Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy & Jaime Fiorito talk music without boundaries, on dancefloors with open ears, ahead of them playing together at Beat Hotel at IMS this Sunday 26 April.

You’re each coming from very distinct musical lineages – Jaime in Ibiza and Colleen in New York – but with a lot of similarities in terms of approach and philosophy. Colleen – were you and David (Mancuso) aware of Alfredo (Jaime’s late father) and what was happening in Ibiza in the 80s?

Colleen: To my knowledge David wasn’t aware of DJ Alfredo as the New York scene was quite different to what was going on in Ibiza at the time. In any case of what I do know is having met Alfredo once and knowing about his DJ career and also obviously knowing David very very very well as a family member is a both approach to music in a similar way in terms of freedom from musical boundaries and trying to tell stories through their music and also trying to please a lot of different ears on the dance floor. 

I remember Alfredo saying that there were a lot of people from different countries on the dancefloor and, likewise, whilst it may have not been different countries there were people from different walks of life, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity, so in that way I think they were both very flexible and approached music not in a way that was just with their ego ‘this is what I’m going to do’ but being receptive to what was happening on the dance floor and responding and conversing with that.”

Jaimie – was this musical open mindedness that your father was known for, something you were consciously aware of growing up?  And has it affected your own style 

Jaime: “In terms of how he was approaching the crowd and his musical style, I think he wanted to express that his music was kind of a call for liberty and freedom. He would often play the Martin Luther King ‘I Have A Dream’ vocal in his set and it was very representative of what he wanted to build in terms of the energy on the dancefloor.”

“He wanted to be able to play a lot of different styles of music to represent the people that were on the dance floor, so different cities, different cultures, different ethnicities.”

“He was doing whatever he felt people wanted to hear at that precise moment, and that would range from a western soundtrack to the Pink Panther to Lil’ Louis ‘French Kiss’. Everything was allowed and I think that’s what made what he did so magical.

I always had records around the house and was always digging into his music but I think the most impact for me was that at some points when I was much younger I was really impressed by the sound of different DJs and I was trying to mimic them in a way. He would never say anything until one day he said ‘stop trying to copy other people because you’re never gonna be yourself’ and I think that’s the best piece of advice I ever got. He said ‘just play whatever you think represents you and not what you think makes someone else’ and I’ve tried to do that ever since.”

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy and Jaime Fiorito play Beat Hotel at Las Dalias this Sunday. Open from 4pm (free entry)

After sun down, Alex Kassian plays all night long in the club at Akasha.

Book your tickets now (€20 advance)