On Working As A Duo: Double Trouble
Double Trouble is a DJ duo comprised of Lynn Metcalf and Erin Gentry in #BBATX’s 2019 Residency. In this interview, they talk about working as a duo, the art of improvisation in their performances, and what the future holds for them.
This interview has been condensed from a conversation with #BBATX staff member Natalia Rocafuerte.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Lynn Metcalf & Erin Gentry are queer DJ duo Double Trouble. Hosts of “Raw Sugar” a slow jams residency at Sahara Lounge, the duo started as a chance to publicly perform their combined collection of vinyl. Their process includes one partner picking a vibe to challenge the other and build sets that way together, a battle style performances, separate crates in competition.
How did you start DJing as a duo? Pick your name?
Erin: Lynn picked our name - she’s a naming things master.
Lynn: The start of our djing was an accident. We agreed to make a “dueling mix tape” for our fist Valentine’s Day date. I really thought it was going to be more making out than mixing music, but Erin put on the first song (she was working off her laptop, me out of my record collection and recording onto an actual tape cassette) and looked up and said, “Better get ready; you have 2 minutes and 46 seconds.”, and I was immediately addicted to the energy of working together to challenge and impress each other. Our first gig was shortly after, through a friend, at the Salvage Vanguard Anniversary Party, where we destroyed the dance floor, but we didn’t DJ again together for years. But it was always on our minds b/c it had been such joyous expression of our attraction to each other.
How do you build your crates?
When building a crate we usually think about the event: what’s the mood; who’s the audience; what is it our job to facilitate? Then we usually have one song that acts a keystone; perfectly capturing the vibe we are looking for which we will use to edit the rest of our selections by. The continuity we are seeking is largely emotional…does it have that feeling we want to capture? This selection is somewhat collaborative, but still mostly autonomous.
Erin & Lynn Photo By Erica Nix
What excites you about a festival that celebrates and amplifies women and nonbinary artists so intentionally like BABES FEST?
BABES FEST is RAD! We love the diversity in breadth of work that BABES FEST brings to the table (3 days of festivities!). It’s so awesome that women and non-binary folks are the focus, not the side project, because you can see really the depth and breadth of expression that is happening out there. Also, specifically that these people are being celebrated and promoted as professional and successful, aspects of queer and female identity that are often imbued with tinges of shame and inaccessibility.
Do you work with an element of improvisation ?
It’s all improvisation! We DJ battle-style, meaning that each of takes a turntable and puts on a song, then the other has only the time that that song plays to go through her stack and find the next tune. This way, the set is a conversation/collaboration/challenge between the two of us, in music.
How did you arrive to Austin and what made you continue making work here?
Erin: I was born in, and my family is originally from, Mexico City, but I grew up outside of Houston. I came to Austin in the late 1990s to study at St. Edwards University, and moved away several times after graduating, moving to a new place every year of my 20s, but Austin always had its pull back. I came back to Austin after grad school, in 2008, and have been here ever since. I came back to Austin because it was an easy place to live, though I think that has changed a lot since I first moved here, but I love the life that Lynn and I have built here.
Lynn: I moved to Austin when I was 11. My parents and I were living in the Valley, and my father violated his probation. He was given one day to put his affairs in order, and ordered to return the next day and submit himself to the authorities. Instead; he purchased the ID cards of his friend Smiley’s dead brother (whose death had not been reported in the states) and came to Austin on the lam. My mother and I followed suit a couple months later (lol..to Austin…not evading arrest) and lived in a friend’s living room till we found a rental house in South Austin. I moved into that house the day before I started 6th grade. Arriving in this town, out of the Valley, was a massive culture shock, but I’m so grateful to have spent my “coming of age” years here. I was old enough to appreciate the differences in culture and opportunity here (I thought Austin was a metropolis), and young enough to claim Austin as my home. I have stayed and made work here because this is where I am and nothing has compelled me to leave. Austin has been very good to me, and I know how hard living can be in a place with little opportunity for advancement and freedom for identity exploration. I identify as a survivor, and Austin has definitely acted as a life raft.
How to you see your work in the future? Is there something you would like to explore?
DT’s future is wide open! We are such different individuals, sharing such a strong passion that the room for growth is limitless. We would love to develop our individual voices so that we can bring more to our work together and create a richer collaboration and to lessen the pressure on our shared space to be our opportunity for expression. For example, Erin is getting really into recording and mixing ambient sound and field recordings these days, and Lynn is excited to explore genre blending and technical mixing skills. In this freedom we could offer so much more to our audience by expanding the definitions of where our separate identities can mingle and play. Most of all, we crave to make space for queer people to come together and feel seen and safe and important.
Photo by Erica Nix
How to you see your work in the future? Is there something you would like to explore?
DT’s future is wide open! We are such different individuals, sharing such a strong passion that the room for growth is limitless. We would love to develop our individual voices so that we can bring more to our work together and create a richer collaboration and to lessen the pressure on our shared space to be our opportunity for expression. For example, Erin is getting really into recording and mixing ambient sound and field recordings these days, and Lynn is excited to explore genre blending and technical mixing skills. In this freedom we could offer so much more to our audience by expanding the definitions of where our separate identities can mingle and play. Most of all, we crave to make space for queer people to come together and feel seen and safe and important.
About #bbatx's The Residency: We annually work with 10 to 15, Texas-based women-identifying and nonbinary visual and musical artists to produce site-specific work, commissions and exhibitions throughout our programming and events. Through these residencies, we invite the public to learn more about their process, approach and sustainability of their practice. Click here to meet this year's artists.