While most of the time dealing with promoters and booking agents I ran into Carlos. I booked Carlos for a show at Utopia in Vegas and after three of my friends died I hooked up with Carlos, and we've kept in touch throughout. Before we knew it we had a compilation and got picked up by the record label and that was it. We've done music for movies, a couple commercials, the Olympics, and the NBA."    By entertainment standards, how would you compare California breaks with Florida funky breaks?     "Florida funky breaks is the originator. It's what everything has sort of stemmed from. There's no real disputing it. You guys figured it out and you did it. As far as we're concerned, it's not about LA or Florida, but we have a real deep east coast, sort of mid-'80s influence."    You say it's not about the money. What is it about then?    "As an electronic artist right now, your goal right now is to make a song that will get licensed for a movie or a soundtrack or a commercial. God forbid you sell too many, then you've sold out. Then you're not cool anymore. But it's still your right to go for it. You are not in this to starve. You are in this to fuckin' make money. The first time you started flipping burgers when you were fourteen you sold out. If you didn't want people to hear your music, you wouldn't have a record deal."