Spending Valentine's Day With Snoop Dogg: Touch Sensitive Plays 'Two Truths & A Lie'

Lovingly known as Touchy to his mates and fans, Touch Sensitive is one of Australia’s premier producers bringing #retrofeelz to the 21st century. From the euphoric synths of Lay Down to the sleazy jazz piano he once grooved into for triple j to his soaring new song Unconditional, Touchy makes rockin’ a mullet and collecting a billion vintage synths cool. 

In this column, he admits that he was a freakin’ terrible employee (and we finally discover why he has a song called Pizza Guy), shares that time he vibed with Snoop D-O-double G in the studio and the police run-in rumour that may or may not have been a rumour his old band Van She started themselves.

He’s a super cool, super chill dude, and though the line is crackly AF from Pasadena, California where he chats to me from, I still sense the energy coming off him as he tells his stories. 

Truth

Touch Sensitive: So actually I was a pizza guy, I was a pizza delivery man, that’s true. And at that point in my life, I had just discovered house music... I was also at university studying. But one time, I was so hungry that I ate a slice of pizza and put it back together.

Uppy: And delivered it?!

T: Yeah, thinking that nobody would notice. I delivered it and they complained.

U: I love that. [laughs]

T: So on occasion, I would take a slice of pizza, but on a regular basis I would open up a bag of calamari and take one here or there. I was outta control. I was bad. Or I would always stop by a servo and buy a Bubble O’Bill or a Cornetto or Magnums at the time had just come out and were kind of a big deal, so the money was always short at the end of the night. I was the WORST employee possible. And the other thing I used to do was go in there on a Friday night and get an advance of my pay for Sunday night, I got $10 an hour for four hours, $40. So I would go in and get an advance, go out on Friday or Saturday night, then come to work on Sunday and get no money.

U: So you used the week’s paycheck before you even got it! Sooo did you get fired? I feel like I have to ask.

T: No! You know what, I didn’t get fired. But what happened was that I passed the mantle onto my brother who is extremely responsible and he was my big little brother. We kind of overlapped there, and my boss would be like, ‘He can deliver in ten minutes what would take you an hour!’ 

U: [laughs] He erased your legacy by being good. Was this like a small pizza shop? Not like a massive chain right?

T: Yeah. It was the worst pizza. My dad always used to complain they’d put too many toppings on it. 

Truth

T: So it was Valentine’s Day probably eight years ago now? I was home and my girlfriend at the time was finishing work and we were gonna go meet up and go to dinner. At about 6pm, I got a phone call from my friend Connie Mitchell [Sneaky Sound System], she’s like, ‘Hey, what are you doing tonight?’ I’m like, ‘Ummm nothing, it’s Valentine’s Day, I was gonna get dinner with mMuny girlfriend.’ She’s like, ‘Well hey, I’m in the studio with Snoop, do you wanna come and play?’

U: Snoop Dogg?!

T: Yeah, and I’m like, ‘Uh yeah. Cool.’ So I called my girlfriend and explained and said, ‘I’m gonna go’ and she said ‘Yeah, you should go’. So I go to the studio, ring the bell and say, ‘Hi I’m here for the Snoop session’, they point me in the direction and I walk towards there. There are two security guards there and I went up to the top of the stairs and as I walked up to the top, Snoop was like laying on a couch and he goes, ‘MICHAAAEL!’ 

U: What did he say?!

T: He just like, sang my name!

U: Yeah, wow. It’s Snoop though.

T: So I go in, this guy comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, I’m Nick, I’m not sure what you’re gonna be doing yet but I’m kind of overseeing everything.’ So I’m sitting there and I start playing and Snoop starts throwing beats around and going ‘what do you got for this, what do you got for this’, I’m playing and playing and playing. It got to like 12’o’clock and I’m like, ‘Ohhh you know what Snoop, I kind of have somewhere I have to go, it’s Valentine’s Day,’ and they paid me in American dollars and then I just went!

U: So this in the States or Australia?

T: Nah, it was here in Australia.

U: So when you got home, what did your girlfriend say?!

T: Nothing, she was so cool with it. 

U: What a legend! 

T: But it turns out that the guy producing in there was Nick Launay, he produces like Midnight Oil and INXS and Arcade Fire and all kinds of crazy shit. So I met him that way.

U: So did your stuff end up on a Snoop Dogg record at any point?

T: Ohhh no, I don’t think so. I highly doubt it. But Nick Launay did give me a recording of it. 

Lie

T: There is a bit of a rumour going on that Nick, the singer of Van She, and I got tasered by police.

U: Whoa, tasered?

T: Tasered by police, BUT we didn’t. What happened was, we were in the carpark fighting, the police held us up with taser guns but they didn’t actually taser us. I can’t remember what we were fighting about but we were on tour with PNAU and we were outside the PNAU dressing room. For whatever reason, and I’m not a physical person, but for some reason we ended up in a scuffle. He had just spent $1000 on this beautiful leather jacket and for whatever reason, I fell and he fell with me and as I fell, I grabbed his arm and it ripped the sleeve right off his brand new leather jacket. 

U: Nooo!

T: And we fell into the PNAU dressing room while they were being interviewed by Channel [V].

U: Oh god. 

T: So then the argument moved out into the carpark and that’s when we got held up by tasers but we DIDN’T get tasered. We just got held up and threatened. 

U: So how do you think the rumours started? Did fans see you guys in the carpark?

T: You know what, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually one of the guys in Van She that told people that we got tasered. I would be 100% not surprised and I think I know who it was. But it’s not true!

U: Riiight. And how long ago was this?

T: Ummm… 2008? 

U: Wow, and the cops just gave you a warning and let you guys off?

T: They actually went ‘freeze or we’ll fucking tase you’ and one of the other members was like, ‘No, they’re friends, they’re just arguing’.

U: Shiiiiit. 

Touch Sensitive’s latest single Unconditional is out now. 

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If you’re a musician and have some stories to share and some secrets to tell – be it hilarious or heartbreaking, humiliating or honourable – send us an email at twotruthscolumn[at]gmail[dot]com.

We might be telling the whole world about the time you accidentally killed your brother’s pet snake and replaced it without anyone knowing in no time.