If you can find the mental faculties to remember back to what was happening two years ago (K-Rudd was still in the big chair, we had winter festivals and inthemix hadn’t written diddly on that Tron thing) you might remember that we ran a little remix competition with the blokes at Spank! Records and Bang Gang 12 Inches the winner of which was an upstart duo from up north called Mitzi.

Clearly a lot has changed with the interceding years, including Mitzi’s personnel which has been boosted up to a muscular disco four piece, but it’s certainly been wonderful to watch the Mitzi crew go from strength to strength and not just develop musically but also establish themselves as a force on the Australian live music scene, with the band gigging ferociously up and down the east coast of Australia and beyond recently.

Seeing that we go way back and all ITM HQ asked the Mitzi lads to get back behind the decks and prepare a brand new mixtape that you’ll hear first here on inthemix. And we couldn’t help but pick their brains a little too.

Obviously bucket loads has changed since you guys won that remix competition but how do you feel things have progressed and developed since those furtive days?

“Things have changed immensely. After winning the remix competition we got offered some shows. We wanted to play live and not do the typical DJ thing so Charlie and Cale joined the madness. The first handful of shows Mitzi played were instrumental. Since, both Dom and Cale have picked up vocal duties and we’ve gone from jamming instrumentals to playing structured songs.”

You’ve also been getting some serious heat since kicking things off, I mean, you’ve been touring, remixing, you’ve released on Future Classic, Joakim remixed you, etc etc. Does it feel to you that that stuff has all happened quickly? And are their personal highlights you have had in amongst that?

“In a short time we’ve been lucky enough to play with some international and national bands we really respect and are influenced by which is always a lot of fun. Our first east coast tour was also pretty memorable with a van breakdown turning into a 19 hour greyhound bus ride and one Mitzi member being drug searched in rural Victoria!”

I’m interested in how the creative relationships between all you guys in Mitzi work? Like, who brings what to the table? Does someone write all the lyrics? Is it shared? Do you have a Ringo that everyone puts shit on?

“For the first EP Dom wrote the bulk and brought it in for everyone to scrutinize. However nothing was scrutinized – it was pretty much all great! We are actually about to have a trip down south to try and jam out and write some new music. There will be more Mitzi releases around the corner!”

You guys all come from various other bands and have DJ activities still going on the side, how much emphasis do you put on Mitzi? Did you all decide that this is the ‘main’ project?

“We all love DJing but I think for most of us the DJ thing just helps us to survive since we’ve all dropped our jobs to concentrate on Mitzi.”

The ‘new-disco’ boom, for lack of a better term, has been interesting to watch and obviously you guys take some inspiration from disco but your stuff feels a little more ‘live’. Was that something you guys were aiming for especially?

“Yes, I guess there are countless bedroom producers out there making disco and house music which probably isn’t too dissimilar to the music Mitzi has been making. We saw the “live band” thing as a real strength and point of difference from the bedroom producers. So we’ve definitely tried to showcase the fact that we are a live band through the music we create and through everything we do. Live drums also give the music the live feel and groove. Some DJs probably hate the fact our drums aren’t quantized!”

Having production backgrounds, does having a fully functioning live act allow you do something that working in the studio doesn’t? And vice versa I suppose.

“Yes it gives us the opportunity to try and jam out ideas live as opposed to playing or programming every part one by one which is very tedious. You can create something improvised and spontaneous that someone by themselves would probably never produce.”

You guys are playing this Sydney bash, Winter Music, up next with a bunch of old mates like Softwar and The Swiss, what’re you looking forward to about that? Will you be getting into the ‘haunted hotel’ theme?

“It really seems like a great concept. Taking over an entire hotel with great music, free food, and drinks. It almost seems too good to be true. Haunted hotel, though? We all have phasmophobia…”

Mitzi – ITM-FM exclusive mix tracklisting:

Deep Space Orchestra – Clockwork Ninja
Mitzi – Morning Light (The Revenge Remix)
Hotbox – All The Way Down
Andrea Esu – E.S.U
The Miracles Club – Light of Love (Cut Copy Re-vision)
PBR Streetgang – J2ThaB
Mario & Vidis – Changed (John Talabot’s Private Mix)