The image of a DJ in Miami is usually accompanied by thumping house beats, Prada-clad models, neon strobes and dark Chanel sunglasses peering over $15 cocktails. But that’s South Beach; it’s not Miami. It’s certainly not Little Havana, and its most definitely not DJ Le Spam.
It’s a glamorous city by day and night, but by the time DJ Le Spam (Andrew Yeomanson) had arrived in Miami over twelve years ago, he had already soaked up the cultural variances of Montreal, London, Tampa, Bogota and Toronto. His foundations were well solidified in worldly sounds and global issues far outside the sweaty clubs of the trendy strip. Starting his music career in the early 1990s, he joined up with a Haitian political roots group – Lavalas Band – and recorded an album, but by 1993 had gone on to form his own group, the Spam Allstars. Over the next two years, the Allstars created a unique Miami soundscape, building a small name for themselves by incorporating Latin, funk, hip-hop and dub within improvisational electronics and DJ Le Spam’s famous turntable work. But when the coveted opportunity to play and tour with Nil Lara presented itself, he jumped at the chance and spent the next three years working on Lara’s project.
In 1998, back in the sultry winds of Miami, he reassembled a new Spam Allstars and quickly reaffirmed their place in the eclectic Miami scene. Avoiding the posh and stale clubs of South Beach, the Allstars opted to take residency in Little Havana, and by 2002, they released Fuacata Live! to critical acclaim that ran far beyond the shores of Miami. Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Times, Washington Post, DownBeat, The Village Voice and Newsweek all praised the effort, and the album was eventually recognized with a Latin Grammy nomination in the Pop Instrumental category.
Then early last year, Phish’s Page McConnell was vacationing in Miami and sat in with The Allstars one evening. An immediate working relationship was formed, and the result – The Illustrated Band – was released as a joint effort between the Allstars and McConnell’s own side-project, Vida Blue which features Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers Band/Aquarium Rescue Unit) and Russell Batiste (the Funky Meters).
With momentum building; including the first Spam Allstars studio album due out this Spring and a highly anticipated appearance at the upcoming Bonnaroo Music Festival, we caught up with DJ Le Spam to see how he’s enjoying this Allstar ride.
Since joining up with Vida Blue last year, you’ve begun to gain more national recognition, but you’ve been playing clubs in Miami for close to ten years now.
Yeah, this will be our tenth year. There were a few years of inactivity because I had a road gig – playing guitar with Nil Lara – but yeah, we’ve played at least a couple times a week here in town for the last five years.
It’s a vibrant city, but how did you assemble such an eclectic group of musicians? You’ve all got very different backgrounds.
It’s a pretty small scene for musicians here in Miami. Our guitar player, Adam [Zimmon], is a guy that I’ve known for probably seven years or so. I first met him when I was playing guitar with Nil, and I always respected his guitar playing. And then when I started doing experimental stuff with the Spam Allstars again, Adam was the first one onboard. We would do pirate radio where we would just do like the electronic stuff with rock, just straight out live. So Adam is kind of like the longest standing member of the lineup right now. And [our trombone player] John [Speck], at the time I met him, he was new to Miami, he had just moved here after finishing college, and I saw him playing with Bacilos. They’re a pretty popular Latin rock band here. And I was looking to replace some horn players that moved out of town, so I approached John, and he started gigging with us like that. Then AJ [Hill]…when I first moved here in 1990, I met AJ fronting his own group which was kind of a punk type of band, and I always respected him a lot and he was actually running his own venue for a while, so one of our little residencies was there. He wasn’t playing with us yet, but that’s when he jumped onboard. Tomas [Diaz] was someone who I met through the Nil Lara gig as well. From time to time, Nil would hire both Tomas and Lazaro Alfonso – who was the other guy who was involved in the Vida Blue project – to do afro-Cuban drumming in the context of Nil’s music. So I had known those guys for quite a few years. Then [flute player] Mercedes Abal…I met her when we had our run over on 8th Street, the “Fuacata.”
Fuacata was a long running residency you did at a club in Little Havana, but you actually used a rotating cast?
Yeah, that was the type of thing where you would just turn up and sit in. And that kind of thing started happening a lot. Sometimes it would be people you knew, sometimes people you didn’t, and sometimes you’d be a little apprehensive to put somebody up that you’d never seen before (laughs). But Mercedes, she basically jumped on the stage, blew us all away and disappeared, and I was like, “who the hell was that?” And I heard she was a girl that used to play with Albita Rodriguez, and Albita’s group is a pretty well-known Cuban group here in Miami. They defected in like 1992. They came here and had a pretty big thing in the press, and her group was predominately women, so it was a pretty cool group and Mercedes was the flute player. So I didn’t see her again after that night and then all of a sudden she came back one week, and I said, “look, before you even do anything else, give me your number, ‘cause the next time I have a slot I’m gonna call you.” And that’s how it started happening. She actually started doing the gigs before I even had enough money to pay her.
That’s how we all kind of came together. But depending on the gig, usually we only use one of the two percussionists and that’s usually Tomas. When we play Thursdays, our Thursday residency which is kind of an evolved version of the Fuacata party, we use both percussionists. So yeah, [we’re pretty diverse;] it’s three Cubans, a Miami guy, I’m kind of a mixed bag myself (laughing), and two white boys.
How does your organic sound fit into the massive DJ culture of Miami and the fashionable reputation of South Beach?
Well I’ll tell you…I kind of never really felt like I had anything much to do with, or wanted much to do with, the real commercial club scene here in Miami. But after my road gig kind of came to an end in ‘98, I just thought I wanted to see what I could get in terms of work as a DJ, but not spinning anything remotely commercial. I have no idea what would happen if I was stuck in one of the big places on South Beach on a weekend… I’d be lynched probably (laughs). ‘Cause outside of say, old school hip-hop, or older Miami bass records, I wouldn’t be able to keep one of those types of crowds happy. The South Beach scene is extremely commercial. If it’s not top40, hip-hop and R&B;, it’ll be your cheesy trance or cheesy house, and not a lot of variation. There are a few little spots, but I really find I do my best to avoid South Beach on the weekends. Its more of an ordeal to go down there than its worth. If we have a gig there, then I’m there, but if not, I don’t go there.
I’ve always basically worked around [the commercial scene]. My first gigs were like galleries, museums, the arts presenters, people that wanted something more eclectic. And then as things grew…its funny, we ended up playing almost every damn club that I ever talked shit about (laughs). But that’s not something that we actively went after. It just ended up like that. But our main venues are kind of off the beaten track. We do a Wednesday on the beach [at a club called Jazid], and its an off night so its pretty mellow. It’s a hole-in-the-wall place, an old bar with an upstairs, and a little lounge. And Thursdays we play this place right in the middle of downtown [called I/O], and that’s out totally by itself. They’re doing more alternative stuff all the time there.
With people seeking out something more substantial than the main drag has to offer, are you getting regulars every week?
I just feel lucky to be able to play out twice a week and get a crowd. Obviously we have our regulars, but [we understand] nobody’s gonna come and see the band 52 times a year. So we have to continually try and attract new people or at least hope that we get the flow through, where we’ll get people to come out and see us once a month or something.
In addition to the shows with the band, are you still booking gigs as a solo DJ?
Yeah, either it’s a Spam Allstars gig or I’ll just spin under DJ Le Spam. But I’d say at this point, I’ve mostly been working with the band. I did a museum gig [recently] and once a month I do like an old school Miami bass party which has gotten pretty popular. I’ve been doing that for a couple years now. It gets kind of rowdy, all 2 Live Crew and that raw stuff. But yeah, it’s either one or the other.
In March of last year, while Page was on vacation in Miami, he apparently ended up sitting in with the Spam Allstars one night. So how were the two of you first introduced?
Page and I have a mutual friend, and I guess Page was down here taking a break and my buddy brought him to the Jazid on a Wednesday. And he was chillin’ there and my friend introduced us and I said, “well look, you have to come see us do our Thursday thing, ‘cause our Thursday is a little bit different.” Being that we play two nights back to back I try to pace them differently. The Wednesday gig is more down-tempo beats and I spin African and Brazilian and funk, and the Thursday is more of a dancing gig. It’s a venue that has a dance floor and a bigger sound system and stage and everything. And at that time we had a guy who was playing keys regularly for us, ‘cause our guitar player was touring, so I said to Page, “well look, if you want to come and see the gig in Little Havana tomorrow night, there’ll be a keyboard there. If you want to sit in, that’d be great.” So they showed up, and I think he had a really good time playing, and then kind of right afterwards he sort of said, “well, I’d love to try to do something,” and I said, “great, you know, whatever you want.” And it ended up being what you hear on the record basically. Page booked a studio here in Miami, everybody got together in a room, like ten of us, and we’d just go in there and like play for forty minutes at a shot. I think we probably did like eight little sets like that, and from that, Page went through and made the record out of all those sessions, with no overdubs…just basically whatever happened.
How did the interaction between the two camps work? Even though Vida Blue is his own project, Page isn’t typically a bandleader like you are with the Allstars.
Well as far as recording the album, I didn’t know how he wanted to approach it. Going into it, I thought what we might do would be basically go at it with a few things and then come back and reinforce something that sounded good. Like if somebody came in with the vocals, maybe overdub the backing on it to bring it out more. Stuff like that. But in the end, we kind of [just played those sessions]. The process was great; it felt really natural. And I think everybody was pretty comfortable so they were able to play at their best. We were all pretty much happy with the performances and then listening back, everyone was real excited about it.
Then with the gigs, it was kind of the same. [Originally I] didn’t know if we were gonna do the tour the same way we approached the studio, like without a framework. But that ended up being a little different in that Page took advantage of having the horns there to try and do some of the songs he did on the first [Vida Blue] record, but with an extended group. And I think that worked pretty well. He knows the crowd a lot better than I do, you know, it’s his crowd, so he had a better idea of what was gonna flow nicely through the night. So for the gigs, it was a combination of, we might do two Spam Allstars orginals, we did a song by Russell, a song by Oteil, a few by Page, and then a couple of covers. So everybody sort of had a chance to show their stuff and it gave a real well-rounded sound. And if you came to see the show, depending on what you were into, you got a little of everything and I think it worked.
You’re playing Bonnaroo with Vida Blue, and Langerado with Spam Allstars, but other than that you’re more or less staying in Miami for the next few months. But now that you’ve hit the road a bit more than usual and gained a larger fanbase, is a Spam Allstars tour likely to happen?
Well it’s been our long-term goal for a while. I think just in terms of resources, we’re independent so for us to go out for any length of time is a little tough right now. But basically, yeah, we’ve done a few things now, we’re starting to hit things in Florida and we have our New York gig once a month [at SOB’s]. And that’s built up pretty nicely up there. So the way I see it, and hopefully what we’ll be able to do is kind of start doing things here in the South first, anything we can reach within one or two days drive, and then work out from there. I mean, if we were offered something worthwhile to do, of course we’d do it, but to just jump out there in a van and start doing gigs for $100 a night [split like six ways], I just…I couldn’t do it (laughs).
