DJ Tom Loud is making waves on the party scene by taking crowds on a time travelling journey. His live DJ sets mix the best dance tunes from 60’s rock, 70’s disco, 80’s cheese, 90’s mayhem for a night to remember. His Hot Dub Time Machine will be traveling through time and space for an Australian tour in March. He gives us the low down on the party of the century.

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Gemma: If you were transported into the past by a hot tub time machine and could only choose one decade to live in. What decade would you choose and why?

Tom: The 60’s for sure! As long as I could be in San Francisco or New York, hanging out with hippies, discovering sex, drugs, and rock & roll, and thinking the world could actually be saved by debauchery! Who wouldn’t want to be there?

The crowds that flock to the Hot Dub Time Machine are insane. What makes this dance party so unique?

The chronological journey through music that is the heart of the concept means that it’s never boring, always changing, fundamentally pretty silly, and lots of fun. Also, there aren’t enough places where you can go and have a straight-up awesome boogie to really good music. Everyone is welcome at Hot Dub; young or old, cool or uncool, ravers, rockers, disco queens, and my mum all have a great time.

What are the top three songs that make the crowd go crazy during the set?

I’m really enjoying playing TNT by AC/DC at the moment. It goes really well, perhaps becasue you don’t get much more “Oz-Rock” than chanting “Oi.” I do a ‘Michael Jackson Megamix’ that goes really well, and ‘Mr Brightside’ seems to be proving itself a timeless classic.

There are so many songs you could choose from the 60’s to the present to play at a Hot Dub Time Machine gig. How on earth do you cut it down into a playlist for one show?

There’s been a huge amount of hours and research looking through books, charts, and movies trying to find the most iconic songs over the past 60 years. The challenge is in representing the major musical forces of each era, while also keeping it fresh and funky as hell for people who’ve been a number of times. I take the chronological order constraint very seriously, and try to keep it nice and accurate while giving “trainspotters” a few things to complain about! It’s a constant, wonderful challenge and I feel very privileged to be doing it for a living.

What is your favourite dance move to pull out on stage? Is there a lot of fist pumping?

I’ve been told I dance like a background girl in a Nelly music video and I think that’s accurate. There’s certainly more booty movement from me than in most straight males and I certainly try to get my ‘Milkshake’ on whenever possible. And yes, there is a huge amount of fist pumping. It’s quite painful… In many ways.

Your wife Alexandra is involved in the project as the virtual ‘Lulu Lord’ who guides the party from the screen. Will your daughter Lizzy be involved in this upcoming tour?

Only in adorable photos on my Instagram and Facebook. Cutest baby ever. She shows major potential though, you should see her bang plastic cups together in the bath. The kid is a genius. And I say that from a deeply unbiased position.

Hot Dub Time Machine has shared the stage with some pretty awesome artists, like Chaka Khan and the Roots. If you could collaborate with any band or musician, to add a few live vocals on stage, who would it be and why?

Wow! That’s an interesting question! I’d be pretty stoked if Snoop Dogg came on stage… I once had an Irish rap band called The Rubberbandits come on stage in Edinburgh, with their signature ‘shopping bag’ face masks and do ‘Jump Around.’ I discovered seconds before they came on stage that none of them knew the words. But it went crazy anyway. The Rubberbandits are awesome.

Finally, if you could go back into the past and change something in the course of music history, would you change anything and why?

There’s just so many tragic deaths of talented, wonderful young people. It’s a really heartbreaking industry when you think of all the people who died too soon. I was really upset about Amy Winehouse. Although many people know her as tabloid fodder, I believe she had enough talent to be compared to the great female vocalists of all time, and can you imagine how great she would have been with the wisdom of age…. I feel nervous for artists like ‘Lorde’ embarking into that world so young…. Holly, Valens, Redding, Jones, Joplin, Hendrix, Morrison, Cobain, Buckley, Nowell, Biggy, 2Pac, Winehouse. It’s great to be able to celebrate their music, but it’s a bummer they didn’t make it.

WHO: Hot Dub Time Machine by DJ Tom Loud

WHAT: Audio-visual, boogie-powered dance party

WHERE: The Metro Theatre

WHEN: Saturday 19th April

COST: $22 – tix here