NINA LAS VEGAS INTERVIEW

Nina Agzarian (aka Nina Las Vegas)  has been working in Australian radio for over a decade. After being forced into music tuition by her parents, at age 18, Nina relocated from country town Wagga to Sydney, where she entered the world of radio production. After producing mixtapes, podcasts and radio specials, she was eventually coerced into becoming a DJ.

For the last seven years Nina has emerged as one of Australia’s premiere DJs, touring relentlessly around Australia’s best clubs and festivals including Splendour in the Grass, Groovin’ the Moo, Big Day Out, Stereosonic and Parklife (where she also hosted the main stage).

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NINA LAS VEGAS USA SHOWS

Thursday 14 July – Chicago IL @ The Mid Buy Tickets

Friday 15 July – Los Angeles CA @ Avalon  Buy Tickets

Saturday16 July – New York NY @ PS1 Warm Up Buy Tickets

Friday 26 August – Dallas, TX @ Mad Decent Block Party Buy Tickets


It was also through DJing that Nina connected with fellow DJs Diplo and Levins, founding Heaps Decent: an ongoing initiative, committed to nurturing creativity in underprivileged and Indigenous young Australians. Now in its seventh year, Heaps Decent works with young people and emerging artists from marginalised and disadvantaged communities, providing a means by which they can tell their story in their own way.

Nina’s interest in dance music, across both the domestic and international scenes, and in particularly the burgeoning new sound coming out of emergent undiscovered relent in Australia landed her House Party, a weekly show on triple j. In 2010, she doubled her broadcasting duties, adding Mix Up Exclusives to her roster. Mix Up Exclusives takes over at 9pm with four hours of never-been-heard DJ mixes, exclusive to triple j. In 2014 Nina’s role at triple j changed. By focussing solely on Mix Up Exclusive, Nina now introduces the first hour every week with her own, more dance focused mix. She then presents three hours of exclusive mixes from the best dance talent from around the world.

From Nina’s prodigious DJ work inside and outside triple j, in 2012 she launched her first compilation, the double CD, House Party Volume 1, which topped the compilations chart and enjoyed Gold Sales in Australia. The 2013 follow-up, House Party 2, reached #1 on the Australian iTunes chart and also enjoyed Gold Sales.

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Her first House Party Tour of 2012, with Flume, Beni and What So Not made a big impact in national awareness for these at-the-time emergent artists. 2013 was another stellar (and sell-out) success, with more established act Flight Facilities joining up comers such as Cassian, Wave Racer and Tyler Touché.

This February Nina developed and produced the NLV Presents tour brand. A separate entity for her triple j programs and tour, NLV Presents highlights the next crop of underground Australian producers, MCs and DJs – before they’ve even hit radio – connecting them with a strong, grass-roots audience around the country. Some of the talent on the inaugural NLV tour included Motez, Bassenji and Sable.

In her time as host, Nina Las Vegas has programmed the likes of SBTRKT, Diplo, Digitalism, Dillon Francis, Baauer, Brodinksi, Cashmere Cat, Chase & Status, Cyril Hahn, Claude Von Stroke, Jack Beats, Jaques Renault, Jesse Rose, Aeroplane, Annie Mac, Adrian Lux, Alex Metric, Anna Lunoe, Above & Beyond, Four Tet, Flosstradamus, Flume, Beni, Nervo, ShockOne, Ta-Ku, The 2 Bears, Yuksek, Peking Duk, Bag Raiders, Boys Noize, Hermitude, Lancelot, RAC, and many more.

Just last year Nina Las Vegas started her own record label called NLV Records. The self-described #girlboss celebrated her last hurrah on the radio with a stacked final show featuring Diplo, Flume, Cashmere Cat and more. The first batch of artist signings to her new label, starting with a host of Australian talents like Lewis Cancut, Swick, Air Max ’97,Strict Face, and of course, Nina herself.

Nina Las Vegas plans to bring more female talents into the fold.

NINA LAS VEGAS | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE


FestPop Editorial Team

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