Dubbing through time
The premise for DJ Hot Dub Time Machine is pretty simple; play hits across the decades, starting in the 50s and coming all the way through to present day. The Aussie-based artist is coming to Queenstown as part of Snow Machine, playing two shows this week.
Tom Lowndes is the man behind the moniker and he’s looking forward to performing once again in Queenstown, a place he’s grown quite the affinity with. This will be his second time performing with Snow Machine here, and in the 2010s used to play shows around town at bars, and did a show for the Queenstown Winter Festival.
“It’s such a beautiful part of the world,” Lowndes says. “And Snow Machine is awesome – it’s like the offspring of a festival I used to be involved with deeply called Hot Dub Wine Machine, which is kind of where it all started in Australia.”
The aforementioned festival ran for a few years before Lowndes decided that running a festival was “a dreadful idea,” and one best left to the professionals, so he got out and Snow Machine is the remnants of that. He’s more than happy now to come over to see how big it’s got and to be a part of it, without any of the stress of the behind-the-scenes.
He always constructs his sets before each show but when he’s up on stage he’ll often change things up based on what he thinks the crowd are feeling. He explains that while retro DJing can be considered daggy, when you’re playing some of these older artists alongside modern ones, it makes them all the more cooler by association.
“I kind of know which songs are the best and which songs people want.”
Starting out, Lowndes was DJing for about 10 years in his bedroom, not making too much progress, when he came up with the idea of playing songs in chronological order. He focused his attention on Fringe Festivals – Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals are where he cut his teeth, before breaking into the mainstream and doing it fulltime.
“I was 35 when I started making a living from DJing, so it took a long time, but I love it.”
Now, he has a huge catalogue of songs and tailors his sets to where he is performing. For Kiwis he often chucks in some Crowded House, Th’ Dudes, Bic Runga, Margaret Urlich and Split Enz – he went to school in New Zealand, so has a good grasp of our music culture. In addition to great, tailored, tunes, Hot Dub Time Machine is known for high-energy and engaging sets, something a little different to what you might usually expect when going to see a DJ.
“I really think that if you’re performing and people are looking at you, it’s your job to make everyone happier and create a joy feedback loop where you’re having fun and they’re having fun, and then it just, kind of, feeds back on itself until everybody is having a great time. And I think that performing is about connecting – you should be connecting with the crowd.”
Tom, aka Hot Dub Time Machine will play at the Rees Street Takeover Party on Wednesday, and the main arena on Thursday. For the full Snow Machine lineup, times and tickets, head to snow-machine.com/nz
