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Dressed in old jeans and all black Converses – the only shoes he ever wears – Andrew Yeomanson, a.k.a. DJ Le Spam, is the opposite of what you might expect from a Miami DJ.

The 38 year-old Canadian-born musician is the centerpiece of the Spam Allstars, a Miami-based band that transcends traditional genres to produce a sound that is the equivalent of a musical melting pot.

Coastalbeat sat down with DJ Le Spam before a recent show at Sway Lounge in Naples and discussed Canada, concert venues, his favorite gig of all time and his beverage of choice. It’s not alcoholic - Andrew doesn’t go anywhere without his personal espresso machine. Here’s what he had to say while brewing the perfect shot of coffee…

Photo by Tovin Lapan

DJ Le Spam and the Spam Allstars play a musical stew of jazz, Latin, hip-hop, funk inspired by a 1960s Cuban movement called descarga.

Coastalbeat: First things first. Tell us a little bit about you and the band…

DJ Le Spam: I was born in Canada. My mom is from Venezuela, my dad’s English. We moved around a lot through my childhood, until I was 19 or 20. That’s when I moved to Miami and I started focusing on music. Throughout the years that I have been there I got involved in different projects, playing with different fusion bands until 1995. That’s when I started recording music with the name Spam Allstars. … We put out our first album in 1999 and since then we have never stopped recording and gigging. Basically we’ve had a weekly gig in Miami since 2000. The last three or four years we have spent a lot of our energy playing outside Miami, playing new cities … this summer was really good. We played a lot of festivals. We did the Montreal Jazz Festival, we did Central Park this past weekend and we are going to California too. … We’re getting out there I guess!

CB: Has the band stayed the same since 1999 or do you have some new additions?

LS: Actually, tonight you are going to see a different line up than the one we had the last time we were here at Sway. Everybody in the band is involved with different projects from time to time, so if someone has another commitment or even if they go away on vacation, we don’t stop working. Tonight our usual guitarist, Adam, is not here, so we have someone else on guitar. We do that a lot.

CB: Is it difficult to play with different people all the time?

LS: Sometimes. But most of the times it makes it really interesting, especially if we have played many shows in a row with the same line up. … Having someone different playing with us can lead to some good surprises.

CB: So you play big festivals, but you also play rather small gigs, like Sway. Which is your favorite?

LS: Everything, really. I like small gigs as long as there is a minimum amount of equipment and set up. What we have here tonight is great, the sound system is really good, but sometimes you just don’t have the equipment you need and you know you’re not sounding as good as you can. That’s the only drawback. Otherwise, I like to change environments. The big stage is where you get the chance to reach new people that might just be there randomly, the smaller place is where you can have that kind of intimacy with your audience.

CB: What would you say was your best gig ever?

LS: The Montreal Jazz Festival at the beginning of July this year. I was born in Montreal, but I haven’t lived there since I was 8 … When we get there the stage is on the street and there’s nothing really going on in front of the stage; there were no people hanging out when we started playing … but then everything filled up and we had never been in front of that many people ever. It was thousands of people! When we finished playing we sold every single CD that we had. It was really, really cool and unexpected.

CB: How would you describe the Spam Allstars’ music? It’s kind of difficult to nail it down to one genre…

LS: Well … in the 60s there was a form of Cuban music called descarga, which means jam or literally “unload.” And basically what it was, they would have a group, a really strong sort of dancing group, then they would have the horn players doing a little intro and outro part, and then all the others would take turns playing solos. So I kind of see what we do in that tradition. So I call what we do “electronic descarga” because even if it’s electronic it’s very much influenced by that approach.

CB: If you could play with any artist dead or alive who would it be?

LS: I’m the type of person who gets very intimidated by the musicians that I admire a lot. … I guess that one would be Charlie Palmieri. He’s Eddie Palmieri’s older brother. They are both famous Puerto Rican keyboard piano players. Charlie Palmieri is actually the man who invented the discarga music, and he also experimented playing not only with the piano, but also with the organ, the electric piano. So Charlie Palmieri would be the one. The other guys just scare me too much!

CB: Speaking of music that you like … what bands are you listening to these days?

LS: I live in a house that is completely filled with vinyl records, floors to ceiling, in every room. So lately I’ve been listening to older stuff mostly, 60s and 70s … Also I have a friend that I used to work with. His business is involved with buying record collections, so he has sold me a lot of stuff. I’ve bought a lot of Cuban music from him over the years … but now he lives in Brazil, so he’s sending me records from Brazil all the time: Seventies funk and soul and sambas … I’ve already had a decent Brazilian music collection, but now I’m really getting into it.

CB: And what’s in the future for you guys?

LS: It’s time for me to start thinking about our next round of recordings. This last time it took me three years to finish because we were touring so much, so I figure if I start thinking about it now it won’t take so long … I would love it if my touring and my studio were 50/50, but right now it’s almost 80% touring and 20% studio … You go where the action is. I’m always surprised when I think of all the things we have done so far. It’s been simply amazing.

Listen to tracks off of the Spam Allstars' newest CD, "Electrodomesticos," on Coastalbeat Radio.