Name, Location, What You Do:

Paola Puente aka doublepeas from Las Vegas, Nevada. I hoard records. Fix record players, radios and clocks. Rescue vintage toys. Record dealer by day, Vegas cocktail waitress by night.

Influences:

My father is Chilean and they’re big on heavy metal there. I remember him playing loud bands around me when I was little and my mother getting upset. He would switch it over to his guilty pleasure, Carole King. He knew all the words to “Tapestry” and I fell in love with that album. As a young teen, my older sister was my music resource. She introduced me to mix tapes and DJs, mostly house music. When I started realizing all the sounds I loved coming out of the tapes were actually disco samples I had to find all the originals. Patrice Rushen, Chic, Patrick Adams. Soon after that, living in Los Angeles, I was introduced to hip hop and graffiti by a gentleman that went by the name of ROB ONE (rest in peace) and my life was never the same! I got into so many styles of music and the common denominator being that they all sampled amazing records (that I had to have). I remember one teenage year, I decided I hated lyrics so I moved on to instrumentals, beat records, anything from Ninja Tune, Compost records (Jazzanova, Rainer Truby trio) DJ Krush, DJ Cam and any weird Austrian production comps. They were all imports and expensive even at that time and that’s where all my money went. While the girls my age were shopping at the mall, I was at a record store like Beat Non Stop (r.i.p.) and Aarons (r.i.p.) digging for weird downtempo records and when I couldn’t afford records at shops anymore, I turned to thrift stores to feed my obsession. That’s how my 45 collection started growing. I think I was paying about a quarter each at the time. Those people and those shops all influenced everything I still listen to now.

Favorite Records at the Moment:

Any Gloria Ann Taylor, Weldon Irvine time capsule, Ray and His Court “Cookie Crumbs (killer latin funk), Gangstarr “Moment of Truth”, Kimoko Kasai & Herbie Hancock “Butterfly”, Pendletons “Waiting On You”.

Best Digging Story:

I was going to share the one about finding a dead pigeon in between some awesome records but I like this one better and it’s more recent… I went to a record store by my moms house and saw an album that looked interesting and I was very familiar with, there was no price tag on it so I asked the gentleman working there what the price was, He said “I don’t know but I can tell you it’s very expensive” and put it back in a pile without asking me if I was interested in buying it. I picked it back up and insisted HOW MUCH? he looked at me and said forty bucks. I said I’ll take it. He says do you want to listen to it first? I said no I’ve already heard it, it used to be my copy. I flipped it over and showed him my name written on the back of the record 🙂

Favorite Mix and Why. Any Genre, Any DJ.

Gangster Soul Girlz Harmony by George Miller Jr of the Southern Soul Spinners. Straight sweet soul and the coolest cover art full of pictures of his mother and aunts in East L.A. chillin’ in old cars wearing flannel shirts and aqua net hair do’s in the ’70’s.

Danny Holloway – Shots Fired Reggae
The Silver Child – Still Searchin’ (Japan)
Kid Koala – ScratchHappyLand demo
C Minus – Live Dilla tribute
Kon – Live from a roller boogie in Madrid Spain
DJ Sneak, DJ Heather & Mark Farina – Live from Smartbar Chicago ’96

LP, 12”, or 7” format?
Donuts

Junk Food You Can’t Live Without:

Any flavor Kit Kat, yes even the weird ones.

Most Memorable Gig Played:

For me nothing compares to just playing records at home for my daughter. If you follow me on social media you know she’s got some serious moves!

Record That Never Leaves Your Record Box:

Pearl Dowell – Good Things

Shout Outs, Last Remarks, and Gig Info:

Shout outs to my crew Skeme Richards, Supreme La Rock & Marsellus Wallace for always being there for me. Andy at Record Jungle for being a kind human and owning my favorite record store, Devin at Nature Sounds/Lucky Records for all the digging adventures and keeping my GAT obsession healthy, Robby at Beat Swap Meet for putting together my favorite event, Break Beat Lou for all the sound advice, Lyn Christopher for all the great stories and Channing Smith for all the rare Kit Kats.