This year’s Falls Festival will be bringing a high number of people through the gates with eclectic music tastes and the desire to not only stumble on their new favourite bands, but also roll with the party that the New Year’s event is always guaranteed to provide. This year is no different, with the opening nights of each festival ensuring the crowds ease into the three day/night bender in style.
One such act tasked with this exalted duty is LA-based, UK/Australian DJ duo Fleetmac Wood. That’s right, Fleetmac Wood. DJ’s Lisa Jelliffe and Alex Oxley (spinning under the names Roxanne Roll and Smooth Sailing, respectively) first linked up around three years ago, remixing the iconic tunes of Fleetwood Mac in such a way that the project soon broke out from the parties and club nights in London where they first started, to taking them around the world.
“I’ve DJ’ed a long time, since my teens,” Oxley explains. “I was very much into break beat for a long time and worked for a label out in the UK. I moved from that into techno and house and my passion for disco bloomed as well. Prior to meeting Lisa, I was very much into the more experimental end like Aphex Twin and all that world. Music and DJing has always been a paramount part of my life and from DJing, I moved into promoting and did a lot of parties in the north of England and also in London. Then Lisa and I met, and it wasn’t long after we started going out that we played our first DJ set together, which I believe was in a roller disco at Secret Garden! It just gelled straight away and I’ve been able to open Lisa up to music and she has me; it’s just great to play together.”
Their appearances at all three dates of the Falls Festival this year mark their Australian debut and it’s a run of shows they’re both incredibly stoked to be embarking on. Now based in Los Angeles, the opportunity to come to Australia and see some unique parts of the country hosting some great live music is one they’re not taking for granted.
“This is the first time that we’ve played at a festival in Australia,” Jelliffe enthuses. “We’re really excited; it’s a great line up and the locations just look so beautiful. We’ve been to Byron before, but not Lorne or Marion Bay, it’s so much fun to be able to not only take this idea on the road, but take it to beautiful locations as well.”
“There are so many variations of that band,” she says of their love for Fleetwood Mac and the constant formation of their Fleetmac Wood live shows. “We’re still exploring their music and finding new recordings! There’s a reissue of Tusk that’s just come out a few weeks ago and there is some great extra material on that.”
On just how this kind of project even came to fruition, especially with the couple coming from a predominantly techno/electronic background, Jelliffe remembers her original approach to the shows and comments on the way the Fleetmac Wood idea has taken off since they’ve begun branching out.
“I think we had the idea six years ago,” she remembers. “We both DJ and have DJ’ed for a long time and maybe about ten years ago, putting Fleetwood Mac in your sets was quite surprising and not many people did it. Whenever I threw in one of their tracks, the response has always been overwhelming. It was like a hunch or an itch I needed to scratch; I wanted to play it all night long, but I wanted it to be a special event.”
“I had this dream of playing Fleetwood Mac on a boat in this hectic 70’s, hedonistic environment,” she laughs. “But we ended up in a sweaty basement in London. Actually, giving it a club context has really made it into something else. It’s a remix project, so it’s a bit more like a Fleetwood Mac rave, in a way. The music is so set up for dancing; we DJ a lot of house, techno and disco in other situations, but people really dance to Fleetwood Mac and it’s just been great to see that not only are they dancing, but there’s an emotional release there as well. Eyes are closed, arms up in the air!”
It’s always going to be slightly difficult to pin down a favourite track or release from a band who’s career has indeed been so extensive and so diverse throughout the years, much less selecting songs of theirs to remix and bring to new audiences, but Fleetmac Wood have done pretty well so far. From London clubs, to Burning Man, and now to Falls, this unique experience is only continuing to grow.
“With the original tracks,’ Jelliffe explains. “It’s always been pretty apparent that there is such a spectrum there to play with. At our very first party, our friends Psychemagik launched their remix of “Dreams”, which is really fabulous and it’s been very popular. We’ve heard lots of people play it in their festival sets; that was kind of a beginning and we did some remixes as well…we’re always looking further into their back catalogue, because there is so much more there. I mean, it’s very hard to come across stems; there are more remixes out there of the Rumours album, I think. The stems for those tracks have been leaked somehow. There are just so many hits but there are so many songs that could’ve been hits too. “Silver Springs” is a great example of that; it’s like a cult classic, if you’re a real Fleetwood Mac fan.”
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The Falls Festival begins this week, with the Lorne event being relocated to Mt. Duneed Estate. Visit www.fallsfestival.com for more information on the new site.
December 28th – January 1st | Falls Festival, LORNE (Now Mt Duneed Estate)
December 29th – January 1st | Falls Festival, MARION BAY
December 31st – January 2nd | Falls Festival, BYRON BAY
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