After polishing the flux capacitor and restocking the tunes, Tom Lowndes aka Tom Loud is revving up the Hot Dub Time Machine for 2019.
Since starting his fantastic voyage with Hot Dub Time Machine in 2011, Tom has travelled the world with his acclaimed DJ sets that take audiences on a journey through the history of pop and electronic music. “I’m always trying to develop the set and make it better for people because quite a lot of people have seen it now,” Tom says.
“There’s more and more integration with musicians, I really like that. A couple of years ago I started working with a saxophone player and from that I got a bit more confidence in writing the bits around that and creating the stuff. So now I have a three-piece horn section that I really like and they come along to add a whole lot more.
“Also, I’m continuing to focus on it being the songs that I love and some of those songs, yeah I’m a little bit sick of them now after seven years. So I’m just trying to find the new ones I love and the old ones I still love, and try to stay true to that.”
With Hot Dub Time Machine, Tom sends audiences dancing through the decades on a musical history lesson complete with visual aids. It’s a wide berth of time for him to cover and Tom admits that sometimes even a Time Lord can get it wrong.
“There's always something new; I always have on my phone lists of songs I hear on the radio or someone mentions,” he says. “So often after shows people will come up and say 'why didn't you play this?' and I'm like 'ah, I hadn't thought of that song'.
“Like 'Torn' by Natalie Imbruglia – I cut that years ago and never put it in the show. Then I started playing it in the UK thinking no one would understand and the place went nuts. Something has happened with this song in pop culture, like it's been on 'Glee' or something.”
At the helm of Hot Dub Time Machine, Tom has seen the power pop and meme culture has to raise an obscure song from the dead. “Internet memes can really carry a song, look at 'Horses' [Daryl Braithwaite], it's the ultimate one of those,” he says.
“It's tricky because I don't want to jump on a bandwagon too quickly, and you don't want to overstay the welcome because something like 'Horses' you can play and people will go 'oh no, not this again', whereas a lot of people go 'sick!'. So I don't know, it's a weird one.”
This year, Tom takes Hot Dub Time Machine on the road as part of his own travelling boutique one-day event Wine Machine, and will also feature at Circus Paradise Music Festival on the Gold Coast in March where he shares billing with Charlotte de Witte, Bag Raiders, Motez, Oliver Huntemann and more.
“It's a pretty ridiculous line-up, they've got everyone,” Tom says of Circus Paradise. “I think I'm finishing off on one of the nights, which is going to be great. Doing the closing set after all that music, I think I'm going to start hard and then go harder. I'm going to go as hard as I can.”
Hot Dub Time Machine plays Circus Paradise Music Festival at Broadwater Parklands (Gold Coast) 10 March. He will also headline Heineken Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne) 16 March.
Wine Machine Tour Dates 2019
Sat 9 Mar - Home Hill Winery (Huon Valley, TAS)Sat 23 Mar - Roche Estate (Hunter Valley, NSW)
Sat 30 Mar - Oakover Grounds (Swan Valley, WA)
Sat 6 Apr - Rochford Estate (Yarra Valley, VIC)
Sat 13 Apr - Lake George Wines (Lake George, ACT)
