Thank Rod It’s Friday

BUTT MIXTAPE: YOU MAKE IT SO HARD MIX BY BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT

Interview by Owen Myers
Rod AKA Bright Light Bright Light

Is having your own club night a prerequisite to being a fabulous homosexual these days? At his bi-monthly night in London, called Another Night, Rod Thomas gets a chance to spread his love for nineties dance music. Rod, who also records and performs as Bright Light Bright Light, is such a sweetheart. He crafted this third BUTT mixtape — with some exclusive remixes and utterly pop-tastic bootlegs you won’t hear anywhere else — just for you.

Play the You Make It So Hard mix for BUTT

Growing up in a Wales, teenage Rod was obsessed with bands like 49ers and Was (Not Was), bands who made Euro-House that sounded like it had been put through a darkroom mangle. He never quite got over his early fixation, and as Bright Light Bright Light, Rod has been making the kind of melodramatic synth-pop that Erasure would give their right arms for.

Owen: How long have you had your own club night?
Rod: Since October. When I was growing up I was never old enough to hear in a club all the records I was buying. So having my own club night is a way to hear all of those remixes that I’d bought and all of those tracks that I loved so much on a proper soundsystem.
Do you pull much?
 That’s not why I run the club night.
Yeah, but…
 I wouldn’t say more than I normally do.
Have you ever had sex in the toilets?
 No.
Would you?
 Well, it depends who it was with.
Do you take requests?
 Yeah, if they’re within reason. Like, I played a private party recently and everyone was really pissed and requesting stuff like LMFAO. Like, I don’t have that, evidently. You just have to look at me to tell that I don’t have that.
How representative is the mixtape of your influences?
It’s pretty representative. I was a really big fan of a lot of the darker club songs in the ’90s, like that Funky Green Dogs track, and some of the Ace of Base album tracks that were a lot more weird and minor.
Ace of Base are just starting to get their due credit.
Their melodies were very simple and so catchy. They didn’t have the best singers in the world, so anyone could sing their songs. People understand now how well-crafted the songs were.
What’s your song ‘Disco Moment’ about?
It’s about when you go out with someone who’s supposed to be close to you, and they’re having the time of their life and you’re not involved. It’s like in a John Hughes film where you’ve ‘had enough’ and want to stand up for yourself in front of the whole room.

↓ Download the You Make It So Hard mix here (MP3)

More about Another Night here.
More about Bright Light Bright Light here.