PLUG iN ZINE's Podcast

01. What you love and what you hate in dj’s life?

Hate's a strong word man!

I love getting sent promos (it's a real privilege and we should never forget that), the downside is the amount of time it takes to get through them all, it's pretty much a full time job. I must only manage to get through 10%, no idea how some people get through everything!

02. What do you do in your life besides producing and dj’ing?

I work part time for a marketing agency in London, using the experience gained from running Lost My Dog to help bigger, more boring brands market themselves better.

03. What’s the strangest thing happened to you during a gig?

I managed to turn a CD deck off mid-track during my first ever gig... still have no idea how I managed that one. People seemed to like the breakdown though...

04. Describe your last release in three words.

Music for dancing!

05. In your opinion how would electronic music change in the next 10 years?

I think we'll see the same old cyclical trends, but with lots of new flavour from the big technological advancements that are bound to come. Can you even imagine how good touch devices will be in 10 years? The possibilities will be mind-boggling... maybe a little too mind-boggling.

Artist Name: Kerri Chandler Web: http://www.kerrichandler.com/ Biography:Kerri 'Kaoz' Chandler has been injecting soul into music since the early 90s, making him one of house music’s originators.Kerri Chandler is a house legend, icon, inspiration, key figure, and a true house music purveyor. An ambassador of the natural and instinctive 4/4 beat, Kerri’s influences can be traced back to New Jersey growing up in a family of jazz musicians. His father, a respected deejay, provided Kerri with a rich background in the origins of soul, disco and the New York Underground Sound (known also as “Garage” music). Kerri began playing records at the Rally Record Club in East Orange, New Jersey at the tender age of thirteen and it was only a natural progression for him to become interested in production.Since the signing of his first single SuperLover/Get It Off by Atlantic in 1991, Kerri began producing a prolific body of work that has helped coin him one of the most respected house producers in the world. This has been achieved by remaining true to his style. When listening to tracks such as the Atmosphere EP on Shelter Records and the seminal A Basement, Redlight & A Feeling album on Madhouse, one has to marvel at Kerri’s ability to not compromise his unique sound for commercial gain. His ability to blend tradition and innovation produces avant-garde music with soulful roots reaching back into the history of Afro-American music. Kerri masters rhythm and space piecing together vocals and instruments with uncanny precision delivering beautiful monster jams.A spiritual man, Kerri prays before making a record. Each project is an attempt to inject his free spirit into a groove. His command and mastery of rhythm allows him to create fleshy excitement, not mechanical repetition. His now legendary bass-lines go from heavy and heady to playful and quirky while remaining deliriously intoxicating. His fusions, clamped to the beat of his unique thundering kick drum, redefine house music at every turn. His hooks are loving details, paying attention to horn hits, washes of synthesizers, and catchy choruses creating songs with brutal drive. A believer in peace and harmony, Kerri blames soulful house’s positive vibes for its failure to make it commercially, as its openness to influences are difficult for many to accept.Kerri is fascinated by technology and its application to creativity. He has built his own studio and spends hours developing newer and more forward-thinking computer programs to revolutionize the way we think of traditional deejay mixing. Kerri uses his deejay sets to inject a spirit into the dance floor by playing “live” sets during which he remixes tracks whenever he can by incorporating every possible element, including visual and musical. Armed with two laptop computers, thousands of music files, his own handmade mini-mixer and a cutting-edge imagination, Kerri manages to wow audiences around the globe while inspiring debate and envy in top industry circles about his new toys.Never straying from his roots, Kerri has proved he’s remained loyal to the underground movement by producing contemporary classics like Bar-a-Thym and Back To The Raw. The future is very bright for Kerri who is now signing and releasing productions through his new record label imprints: Max Trax, Grei Matter and Lost Tribes of Ibadan. With such a hot hand, he is the man of the house and undoubtedly will be responsible for many new classics to come.If you think all house sounds the same, has no soul and is just four to the floor, then I suggest you do some rethinking and check out Kerri Chandler’s latest releases and back catalogue…You’ll be glad you did!

Artist Name: Soul Minority Web: http://www.soulminority.com

Biography: Soul Minority is a musician and dj based in Barcelona, Spain.

Soul Minority started production back in 2008 and after several well received remixes, he delivered his first EP on Pack up and Dance, an instant hit on the new deep house scene: “A soul thing” was number one in the Beatport charts for 6 consecutive weeks and was acclaimed by techno and house dj’s around the world. Releasing his second EP, “I Remember House” in May 2009, it was no surprise to see that shoot straight in at #2 on the Beatport top 100 charts. Since then, Soul Minority’s production work has graced labels such as Kolour Recordings (USA), Tsuba (UK), Dirt Crew (Ger), Raw Cutz (Spain), Dark Energy (UK), Night drive Music (Ger), i!Records (USA), always maintaining his fresh deep sound.

01. What are your musical influences? Well, it's a pretty difficult question, I've got loads of influence. I'm a huge music collector, I've got lots of records from different genres, 60's and 70's rock, soul, funk, blues, disco, reggae, 90's house and techno, and i think all those records are my musical background and are influencing me when I'm making my own music. 02. Where did you have your best performance? There is no particular place, if the club is full of people who are here for the music and really into it, I'll give them my best performance. They provide the energy, I'll give them the good vibe. 03. What device do you prefer to use in your live and studio set up? In both situations, it has to be Ableton Live. I started using it years ago, I was using version 2 alongside cubase at that time, and it has evolved so much since then, it is now my main sequencer of choice. I use it for all my music production. It's so easy to work fast with it, it's a very intuitive and clever software. I could't live without it… 04. What are your favorite records label? Like the first question, hard to decide, but here's 5 house music labels I really like, in no particular order. - Cajual/Relief - Freerange - planet e - KDJ - Guidance 05. What you love and what you hate in dj’s life? I love meeting new people and sharing a good time with them. I love visiting new places, and of course playing good music. I love being on a plane, but I hate all the stress that flying involves nowadays. I hate waiting for hours in boring airports. I hate stressful security controls, bad customer services, luggage restrictions and all that crap. Flying used to be a pleasant moment, not anymore. 06. What do you do in your life besides producing and dj'ing? Producing and dj'ing, Full time :-) 07. In your opinion how would electronic music change in the next 10 years? In music everything goes full circle, so in ten years time, we should be back where we are now, but slightly different. 08. What are your plans for the future? I'll release my debut album "Slove", on Kolour Recordings. Apart from that I've got some 12'' nearly ready that will be out in August and September, and some remixes for various labels. 09. What would you suggest to a beginner dj? Be yourself, practice a lot, start producing, this is how you'll get gigs. Start your own party if nobody wants to book you. Be patient and don't give up. If you are passionate and consistent, your efforts will pay one day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

01. How did you approached to the dj profession? I used to DJ with a friend in his bedroom. We used to do that for years playing trance and house music. I also moved on to drum and bass after inheriting his decks at university. I was then friends with another DJ at university and we approached the university with an idea for a booking, with the condition that we would be able to do the support slot. We ended up getting the booking and the university enjoyed our support so much that they gave us a regular slot in the student's union. We did that for a while, and I also secured a small residency at a bar playing funk, soul and jazz. I moved back down to Edinburgh and played a few gigs through friends and contacts - by this time I was playing electro, but it wasn't bigtime, and I stopped enjoying the tracks I was playing, so I stopped. I then started producing dubstep and once I had a couple of small releases I ended up getting a few small-time DJ gigs locally, and from there I've had a few more elsewhere in the world. I'm not really a big touring DJ, and I don't get booked very often. There are so many other DJs who play more regularly. Right now I don't even play 1 gig per month on average.

02. Tell us of your first time playing in a in club. It was back in the student union, and my friend and I were playing mashups and remixes of well known tracks - it went down pretty well and we both had fun, but it wasn't ground-breaking in any respect.

03. What about your new album “Fading”? Well the funding term has now been completed and I managed to raise more than my target amount - so I'm in the process of sorting out the manufacturing of the vinyl and CD products - then the long and difficult process of promotion will follow and finally it should see a release in a few months, depending on how long the manufacture and distribution takes!

04. Until today you have raised plenty of funds on Indiegogo.com for this project, did you expected so much support? No, I was worried that I had aimed too high. I thought that $5000 was too much to ask for - even though it was what I needed. I pushed the project really hard though, and I guess my hard work in trying to promote it paid off. I ended up with so much more than I expected!

05. What lead you to found labels like Cut and Echodub? So many things - other interviews have highlighted both labels, but ultimately I just wanted to put out music that I enjoyed and provide a platform for those producers who I think deserve to be heard. A stepping stone for them. I also like to start projects and i enjoy staying busy - so there's always something new on the horizon.

06. What are your favorite records label? It's so hard to choose labels - because I find there are not many labels that have consistency within their output. I enjoy most of the output from labels like Hotflush, Aus, Tectonic, and smaller labels like Loodma Recordings or DewTone, but there is so much music being sent to me all the time that I enjoy - that it's very hard to keep up with all the labels and their releases.

07. In your opinion how will electronic music change in the next 10 years? In the next 10 years!! I can't even begin to fathom what will change in 2 years!! Things move so fast and the industry changes quickly - I have trouble predicting anything at the moment, because there is so much fluctuation. Every week someone declares vinyl dead or CDs dead - but then the next week somebody says vinyl is still selling strong, or there is a market for CDs. Some people are pushing new ways of distributing and selling, some still stick to the traditional methods. There is so much happening that it's impossible to predict.

08. What you love and what you hate in dj's life? I don't have a DJs life, so I can't really comment. The few gigs that I(continued)

Artist Name: Mark Farina Web: http://www.djmarkfarina.net/

Biography: Shortly after Mark befriended Derrick Carter in 1988 at a record store in Chicago, his passion for House music, and sharing it with the world, exploded. Mark experimented with a deeper style, dropping De La Soul, disco classics and other stuff that wasn’t being played in the main rooms of nightclubs. While exploring his love for the purist forms of House Music, Mark developed his trademark style: Mushroom Jazz; acid jazz infused with the West Coast’s jazzy, organic productions combined with urban beats. Fans embraced Mark’s downtempo style so much that he started a weekly Mushroom Jazz club night in San Francisco with Patty Ryan. In 3 short years, the club established a fanatical, cult-like following for Farina and the Mushroom Jazz sound. When the doors closed, Farina continued the tradition by releasing a series of Cds on OM Records: simply titled, “Mushroom Jazz”. Since then, Mark has been traveling the globe performing 100s of shows, to over one million club goers, every year. His House sets take fans on journeys to the jazzy side of Chicago House mixed San Fran style. Some of these sets have been known to last up to 8 hours. And sometimes you’ll find Mark playing in two different rooms at the same party, showcasing his range of big room sound to the uber-chill. When Mark’s not touring, you can likely find him in his studio, working on his next release for his imprint, Great Lakes Audio, or on another signature mix for Mushroom Jazz. Mark’s chunky-funky underground house style continually turns the heads of tastemakers worldwide, drawing him not only new fans, but landing him on the Top DJs in the World lists by URB, MUZIK and BPM Magazines.

01. How did you approach the dj profession? Saw DJs playing vinyl in club at age of 15/16 and was interested.

02. Tell us your first time playing in a club? Very first time, my friend, who was a resident DJ at a club I went to regularly was in the middle of his set and told me to get on.  I was a nervous wreck.  The place was packed with 1000 people.

03. What device do you prefer to use in your live and studio set up? Live in clubs I use CDJ 2000s Pioneer.  For production I like Akai MPC-4000.

04. Your Mushroom Jazz saga reached the 7th edition, what can we expect from the next edition? Don't know just yet…  Stay tuned!

05. What are you favorite record labels? Coyote Cuts, Classic, Sire, Wax Trax, Transmat, Greenhouse, Sampled, BBE.

06. What lead you to found Great Lakes Audio? Always wanted my own label since I began DJing.  Finally made it happen.

07. In your opinion how will electronic music change in the next 10 years? It will always be about good music.

08. What do you love and what do you hate in the DJs life? Love travel, meeting people and seeing new places.  Don't like airport delays and bad sound systems.

08. What would you suggest to a beginner DJ? Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  And do your homework.

09. Can you tell us something about your future works? MJ8 this year.  Various remixes

Biography:"The first time I ever put two records together I was 11. The first time I ever played at a club -- 18. And the first place I had a full-blown residency was at the Powerhouse with Ron Carroll, DJ Rush and myself, in… well, the poster on the wall over there says "1990". - Gene Farris | 5 Magazine

Since then, Gene, at 6' 7", has become one of the most accomplished, if not one of the "biggest", DJ/Producers in House Music, releasing some of dance music's hottest anthems on his label, Farris Wheel Recordings with The Copa Cabana (sold 25,000 units), The Spirit (with DJ Sneak remixes) as well as Defected's 2001 classic, Sanctified Love, CR2's, The Big Doopie Rmx's and Cajual with Summer Affair. Depending on the continent, talent or party you find Gene performing, you can count on him setting the tone with his distinctive "funky summer Chicago hot kinda vibe"; simply put, "funky, dirty, sexy, grooving beats". Chicago born and raised, Gene was inspired by the likes of Larry Heard, Ron Hardy, Lil Louis, Derrick May, Mark Farina, Prince and Roy Ayers. Combined with his love for disco, Gene developed his style of seamless mixes blending funk, disco and soul with 80s pop. Gene joined forces with Cajmere (aka Green Velvet | Relief Records); the partnership proved to be the perfect fit. The duo produced smash club killers like The Music Box, Edge Of The Looking Glass, Red Line, The Inside and Le Mirage. Currently, the duo is in the studio working on several productions to be released later this year. Farris started his own label - Farris Wheel Recordings, which has continued to be one of the leaders in underground house music. The Farris Wheel Family releases remixes and full productions from some of the worlds most prolific and respected dance music producers for over a decade, such as J.T. Donaldson, Chuck Love, 1200 Warriors, Stacey Pullen, Glenn Underground, Greenskeepers, Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, Boo Williams, DJ Sneak, Brett Johnson, Miguel Migs and Jay-J. With over 100 productions, 6 albums and performances in over 30 countries, Gene still finds time to share his passion for music with kids in China. Suggested by a friend, Gene's produced a series of videos about how to get youth inspired, and in to, electronic music and Dj-ing.

01. How did you approached to the dj profession? I started djing very young and was introduced to me by some local friends..

02. Tell us of your first time playing in a in club. The first time I played a club I was extremly nervous, I still remember my sweaty hands it was at the PowerHouse in Chicago a very popular club back in the day.. I pulled it out was a great night a lot of oldschool djs began to give me props after that party..

03. What device do you prefer to use in your live and studio set up? I use logic and Reasons in the studio with a few other key toys;)

04. What you think about digital music? I think it fine, music has to move forward, I mean were would we be if we never moved from 8 track or reel to reel? Everything must progress or it stops moving..

05. What are your favorite records label? I have a few Cajual, Farris Wheel, Defected, Soma, Sampled, Guesthouse & Large..

06. What lead you to found Farris Wheel Recordings? I started Farris Wheel In 1998 originally just for another outlet to put out my music and it just grew into a life of it's own, it's kinda it's own living thing now when I make music for my label I have to make sure it fits the "Farris Wheel" sound..

07. In your opinion how would electronic music change in the next 10 years? Everything goes full circle I think in ten yrs it will be simular to what u hear now but it will be much much cleaner..

08. What you love and what you hate in dj's life? I love the Music, the Parties, the attention, the planes, the hotels, the food, the cheddar, I Hate the Haters lol..

09. What would you suggest to a beginner dj? Stay consistent and practice your (continued)