‘I woke up face down on a Hollywood lawn’: Bran Van 3000 on Drinking in LA

Bidding war … James Di Salvio, far left, and Steve Hawley, third from right. Photograph: Perou

James Di Salvio, singer, songwriter

My father owned clubs in Montreal, so I was DJing by the time I was 15. And then I started making music videos. Propaganda Films called me to go to work in Los Angeles – which for a young director was like a soul singer being called to Motown. But I would always fly back to the east coast and hit the DJ booth: Drinking In LA is the culmination of that journey back and forth.