DJ Q&A: Tres Lingerie
Tres Lingerie, consisting of duo Johan Churchill and Jordan Presnick, make music that’s guaranteed to send you back into the days of funky disco boogying. Currently residents of San Francisco’s renowned Go BANG! parties, they specialize in 80s disco sounds that can only be found from hours of crate digging.
Although originally from NYC, they have now settled in San Francisco, and will be playing Go BANG! on May 28th with Paul Goodyear, Tal M. Klein, Eddie House, and more.
How did meet and realize you were into the same music?
We met at Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts school, back in 2004 in the music department because we both attended an introduction to electronic music class. We worked together throughout that class, and with our friend Teo Blake, making strange sounds on the Modular Moog system-55, Bukla series-100, and lots of other tasty gear.
We were nascent electronic musicians getting our minds wet with ideas about signal flow, sound synthesis, and the ins and outs of non-linear editing. A couple years after college we got back in touch and realized we wanted to do the exact same things with our time — make funky electronic dance music — so we combined forces.
We’ve worked a lot lately with an amazing vocalist and dancer named James Anthony. He just fell off a cloud one day and in to our vocal booth and sounded amazing, so we kept him.
How did you come up with Tres Lingerie?
When we met, both of us were obsessed with the French house sound in house music that were starting to take hold in the U.S. via groups like Daft Punk and Justice. We started kitsching out over old disco bands like Musique, Klymaxx, etc., and, really just walking down the street after enjoying some tacos from La Familia in Berkeley, one person spat out Tres and the other Lingerie.
It seems like there’s lots of 80s love and lust involved in your tracks. Where do you guys find these tracks? Lots of vinyl digging?
Lot’s of digging! Physical and virtual. In fact, it’s become an unhealthy and economically unsustainable obsession.
Since you guys are residents of Go BANG!, how did you connect with Go BANG! in the first place?
We reached out to Sergio shortly after our inception. I think Jordan was the first to Go BANG! with Sergio. His show on KALX Berkeley radio was, and remains the main dance music show that centers around house and disco tunes in the Bay Area. We liked his show so much that it seemed silly not to approach him. After playing a couple times together and really vibing on music, we were asked to be a regular part of the party.
Why do you guys think it’s such a successful party?
Besides having great selectors, Go BANG! hits elements of a party that promoters can overlook. We appreciate and are friendly with regulars, we bring in DJs who come from cities that might not have appreciation for classic dance music like SF, and we make an effort to connect with history. We all have a pretty tight bond that is rooted in music and appreciating the history of what we do. Anyone who comes notices how amazing it is to be in a space where the DJs put so much thought in to curating the sound. Sergio also puts a ton of time and energy in to making it happen and making people feel welcome.
You guys have also played underground parties like Sweaterfunk. What’s your favorite part of San Francisco nightlife, say, versus New York?
For the styles of dance music we most enjoy, in San Francisco there seems to be a deeper more dedicated disco appreciation scene. Not to say that it doesn’t exist in New York. Year-round outdoor parties are pretty cool, too.
Although you guys play more old school sounds, who do you think are some of the newer artists out today that touch on old school disco/funk sounds?
Few people are doing it as well and with as much intensity as Dam Funk. That said, we’re really feeling Enois Scroggins, Dog Master, First Touch, and others who take a traditional, in-the-pocket approach to songwriting and instrumentation. There is also a trend of newer artists who are down-pitching samples and shaping noise to making really atmospheric, dreamy stuff that still grooves. Onra, Washed Out, D’Eon and local artists Sorcerer, Shock, and Jonas Reinhart come to mind.
Are you guys planning on releasing any summer mixes this year?
Every season deserves a mix! But we can do better than that. We will be releasing an EP with Voltaire Records late this summer. We’ll have original jams and a sweet remix on there!
