Electroclash icon going Gaga

“Kids are a lot smarter than we think. Trying to act as if sexuality doesn’t exist is stupid. I mean, I was caught with my face in my next-door neighbour’s butt at the age of five.”

So said Larry Tee, the diminutive New York electroclash DJ, when Sydney Star Observer met him in a Sydney café for a chat during his recent Australian club tour.

Tee was talking about the sexualisation of pop, and he seemed as good a man as any to pontificate on the subject, with a new album (Club Badd) featuring X-rated collaborations with Amanda Lepore (My Pussy), Perez Hilton (My Penis) and Princess Superstar (Licky).

Surprisingly, it’s the first studio album for the 50-year-old DJ credited with starting the ‘electroclash’ movement.

“I own the word ‘electroclash, by the way,” he said, within seconds of this scribe turning on his tape recorder.

“I patented it because I wanted to use the name for my festivals, and I knew it was such a tasty name that if I didn’t patent it, someone else would. Now it’s back in vogue via Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, Gaga — suddenly all the kids are talking about electro again. They listen to pop, but they say it’s electro.”

Tee’s career started over three decades ago when he co-produced the B-52s’ classic party anthem Rock Lobster. Since then, he’s worked with the likes of RuPaul (cowriting Ru’s 1992 hit Supermodel (You Better Work)) and helped kickstart the careers of acts like Fischerspooner and Peaches thanks to his 2001 Electroclash Festival.

So why has it taken so long for Tee to release his own collection?

“I’ve not been that ambitious so far, but it suddenly dawned on me that all the people I’ve championed have made tens of millions of dollars,” he laughed, flashing a very blingy gold tooth.

“And I wanted to make an album that reflects where people get their music nowadays — the internet. Record stores are dead and gone now. People on the album like Jeffree Starr, Roxy Cottontail; these are all people I heard about on blogs before I actually met.”

Amongst the readymade club hits, the album contains one of the more jarring aural experiences you’re ever likely to have, the aforementioned Perez track My Penis. “My penis…suck it,” the bitchy blogger repeatedly instructs over glitchy electro beats.

“Funnily enough, straight dudes love that song — it made me realise that straight dudes have penises too. And they love their penises. And they occasionally glance at other people’s penises in the restroom. And they need to see more, just to feel more balanced and healthy.”

Having worked with such an eclectic mix of drag queens, trannys and homos on Club Badd, it’s clear Tee has an affinity with the gender-bending side of queer culture.

There is a downside to such debauchery, though.

“Having lived with RuPaul and Lady Bunny, and worked with Amanda Lepore, it seems like every tranny I met now has a song they just know I’ll want to remix. It’s not gonna happen girls, I’m writing songs for Madonna and Gaga now.”

Really? Tee took a drag of his cigarette and launched into the story.

“I met with [ex-Madonna producer] William Orbit a while back. Before I could even sit down, he jumped on me and said, ‘You need to produce Madonna’s next album.’ That got me thinking about what I’d do.

“We’d need to rebrand the girl, because with Gaga out there, I can only imagine Madonna, Nelly Furtado and Gwen Stefani are sitting around a table saying, ‘What are we gonna do about Gaga? Look what she did to Christina!’ She’s made everybody have to step up their game.

“So I thought, we need to rebrand her. I wrote a song called You Know You Wanna, and the intro goes [adopts ominous voice]: ‘IBM. Nike. Starbucks. MADONNA’. I sent it out to her and didn’t even get a call back.”

“I thought, you know what Madonna, you don’t ignore the old dog. In New York, I was one of the only DJs who’d continuously play her music, but she’s never even had me remix anything. Where’s my mix?

“So anyway, now it goes ‘IBM. Nike. Starbucks. GAGA,’ and I’ve just sent it out to Gaga. Fingers crossed!”

Tee said this sort of positive thinking had been the secret to his enduring success as a DJ. It’s a habit he adopted since giving up drugs and alcohol 13 years ago.

“My life kind of started when I got clean in ’97. I thought it was more fun to get trashed, but once I got clean, I realised how I’d been fooled. I’m more creative, and I can achieve anything I want if I visualise it.

“And to put the icing on the designer cupcake, I get laid more. I’m 50 years old and I get the hottest boys. I’ve just decided I need a boyfriend, because two Brazilians a night is just too much,” he boasted.

“It’s not a death sentence or the end of the party — my party began when I got clean. I made a deal with the gods: if you give me everything I’ve ever wanted, I’ll give up drugs and alcohol. I’m afraid if I go back, I’ll lose it all.”

info: Club Badd (One Love) out now. Visit www.myspace.com/nylarrytee