There is a very specific kind of formative musical experience that reshapes an entire artistic trajectory, and Dancing With Lou documents exactly that moment for Jason McKee, the Melbourne-based musician working under his Reetoxa moniker. At fifteen years old, sitting in a friend’s living room while that friend’s father put on Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask, McKee encountered something considerably different from the three-chord grunge and alternative rock dominating 1995’s broader musical landscape. That specific listening session, McKee has explained, fundamentally opened an entirely new sonic universe, one that eventually gave him genuine permission toward writing without self-censorship regarding whatever subject matter he actually wanted to explore.
McKee had already loved The Velvet Underground before that particular afternoon, but Reed’s solo career specifically remained unexplored territory until his friend’s father introduced him directly toward that considerably different creative period. That distinction matters significantly for understanding the song’s genuine emotional weight, since discovering an artist’s solo work after already appreciating their earlier collaborative output often produces genuinely different, more personally revelatory listening experience than encountering that same artist’s work without any prior established connection. Sitting alongside vinyl and genuine unguarded conversation about the specific chaos of actual teenage life, McKee absorbed Reed’s fearless lyrical directness during exactly the formative period when musical influence tends toward leaving genuinely lasting impact.
Musically, Dancing With Lou delivers what McKee has described wanting specifically, raw rock and roll energy paired alongside genuinely irresistible dancefloor pulse. That combination reflects real understanding regarding Reed’s own artistic legacy, an artist whose work frequently balanced considerable lyrical rawness and unflinching subject matter alongside genuinely compelling, often surprisingly accessible musical foundation underneath that lyrical directness. Building a tribute track around that same combination, honoring Reed’s influence through genuinely energetic, danceable rock rather than more somber or reverent musical treatment, suggests McKee understood something essential regarding what actually made Reed’s own music so genuinely compelling in the first place.
The considerable talent assembled for this recording deserves genuine recognition, featuring drummer Peter Marin from JET alongside guitarist James Ryan, whose credits include work alongside Ross Wilson and Men at Work, and bassist Kit Riley, similarly credited through Ross Wilson collaborations alongside Robbie Williams. That caliber of supporting musicianship gives Dancing With Lou genuine technical foundation extending well beyond McKee’s own considerable songwriting and vocal contribution alone, positioning this particular track within genuinely accomplished Australian rock lineage given the collective professional history these specific collaborators bring toward the recording.
Recording specifically at The Avenue studio in Cheltenham carries genuine symbolic weight worth appreciating directly, positioned geographically roughly halfway between McKee’s considerably gritty Frankston upbringing and his current, more established Melbourne life. That deliberate location choice reflects real intentionality regarding honoring both halves of McKee’s personal history simultaneously, neither fully abandoning his working-class origins nor pretending his current urban existence exists entirely disconnected from where he actually began. Working alongside mixing and mastering engineer Simon Moro, the recording apparently achieves exactly the sonic balance McKee envisioned throughout this considerable creative process.
This particular single emerges from Reetoxa’s second album Soliloquy, a project McKee has described creating during genuinely intense COVID lockdown isolation, a period that eventually pushed him toward creative extremes resulting in an actual six-week hospital stay. Despite that considerable personal cost, McKee has characterized the entire experience as genuinely amazing songwriting period throughout his life, suggesting real understanding regarding how genuine creative breakthrough sometimes emerges specifically through considerable psychological and emotional extremity rather than more comfortable, measured creative circumstances.
What gives Dancing With Lou genuine emotional resonance beyond pure musical craft is understanding McKee’s documented eventual meeting with Reed himself during the Ecstasy tour, an encounter apparently so genuinely overwhelming that Reed physically had to steady McKee’s visibly trembling arm simply toward completing an autograph signature. That poster now hangs properly framed within McKee’s own home, functioning as tangible, permanent reminder regarding artistic inspiration coming genuinely full circle. Few artists get genuine opportunity toward meeting the specific figure who fundamentally reshaped their own creative trajectory, and McKee’s evident emotional response during that particular encounter speaks toward how profoundly Reed’s influence actually shaped his entire artistic identity.
There is something worth noting in how directly this track’s origin story, teenage discovery through genuinely unguarded intergenerational conversation about music, sex, and considerable adolescent confusion, mirrors exactly the kind of fearless, unfiltered subject matter Reed himself frequently explored throughout his own considerable catalog. That thematic alignment between Dancing With Lou’s actual content and Reed’s broader artistic legacy suggests McKee understood something genuine regarding honoring influence, not simply through surface-level musical imitation, but through actually embodying that same fearless willingness toward addressing genuinely honest, sometimes uncomfortable subject matter directly.
With continued momentum building toward potential UK and European touring later this year, alongside McKee’s ongoing work completing Reetoxa’s third album currently anticipated for February release, Dancing With Lou arrives at genuinely significant moment within his broader artistic trajectory. This single functions simultaneously as genuine personal tribute toward formative artistic influence and as continued evidence regarding McKee’s own considerable songwriting maturity, translating deeply personal teenage memory into something capable of resonating with audiences who may never have shared that exact specific listening experience themselves. By honoring Lou Reed’s legacy through genuinely danceable, energetic rock rather than purely reverent tribute, Reetoxa has built something that captures exactly what made that original 1995 encounter so transformative, genuine permission toward fearless, uncensored artistic expression delivered specifically through music people can actually move their bodies toward.
