Boy Wonder
Though he's far less shocking than he was 30 years ago, Boy George still has the power to make us gasp, let alone dance
MW: How does the music you play as a DJ differ from your own music?
BOY GEORGE: DJ’ing is really a parallel universe. It’s so different from what I do with the band. And it’s not the kind of dance music you’re going to hear on the radio. I don’t play what you call EDM. I play underground dance music. If people want to hear what I play, there’s a podcast every month on iTunes. It’s called Club Culture. DJ Boy George. And it really tells you what I play. It’s free. I use it kind of as an advertisement, because people do get very confused about what I do as a DJ. I’m sure people think I play ’80s music, which I don’t. I don’t play pop dance either. It’s very underground. So generally if you like what I do musically, you will not like what I do as a DJ. [Laughs.] You do sometimes get people wandering into my DJ sets, clutching ’80s albums, and they generally end up quite disappointed.
MW: Do you DJ in the states very often?
BOY GEORGE: Yeah, I do. I’ve DJ’ed a lot in the states. I was there last year for six weeks, and I had a great time. I was in Miami just before Christmas DJ’ing. And I should be doing dates obviously over there this year. But not while I’m doing the live shows.
MW: So you won’t have offer a DJ set the same night as your live set, perhaps at a different venue, as some artists have done in recent years?
BOY GEORGE: No, because usually promoters get very kind of uptight about that. It distracts. So we try to keep the two things very separate. So usually I put DJ Boy George when I DJ so people know that it’s not a live show.
MW: The last thing I wanted to ask you about is Taboo, your decade-old musical that had original productions on London’s West End and New York’s Broadway. Are there plans for a revival of that?
BOY GEORGE: Last year we re-wrote Taboo, myself and Mark Davies Markham, who was the original book writer. And I think we’ve written the best version ever of Taboo. And we are talking to people in Europe about doing a workshop this year. We had a surprise hit with Taboo in London last year. We had like a six/seven-month run. We won a Best Off West End Award [from the website WhatsOnStage.com]. So there’s life in the old dog yet, I believe. And it would be great to bring it back to America, but Off Broadway. Somewhere a little bit funky. But yeah, there are definitely plans for another version of Taboo.
Boy George performs Monday, April 21, at Nightclub 9:30, 815 V St. NW. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35. Call 202-265-0930 or visit 930.com.
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