Loops Mix #2: Vicky Burp

The Loops Podcast

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Loops Mix #2: Vicky Burp

An hour of psychedelic trance, baile funk and hard techno from the Denver DJ to make you go feral.

Miguel Otárola

May 04, 2024

Transcript

I met Victoria Acuña — the 25-year-old artist and DJ who goes by Vicky Burp — at a roller skating party event hosted by our friend Demi in an industrial zone off Interstate 25 in Denver. She was masked up and sitting down in front of her controller and laptop. A few minutes after I had arrived for my own set, she cued up DJ Rashad’s “In Da Club Before Eleven O' Clock” to a revolving scattering of skaters. Now that’s a track and a half.

Since then, I’ve gotten to know Acuña as a fearless selector, bringing fast and ferocious dance music to raves and parties around Denver. Her guest mix for Loops, is now a good time to tell you i love you?, dashes between psychedelic trance, baile funk and hard techno. It’s designed to take over the room, turning it into a medieval dungeon, a street party, or a Dance Dance Revolution tournament, depending on where you drop the needle.

Listen to Vicky Burp’s mix above and read my interview with her below. Scroll all the way down to find the tracklist. Her next show is Sunday, May 5 at Stay Tuned (2162 Larimer Street, Denver).

Can you tell me a little bit about how you came up with the mix?

It's sort of an homage to my Maybe Forever set that I did last year. Being asked to play with Safety Trance, Brodinski and Gila — but particularly Safety Trance — was really [life-changing] for me. That was just one of the best nights that I ever had. I was so nervous, but all my friends were like, you got this. They were so supportive. I did my set and everyone was like, you blew us away. For this, I wanted to do some of those songs again, but also add in new stuff, new techniques that I've gotten better at since. This mix is homage to one of my favorite gigs that really, really did push me to just continue getting better.

What do you remember about that set?

Well, I remember I was playing at 2:30 in the morning. Usually you go to a rave and you're drinking, smoking, whatever, but the whole night, I was locked in.

My favorite memory from that: For the first 10, 15 minutes or so, I was really nervous, really locked in. And then after that, I suddenly just got so free and was playing some really hard stuff. And I just remember people at the front, they had this gate right there in front of the DJ booth. I just remember people shaking it, shaking it, going feral. And so that was just a good sign to me. Okay, I'm killing it right now. I would say making the people feral was my goal all along. It happened and I was very happy with that.

This mix goes through a couple of different passages. How did you decide what genres you wanted to weave together?

A lot of practice and a lot of listening to music. But also, I was just very intentional about what I wanted it to sound like. I do love playing different genres. Of course, I love techno. That's the best thing ever. But for this, I just wanted to show all the different things that I can play.

What's really important to me is playing femme and BIPOC producers, but even more specifically, Latin American producers. So in that mix, I had some of the classic tracks, like Southstar (“Cry In My Arms”). I even had a remix of one of my older sister's songs (Lindred - “Hyperdrama”). That's a special part about it, too: including family. For this, I wanted to show my roots and honor that, and show that you can really mix a bunch of different genres and they all can work together.

You’re talking about your family. Are they also in music?

My dad's side of the family, they're not the musical ones. They just appreciate music. If you ever go over to my dad's house, he will make you sit in his media room and play lossless files on his really nice speakers, really loud. Honestly, great experience, but it gets really overstimulating sometimes.

My mom's side of the family is really where all the music heritage comes from. My great uncle, his name was Isidro Lopez, and he was considered the founding father of Tejano music. He was one of the first to bring together orchestra, Banda, Norteño, all these border styles of music to create Tejano style. My mom, Lisa Lopez, she was the generation of Tejano singers right before Selena. She was that generation right before, definitely amongst the first group of women to really put Tejano music on the map. It was very male dominated, especially during my grandpa’s and my great uncle's time. She really made a bunch of strides, had an international single at 18, and just has really killed it. She started all my sisters and I on piano and everything.

You perform both as a DJ and with a band. What do you get out of performing?

I've had people before ask, is it intimidating to have your family members be famous? And I'm like, not necessarily. It's more inspiring for me, knowing how far the music goes back and knowing the legacy that I'll continue [performing]. It's so important to me to connect with my family.

It's an emotional outlet. There's just so much that has happened in my life, and the best way for me to process it and acknowledge it and heal from it is [to] write about it and put my emotions into song. It's so important for me as a person to have that outlet. I mean, I don't really be journaling. I don't journal. I write lyrics.

If someone goes to see you DJ, what do you hope they experience?

Getting feral is one. I hope they experience the same level of joy that I get from putting all of that [together]. I have so much fun when I do it.

My mixes are about love. Let's say you're on the dance floor flirting with somebody that you've been flirting with for weeks. You come to my show, you hear this mix, and then you're dancing on your boo. Let's say you go home with them later that night. That's the type of experience I'm trying to have: the music and the dancing, but also that it inspires something social, loving, whether it's with a boo-thing or with your friends.