Anton Lord has been a quiet legend of the Perth House Music Scene for almost 3 decades.
A life changing afternoon in the early 90’s with a friend recently returned from Berlin brandishing two turntables and a crate full of records forever changed his outlook on music.
Already familiar with making party mixes on tape moving to vinyl was a natural progression.
After doing the rounds of the house party scenes he quickly graduated to clubs and it wasn’t long before a couple of mix tapes (remember cassette tapes!) found their way in to the hands of some of Perth’s best club owners.
After being booted out of his regular haunts for bringing “dance music” in to venues better known for tired party classics it wasn’t long until he was main stage at the Leederville Hotel on Wednesday & Sunday during it’s heyday.
He then set about a decade long residency at The Sapphire Bar in Subiaco which he eventually invested in as an owner.
Other residencies included the legendary upstairs bar at The Cottesloe Beach Hotel with appearances at Geisha and other top stops around town.
He was also regularly found playing back to back with long time friend Adam Kelly on festival stages ranging from Two Tribes, Hed Kandi and beyond.
They also hosted a weekly radio show on Groove FM featuring live house sets from around Perth.
Anton went on to host another radio show on the short lived Liquid FM – Perth’s first truly independent LPON radio network – and act as their station technician.
It wasn’t unusual to find him playing 14 shows a week over 5 nights.
He even found his way back to bush doofs and regional events where the value of people vs the value of money spoke volumes.
Once compared to Sasha in his relentless pursuit of technical perfection (both as a performer and audio technician looking after many club PA systems) his serious demeanour behind the decks is frequently broken by his wry grin when playing the right tune.
Training in classical music and jazz as a bassist built on the childhood listening of his parents records – disco, rock and soul.
Favouring real instrumentation, vocals and that underlying disco funk bass his tunes are an irresistible invitation to hit the dancefloor. From 12 hour marathon sets to a single hour of power he’s done it all – house parties, basements, bars, boats, doofs, super clubs, festivals, touring shows, regional events and more. With over 2000+ shows under his belt he doesn’t look short of stopping.
Whilst “retired” from regular residency work he can still be spotted at house parties, fund raisers, Blazing Swan, Blossom and with his band of misfits at Intelligent Deviant.
BD – June 2022