Hot sounds on the dancefloor: Azari & III

With its exciting mix of house, disco, and electro pop, the Canadian quartet Azari & III has become one of the hottest sounds on the dance floor. Christian “Dinamo Azari” Farley and Alphonse “Alixander III” Lanza are the producers behind the decks. Fritz Helder and Cedric Gasaida provide the infectious, somewhat campy vocals. The singles “Hungry for the Power” and “Reckless (With Your Love)” contain plenty of nods to vintage house, but they are solid, contemporary pop. In the run-up to their untitled debut, they shook the foundations of clubs across the world. Stephen and David Dewaele have also taken the company in tow and invited them for their Soulwaxmas. As the icing on the cake, a rumour has been going around that Madonna will take them on her world tour. If it’s true, there’s a good chance they will soon appear not only at the Botanique, but also at the Koning Boudewijnstadion/Stade Roi Baudouin.
You make danceable house, but delving deeper into your lyrics, they don’t only glorify a hedonistic lifestyle, so characteristic of the genre.
Dinamo Azari: It’s funny you should say that. I recently read an interesting quote by my countryman Leonard Cohen: “Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity. In what we call art, it’s one of the most desirable characteristics of a piece of work.” We identify with that. Life can be controversial, and we are not quiet people. That should be clear from our compositions. There is a subversive atmosphere to our music. An atmosphere that might bring you to tears, make you reflect, drive you crazy, or make you angry. In short, something that moves you.
You met in Toronto. Is that a good place for creative souls?
Azari: Yes, very much so. Over the last four years, many young artists from other parts of Canada have migrated to Toronto. The city has invested enormously in art and culture. And it is starting to pay off. We are more multicultural than New York. And there is a big gay community. Blend that all together and the result is a hybrid mix of tastes and colours ; entirely modern.

If your music were a painting, who painted it?
Azari: Oh, I’m afraid one painter wouldn’t suffice. Warhol? Van Gogh? Dali? All big names, I know. It would have to be a mix. They should be eccentric, and one would have to be openly gay. [thinks] I would say Dalí meets Jean-Michel Basquiat meets Keith Haring. I have always experienced that group of creative minds and artists as a kind of extended family.
You do realise that a clever businesswoman like Madonna invites artists like you on tour to enhance her credibility?
Azari: That’s what I thought when the rumours first started spreading. Everyone said: “Isn’t it great that she’s thinking about inviting you.” But she’s the lucky one. With us at her side, she’ll think she’s back in New York in the 1980s, with Jellybean Benitez. She’d be crazy not to invite us!

Azari & iii 12/2, 20.00, €11/14/17,
BOTANIQUE, Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,
02-218.37.32, info@botanique.be, www.botanique.be