In Conversation with Amanda Louise Macchia

Amanda Louise Macchia is the living embodiment of Disco – and I’m not just talking about the music she DJ’s for the fashion, film, and photography elite. Recently signed by Storm productions, the Italian-Canadian born, Paris-based Director-DJ extraordinaire is bringing some much-needed serendipitous-soul-healing-bliss that the 60s and 70s provided into her wide array of work.

While chatting with Amanda about her artwork, pop-art inspirations, and deep desire for recycling the old into the new, a subdued demeanor juxtaposed her passionate, purposeful intentions. She had me wondering—is this what it feels like to do it all? Disco’s making a comeback, and Amanda Louise Macchia is here to lead the revolution. Check out the Flaunt Q&A below.

Could you give a little background on yourself?

Sure. I’m based in Paris now and I have been for the past 4 years. Before that, I lived in New York, but I am from Toronto originally. I am Italian-Canadian, so I have European roots as well. As a director, my focus is mostly fashion content, and as a DJ, my focus is mostly in Disco, but my aim in general is to bring those worlds together—the worlds of fashion, film, photography, and music.

Sounds like you do it all - what overlap do you find in being both a DJ and Director?

So, in Paris, there is a lot of overlap between fashion, nightlife and the kind of music that exists between those two worlds. I always found as an artist that there were a lot of overlaps between different mediums. I do have a background in music as well so for me, when you’re editing film, there’s a rhythm. If you look at the history of film and fashion, music is a huge part of it and vice versa. A lot of my aim as an artist is to not separate different mediums, but to try to find what can supplement each other and elevate my work. In film, I’m starting to use a lot of stop motion, so utilizing a lot of moving photography.

 What’s the stop motion photography process like and how did you bring that into your work?

A lot of my work is inspired by pop art. I’ve been doing a lot of instant film photography and finding ways to integrate that into my video content, creating moving collages through that. Finding new ways to create content without recycling the same exact format over and over again, but still using old ideas to create new formats, but not necessarily with new technology.

You mentioned Pop-Art. How would you describe your inspirations?

A lot of my work is inspired by this use of recycling old images or old technologies and seeing them for what they are—so if it’s an instant film photo and I scan it, it stays looking like a scan. Also, incorporating sentiments from Italian and French cinema from the 60s and 70s which may be not so obvious as the pop art references which sometimes I’ve directly referenced Andy Warhol for example or John Baldessari in various editorials, but just This idea of making unconventional content that still functions as advertisements or art that people can still easily digest. I think that sometimes even directly referencing some pop artists can make those ideas more easily readable because people are already familiar with them and understand the context. I feel like that translates into the music I curate as well because I’m very interested in playing not new music in the sense of when it was made, but music that may be new for people to discover depending on where I’m playing it.

 How did disco become your forte?

I think that in Paris in general, Disco is quite popular, and that may not be so true for other cities anymore, but I personally really love a lot of French and Italian pop from this era as well. It was cool to see when I moved here how many French and non-Italian people also really loved this Italian music. Some artists Raffaella Carrà, Pino D'angiò, and La Bionda. they really still have a place in the world of fashion and fashion parties in Paris. A lot of the places I DJ here are not necessarily huge clubs, so they’re more hotels and smaller clubs, the music I play is not necessarily for dancing, but also for just listing too, so disco I feel like is s kind of genre where you have both, you have dancing music and you have also more ambient music as well. It fits in the places I play which are often more fashion oriented.

Congratulations on being signed to Storm productions! How did you get there and what does this mean moving forward for you?

Thank you! I’ve been living in Paris the past few years. I have a background in more documentary film before that when I was living in New York and Toronto, so I’ve been building a portfolio and clients and magazines that I’ve been working with here that are mostly luxury fashion clients and now starting to work with storm, I will continue doing that and also delve hopefully more into beauty content as well.

What was it like doing the teaser for the Balmain show? How did it feel to work with such an integral brand?

Working with Balmain is great because they are a brand that has a lot of history but are also still very relevant today. For me, making a teaser for a show or being part of these kind of shows in any way is in a way being part of history. Getting to create some of that visual history and be part of that is a really rewarding experience for me as a director working in fashion.

What can we expect next from you?

Now working with Storm, I plan to have a lot more fashion and beauty content coming out. In terms of the photography I’m putting together a book of the instant film photographs that I use in stop motion and my video content to create something a little more tangible—well something that is literally tangible. For music, I’m going to be releasing a new song this year, which is a follow up to the first song I put out last year which - a talk disco song. It’s kind of new disco with very subdued vocals. I also have started DJing more with fashion clients, so a few weeks ago I DJed an event with Make Up Forever and I’m also starting to DJ a more regularly at Silencio des Prés!