Being the eldest son of one of the worlds most notorious rock & rollers, Ozzy Osbourne, Louis Osbourne was always destined to be an entertainer. He has been heavily involved in the electronic music industry for 17 years as a DJ, producer, record label owner, radio broadcaster, reviewer and record shop manager, as well as being raised in the entertainment industry. Louis’ epiphany happened during the early 90s when he visited the dance events that took place every weekend in his native Birmingham. It didn’t take long to persuade the then 16 year old that his future lay with techno.
Inspired by his tentative acid house outings, Louis started to buy mix tapes and commenced his record collecting and DJ habit two years later when he turned 18. He honed his deck skills for a few years and then landed a job at Birmingham’s best known record store, Hard To Find, as a buyer and sales manager.
“I did it for three years and it helped me get loads of experience in the industry and my hands on loads of classic records too, it was my education in electronic music,” Louis recalls.
Through his job, he got to know other Birmingham DJs like Steve Lawler and Pete Gooding and when Lawler left his Café Mambo residency in Ibiza in 1998, Pete rang Louis to offer him the slot.
“It was a big decision to move there: I was working for Mambo six hours a day, seven days a week for a little more than £100,” Louis says, “so I had to supplement my wages by selling mixtapes.”
The Mambo residency didn’t make Louis rich, but his daytime mixture of down tempo French-oriented sophistication and night time jacking Chicago house, as well as his sharp deck skills, meant that he got noticed by other clubs on the island. He was offered a residency for Cream on the Amnesia terrace, which he held for 2 years.
Since then, Louis has played some of the world’s best clubs: from China to the Czech Republic and Dublin to Dubai, his ability to move smoothly between underground house and techno and his ear for cutting edge electronic music mean that he has been regularly booked at world-renowned clubs like U60311 (Frankfurt), Spundae (LA), Club Der Visionaire (Berlin), Tribehouse (Dusseldorf), Centro Fly (New York), D-Edge (Sao Paulo), Home (Sydney), Bugged Out (Liverpool) and Pacha and Amnesia (both Ibiza).
Louis has also held a residency at Birmingham techno institution House of God (from 1996 to 2002) and has played at all the big dance festivals, including Creamfields, God’s Kitchen, Homelands, and Oxegen.
DJs are a notoriously fickle bunch, but Louis says that he hasn’t deviated too much from the dark, Wild Pitch sound that got him hooked on house in the first place in the early 90s.
“When I was doing the Mambo residency, I was into Sneak, Derrick Carter and Green Velvet. I went through the whole Peace Division/tribal techno sound in the early 2000s and it coincided with me living in LA for a year, between 2001 and 2002,” he explains.
Whilst being busier than ever Stateside, Louis met his Irish fiancée whilst living in LA, and subsequently moved to Ireland in 2003. His move back to Europe coincided with the release of his first mix CD Tilted: ‘Motion Audio’ in the US, followed by a second compilation, ‘Beats Reality’ on German label Delta, which highlighted his ongoing passion for jacking house and clubby techno, and gained him high praise on review pages.
It’s no surprise that around this time, he started to gig heavily in Europe, particularly in Germany. Still as hungry as ever for new music, Louis is excited by the new wave of European electronic music.
“I got bored with loopy, repetitive techno and nowadays, I play a lot of stuff from labels like Moon Harbour, Bpitch, Oslo, Sci+Tec, Viva and Cecille as well as producers like Carl Craig, Format:B, Johnny D, Christian Burkhardt & Radio Slave,” he explains.
In 2008 Louis was made resident at Frankfurt's legendary club U60311, where he plays monthly at the Afterburner parties.
“It's a great honour to be associated with U60311, they are a well respected club, they have big plans for the next couple of years with tours & an Ibiza residency, but most importantly, they have a great crowd & throw great parties,” he explains.
Louis has been spending more time than ever in the studio and has a new release out on Jesse Rose’s Front Room Recordings, a collaboration with Jamie Anderson. Furthermore the “Osbourne & Anderson” remix of Jon Gurd – Stamp on his own Mija has been making big waves in spring 2010 staying in the Beatport Tech House chart for a number of weeks. Louis will deliver a solo release on Mija Recordings in the January 2011, and has two more Osbourne & Anderson releases being shopped to labels at the moment, as well as an Osbourne & Anderson Remix of Tube & Berger for Neurotraxx. These follow up releases on Germany’s Kingdome Kome Kuts and Mylo Recordings.
After having spent 3 years gaining a Law degree along side his music career (“I felt like I needed to broaden my horizons”), Louis is back with a bang focusing on his music projects 100%. He has been running his own label Mija Recordings since June 2009 to critical acclaim; he has Mija parties taking place in Frankfurt & other locations in the coming months; and had his radio show, Louis Osbourne presents Weekend Offenders on RTÉ Pulse (Ireland) in 2009. Louis is now producing his “Mija presents” radio show that will be broadcast on Proton Radio and will be going out for syndication to networks worldwide.
“Mija Recordings is a project that I have been developing since the start of 2009. The record label has launched very well gaining widespread support from many big players on our first releases, also gaining compilation licenses on some of the early releases. Obviously I‘m really happy about that, but there is so much more to come. The record label is the first phase of my plans with other Mija projects in development.”
After 17 years of DJing, Louis’ passion for cutting edge house and techno remains as strong as the time he attended his first rave. The next time Louis shares this love affair with underground electronic music at a club in your town, make sure you don’t miss out!
Discog:
Singles / Remixes:
Louis Osbourne – Fame Reaction – Mija Recordings – Jan 2011
Tube & Berger – Hausich (Osbourne & Anderson Remix) – Neurotraxx - Dec 2010
Osbourne & Anderson – Catch – Label & Release date TBC
Osbourne & Anderson – Soho Noho – Label & Release date TBC
Osbourne & Anderson – Rare Grooves – Front Room Recordings – April 2010
Jon Gurd – Stamp (Osbourne & Anderson Remix) – Mija Recordings – April 2010
ACK & Simon Point – Come With Me (Louis Osbourne Remix) – Mylo Recordings – May 2009
Louis Osbourne – Maia – Kingdom Kome Cuts – September 2007
Mix Compilations:
Louis Osbourne – Mija Presents (Label Mix Compilation) – Mija Recordings – Due February 2011
Louis Osbourne – Beats Reality – Delta Recordings (Germany) – 2005
Louis Osbourne – Motion Audio – Blue Chip Recordings (USA) - 2004
Club Residencies Held:
Afterburner @ U60311, Frankfurt, Germany (2007-present)
Magik Musik @ The Custard Factory, Birmingham, UK (2005-2008)
Bugged Out @ Amnesia, Ibiza (1999)
Cream @ Amnesia, Ibiza (1998)
Café Mambo, Ibiza (1998-1999)
House Of God, Birmingham, UK (1996 to 2002)
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