Crate Expectations: Lane 8

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Crate Expectations: Lane 8

"I was maybe five or 6-years-old and used to absolutely rinse my dad's copy of Behaviour while I flipped through my Where's Waldo books."

Like most people, DJs and producers have specific songs tied to events throughout their lives. In Crate Expectations, we extract a playlist from their memories to tell their story. This week's subject: Lane 8.

THUMP: What's the first song you ever loved?
Lane 8: My earliest memory of loving a song is Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring." I was maybe five or 6-years-old and used to absolutely rinse my dad's copy of Behaviour while I flipped through my Where's Waldo books. I'm lucky that my dad got me into a variety of interesting music at a pretty young age.

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What are the first two songs you ever mixed together?
When I was a teenager I had a big hip-hop phase, I was really into Big L, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Rakim, that kind of stuff. I wanted to DJ, but I was too intimidated to ask someone how to do it. In my endless ignorance, there I was, in the garage, trying to scratch and mix using one turntable plugged into a normal stereo amp. I decided pretty quickly that DJing wasn't for me. When I finally got to college and had some friends with real decks it was already 2007, so at that point I was probably mixing "Robot Rock" into "We Are Your Friends" or something similar. The French were definitely our idols at that point.

What is your worst guilty pleasure song?
There's a German artist called Lena, my fiancee is a big fan of hers. While I find her [Lena] pretty annoying in general, she has one song that is catchy as all hell called "Traffic Lights," and if I'm being honest I've listened to it on my own time more than once.

What song have you had on repeat in the last month?
A new 16 Bit Lolitas track that is going to debut on the upcoming Anjunadeep: 07 album called "Stardust." People are going to freak out when they hear it, it's absolutely chilling. I've had it on repeat since I first heard the demo around Coachella time!

Which track of your own do you love the most?
At the moment "Rise" does it for me. I love playing it in my sets. I think it's great in the car too—my mother-in-law got a speeding ticket whilst listening to it—or on a long train ride. It has the kind of versatility that, I think, makes certain electronic music withstand the test of time. Or at least I hope it does—we'll see.

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What track of your own do you hate the most?
I'm so bummed that I have to call attention to this, but I'm going to be honest. I did a really generic remix for Florrie a few years ago in a style that I really don't care for anymore. Every once in awhile a fan will request it at a show, which is pretty painful. It's the only track I've made that I regret releasing.

What track are you most excited to drop in a set?
Right now it's my remix for Maribou State which has just come out on Anjunadeep. It's the best feeling when a new track gets a big reaction and this one has been doing just that!

What's your favourite track that you wish worked in a set?
I was just going through my library from several years ago and stumbled on "Not Exactly," it's such a tune. I really want to play that in one of my sets, I'm just not really sure how to appropriately segway into it since I'm playing such a different style in general. I'm going to figure it out one of these days and it will be glorious, or it will be hilariously awkward and ill-advised.

What's the last song you want to hear before the lights go on?
I've gone through many of these… it used to be "Lucky Star," then "Domino Dancing" for awhile. Nowadays I'm being a bit boring and playing my own "Cosi" which has a bit of a lighters-in-the-air atmosphere to it.

Lane 8 is currently on a North American tour. He will be stopping in Vancouver on September 11 to play at Celebrities Nightclub and on October 9 in Toronto at The Hoxton. For more information, tour dates, and tickets click here.

Lane 8 is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter