INTERVIEW: MILEY SERIOUS

GENRE-HOPPING WITH THE PARISIAN DJ

Miley Serious is the kind of DJ we like over here at John’s Music Blog HQ: She plays an eclectic mix of high-intensity, bass-forward dance music and she moves freely between the worlds of punk and rave.

Born and raised in France, mainly in the city of Toulouse, Serious moved to Paris at the age of 25. She has been DJing for almost two decades. She is a resident at the Parisian nightlife institution Rex Club, but she has also spun at American hardcore shows. Serious runs a label called 99CTS, which drops everything from percussive club tools to 808-blasted rap to banging jungle. I recently watched some videos of her absolutely pummeling rooms full of frenzied ravers in Australia and New Zealand. 

The DJ splits time between Paris and New York City. We met up in Brooklyn to drink coffee and talk about French rock and roll and American electronic music and DJing for hardcore kids and all sorts of other shit.

You played in some hardcore bands when you were in high school?

Yes, I had a hardcore—it was more metal-oriented, I wish it was hardcore, but, yes, I used to play in one that, like the other band, was called Ghost Inside. I was playing bass and it was fire. I loved it.

Was that just around France?

Yeah, so that was when I was in the south of France. This band stopped when I was like 15. Then I had another band, more garage, in 2015, that was called Olympic. No, before 2015. Around 2012—we had it until 2015. That was my last band. 

What’s the rock scene like in France, because rock music in France, people make fun of it a little bit?

Always. Especially from the US. The view of the hardcore scene in France from the US—it’s always a joke for them. But I do think, like… I’ve been a part of hardcore, throwing hardcore shows in the south of France, and it went awesome. I think we were doing a lot for the scene, for the US bands to come here. But then, I would say it's really, like, post-punk—the biggest scenes are definitely post-punk and oi!-type things. 

French oi!, I don’t know anything about oi!, but I feel like I’ve heard people talk about French oi! being a thing.

And post-punk. So much. French post-punk, really dark and deep and especially from the west, northwest, is really, really good. 

I can only think of a few French bands off the top of my head. Métal Urbain. 

Métal Urbain, for sure. I will show you one called Litovsk that is absolutely amazing. It’s a deep, like, middle-class, working-class type of sound, and it’s so sick.

Is this a recent band?

They’ve been around almost ten years, I think.

So, you were bringing in American hardcore bands to France?

We did, like, the beginning of Trash Talk, things like that, even more punk stuff, we had all of them in the south of France.

Were you DJing at this point, too?

Yes. I started to DJ in 2006, so I’ve DJ’d for almost 20 years. And I was always doing the afterparty. But I was also more of a punk DJ at this time, because it was a venue where we were throwing hardcore shows, and then after the show I was playing more garage or punk.

What kind of dance music were you playing around this time?

I was always into bass music, so I was playing a lot of Jersey club, I was really into that. Around this time, 2012, it was the best, for me, one of the best moments in club. So, I was playing a lot of bass, general bass: Bmore, Jersey, the UK funky thing, so much. 

How have you seen your style develop since then?

I always think I’m more of an archivist. I go with how the scene evolves, and I love to see how it evolves, and I love to push newcomers. I’m more of an archivist, I’ll definitely say that. Because genre is annoying, but I love to archive and look at the scene in the moment. 

One of the things that’s interesting about you… A lot of people, they’re into guitar music or something and then they find dance music and they’re like, I’m done with this punk shit. But you’ve kind of kept one foot in and one foot out.

Hell yeah. And especially, also, my partner is in a hardcore band and it feels so good to be connected, you know? So I’m always half and half.

Have you tried to DJ dance music for hardcore kids?

Yeah, I did, with Jesus Piece, I did it for them a lot, trying to cross over. We did it for Gag. I did it in France for some other band. I was trying to cross over, but it’s not easy.

It doesn’t seem easy, but it feels like right now more than any other period of time in hardcore, those kids might be open to that.

Yes. They understand electronic music more than before, and not only hardcore, like really hard music. They’re really more open, and that’s so sick. More and more you see DJs at a hardcore show. Sometimes the opener is a DJ, warming up the venue, and they’re DJing in between bands. On the Show Me The Body tour, when Jesus Piece was with Scowl and stuff, in between sets there was literally a DJ. So, it’s like, Wow, that’s cool.

Yeah, it’s so much more fun to go to a guitar music show and not hear guitar music between bands.

I’m just like, Why do we need to hear another whatever song in between sets. It’s cool, it’s cool to bring something different. So, the crossover is coming slowly, but it’s still tough sometimes. When you have real punk in front of you, it’s really tough.

It’s true, I think with hardcore kids, something happened, some of these people got into hardcore recently through rap, through SoundCloud rap stuff.

Yeah, literally all the cloud rap stuff made it easier. Like Bladee and shit like this, the hardcore scene loves that, because it’s something sort of fashionable, I guess. But, if you have real crust punk in front of you, it’s pretty tough.

You know what’s interesting about that… I’ve done a bit of touring in Europe, and it seems like in Europe, a lot of the crust punks are into, like, breakcore.

Yeah, they’re more free party type people.

Yeah, I guess that’s its own thing.

Free party is such a strong community and it’s really linked to the punk scene, I mean, it’s the same lifestyle. It’s a sense of freedom that is amazing, and definitely, they definitely play breakcore, all the tribal things, heavy drum and bass, it’s just cool. I love that aspect.

America doesn’t really have an equivalent of that. You know, these squats where maybe there’s some government funding and there’s a nice PA.

But, you know what? You with your sound, or like Sewn Leather and all the Rhinoceropolis things, for me was that. That was the punk electronic energy.

Yeah, I think the difference is that we never had our shit together to have a proper PA or have the proper 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. kind of rave environment. It was still happening through the lens of DIY punk, where it’s like, OK, this is in a basement and it’s through a shitty PA and it’s done by one. 

There was a moment when nobody was really ready to have this change. Punk needs to stay punk; techno is, like, just this. Now it’s a little bit a mix of everything, which is more open minded. Thank god. I do think, for me, that was the best energy. I was rooting for it so much from my little computer in France. I was like, this is what I want in the club. 

A lot of that stuff, like Sewn Leather, didn't really fit in anywhere. Some kids were into it, but Pitchfork wasn’t covering it.

Oh, hell no. For sure. Your sound, it was MTV but at the same time not. I was like, Wow, that’s the US way. In France, someone who would try to do this music would never do it well, you know what I mean?

Yeah, there was something fundamentally American about it.

There is, there is, but this is why it is fascinating for a European person. Living in the US, I still look at details, being like, the 16-year-old me is freaking out about how cool it is. This is so dumb, but there’s details that the US scene does in a way that’s so DIY because of how expensive it is to have a venue, or how it’s not common to throw something. It always has to be, like, punk in a way. So, it’s just fascinating. 

Everything is a bit of an uphill battle here, when it comes to making culture. What’s the difference between DJing here and going to Europe? I know a lot of people in New York, they want nightlife to be like Berlin. But I’m sure it still feels very different to you.

I hate Berlin, so I’m alright. US business is so different, the way it works is the opposite of Europe. So, being in the US, it’s for the culture, for sure. In Europe, it’s more common—it’s such a lifestyle. I would say, I love it because here it’s a challenge. I think there is a lot to build around it, which I think is so funny because techno comes from here. For me, I’m more into the UK and the US scene, definitely not like Eastern Europe-type electronic music.

The cliché is that in England or America there is often a definitive end to the night, and in Berlin it just keeps going. 

Oh, yeah, in Berlin you can enter one room and you can leave in three days. You can stay for three days in the same room.

Yeah, and I think of that in comparison to the club energy here or in England, which is maybe more punk in duration–you go and then you stop. 

Here, it’s more committed. I see the kid going to even a small thing, but it feels like the biggest party ever, because they are so committed to it. In Europe, everything is an hour away, flights. If you want to go see some artist in a club in Belgium, you take a train and in two hours you’re there. 

Have you tried to do a DJ tour of the US?

Yeah, I did. Sometimes it was amazing, and sometimes it was just like, you know, some cities are really hard to hit and be good. For example, a small city like Santa Barbara. You’d never think there is a club culture or anything, so there’s still things to do around these cities.

Wait, you played in Santa Barbara?

Yes.

Interesting. It’s a pretty small town.

Yeah, and it’s challenging, there were not enough people attending, but it was a good night, because it was interesting to bring something different. To see that—it’s a club for students, there’s usually, like, bottles and Top 50 tracks. It was cool. And I’m doing San Diego, which has become bigger and bigger. There’s interesting cities to hit now.

I mean, it’s just so big here.

It is. It’s so big.

It’s endless. I’ve toured on and off for 20 years and there’s still states I haven’t played.

When you guys do a US tour with a van, as a band, oh my god. That’s insane. That’s insane.

It’s funny to think, like, wow, I’ve never played in South Dakota.

It really feels like traveling through different countries all the time here in the US. Sometimes I say that with my partner, sometimes it feels like there should be different languages—it’s really another world opening when another state happens. It’s crazy.

Any tunes that peaked that night on your last tour?

This producer, she’s called Miss Jay. She’s absolutely mindblowing. She goes from deconstructed club music and then to really deep, hard drums and super melodic things, so she’s for me the future right now.

What other music are you excited about? 

Oh my god, I’m excited for, I think we're coming back to a time where kids are more creative. You know when SoundCloud started, it was the best moment ever. And I feel like SoundCloud is kind of back. So, there’s not a genre, but I feel like it’s more creative. It’s more creative because there’s new platforms like Discord, where you can finally enter a kind of forum, and I love that, because I think music is best when it’s made by nerds, and I think that platforms like Discord and SoundCloud and shit like that make it more deep. So, I’m really excited to go through that now.

Is that how you dig for music sometimes?

Yes. I’m a big forum person, so, I go back to that, literally I’m adding Discords of kids that produce, give feedback, and shit like that. It’s amazing.

Miley Serious on Instagram and Twitter and SoundCloud