David and Claudio – SEXSHOOTERS
We speak to David and Claudio, a couple living in London who tour the world as the DJ producers SEXSHOOTERS. We’ve spoken to lots of couples on the blog before like, open relationship couple Alex and Matthias, or newlyweds Raphael and Liam, and we featured three food loving couples in our Eat Gay Love series. We think SEXSHOOTERS David and Claudio have a very unique relationship and approach to life. They speak frankly about sex, love, drugs, and turning vegetarian.
The Interview
Please introduce yourselves to the ROMEO audience?
D&C: “Hey Everyone! We are David and Claudio aka SEXSHOOTERS. We are a London based DJ/Producer couple, and as far as we know the only real-life couple and DJ duo on the international scene. Therefore, we have our own particular perspective on DJ life and the industry.”
D: “I’m sure we’ll manage to offend some/all of you at some point throughout this interview, but we just like to keep it real.”
Love
Can you give me a brief synopsis of your love story, how you met, who said I love you first etc.?
C: “We kind of met and started the ‘old-fashioned way’ lol.”
D: “Well if you call me making you take your top off and pose for a photo ‘old-fashioned’ then OKAY! Hahaha.”
C: “I was watching him take photographs at his infamous Thursday club night Gigolo and he asked me if I wanted to be photographed. I remember the moment he turned around to talk to me and there was just something in that moment that I kind of knew that I had to keep this one.”
D: “It all moved pretty quickly after that point. Date on Saturday. Moved in on Tuesday. I love you’s the following Saturday. The rest is history.”
Related: Check out another DJ interview with Seven Ultra Omni.
Status
Are you married? and is your relationship monogamous, monogamish, open, closed, depends on who’s asking?
C: “Is joined at the hip a category?”
D: “We live on top of each other and breathe the same air 24/7 and never spend a moment apart.”
C: “It’s actually not a joke. I think we were ultimately looking for a relationship where we could live work and be together all the time, and we definitely found it!”
D: “Other than that we have a very committed relationship with our work.”
C: “Outside of that, our monogamous, monogamish, open, closed, depends on who’s asking relationship has the open-mindedness to consider options if the fit happens to be right (and tight!) Haha.”
Looks
Do you think you look alike? Tell me a bit more about that?
C: “I fucking wish!”
D: “Hahaha whatever! We’ve had that said before, but we don’t agree.”
C: “I think people can confuse dressing the same as looking the same.”
D: “It’s strange that even though we are a couple and only ever present ourselves as a package, people often feel it’s their place to tell us, which they prefer, and why.”
D: “It’s rude and boring and only eliminates their possibility of getting our attention or respect.”
Diet
Talk to me about vegetarianism? How can you be so buff if you don’t eat meat? What’s your gym/diet routine? Do you use steroids?
D: “Last year we watched a movie called OKJA which is based on the meat industry, it’s very well made and really moving. Anyone who watches this movie and continues to eat meat is kinda soulless. I also grew up mainly vegetarian, so the transition back was not hard.”
C: “It was an important moment for us to look at and change some of our lifestyle choices. Going to the gym religiously, eating shitloads of meat, taking steroids and basing our free time on pursuing a certain physique was unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable. It was also not conducive to both a DJ’s lifestyle (irregular hours, lack of sleep, traveling internationally, airplane food) or the goals we have as producers/musicians.”
D: “Technically we are ‘pescatarian’ so supplement our diet with fish but mainly make vegetarian choices. Once you identify what vegetarian alternatives you can replace meat with, it becomes pretty straightforward and keep in mind that it can be a work in progress.”
Time
You mentioned earlier, you do everything together and depend on each other. Are you a living art experiment? Do you plan or schedule alone time (as in away from each other) and time to be with other people?
D: “No, never. Don’t want to. Not interested.”
C: “Hahaha we come as a package deal, so whenever we spend time with anyone be it friends, family or anything in-between, then it’s always with both of us. It’s not something that everyone understands or accepts, but we don’t care.”
Good Looking
Do you find you receive a lot of criticism for being good looking DJs, and/or do you think your looks undermine your music?
D: ‘SHADE… Shade comes in all forms, from all angles and in every shady shade of shade. It’s something we’ve come to accept and embrace in this business as it keeps coming our way and has no signs of ever going away.”
C: “Us gay’s don’t band together and support each other outside of our cliqués as much as we should. We’ve had some pretty harsh criticism about where we should or shouldn’t be playing based on our looks. ‘They’re not bearish enough for this venue,’ or ‘they’re good looking and therefore their music is crap,’ are some of the opinions that have been passed on to us. A DJ should be booked on the basis of their music and then their brand. If anyone gives us any shit, we just tell them to fuck off. We work too hard and are too passionate about making music to have our work limited by someone’s shitty small-minded opinions, or their need to label themselves or us into a certain group within the gay community. We already all have GAY as a label so why the need to add more labels that segregate and exclude people within the scene?”
D: “I would say that it’s just people’s judgmental, jealous, bitchy opinions, but then I’d risk being accused of being full of it! ☺”
