So, Ive been nominated to do the Five DJs who have influenced my style thingy by a certain Scottie Djredeye Canfield. Though there have been many others that Ive taken bits and ideas from, I must say, without meaning to sound arrogant or pompous, that Ive kind of done my own thing. I often find that its the music that tells me where to go or what to do and generally the level of comfort I feel when Im at work allows me to be fearless and slightly sonically aggressive, in a way that is only hinted at in other aspects of my life. Still, there have been a few who have left their mark on me. 1. Mike Brown As a youngin with no access to them $600 turntables in the early to mid 80s, Mike would let me mix and practice on his 1200s. Going through his crates, which contained the hottes shit from Importes, Etc / Loop Records / JRs, I learned a lot about sounds and the way different types of music could be played together. I would watch him do tricks...double beats, repeating the hot parts of songs, this thing he called making an acapella and playing unreleased tracks from cassette using a pitch controlled tape deck. Now dont get me wrong, there was a whole GRIP of hot jocks in my suburban neighborhood to draw inspiration from. Kenny Mahone, Alfred Bynum, Terry Mack, Brian Reaves to name a few. But, because Mike took the time to be cool and show me things as well as let me have a go from time to time, he is probably my earliest, and one of my greatest inspirations. 2. Farley Jackmaster Funk Being too young to go to clubs, the radio was my lifeline as a teenager. Along with the rest of the Hot Mix 5 and later, The Super Mix Six, I was able to get my fix of new beats, styles, and find the relief that great music offers. Even though there were things that I liked about them all, it was Farley who Id religiously tune in for (Steve Silk Hurley and Mike Wilson being a super close second). Mixing disco, house, rhythm trax, wild pause edits, acapellas, and stuff that just came from left field, AND later on, doing it live from the studio, it made an huge impression on my young self. 3. Mark Farina I met Mark while working at Importes, Etc. Hed come in one day, fresh from Arizona State and bought some records from me (which is another story altogether) but one day, he brought a cassette in to play. There was this whooshing sound and wild effects going throughout the mix which, when asked, he told me was an Alesis Midiverb. Soon we started hanging out and mixing, doing parties, and my weekly radio mix on WNUR together as Happy Family Productions. I was 18 and still doing hot mixes at the time. 32 or 64 beat blends which was kind of the radio style of djing. One day while mixing at his parentss house, Mark suggested that we should mix a little longer and I remember thinking yeah, lets let the records ride and morph and shit. (This was probably due to the fact that we used to get high in his closet, blowing the smoke into a t-shirt...at least until his mom caught us and sent me home one time.). That was my greatest revelation. The longer mixes have been a staple of my style and a bit of a trademark ever since. 4. Ron Hardy I know a lot of people cite Ronnie as an inspiration but I actually had my mind blown by him one night. Id gone with a couple of friends to the Powerhouse on South Michigan Ave. on Memorial Day weekend to hear Ron playing all night with Loleatta Holloway as the special guest performer. Since I was about 16 or 17 at the time and my body clock was still fairly normal, I got there and danced for a while, walked around for a while and then promptly fell asleep on the big seats which were around the pillars in the front part of the club. When I woke up, Ricky Lenoir from LNR (Work It To The Bone, You Cant Stop The House) was sitting next to me and we proceeded to have a little chat about whatever. As we were talking I heard the craziest sounding thing Id never heard and had excuse myself to the dance room to see what the fux was going on. I went into the big room and Ronnie was BEATING Acid Trax to within an inch of its life. I was gobsmacked! Id never heard a Dj play anything like this and it REALLY blew me away. I spent the rest of the night grooving to music I never knew existed and loving every minute until Loleatta finally came on around 4am and turned the party all the way out. This was the night that I had my first really real club experience and got to see what a Dj with a proper crowd, a proper sound system, and proper skills could do. And to have it to Ron Hardy and Loleatta Holloway was one helluva cherry pooper. (Also, I found out later that I probably shouldnt have drank the punch.) 5. Frankie Knuckles When talking about Dj styles, you always have to recognize the man who damn near started the thing. I remember going to listen to Frankie play at The Riviera Ballroom in Uptown when I was still way too young to be legally admitted. Luckily, Ive had a beard for a while and always looked to be around 30. I was never much for being in the middle of things on the dance floor so I made my way upstairs to watch him play. What I saw was several turntables, a reel-to-reel tape machine (Technics 1700 I believe), a crossover module, and Frankie doing work. Id heard his mixes on the radio before and I definitely knew he was great at what he did but to witness it as an 18 year old kid was phenomenal. There was an edit of Welcome To The Club which worked the crowd into a frenzy, a Love I Lost edit that Id still LOVE to come across, his Im going To Go remix which sounded like a different version to the one I had and the coup de grace, his One More Round remix which just took me out of the picture. I remember him doing all of this shifting of moods and tempos effortlessly, with an ease that only masters can manage and though focused on the packed dance floor, he still laughed and joked with his people in the booth. Its this kind of class and grace that I often try to achieve. Sometimes I even get close.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 14:01:57 +0000
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